John Brennan doubles down

It is the chaos president versus America’s security apparatus. This fight will not end soon.

John Brennan tweet

Donald Trump’s press conference performance in Helsinki rises to & exceeds the threshold of “high crimes & misdemeanors.” It was nothing short of treasonous. Not onlywere Trump’s comments imbecilic, he is wholly in the pocket of Putin.
Republican Patriots: Where are you???

8:52 AM – Jul 16, 2018

During NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday, host Chuck Todd asked if Brennan regretted accusing the president of treason.

“I called his behavior treasonous, which is to betray one’s trust and to aid and abet the enemy,” Brennan responded. “And I stand very much by that claim.”

Trump’s Enemies are America’s Enemies?

Donald Trump sees enemies everywhere. In his view all of them have just one goal. It is apparent that he sees their goal is to remove him from the presidency by any means possible.

Thus Trump claims that the press is “the enemy of the people.” It is not just the print press. It is all media. His banning of CNN and NBC at news events has become routine.

John Brennan, Former CIA director, called the US President’s performance at Helsinki “nothing short of treasonous.” Trump has fired back by revoking Brennan’s security clearance.

Trump has compiled a list of at least ten people who are all likely to be denied security clearance.

Richard Nixon also had an enemy list of more than 200 people.

It all reminds me of The Caine Mutiny. In that movie Captain Queeg loses it in a court hearing.

The similarities between Queeg and Trump are remarkable.

What is the Robert Mueller Investigation?

For those of you outside the United States the question is what is going on in the USA?

The original Robert Mueller investigation, motivated by the firing of FBI director James Comey, was at the direction of Mr Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general appointing Mr Mueller to look into:

The Russian government’s efforts to interfere in the election

Any links or co-ordination between Russia and Trump campaign-linked individuals

Any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation

That last point gives him quite a broad authority to also determine if the president himself has committed any wrongdoing.

The president’s words and behavior towards Russia and Vladimir Putin since taking office have only heightened the suspicion that his election was tainted and he has committed treasonous acts. The Helsinki summit between Trump and Putin only exacerbates that suspicion.

Donald Trump’s extraordinary performance in Helsinki alongside Russian leader Vladimir Putin may have crossed a red line with his fellow Republicans.

Former Republican Representative David Jolly said Congress was at “an inflection point.”

“This will be one of those moments the long lens of history remembers,” Jolly, who represented a Florida district from 2014 to 2017, said in an interview. “We’ve never had reason to question a president’s patriotism. We question their competence, their judgment, their self-interest, their partisan motivations. Even with Richard Nixon we never had questions of patriotism like we are seeing today.”

Jolly said that for the first time he believes impeachment of Trump — or removal under the 25th Amendment by declaring him unfit — should be on the table. But, he said, “The fates of Republicans on the Hill are too tied to the president. I’m not optimistic that they will be independent.”

Donald Trump’s Disgraceful Summit Press Conference

I can understand Democrats criticising Donald Trump but these are some of the comments made by Republicans after the Trump Putin press conference in Helsinki Finland. I have selected just a few of the reported comments made by Republican members of congress.

I would say his words of praise of Vladimir Putin and Russia are treasonous. Congressional Republicans will have to decide whether Donald Trump should be impeached. I would support that decision.

Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican who has consistently criticized the President, said Trump’s comments were “one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory.”

Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker said the President “made us look like a pushover” and that Putin was probably eating caviar on the plane home.

Senator Ben Sasse, a Republican from Nebraska, “This is bizarre and flat-out wrong. The United States is not to blame. America wants a good relationship with the Russian people but Vladimir Putin and his thugs are responsible for Soviet-style aggression. When the President plays these moral equivalence games, he gives Putin a propaganda win he desperately needs.”

Rep. Trey Gowdy, a South Carolina Republican, “I am confident former CIA Director and current Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, DNI Dan Coats, Ambassador Nikki Haley, FBI Director Chris Wray, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and others will be able to communicate to the President it is possible to conclude Russia interfered with our election in 2016 without delegitimizing his electoral success.”

Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, a Republican who has been constant critic, called the President’s performance “shameful.” “I never thought I would see the day when our American President would stand on the stage with the Russian President and place blame on the United States for Russian aggression. This is shameful,” tweeted Flake, who is not running for re-election.

John Brennan, Former CIA Director (2013-17) Tweet, “Donald Trump’s press conference performance in Helsinki rises to & exceeds the threshold of “high crimes & misdemeanors.” It was nothing short of treasonous. Not only were Trump’s comments imbecilic, he is wholly in the pocket of Putin. Republican Patriots: Where are you???”

Minorities are Unwelcome in the United States

Beware! If you are not a White European you are not welcome in the United States. DO NOT believe what is written on the Statue of Liberty if you are not part of that group.

The behavior of the United States today should be a warning to those who are not White Anglo Saxons about their treatment and opportunities if they migrate to this country.

More than our mistreatment of African Americans (Blacks) who were held as slaves until the Civil War that ended on May 13, 1865. Other Non-White people have been treated with disrespect, hated and jailed because they are viewed enemies of America. Look at America’s history as a guide. The following events are examples of the treatment of Non-White in the United States. There are many more.

I wish it wasn’t so.

From 1778 to 1871, the United States government entered into more than 500 treaties with the Native American tribes; all of these treaties have since been violated in some way or outright broken by the US government, while at least one treaty was violated or broken by Native American tribes.

One of the worst and most disgusting things happened in the 1829 decision by the Supreme Court in Johnson v. M’Intosh. The court ruled that the U.S. Government could sell Native American land to non-Native people out from under the tribes. Believe it or not, they were actually trying to do just that. Under President Andrew Jackson Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muskogee, Creek and Seminole people were forced from their lands required to march to Oklahoma. Thousands died in that march.

The Chinese Exclusion Act was a United States federal law signed by President Chester A. Arthur on May 6, 1882, prohibiting all immigration of Chinese laborers. Those Chinese were needed to build the transcontinental railroad but by the 1880s the job was done.

After the bombing of Pearl Harbor all people of Japanese descent, even though they were born and raised in the United States were put into internment camps for the duration of World War 2. Many Americans don’t like calling them concentration camps but that is what they were.

The Mexican Repatriation was a mass deportation of Mexicans and Mexican-Americans from the United States between 1929 and 1936. Estimates of how many were repatriated range from 400,000 to 2,000,000. An estimated sixty percent of those deported were birthright citizens of the United States.^[2]:330 Because the forced movement was based on race, and ignored citizenship, the process arguably meets modern legal definitions of ethnic cleansing.

In 1955 Mexican immigrants were caught in the snare of Operation Wetback, the biggest mass deportation of undocumented workers in United States history. As many as 1.3 million people may have been swept up in the Eisenhower-era campaign with a racist name, which was designed to root out undocumented Mexicans from American society. The short-lived operation used military-style tactics to remove Mexican immigrants—some of them American citizens—from the United States. Though millions of Mexicans had legally entered the country through joint immigration programs in the first half of the 20th century, Operation Wetback was designed to send them back to Mexico.

MS St. Louis was a German ocean liner. In 1939, she set off on a voyage in which her captain, Gustav Schröder, tried to find homes for over 900 Jewish refugees from Germany. Due to countries’ immigration policies based on domestic political realities, rather than humanitarian grounds, they were denied entry to Cuba, the United States, and Canada. The refugees were finally accepted in various European countries, including Belgium, the Netherlands, the UK, and France. Historians have estimated that approximately a quarter of them died in death camps during World War II.

Words To Live By

On this fourth of July:

“ASK NOT WHAT YOUR COUNTRY CAN DO FOR YOU – ASK WHAT YOU CAN DO FOR YOUR COUNTRY”

Who said those words?

Most Americans know three of them by heart. Scant phrases which, though spoken in the most ritualistic and formal of settings, commonly define an age, and a speaker. “With malice toward none” Lincoln said in his second inaugural address, and Franklin D. Roosevelt, “Nothing to fear but fear itself” in his first. John F. Kennedy, whose centenary is celebrated this month, uttered the third such phrase at his only inauguration and it is, in popular memory, recalled the most simply: “Ask not.” Of course, that is not the whole of the quotation, or the whole story, which is told here…

The seventeen most inspiring words in 20th century American history were spoken by John F. Kennedy, around mid-day, on January 20, 1961, in Washington, D.C. The occasion was his Presidential Inauguration, and came as he was concluding his Inaugural Address. Kennedy, the first President born in the 20th century, and 27 years younger than his predecessor, Dwight D. Eisenhower, had just declared that the torch had been passed to a new generation of Americans – “born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage” – and pledged to “pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.” Then he spoke the seventeen words –

And so, my fellow Americans: Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.

Those words, when first heard over a half-century ago, were positively electrifying. No president had ever challenged citizens, in peacetime, to sacrifice or commit to a larger vision. With that single sentence, Kennedy inspired people to new possibilities. He raised their expectations of themselves, and of their nation. In response, some joined the Peace Corps, others the Green Berets; thousands flocked to Washington to be part of the “New Frontier.” Students, thinking ahead to government service, went to law school or into programs with social benefit. All across the country, Kennedy’s words changed lives. “It was a special time,” a Senator remembered years later. “Lord, I’ve never had such a feeling before or since then. It was marvelous; without living it, you can’t express it. It gave the country a lift; it gave the world a lift. People cried in the dusty streets of Africa when he died.” All because of, really, seventeen simple words of inspiration.

My favorite words: “Give me liberty or give me death” and “Don’t tread on me” are my reasons for being an American.

Has Donald Trump or the previous recent presidents lived up to the JFK challenge? Sadly the answer is NO!

Is the American Democracy Doomed?

Democracy is under threat globally, a new report from the Economist Intelligence Unit warns.

Top 10 most democratic countries in the world:

1 Norway
2 Iceland
3 Sweden
4 New Zealand
5 Denmark
=6 Canada
=6 Ireland
8 Australia
=9 Switzerland
=9 Finland

The United States remained in the ‘flawed democracy’ threshold, to which it dropped in 2016 after a serious decline in public trust, the Economist said.

Link to map showing the level of democracy of all countries in the world.

https://www.indy100.com/article/democracy-index-economist-intelligence-unit-map-data-report-norway-democratic-united-states-8191501

Half of Americans think the United States is in “real danger of becoming a nondemocratic, authoritarian country.” A majority, 55 percent, see democracy as “weak” – and 68 percent believe it is “getting weaker.” Eight in 10 Americans say they are either “very” or “somewhat” concerned about the condition of democracy here. I am one of those people.

These are among the sobering results of a major bipartisan poll published Tuesday that was commissioned by the George W. Bush Institute, the University of Pennsylvania’s Biden Center and Freedom House, which tracks the vitality of democracies around the world. The three groups have partnered to create the Democracy Project, with the goal of monitoring the health of the American system.

“We hope this work can be a step toward restoring faith in democracy and democratic institutions,” Bush said in a statement.

The concern about the condition of democracy inside the United States transcends the tribal divide between Republicans and Democrats, with majorities across races, genders, age groups, levels of education and income brackets expressing fear.

Sadly I see current president as the person who could bring an end to this republic. His constant attacks on the media (the press), the courts, and the Republican Party’s willingness to support everything that Trump says and does should be a signal that our nation is in jeopardy.

Are Americans really willing to accept a dictatorship? If the GOP retains control of the congress after the November election I expect even more attacks on the constitution and the laws that have governed this nation since 1789.

I will not live under a dictatorship. Happily there are still some nations that do honor democratic principals.

A Madman in the White House

We have reached a Code Red period in American history. Thomas Friedman, New York Times columnist defined this situation in his May 29, 2018 column. Yes his column is long but is worth your time if you care about America’s future.

Everyone reading this should be very afraid of the direction of the United States. Most Republicans appear to support the words and behavior of Donald Trump. Trump’s admiration of dictators and his attacks on the courts, America’s closest allies, the press and everything that have made the America the envy of the world should cause even those ardent loyal Republicans concern for this republic. Many dictators gained their positions through the ballot box and then convinced the public that they should remain in power indefinitely. If re-elected in 2020 I anticipate Trump will attempt to convince America that he should continue to be president for the rest of his life.

Sadly many Americans DO NOT understand or are even slightly aware of the details of the Constitution. The exception is the 2nd amendment. That thanks to the NRA. I would be willing to bet most people have not even read that amendment.

If you dream of a Russian or North Korean style government in America just shut your eyes and stay away from the ballot box in November or any other time there is an election.

If you believe it is OK to treat human beings like animals than Donald Trump is your man.

Fortunately there are thousands of people voicing their opposition to Donald Trump. This is not Nazi Germany!

Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times columnist FEB. 18, 2018

Our democracy is in serious danger.

President Trump is either totally compromised by the Russians or is a towering fool, or both, but either way he has shown himself unwilling or unable to defend America against a Russian campaign to divide and undermine our democracy.

That is, either Trump’s real estate empire has taken large amounts of money from shady oligarchs linked to the Kremlin — so much that they literally own him; or rumors are true that he engaged in sexual misbehavior while he was in Moscow running the Miss Universe contest, which Russian intelligence has on tape and he doesn’t want released; or Trump actually believes Russian President Vladimir Putin when he says he is innocent of intervening in our elections — over the explicit findings of Trump’s own C.I.A., N.S.A. and F.B.I. chiefs.

In sum, Trump is either hiding something so threatening to himself, or he’s criminally incompetent to be commander-in-chief. It is impossible yet to say which explanation for his behavior is true, but it seems highly likely that one of these scenarios explains Trump’s refusal to respond to Russia’s direct attack on our system — a quiescence that is simply unprecedented for any U.S. president in history. Russia is not our friend. It has acted in a hostile manner. And Trump keeps ignoring it all.

Up to now, Trump has been flouting the norms of the presidency. Now Trump’s behavior amounts to a refusal to carry out his oath of office — to protect and defend the Constitution. Here’s an imperfect but close analogy: It’s as if George W. Bush had said after 9/11: “No big deal. I am going golfing over the weekend in Florida and blogging about how it’s all the Democrats’ fault — no need to hold a National Security Council meeting.”

At a time when the special prosecutor Robert Mueller — leveraging several years of intelligence gathering by the F.B.I., C.I.A. and N.S.A. — has brought indictments against 13 Russian nationals and three Russian groups — all linked in some way to the Kremlin — for interfering with the 2016 U.S. elections, America needs a president who will lead our nation’s defense against this attack on the integrity of our electoral democracy.

What would that look like? He would educate the public on the scale of the problem; he would bring together all the stakeholders — state and local election authorities, the federal government, both parties and all the owners of social networks that the Russians used to carry out their interference — to mount an effective defense; and he would bring together our intelligence and military experts to mount an effective offense against Putin — the best defense of all.

What we have instead is a president vulgarly tweeting that the Russians are “laughing their asses off in Moscow” for how we’ve been investigating their interventions — and exploiting the terrible school shooting in Florida — and the failure of the F.B.I. to properly forward to its Miami field office a tip on the killer — to throw the entire F.B.I. under the bus and create a new excuse to shut down the Mueller investigation.

Think for a moment how demented was Trump’s Saturday night tweet: “Very sad that the FBI missed all of the many signals sent out by the Florida school shooter. This is not acceptable. They are spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the Trump campaign — there is no collusion. Get back to the basics and make us all proud!”

To the contrary. Our F.B.I., C.I.A. and N.S.A., working with the special counsel, have done us amazingly proud. They’ve uncovered a Russian program to divide Americans and tilt our last election toward Trump — i.e., to undermine the very core of our democracy — and Trump is telling them to get back to important things like tracking would-be school shooters. Yes, the F.B.I. made a mistake in Florida. But it acted heroically on Russia. What is more basic than protecting American democracy?

It is so obvious what Trump is up to: Again, he is either a total sucker for Putin or, more likely, he is hiding something that he knows the Russians have on him, and he knows that the longer Mueller’s investigation goes on, the more likely he will be to find and expose it.

Donald, if you are so innocent, why do you go to such extraordinary lengths to try to shut Mueller down? And if you are really the president — not still head of the Trump Organization, who moonlights as president, which is how you so often behave — why don’t you actually lead — lead not only a proper cyber defense of our elections, but also an offense against Putin.

Putin used cyber warfare to poison American politics, to spread fake news, to help elect a chaos candidate, all in order to weaken our democracy. We should be using our cyber-capabilities to spread the truth about Putin — just how much money he has stolen, just how many lies he has spread, just how many rivals he has jailed or made disappear — all to weaken his autocracy. That is what a real president would be doing right now.

My guess is what Trump is hiding has to do with money. It’s something about his financial ties to business elites tied to the Kremlin. They may own a big stake in him. Who can forget that quote from his son Donald Trump Jr. from back in 2008: “Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross section of a lot of our assets.” They may own our president.

But whatever it is, Trump is either trying so hard to hide it or is so naïve about Russia that he is ready to not only resist mounting a proper defense of our democracy, he’s actually ready to undermine some of our most important institutions, the F.B.I. and Justice Department, to keep his compromised status hidden.

That must not be tolerated. This is code red. The biggest threat to the integrity of our democracy today is in the Oval Office.

Trump wants to be Treated as North Koreans Treats Kim Jong Un

Trump says he wants the US to treat him like North Korea treats Kim Jong Un

Donald Trump’s admiration of dictators is frightening. It appears he too dreams of being such a dictator or perhaps king with absolute power.

Posted by Alex Lockie of Business Insider and appearing on AOL.COM on Friday June 15,2018. The Los Angeles Times posted a similar article on Saturday June 16, 2018. You can’t make this stuff up. Time magazine’s cover of Trump as king of the United States really does appear to be the thinking of Trump. Just two days ago Trump said that the press is America’s enemy. Grading media loyalty would be a first step to deterring any media outlet that dares to write anything that counters the Trump narrative. Erdogan and Putin do not permit any disloyal media. Sadly too many Americans are not standing up for American democracy and the constitution.

President Donald Trump returned from his Singapore summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un with an apparent new respect for the dictator’s control over his people.

“He is the strong head,” Trump said of Kim during a surprise appearance on Fox News. “Don’t let anyone think anything different. He speaks and his people sit up at attention. I want my people to do the same.”

Trump later told a reporter he was being sarcastic.

“I’m kidding. You don’t understand sarcasm,” he said.

Trump’s comment on Fox followed other musings during the Singapore trip while watching a bit of North Korean television.

North Korea’s news anchor, Ri Chun Hee, delivers propaganda on behalf of Kim’s regime. North Korean news, which is entirely state-run, solely consists of statements that shine a positive light on Kim and the country. As Trump watched, according to The Washington Post, he remarked about her praise of Kim and suggested she could work for Fox News.

North Korea’s news doesn’t just give its citizens state-approved information. It also tells them how to they’re expected to think about that news, too. Any deviation from the state-approved script can land a North Korean citizen in a political prison camp, where the treatment is reportedly on par with Nazi German death camps.

In the US, Fox News is routinely criticized for its coverage of Trump. Fox News has gotten greater access to Trump than any other news outlet throughout his campaign and presidency.

Under Trump, a senior advisor to the State Department started monitoring the social media feeds of career diplomats and American employees of international institutions to grade their loyalty to Trump.

Can Trump Send the Military to Guard the US Border?

Donald Trump’s dream of a Fascist dictatorship. Shut down the media, stop freedom of the press, make the congress a rubber stamp body, end the judiciary, and president for life.

Can the president deploy troops to the southern border of the United States to stop illegal immigrants from entering? The answer is NO!

The military can be deployed for ‘support’ services, which mostly would mean various kinds of surveillance or possibly building things. But if soldiers see people trying to get across the border they have to report that to Border Patrol because only Border Patrol can try to stop them.

The reason is because the Posse Comitatus Act makes two things clear. 1) Soldiers and other military personnel can’t enforce US laws within the United States and 2) They can’t detain or search people or do most of the things that usually go along with police authority in the United States. There are other things they can’t do. But those are the key ones relevant to the border. Congress would have to pass a law specifically authorizing the military to act as border guards.

In 2006 6,000 national guard troops were sent to the border to assist the border patrol with non-enforcement duties. Those actions included surveillance, communications, intelligence, analysis, and administration.

The law should not be changed. If it is it would be the first step towards a Gestapo. The definition of Gestapo was the German Secret Police during Nazi rule. Gestapo were Secret military police that would come and take away people who opposed the Nazis.

I believe this is part of Trump’s plan.