Tag: President Donald Trump

I’m Back, And I’m Optimistic

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I’m Back, And I’m Optimistic

D. S. Mitchell

The last post written by me specifically directed at Donald Trump was written on October 14, 2017. Since that date, I have mostly been writing about environmental issues, domestic problems and the American health scene. The reason quite honestly, is that after completing my 7 part series, Trump: Behind The Curtain, I was so disgusted and repelled by the revelations that I felt I needed to step back, and take those proverbial deep breaths. But, I am back now, and I am feeling hopeful.

The elections across the country on Tuesday November 7, 2017, the one year anniversary of the election of Donald J. Trump as president of the United States, brought out a lot of  people who are madder than hell at the direction that Trump and the GOP are taking this country. Women, people of color, immigrants, the college educated, suburbanites, the LGBT community, came together to vote for decency and inclusion.

Our history is imperfect, but our direction toward inclusiveness and decency has been ongoing and progressive.  The results of Tuesday’s elections make it clear that the American people want to continue on the road forward and not turn backwards to a time when a person was defined by their race, their sex, their wealth; not their intelligence, their creativity, their courage and their moral character.

If you are part of the Resistance, you can be proud and happy for Tuesday’s victories, but I believe that very success will lead to greater efforts by the 1% donors, Russian meddlers and old line Republicans to suppress the vote, demoralize and discourage participation by Democrats and Independents.

Turn out is the key. Voting for what you believe in and not staying home because you feel powerless. Your vote is America’s future. It is easy to leave it up to someone else to make those decisions, but if you are committed to progress then you must take responsibility for your actions.  If you want change, if you want progress, you must speak up, you must speak out. No bystanders allowed.

Calamity Politics is an active, progressive on-line political news magazine that proudly admits to a Progressive agenda. Join us weekly for opinion and analysis of the national political scene.

Join the Resistance.

Dar

Part V: Behind The Curtain

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Part V: Behind The Curtain

D. S. Mitchell

At the end of Part IV: Behind The Curtain, David Cay Johnston told the reading audience that he had never seen evidence that Donald Trump was now a billionaire, or ever has been a billionaire.   I have no idea, and actually I really could care less if Trump is a billionaire or just a multimillionaire. That shit’s all in his head, not mine. Kinda like the guy who buys the biggest most gaudy truck he can find, to make up for some secret deficiency.

What I do care about is the obvious, and quite serious conflict of interest issues.  Trump has provided no tax returns, he has not established a blind trust, or divested himself of his businesses.  There are many questions about his deals with Russian oligarchs and his ongoing effort during the 2016 campaign to build a Trump Tower in Moscow, working behind the scenes with his long time attorney, Michael Cohen.

One of the character flaws noted by personal friends of Trump and discussed earlier in this series, is Trump’s poor judgment when choosing partners and associates. I can’t help adding my opinion on this matter.  I think, in addition to poor judgment, Trump just does not give a damn, that’s right, I don’t think he cares. The president’s  choice of Jared Kushner to be his Senior Advisor is a perfect example.

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Afghanistan, Now And Forever?

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Afghanistan:

Now And Forever?

D. S. Mitchell

President Trump has just embraced 16 years of war in Afghanistan and promised the American people more of the same: with a new troop build up, diplomatic pressure on Pakistan and outreach to the Taliban to entice them to the negotiating table.  These are all old familiar strategies used by his two predecessors with no success.

Donald Trump, several years ago advised then President Obama, to get the hell out of Afghanistan and spend time and resources rebuilding America. After months of deliberations with his generals Trump has been persuaded to stick with a conflict that he has vocally opposed in the past. In fact, during the campaign Trump claimed he would wind down America’s foreign wars.

Trump and his military team believe that with the Afghanistan government losing large sections of the country that the U.S. has no choice, but to dig in.  Trump reiterated that there would be no publicized withdrawal time table, as there had been with President Obama. An issue that Obama has been criticized for.

Trump’s announcement came Monday night in a 26 minute televised  address to the nation from Fort Meyers, VA.   There was a sense of bravado to his comments, one of those, “I got this” as he proclaimed “In the end, we will win.”

Trump is the third president to struggle with the Afghanistan problem. In 2001 George Bush sent special forces into Afghanistan to rout the Taliban government and track down al-Quida terrorists. Since that first commitment, actions in Afghanistan by the U.S. has cost the American people $715,ooo,000,000, 2,400 lives and another 20,000 wounded in a 16 year adventure in foreign occupation. A very heavy price for such humble results.

Afghanistan is a country besieged by ethnic, religious, cultural and tribal factions that have blocked foreign armies for millennia. Trump indicated in his address to the nation that the mission was not to re-take territory, but rather the focus would be on training Afghan Special Forces and the Afghan regular army.

In my opinion, the announcement of the troop build up was a lame effort to redirect the conversation from Charlottesville, VA.  and his own schizophrenic behaviors of the last week, to  a topic that has in the past earned him a bump in the polls, bomb strikes.

Trump has surrounded himself with generals.  He appears to defer, in some instances, to their ability.  The warning in this case would be, the military will always offer military solutions and promise victory, that’s what they are trained to do. The basic truth is that there will be no victory for the United States in Afghanistan because there is no sustainable government in place that can administer the country, and be an ally to the U.S.

Trump is vowing to “win” what seems to be an unwinnable war.  I don’t want us there, just to “win” with no specification of troop numbers, strategy, or time commitment.  Trump pointedly declined to show how many more troops will be dispatched to extend the longest war in U.S. history.  Trump indicated it would no longer be a “time based” war, but rather a “result based” conflict.

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Racism At The White House

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Racism At The White House

D. S. Mitchell

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

Those words were put to paper 240 plus years ago when the founding fathers joined together to form the United States of America, a democratic nation.

Several days ago, in Charlottesville, VA, torch carrying, chanting protesters identified variously as Neo-Nazi’s, KKK, skin heads or white supremacists, carrying AK47’s and baseball bats threatened the peacefulness of one of America’s most charming cities.

Twelve separate white supremacists groups from around the country gathered together in Charlottesville, VA last week in a stated effort to start a race war.  The particular event drawing them together last week end was the advertised removal of a commemorative statute sitting on public property celebrating Confederate General Robert E. Lee.

The Confederacy consisted of eleven Southern states which seceded from the United States in 1860 in a failed effort to protect and sustain the disgusting custom of slavery.  The south an agrarian society was “perfectly” suited to slave ownership.

The remaining states, known as the Union rejected the secession effort and a four and a half year long war tore the country apart. Affects of the social schism, war atrocities and the failed reconstruction have left an ugly scar on the face of this nation.

As severe reaction to the Confederate loss of the Civil War, a practice of “separate but equal” was instituted throughout the south, effectively separating the races in all aspects of life, whether it was using the a public bathroom, eating at a lunch counter, drinking from a water fountain, or riding a city bus.

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Fossil Fuel Cronies Relentless War On The Environment

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Fossil Fuel Cronies Relentless War On The Environment

D. S. Mitchell

I belong to the Sierra Club. The Sierra Club is a grassroots environmental organization founded in 1892 in San Francisco, California by Scottish-American preservationist John Muir.  Mr. Muir became the organization’s first president.  Today, I am one of 2.4 million members.  The Sierra Club motto is: “Explore, enjoy and protect our planet.”

That motto is quickly morphing into, “Protect our planet from Trump.” In a recent mailing the club sent out a dire warning of the intent and activities of the Trump Administration, Ryan Zinke and Scott Pruitt as they effect the environment. This will be a rather lengthy undertaking but I believe the information is important and should be shared. I, like many others, are deeply concerned.

It seems that the daily barrage of Washington scandal and outrage are on steroids since Trump’s inauguration.  One bullshit scandal, after bullshit scandal oozes out of the Trump White House. It seems that every hour we have our heads snapped back by a fresh Tweet from The Donald; or some new Russian revelation.

This information overload is distracting the public from all the damage being done behind the scenes by people like Zinke and Pruitt. Guys who lobbied or sued the very agencies that they now head.  They are now perfectly positioned to dismantle those agencies from within. An unimaginable opportunity for the extraction industries. Dis-mantling and neutering all government agencies is a priority of the Trump & Co. agenda. They call it “dis-mantling the administrative state.”

Make no mistake about it, the Trump Administration is working every minute of every day, to turn our water, air, and public lands over to their supporters in gas, oil, coal and other extraction industries. They have made no secret of their intent, but damn it is hard to watch every action taken in some obscure office, especially with all the noise out front from the president. In fact, that could be the intention. Get us all watching the three-ring circus in Congress and the White House while their gang of thieves rob the nation of its wilderness heritage.

“The Trump Anti-Environment Action Plan:

  1. Abandon the Paris Climate Accord: In June Trump announced he was no longer bound by the Climate Agreement.  Sierra Club believes in the importance of the intent of the Paris Agreement and has vowed to aggressively work to make sure that Trump’s hand-picked fossil fuel, anti-environment henchmen will not be able to unravel the advances of the last 50 plus years.
  2. Emasculate Fuel Economy Standards: The Obama Administration raised the fuel economy standards for cars and light trucks or CAFE for short (Corporate Average Fuel Economy). These regulations are in the crosshairs, as I type.
  3. Kill The Environmental Protection Agency: The most hated government agency by far is the EPA.  Pro-industry, anti-environment extremists are on a mission to destroy the agency.  With a “compliant climate denier” as President Trump targeting the EPA, many of us doubt that the intent of the agency will survive.  The EPA will be starved by a “compliant” congress and it will slowly starve it of funding, leaving it “a hollow shell staffed by those who will pervert its mission.” The EPA is being decimated, one regulation at a time and there seems to be no one to stop it.
  4. Fill The Supreme Court With Anti-Environmentalists: Blame Mich McConnell for this one. McConnell’s actions are directly responsible for the first step in the plan to fill the Court. When Anthonin Scalia died suddenly, McConnell majority leader in the Senate denied President Obama the opportunity to fill that spot. Old Mitch and the boys will be celebrating that victory for probably 40 years. President Trump was able to confirm a “pro-industry, climate antagonist eager to overturn environmentally friendly cases and rule on the side of the fossil fuel and extraction industries.”
  5. Bring Back That Dirty Of Dirtiest Industries, King Coal: Trump told enthusiastic crowds during the rigged 2016 election that he could bring back the near dead coal industry.  He alone could do CPR and bring back that nearly dead monster back to life. Sadly, he may be able to reshape market forces that have caused coal to become a more expensive alternative to cleaner energy sources by ending the moratorium on new coal leases on public land. In essence a huge giveaway to this dirty industry.  Trump began to immediately  gut regulations that force coal companies to be responsible for the pollution they create.  He did this sleight of hand when he repealed the Stream Protection Bill as one of his first acts as president.
  6. Open Federal Lands To Fossil Fuel Exploration: The recently retired Representative Jason Chaffetz (R. UT) introduced H.R. 621 authorizing “the Secretary of the Interior to sell certain federal lands in 10 Western states, Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah and Wyoming. After it became public that Chaffetz was planning to transfer 3.3 million acres of public land to private interests, the public pressure forced him to withdraw the bill. But, there are many more men like Chaffetz paid by lobbyist to do the work of their donors, not the work of the public, and I am sure another Senator or Representative will re-package the legislation and re-introduce this government giveaway to fossil fuel their cronies.
  7. Dismantle The Clean Power Plan: The Republican end goal is to re-define greenhouse gases as not “dangerous to human health” putting them beyond the reach of the EPA’s jurisdiction, or deny EPA funding to the Act, dismantling the Clean Power Plan and its goal to curtail  carbon dioxide emissions from electricity plants. Such actions are “likely to accelerate climate disruption precipitously.”
  8. Stop The Growth Of A Green Economy: Trump campaigned on a promise to “zero out federal research and development” for green energy. The reason for this is that fossil fuel companies like the behemoth, Exxon Mobil have few means to monetize wind and solar energy. I and many others are hoping that private industry has seen that “a green economy is the best bet for the future–both for consumers who will benefit from lower energy prices, and for an economy that offers good paying jobs here in the United States.
  9. Fill Environmental Agencies With Anti-Environmentalists: As noted in my introduction, the new hiring model for federal agencies which are designed to protect the environment are being subverted by anti-environmentalist being appointed to positions within the agencies. The notorious anti-EPA critic, Scott Pruitt being appointed to head the EPA has spelled disaster for the department. The Republican Senate literally raced to beat the release of thousands of emails detailing his “cozy relationship with energy companies”.  Evidence shows that when Pruitt was Oklahoma Attorney General, had energy company staffers and lobbyists ghost write his correspondence to federal officials.

Trump Wants To Steal NW Energy Resources: As a resident of the Northwest United States I know that the Columbia River is our regions greatest natural resource and the river’s dams and their electrical power are its most valuable man-made resources. The Bonneville Power Administration is the authority that sets the operation of the dams and transmits the electricity. The BPA generates 4 Billion dollars in revenue annually through the sales of the system’s electricity. In 1980’s Reagan proposed selling the entire BPA system, which raised a hue and cry. Trump and his allies are a little smarter, they are proposing “to sell off the ‘transmission’ of power from the dams.  Such a proposal would dramatically affect how the river is managed. “BPA’s management of the dams recognizes that there is an inherent trade-off for how much water is saved for fish, how cold and how deep that water is.  Few people realize that the BPA runs the largest fish conservation program in the world.  In other words, when you sell the transmission side of the dams, more than power is at stake.” This is at its core, “an attempt to steal an asset whose value Northwest ratepayers have paid for, at market rates.” (Information on the BPA item was provided by office of Senator Ron Wyden (D. OR) and The Daily Astorian newspaper 8-11-2017).

Calamity Politics is a progressive political blog that attempts to write and publish opinions and comments based on real news and how those events will affect our lives.

Join the Resistance

Dar

Vice President Doomed

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Vice President Doomed

D. S. Mitchell

In today’s (8-8-2017) New York Times, writer Frank Bruni had an excellent piece on the Vice President. I can’t reprint it here, but I decided I would paraphrase Bruni’s opinion piece.

According to Bruni Mike Pence was furious over recent reports by NY Times reporters, Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns, that indicated Pence might be readying himself for a presidential run in 2020.

Problem 1) Trump is only six months into a four-year term. 2) Trump is vicious in attacks on anyone that might be putting their agenda ahead of his.

Pence felt endangered by the reporting and pushed back quickly and vigorously, with a red-faced proclamation of “disgraceful” assertions, never detailing exactly why the assertions were disgraceful. According to Bruni, the Vice President’s anger “reflects the inconvenient truths, it is overarching. It’s existential. On some level he (Pence) must realize that he’s in a no-win situation.  Without Trump he’s nothing. With Trump he’s on a runaway train that he can’t steer or brake. If it doesn’t crash, Trump can scream down the tracks straight through 2020. If it does, Pence will be one of the casualties.”

The question is why has Pence formed a political action committee, the only sitting vice president in history to do so? It could be that he is generating contributions to a legal defense fund, which is permissible under election laws.  The Russian conspiracy probe is broadening and Mike Pence is not as financially well off as the President and attorneys in such circumstances charge big bucks.

However, all those donations and bridge building efforts could also be a quiet effort to make himself a viable 2020 presidential candidate.  It seems unimaginable, but according Bruni, “there could be some imaginable future in which Trump falls and Pence is left to soldier on. But, mostly he is in denial , and he’s living very dangerously.”

The various scenarios of the future are mere speculation.  But, it is within the realm of possibility that Trump will self destruct-be impeached and run out of town-or throw a tantrum and stomp off on his own. Who the hell knows? Anything now seems possible. Bruni theorized that, “Pence indeed needs an infrastructure and a network of his own.”  But there is a rub to this, “there is no way to assemble those without looking disloyal to Trump and courting the wrath of alt-right types who know how to go on a Twitter jihad.”

Other possible primary challengers include a Ohio Governor, John Kasich and Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse.  These adversaries don’t owe Trump what Pence does. They didn’t pledge complete allegiance. Kasich started his unofficial campaign before Trump’s inauguration. He is free to raise money, hold news conferences, become a fixture on cable news and attack Trump’s proposals and his failures. When Kasich and Sasse go after the President the Trump base will react but they will not be targeted like Pence would be.

Pence is being squeezed into a box of “compulsory worship”. And despite his behind the scenes machinations, he has done a masterful job of appearing perfectly content” looking devoted, and damn near infatuated.

Before being tapped by Paul Manafort as Trump’s running mate Pence was losing popularity in Nebraska based on his performance as their governor.  Before accepting the role of Trump running mate Pence blasted Trump’s “travel ban” calling it “offensive and unconstitutional”. Pence advocated free trade and Trump’s protectionism was alien to Pence’s earlier stated trade stance. Pence claims to stand for “Christian values” and refuses to be alone with a woman other than his wife, yet he stands beaming next to an admitted gropper and female abuser. Mike Pence has even admitted feeling guilt over his past political behavior as a “negative campaigner” while he collaborates with the most corrupt and dirtiest politician in U.S. history. Pence seems to have given up his core values to stand next to such great power.

Bruni finishes his piece as follows, “No wonder he (Pence) wants and expects a reward as lavish as the White House itself: He sold his soul. but I don’t think he studies the contract closely enough and thought the whole thing through.  There’s no political afterlife in this equation, just the loopy, mortifying limbo where he and so many of Trump’s other acolytes dwell.  Maybe the howling is cathartic, but it won’t change a thing.”

Mike Pence has protested loudly that there is no 2020 presidential election run in his future.  I think he is right, but not because he doesn’t want to be president, but because he can’t afford to enrage Trump.

Calamity Politics publishes nearly everyday.

Join the Resistance

Dar

Bites Big And Small

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Bites Big and Small:

Kelly New White House Chief of Staff

D. S. Mitchell

Kelly left his post as Secretary of Homeland Security to become White House chief of staff.  His acknowledged mission is to “bring some order to the chaotic West Wing” according to an associated Press report.  Kelly flexed his muscle by ousting the newly appointed Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci after “the mooch” made vile and profane comments to the New Yorker magazine about other White House inner circle. Kelly intends to revise the command structure in the West Wing, so that all senior staff reports to him directly, and not President Trump.

Lawmakers are expressing hope that Kelly’s arrival will stop the internal leaks and squash the notable conflicts within the White House and pivot back to a policy agenda that has been side tracked by months of Russian investigations and internal discord.

Approximately a month before his installation Kelly had a loud and fiery private interaction with President Trump related to published complaints by the POTUS about what he considers too many foreign travelers coming into the United States. In their private meeting Kelly told the president that the ongoing admissions are standard, and stated that many people have legitimate reasons to visit the United States.  The president apparently felt that all the visitors allowed under the expanded travel ban were making him “look bad.”

This seems like a strange marriage, a disciplined four star general, and the petulant, undisciplined narcissist real estate tycoon.  I think from what I’ve read they do share many core ideas.  We will need to watch the atmosphere around the West Wing and see if Kelly can bring structure and control to a wildly out of control executive branch.

Trump Threatens To End Obama Care:

Legal Cases Fight For Separation of State and Religion

President Trump has threatened for months to stop billions of dollars in federal monies to insurers and force the collapse of  “ObamaCare”.  Nicholas Bagley a Law Professor at the University of Michigan told the Associated Press Tuesday, “Trump thinks he’s holding all the cards. But Democrats know what in his hand, and he’s got a pair of twos. He continued, “Democrats aren’t about to agree to dismantle the Affordable Care Act just because Trump makes a reckless bet.”

Bagley and other legal experts are saying that the president is handing the insurers a “solid court case, while undermining his own leverage to compel Democrats to negotiate, especially if premiums jump directly related to the actions of Trump.

The executive office should be making a decision soon whether he will continue to give the required legal financial help to low-income consumers, reducing their co-pays and deductibles.

Trump Promises To Continue His Twitter Use:

Donald Trump Is Addicted To Twitter And There Is No Rehab On The Horizon

Perhaps John Kelly will be rethinking his decision to come to the White House sooner than I thought.  On Twitter the president said, ” Only the Fake News Media and Trump enemies want me to stop using Social Media (110 million followers) Only way I can get truth out!” Trump will continue to live in his alternate universe unfortunately accompanied by about 35% of Americans.

Trump Calls The White House “A Dump”

Sports Illustrated ran a story that claims President Trump was overheard to say the reason he goes to his own golf clubs is because the White House is “a real dump”. If this story is true I think we should evict the creep. The honor of living in that house is something that this man does not appreciate, or does he appreciate the history of the house or that it is the people’s house and we do not want it turned into a miniature Versailles palace.

Join the Resistance

Dar

Since When Do We Establish Policy Via Tweet?

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Since When Do We Establish Policy Via Tweet?

D. S. Mitchell

Trump gets an idea and decides to change carefully crafted government policy, and then throws it out via Twitter.  Since when should this be an okay thing? No plan, no developed policy, Trump just issues a “royal tweet,” as if it were a king’s decree.

Trump Tweets That Transgender Individuals Will Not Be Allowed To Serve In The U.S. Military

On Wednesday morning, apparently while he was in the can doing his morning dump, the President of the United States decided to announced his personal reversal of a carefully thought out Defense Department policy.  Trump assassinated the transgender military plan through a trio of early morning tweets.

“After consultation with my generals and military experts, please be advised that the U.S. government will not accept or allow–transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. military.  Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming–victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgenders in the military would entail. Thank You.”

The declaration blindsided his Defense Secretary, James “Mad Dog” Mattis, who is currently on vacation. Apparently, on Tuesday Trump notified Mattis and other key officials he was moving toward such a decision and left it at that.  So, during his 6:00 a.m. dump, Trump decided there was no reason to wait–on the announcement, so he fired away, in more ways than one.

Outrage from nearly every corner slammed back at Trump.  Many pointing out that the military spends more on Viagra than transgender medication.  Senator Tammy Duckworth, an Iraq war hero (D. IL.) called out Trump publicly about his questionable deferments during the Vietnam war, and indicated his lack of service put him in an awkward position when making Tweet policy for the military. Another pundit asked why the government was spending 3.6 M on every Trump trip to Mar-a-Lago and was now worried about the very minimal cost of transgender medications. Others were asking if the several million dollars for transgender care of military personnel was being done in an effort to find more money for the “Trump Wall”?

Questions hammered the White House Press Secretary at a news briefing later Wednesday.  Sara Sanders announced that the White House and the Defense Department would be working to figure out logistics of how “to lawfully deal with transgender troops who are already serving in the military.”  Huckabee Sanders admitted that to her knowledge no new policy had been initiated and further, that no conversations have taken place, and none are currently underway to insure a smooth transition of Trump’s new tweeted policy. Really, absolutely amazing, and not in a good way.

A statement from the Pentagon indicated there would be no change to military policy at this time. A 2016 Pentagon study estimated 1,500 to 7,000 service personnel were openly serving as transgender individuals.  A public group put the number of transgender individuals serving in the U.S. military closer to 16,000.  The Human Rights Campaign calls the military the “largest employer of transgender people in America.”

Calamity Politics offers opinions, analysis, and speculations, in a mostly critical examination of the U.S. national political scene.

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Dar

Natalia and Associates

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Calamity Politics is a progressive political blog. Our intention at CP.com is to present relevant, thought provoking articles about serious political issues that are confronting our country.

More Trump Russian scandal news keeps leaking out. It appears that the GOP candidate and his inner circle are intricately enmeshed with various Russian oligarchs and the Russian government. One of the major characters in this building drama is former Senator Jeff Sessions, Trump campaign surrogate and Trump appointee to the position of the highest law official in the United States, the Attorney General.

Mr. Sessions appeared at his confirmation to have developed a sudden onset of amnesia, totally forgetting 2 separate visits he had with then Russian Ambassador, Kisylak. When those meetings were disclosed by the press, Sessions went back and changed his statements, protecting himself from possible perjury charges.

In May of 2017 the U.S. Department of Justice quietly and abruptly settled a case against Prevezon Holdings. Prevezon is a Russian firm accused of laundering an estimated $230,000,000 dollars through Manhattan real estate purchases and sales. The case was about to go to trial when DOJ made Prevezon an offer they couldn’t refuse. DOJ headed by Attorney General Jefferson Sessions felt a fine of 6,000,000 was appropriate. The six million is far less than the case was expected to settle for. Furthermore, the Russian firm was not required to make any admissions of guilt.

Way back in May, the lawyer representing the family of Pyotr Katsyv, the former Vice Governor of the Moscow region, whose son Denis owns Prevezon was an unknown Russian lady lawyer named Natalia Veselnitskaya.

In a statement at the time of the settlement announcement, Veselnitskaya said the offer by Trump’s lying Attorney General was almost “like an apology from the United States government”.

As of July 9, 2017 anyone with ears or eyes knows who Natalia Veselnitskaya is. She is the “Russian government lawyer” whose meeting at Trump Tower with Donald Trump, Jr., Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort as well as a former Russian intel officer who is now a U.S. citizen and registered lobbyist, and numerous other people, including a translator and a mysterious and rumored money laundering Russian real estate figure named Kaveladze.

This June 2016 meeting is the biggest political bombshell revelation in the quest to uncover any evidence of Trump Russia collusion in the 2016 presidential election. Hair raising information. This story is starting to burn very hot and the fire is getting closer to the Oval Office.

A group of Democrats in Congress are interested in the dealings the Trump campaign has had with the Russian government and they further are seeking information to learn if Veselnitskaya, the female attorney who came to Trump Tower a year ago described as “a Russian government lawyer” peddling dirt on Hillary Clinton, had any unethical connection with Jeff Sessions and the Trump administration that led to his decision to settle the lawsuit on terms so seemingly friendly to Prevezon.

The Prevezon case was being brought by Preet Bharara, the U.S  attorney for the Southern District of New York.  Mr Bharara was fired by President Trump after initially being asked to stay on post-inauguration. Bharara similar, to fired FBI Director James Comey,  has  stated that he was uncomfortable with personal overtures made by Donald Trump and surrogates.

The day prior to Bharara’s firing, Trump attempted to reach Mr. Bharara by phone and the prosecutor refused to speak to him or call him back, citing discomfort with Trump’s desire to ingratiate himself with a U.S. attorney.

Seventeen Democrats came together and sent a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions stating in part:”We write with some concern that the two events may be connected and that the DOJ may have settled the case at a loss to the United States in order to obscure underlying facts”

The lawmakers want to know if Natalia Veselnitskaya had any role in the Prevezon settlement talks, whether Sessions–who had been a Trump campaign advisor–knew of the 2016 meeting at Trump Tower, whether any Trump administration officials had contacted the DOJ about the case, and the Democratic lawmakers also asked for documents explaining the decision to abruptly settle a very strong case for a ridiculously low fine.  A soft settlement that none believe the Bulldog prosecutor Bharara would ever have settled for.  Suspiciously, the settlement was arranged within several weeks of Bharara’s firing.

The public rarely gets excited over dirty business dealings involving money laundering and a complex tax fraud scheme, but this “matter seems to intersect with too many key signposts of the burgeoning Trump-Russia scandal to ignore,” said Will Bunch in an article for Philly.com, which was one source used by Calamity Politics in the research for this post.

The early dishonesty by Sessions, regarding issues Russian,  is a broader *”mosaic of lies” that have permeated the Trump campaign and the subsequent Trump administration regarding their contacts with Russians.  The mounting number of secret contacts by Trump officials coming to light are making it increasingly difficult to believe those past and current dealings between the Trump campaign and their administration with the Russian government are honest and above board.

Sessions had by his own statement, recused himself from the Russian investigation and all things Russian.  However, there is no reason to believe that the disgraced Sessions recused himself from the Prevezon settlement, and as such the Prevezon settlement and Natalia Veselnitskaya have fallen into the growing abyss of the Russian-Trump conspiracy scandal.

I’m more and more convinced that these activities with the Russians originated in dirty money transactions and probable purchases/sales at Trump properties that were designed to launder ill gotten money out of Russia.  It is possible that there are salacious dossiers and ugly sex transactions by Trump, I have no problem believing that such information exists, unless of course it is boy-on-boy.  That dirty scenario would put an end to Trump. But, I think it all started because of money and Trump’s need to feed his hyper-expensive life style.

Donald Trump had tried to market everything from ties, to vodka, to steaks, to his name, and most of the ventures were a failure, most notably Trump University which got him in hot water with multiple states.  Several state AGs filed suit against Trump and his “scam” university.  The real estate business however, was tailor made for laundering large sums of money, millions and hundreds of millions of dollars per transaction.

So, in my view this is how it went down.  On one side you have an eager, not so law abiding guy who owes everybody in the world, and on the other side you have a group of foreign oligarchs bent on hiding skimmed money stolen from Russian sources. Such a perfect arrangement.  An evil marriage that has after a three decade plus relationship culminated in the installation of Donald J. Trump as President of the United States.

The information is being hemorrhaged out almost hourly.  It will take time but I believe that the disgusting relationship between Russia and all things Trump will be revealed. I’m not sure, but I believe that the greatest scandal in US history, involving possibly hundreds of individuals, is nothing more than a conspiracy to make more money.  You can never have too much money. Right?  I call it sick.  When money is more important that your  country, the sacredness of the vote, the near holiness of the U.S. Constitution you should be banished to that f’ing country you sold out to.

Explain to me why every American soldier serving this country doesn’t throw his gun down and demand an air line ticket home?  When you don’t know who your President is working with it’s time to cut the ties that bind. I will keep writing about the Russia scandal. It’s gonna be a rough ride. Join the Resistance.

Dar

Trump Lives In A Facsimile Universe

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Trump Lives In A Facsimile Universe

D. S. Mitchell

Last week President Trump set off another Twitter firestorm when he began a vicious  attack against MSNBC TV hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough. Trump’s bad behaviors and odd proclivities have made for interesting chatter on their early morning political news show, ‘Morning Joe’.  The Twitter attack came after several months of negative Trump coverage by the two TV hosts.

The heat of the outrage following Trump’s disgusting attack came from a wide swath of the public, Capitol Hill and the media. At the height of the Kerfuffle, Joe and Mika came on their own show as “guests”. The pair answered  a slew of questions from their regular panel.

In short order,  I watched the story shift from Trump’s questionable  mental capacity to an even darker and more sinister sets of behaviors. Behaviors that support the James Comey’s recent testimony; threats and bullying being standard practice by the thug from Queens.

Joe and Mika told a hair raising tale ‘on air,’ of being excessively pressured, or  “blackmailed”, by several White House officials.   The staffers were demanding Joe and Mika call and apologize to the President, for their recent unflattering reporting of Trump on their show.

The pair described many ominous phone calls being made to their children and other family members threatening publication of an ugly National Enquirer story.  Mika stated that White House staffers made frequent phone calls to her, telling her to back off  the negative reporting of Trump.

Not only was there pressure to change reporting, but also to call the president and apologize.  All they needed to do was cave to the threats by the White House thugs.  If Joe made that apology call he was told the negative National Enquirer story would be scrapped.

Joe told his television audience that he had called Jared Kushner directly.  During that conversation  Kushner, confirmed, “All you need to do is pick up the phone and call and apologize, and the National Enquirer story will disappear”.  Joe said he refused to apologize, and things deteriorated into Trump making the subsequent disgusting tweets attacking the two TV hosts.

The Trump attack against the commentators soon segued to how can Trump control what is published in the National Enquirer and how is he using that power to control and manipulate reporters and the news itself?

It is well-known that National Enquirer, CEO  David Pecker has been friends with Donald Trump for decades. Despite Pecker denials of biased reporting favoring Trump it has been obvious for many months that The National Enquirer and TMZ are having a print love affair with Trump. And Pecker has been allowing his personal relationship with Trump to effect editorial decisions at the tabloid.

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