American Politics, American Politics, Current events, Impeachment

THE IMPEACHMENT IS OVER, NOW WHAT

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It is all over, Trump was acquitted. It is not all over and will not be for some time. It is not in the interest of the left to allow it to die. It is not in the interest of the right to let it die. Just as the years following the Civil War the Republicans continued to wave the bloody shirt blaming the Democrats for ripping the Union apart, the Democrats will now wave their bona fides as the ones who tried to protect the nation from a dictator. The Republicans will then point out that it was the Democrats who twice used their positions to attempt to overthrow the President and then to deny a private citizen the rights of citizenship. Much of the movements on the left are due to the inability to accept the outcome of the 2016 election. The problem with the right is their inability to accept the declared outcome of the 2020 election. We now see Both Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer calling out the 43 Senators for voting to acquit Trump of the charge of inciting an insurrection. Schumer has said if acquitted he would move to have Trump censured invoking the 14th amendment in order to stop him from running in 2024, again in order to overturn the verdict. This would not be a direct violation of the constitutional probation against double jeopardy but it would violate its sprit.

The Impeachment is done, in fact, so we need to do some analysis and then look to the future of conservativism in America. Did President Trump make mistakes following the 2020 election, the answer has to be yes. The Trump presidency, without reverting to emotion, was very successful. Unemployment decreased across the board for all citizens, with black and other minorities seeing the lowest unemployment in history. With the removal of business killing regulations businesses bloomed including the greatest growth in minority businesses. Business began to return to the US and the dollar got stronger against foreign currencies. The Iran deal was reversed stopping the flow of money into Iran that had been used to increase its terrorist activities across the region. North Korea was somewhat subdued, at least the threat was minimized. Russian expansion into Ukraine was halted and its economy was struck a blow with the loss of oil revenue into Europe and Europe itself was forced to acknowledge its overdependence on US military deterrence to keep it safe.       

The impeachment was a microcosm of problems and solutions in America. The left continued to show itself driven by hatred and ideological intransigence. The right on the other hand was looking to decide what they really are or what they stand for.  The left had decided to impeach Trump even before he was sworn into office. The mainstream news media, which is 90% left leaning, began to attack Trump from policy disagreements to personnel attacks on him and his family.  The right is paralyzed by its perceived history of being the old white man’s party. The left popularized the belief that they alone were able to bring equality to the American people and that the right only wants to hold down anyone not like them. All disinformation campaigns begin with a little truth.  While in the past the Republican party has been dominated by older white males it is today more of a big tent party. Party leadership crosses race and gender as well as age. The Democrat party has in the past advanced the cause of civil rights and gender equality. Today democrats are seen as stalled and unable to progress to the next level. This has allowed the right to justifiably claim that the left has used minorities and is holding back any forward progress, more on this in the nest blog.

The impeachment has freed both sides to pursue their separate agendas. Please Think of what this means. In the next few days, I will go deeper into the how I see the future.

American Politics, Current events, Impeachment

IMPEACMENT DAY FIVE

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I was happy to see the Trump defense team had its best day, admittedly the bar was set very low. They were brief in their close, I will be as well. The basis of the defense was, as it always has been, that there is no evidence of Trump inciting the riot. To prove their point, they played video of democrat members calling on their constituents to fight and fight hard the Trump agenda. Showing several videos of then candidate Joe Biden saying that if this were high school, he would take Trump out behind the gym and beat the crap out of him. The obvious intent was to off set the videos the House managers showing that Trump call on his followers to fight and fight hard. The Trump call was also included in the article of impeachment to say it was Trumps intent to attack the building. There was a point that the defense pointed to the lead House manager, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), and stated, he himself, in 2016 called for the election of Trump to be reversed. They then turned on the video the managers played on the first day and told the Senate the truth, it had been cut, rearranged, and manipulated.

What this and the actions of the House managers shows is that nothing in this “trial” is based on facts or evidence. This is all for political show and should end as soon as possible as the result is widely known, acquittal. The Q&A session was of no consequence as nothing was learned. There was also nothing new in Saturday’s session except for the House managers calling for witnesses and the Senate voting 55-44 to allow them. What should have ended today will now drag on. There will be little to learn from witnesses that is not already known, this just continues the tie up of the government. We know from last years show trial that the government was tied up at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic slowing government response. What will the result of this delay be? One aspect is that Gov Cuomo has just been outed as faking the number of Covid deaths in state nursing homes to keep Trump from acting or interfering. Keeping this trial going could keep Cuomo out of the press.   

After this was posted it came out there will b no witnesses just a statement for the record from Congresswoman Jaime Herrea Beutler (R-Wash.). More on this is the next post,

I will pick up on Monday and ask that you all continue to PLEASEThink, look for your own information and make up your own minds.

American Politics, Current events, Impeachment

IMPEACHMENT DAY FOUR

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Today we enter day four of the “trial” of President Trump. The House impeachment managers wrapped up their presentation yesterday. I do not know what the Trump defense will do today in their wrap up but it brings to mind and old Don Adams quote that goes something like “For he past hour my worthy opponent has stood before you and made a complete ass of himself, now its my turn,”  

To recap the closing arguments Donald Trump must be found guilty to stop him from running again or for anyone else to ever use violent rhetoric to rule a country. That by not immediately sending help or ordering his followers to stop he violated his oath to defend and protect the constitution. They even rebuked the concept that Trump must meet a higher standing for free speech as the President.   

The right to free speech is the conner stone that made the American dream possible. Yes, there are exceptions and inciting to riot/overthrow of the government is one of them. To say the President must meet a higher standard than the constitution is an indicator that the house managers have no respect for the constitution.  

The House managers continued to discuss in the most emotional terms what happened in the building that day and continued to call those inside Trump insurrectionist. They have however failed to connect anything Trump said to the riot. There have been reports that many there said they came because Trump called them. This is an individual interpretation of some of the rhetoric that came out of Trump. In 1170 King Henry II of England was reported to have uttered the phrase “will no one rid me of this troublesome priest.” This was interpreted by four knights to mean kill Becket the Archbishop of Canterbury. Most now conclude that Henry did not mean for this to happen and it was an expression of exasperation. Today, like in 1170, the leader’s words are interpreted by different parties to mean different things.  

One of the points the managers tried to make was that the president did not care about the riot and was more interested in blocking the vote to certify the election. Proof of this came when they entered into “evidence” a phone call made to Sen Lee’s phone for Sen Tuberville insisting that he block the Senate somehow. The problem with this is that Sen Lee stood up to say that the “evidence’ being presented was in error. Lee tried to have the whole thing struck but was told that was not allowed by Senate rules. In the end the managers allowed it to be removed as evidence saying they got it from a news report. In his close Lead House manager Rep. Jamie Raskin made a big show of how they could not question Trump and asked the defense team to provide the answers three questions in the name of Trump. This of course would violate the 5th amendment, but again constitutional protections are not important to the managers.

It must be said that the House did not prove its case and we will see how the defense does in its close.

American Politics, Current events

impeachment day three

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As we enter day three, we will need to wait and see if the House managers can come up with anymore heart-rending videos. Much of day two was spent showing videos of rioters rampaging through the building and sound bites of people looking for Speaker Pelosi and Vice President Pence. The House managers went so far in their emotional presentation to point out that the rioters had erected a gallows outside the building calling it a symbol of Americas racist past. Of course, those of us who pay attention know that hanging the bad guy was a staple of the American west. This last is a bit off subject but thought I would throw it in. The Trump defense also tried it had at videography showing several Democrat politicians calling for Trumps impeachment from the time he was elected to prove that impeachment has been the objective of the Democrats since the beginning. As I said yesterday this is not truly a trial, not the American sense.

In many courtroom scenes the attorney for one side will stand up and object to a line of questioning or a piece of evidence based on relevance. Trumps defense, in an actual court of law, would have likely had an objection of relevance sustained on yesterday’s video since it showed the fact that there were rioters in the building saying things that should and will lead to their arrests and conviction, but it failed to connect their actions to any actual direction from Trump. On the other side the video show given by the Trump defense would have similarly been disallowed since it did not connect to the current article of impeachment.   

Today it is possible that arguments will in fact be turned to the actual article of impeachment. In part the article says that on January 6th “President Trump, addressed a crowd at the Ellipse in Washington, D.C. There, he reiterated false claims that “we won this election, and we won it by a landslide.” He also willfully made statements that, in context, encouraged — and foreseeably resulted in — lawless action at the Capitol, such as: “if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.” Thus incited by President Trump, members of the crowd he had addressed, in an attempt to, among other objectives, interfere with the Joint Session’s solemn constitutional duty to certify the results of the 2020 Presidential election, unlawfully breached and vandalized the Capitol.” Italics are mine. A problem with the video on the first day is its lack of a timeline or time stamps. If they had been included it would be apparent that there were two separate groups, the one listening to the President and those at the Capitol. Those at the Capitol had already breached the building so it was not the group that was listening to the president. We have also heard from law enforcement that the attack was preplanned and therefore not a result of the speech. Because of this the managers are arguing it is the result of his past speeches.

The true purpose of this “trial” is also seen in the indictment “Further, section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution prohibits any person who has “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against” the United States from “hold[ing] and office … under the United States.”

In the end we ask that you again PLEASEThink about the true

purposes of this action which is not to seek justice but for political purposes.

American Politics, Current events

Impeachment day two

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For those who do not recognize the picture above, it is Oliver Cromwell. Two years after his death his body was dug up and he was put on trial and beheaded.

As we move on to Impeachment day two, we should review day one. Since the last shall be first, the argument was made that the entire trial is unconstitutional because it is intended to remove a seating President who is already out of office. This motion was defeated by a 56-44 vote. The argument was made that Congress is not the body to decide constitutionality, that is the Supreme Court. In this instance under the rules of this trial they are in fact the body to make that decision. I remember a charge to a jury where the judge told them they are deciders of the facts; the judge is the decider of law. This indicates that this is not a “Trial” that is a reflection of US jurisprudence. The jury decides facts and law, the presiding officer is not a judge but in this case is also a member of the jury. One of the things they get to decide as well is rules of evidence. This brings us to the first presentation, the video.  

For those of you who did not have the pleasure of seeing the video, it was a compilation of what transpired on January 6th in Washington. The problem with it was it was chopped together, out of order and censored to give the impression that the riot occurred while Trump was standing on a platform extolling his followers to take over the Capitol building.  This video “evidence” would never have been allowed in a court of law in this country. This would-be tantamount reworking a police officers body cameras footage to reflect a series of events that did not happen. This is falsifying evidence. This was not intended to show facts but to elicit an emotional reaction. Then there is some pre-trial activity that must be addressed. The chief House impeachment manager, Rep Jamie B. Raskin (D-Md) in a letter to Trump stated that if he did not testify it would be seen as an admission of guilt. Raskin, a graduate of Harvard Law school, apparently never read the Constitution or understands the 5th amendment. I am sure that if any prosecutor made this statement elsewhere, they would face some disciplinary hearing.  

I am not passing judgement on Trump who must bear some personnel responsibility for what took place, but not criminal liability for other people actions. Those who attacked the seat of government must be tried and convicted for their own actions.

I am asking my readers to PLEASEThink about how this trial is taking place. Detach yourselves from your emotions and judge this in the light of American culture and fairness. Trump is his own worst enemy, much of what he says is emotional rhetoric, but it is protected under the 1st amendment. We cannot become a country that puts people on trial for what they said that we disagree.  

American Politics, Current events, International Politics, Kurdistan, National Defence

The Iran Deal and social justise

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While the nation is consumed by the Impeachment trial, we have not heard much on Biden’s moves to rejoin the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), better known as the Iran deal. Since President Trump withdrew the US from the Iran deal there has been a massive hue and cry from certain segments of the political spectrum that Iran is going to go Nuclear and the people will starve with any return to sanctions. Iran has never stopped its nuclear program and its people were starving before the deal.

The US as well as the EU has requested re-negotiating the deal to allow for the addition of missile development, more stringent inspections and, very important, inclusion of human rights. In two on-air interviews/debates I have had recently with Iranian foreign policy people it was made clear that there would be no re-negotiation and the US must first recommit to full compliance before going any further.

The US and other allies went too fast and gave up too much in the original agreement. Those calling for a return to the original have never addressed what the problems are. I am not naive enough to believe that Iran will ever be in full compliance or that any attempt at reducing missile development or getting meaningful access to all sites will be successful. What can be hoped for is that the level of human rights abuses can be exposed to the world. The daily killing of Kurds and others as well as the destruction of any religion other then their version of Islam must be exposed and would-be during negotiations.

When so many call out for social justice to ignore the abuses in Iran for political means is disgusting. Iran is the chief supporter of terrorism in the world including facilitating al-Qaeda and ISIS supporting Hamas and Hezbollah and the killing and destruction of Kurdish culture and the Baha’i religion.  These things must be addressed before any return to any negotiation,

American Politics, Current events, International Politics, Kurdistan

Kurds, Clintons and the “Daughters of KobanI.”

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By Chiman Zebari and Paul Davis

In the past few of days, we have been treated to the news that Hilary Clinton and daughter Chelsea will be making a film based on a book about the female Peshmerga in Syria. Lots of comments on Twitter about this new book, to be published on 16th Feb 2021. Called Daughters of Kobani, it claims to detail the Women’s Protection Unit of the Syrian Democratic Forces known as the YPJ, and the YPJ’s struggle in Kobani against ISIS. Early reviews of the book indicate it looks promising and comes at a very timely moment in the struggle of Kurds, with Erdogan attacks in Rojava (NE Syria) on a nightly basis and threatening full-scale invasion.

We are both happy and disgusted by this. Happy that these fighters will get the exposure they need but disgusted that the person doing so spent the latter years of public service calling them terrorist and making every effort to deny the Kurds their rights and the country that should have been theirs to begin with. To make profit off the suffering she was a part of is hypocrisy in the highest.

We can understand the screams of frustration coming from women Kurdish filmmakers and accusations of hypocrisy and cultural appropriation but frankly, at this point of the Kurdish struggle, we warmly welcome this book as pro-Kurdish rights campaigners and hope that it will strengthen some people’s resolve to stand up to Erdogan’s attacks against NE Syria in the coming weeks and months. And to be honest, it is on that basis that Kurds welcome such policies, but at the same time, can disagree and want to ask where Hillary Clinton was when her husband, the then President of the US, were funding the Turkish government when it was at the height of the village depopulations in the 90s. It is a valid question and I’m sure we will face disappointment and anger in the coming months, but at least it gives some sort of hope that those around the President and Democrat circles will give recognition to the role the Kurdish people played in the defeat of ISIS and that they have sacrificed so much, that they have more than  earned the inalienable right to be able to determine their own future and build the progressive society they fought for as a beacon of light, not only for women for who Rojava has been a revolution but for the future of the Middle East and beyond! We can only live-in hope and continue to defend the Democratic Nation through all its troubled times ahead. We hope this film can shine a light on the brave fighters of the YPJ. We hope however that the double dealing and hypocrisy of the Clintons is also brought to light. 

American Politics, Current events

IMPEACHMENT

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Today the Left will take up the coup attempt that they began last year. Last year they attempted to unseat a sitting president for no good reason other then it was an election year. I should not say for no good reason this was an agenda item from the start. In an editorial in the Washington Post, 19 minutes after he was inaugurated the Post called for Trumps impeachment. Today the Senate will begin a trial on a former president whose only consequence would be denying Trump the right to run for office again. This time the impeachment is a blatant attack on one of Americas most sacred rights, Freedom of Speech. While it may be argued that Trump carried on too long in his claims that there was voter fraud, that is his right. No where in any speech did he call for the overthrow of the government. If individuals where driven to illegal acts that is on them as individuals. This is a hard argument to make to the left since their driving philosophy is that all actions must be collective with the individual removed from the equation.   

This trial has no chance of finding Trump guilty, but it will move the thought process of many toward the left. This in and of itself is dangerous. We have spent far too long rewriting history. The left is now attempting to rewrite the culture of America.   We should demand at the least that books such as 1984 be taught in classes as well as the history of authoritarian regimes and how many lost their freedom. Learn about propaganda and misinformation and understand how the left is using mirror imaging by claiming the right is authoritarian while in fact it is the actions of the left that show this. As well as claiming that the right is moving toward dictatorship when it is the left pushing in that direction. We already see “Newspeak” being used; equality is being replaced with equity. Education is powerful but when the educational institutions are being turned to brainwashing instead of education it becomes dangerous.

Before jumping to conclusions, I ask everyone to PLEASEThink. Both left and right do some incredibly stupid things and its time for those of us who can think to keep them from destroying the country.      

American Politics, Current events

Marjorie Taylor Greene

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The Democrat majority has removed a duly elected Member of the House from her committee seats because they think what she has said is not what the majority believe. I will start by saying I agree that her ideas are wrong and way outside the mainstream. She bought into the loony tune ideas of QAnon and let her passion and hatred of liberal ideas runaway. The fact is, however, that most if not all of what she is charged with happened prior to her being elected to the House. The people who voted for her know who she was and what she stood for but elected her anyway. Congress convened on January 3rd, 2021 and to my knowledge she has not broken house rules since then.

On January 3rd, the entire Congress took an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. We are not quite a month into the new Congress and have seen them violate that oath on several occasions. Supposedly Congress can only act against a Member for activities that occurred after they have taken the office. There is a clause in the Constitution, clause 3 of Article 9, that prohibits them from passing ex post facto laws. In other words, you cannot be held accountable for actions that were legal when you did them but were later made illegal. The actions taken by the majority also violate her first amendment right to free speech. Many of the things she said were widely inappropriate but not illegal.

While the words of Greene should be seen as reprehensible, she is none the less an elected official and her constituency should not be overruled for partisan reasons. If what she has said was enough to have her removed from her committee seats, then those of the so call “squad” should lose theirs as well. Why should an anti-Semite such as IIhan Omar be allowed to sit on the Foreign Affairs committee with her well-known hatred of Israel? The other members of the squad have, as well, shown disrespect for the US, acted in violation of congressional norms, and have made more egregious remarks then did Greene. The ever-popular Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has gone so far as to accuse a member of congress with trying to kill her.

Why then was Greene picked out? For one she is low hanging fruit with few supporting what she has said in he past, but more importantly she is a Trump supporter. The Democrat leadership knows it will not be able to win a conviction against President Trump in the Senate impeachment trial so this is an action they can take and show a victory.

I normally do not use the term slippery slope, as I see it usually used as a logical fallacy argument. This time however we need to keep a careful eye on Congress, before we lose what little input we have left. As I have said before, much of this stems from the philosophical differences between liberals and conservatives. Liberals always look for the collective answers while conservative tend more toward individual accountability. While Greene is responsible for her actions as an individual, she is allowed, within the law, her opinions. When the majority of one-party gangs up on her, or anyone, we see a violation of the intent of constitutional protections of minority thought, which is ensconced in Anglo-American culture and tradition. If the Democrat party wants her out, then prepare to run a better election in 2022.       

American Politics, Current events

Conservative Vs. Liberal

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One of the main tenets of conservatism is the belief that history and culture inform the present. We have just inaugurated a new president and have seen the Congress now controlled by a single party. The President is a liberal/ progressive as are those around him, as well as a majority of Congress, why is this a problem? To begin, unlike conservatives, liberals today do not look at history and seem to be at war with American culture. To that end they are more concerned with the Here and Now regardless of how it effects the future.  Their concern with the Here and Now blinds them to cause and effect which drives their solutions to be based on emotional or political reasoning and to be short-term. Conservatism looks at smaller answers that do not shake the foundations of society or go against the prevailing culture. Which is the better way to govern, quick and short term or slow and steady? Not to highlight my nerdiness but in one of the Star Wars movies Luke asks Yoda if the dark side was stronger, the answer was “not stronger, quicker, easier more seductive.” People will always look for the quick solution, take the easy path and be seduced by ideas that sound good, except on close examination. What history has taught however is the path to dictatorship runs on quick and easy solutions. That the masses can be seduced by the sound of fairytale progress if it is coupled with an enemy, is something that must be examined and understood.    

While the country was reeling from the impact of Covid-19 the liberals stood firm, for eight months, in their position to block any relief to negatively impact the re-election of Donald Trump. After a riot that took place on the Hill and some idiots waving Trump flags broke into the Capital Building, it took seven days for the liberal congress to draw up and vote on an article of impeachment. On January 25th, the article of Impeachment was delivered to the Senate The single article is “incitement of insurrection.” This is a very serious charge but wholly unprovable. There is no evidence that the President ever spoke any words that would have called on the people to march on the In fact, he said to peacefully protest. So, we see two problems, one an emotional overreaction and a move toward thought police. As stated, history drives the future and a failure to understand the underlying philosophies that were used to set up the United States makes it difficult to understand what the problems are today.

Our founding fathers were students of political thinkers such as Locke and Hobbes, and contemporary writers such as Edmond Burke. They were also students of history and understood the success and failures of past political systems.

While the Declaration of Independence showed Jefferson’s liberal thinking. The father of the Constitution, James Madison, believing in a strong central government, feared that the government could become too strong, thus the separation of powers. Beyond Madison was the more conservative Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton having learned from European history the horror of an unrestricted government in Federalist 84 Hamilton argued for the inclusion of a bill of rights limiting governments power over the people and the individual States. As is well known the first amendment protects freedom of speech as well as the right to peacefully. This brings us back to some of the major problems we see today in liberal governing techniques.  

Going back to the current impeachment trial. The charge against the former President is that, through his words, it is perceived that he incited a crowd to march on the Capitol in an act of insurrection. Without direct evidence the Senate will be trying Trump for his words, which without direct evidence of calling for an insurrection should be considered protected speech. Here again we see an example of short-term thinking as well as an emotional response, without concern for how this will affect the future. This is a violation of the first amendments protection of free speech as well. It also strikes at the right to peaceful assembly., since most of the people at the stop the steal rally did not march on the Capitol. It also violates Article 1 Section 3 of the constitution which states, “Judgment in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States: but the Party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, according to Law.”

Beyond the impeachment we see calls from the left to censor or remove from congress the leaders of the attempt to review what they considered fraudulent votes. I do not know what the results of an unbiased investigation would reveal but I think there was enough circumstantial evidence to launch an investigation. If they just declared it a fair election the liberal would not have to face what may have been an embarrassing result. By not even attempting to show some interest in an investigation they could take the quicker, easier path and seduce the public into accepting any “facts” they put out.

It is obvious that liberals move quickly to find the easiest short-term solution, are conservatives the direct opposite. According to the famous American conservative, William F. Buckley, “A Conservative is a fellow who is standing athwart history yelling ‘Stop!” I am not sure it is truly ‘stop’ but at least slowdown.

As a country we need to use history and reason as well as stay true to our founding philosophies and continue to move forward at a pace that does not destroy the country.