All Roads Lead to #Putin: What's Putin Up To? What's Putin #Trump Up To??

Consider what this tells us about Ukraine ... we still have an unindicted co-conspirator at large !

Former Trump campaign official Rick Gates gets 45 days in jail in Mueller probe By ERIC TUCKER, Associated Press Dec 17, 2019

... U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson commended Gates for his cooperation, describing it as an “important public service" that went to the heart of the central question that Mueller and his team sought to answer — whether the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia during the 2016 election.

...Gates is one of a half-dozen associates of President Donald Trump charged in Mueller's investigation into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. All six have either pleaded guilty or been found guilty at trial. The three who have already been sentenced have all received prison time. Two others, former Trump administration national security adviser Michael Flynn and Trump confidant Roger Stone, are awaiting sentencing.

Gates was among the first defendants charged in Mueller's investigation. An indictment accused him and Paul Manafort, his onetime mentor and the chairman of the 2016 Trump campaign, of failing to disclose the work they did for then-Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovych and of hiding their proceeds from U.S. tax authorities to fund lavish lifestyles and pay for personal expenses. 

... Gates is the latest to be sentenced in the Mueller probe, an investigation spanning back to 2017. Here's a look at everyone charged in connection with the case.

All Roads Lead to #Putin: What's Putin Up To? What's Putin #Trump Up To?? #Ukraine At War - Exit #Syria , Crisis #Iran #MoscowMitch aids and abets

UNDERSTANDING THE #COUNTY ROLE IN THE SUPPLEMENTAL NUTRITION ASSISTANCE PROGRAM - #SNAP

COUNTIES ARE THE LOCAL SOCIAL SAFETY-NET The nation’s 3,069 counties provide vital services to more than 300 million residents. Counties provide and administer federal, state and local service systems to break cycles of poverty, from early childhood development and nutrition assistance programs to workforce and economic development. Counties utilize federal, state and local resources to address and combat the root cause of poverty and provide nutrition assistance and social services to low-income individuals across the country. In every county, SNAP is a crucial aspect to healthy eating, especially for areas lacking access to sustainable and fresh food supplies.

What is the secret of "Soylent Green". 1973

UNDERSTANDING THE #COUNTY ROLE IN THE SUPPLEMENTAL NUTRITION ASSISTANCE PROGRAM - #SNAP

Has #Twitter changed its #Broadcast Practices ??????

TRUMP-Ukraine Impeachment Inquiry Report - Summary 1 page - Intelligence House Committee

The IMPEACHMENT setup briefs:

House outlines impeachment case, Trump team has fiery answer By ERIC TUCKER, ZEKE MILLER and LISA MASCARO

111 pages versus 7 pages - January 18, 2020

From December 3rd, 2019

Since I have been reading "The MisInformation Age" and a few other sources I have become acutely aware that "what we think we know" has often been told to us and we have no first hand evidence that it is a fact.  Further, we often victimize ourselves with confirmatory bias and motivated reasoning.

Being under oath keeps things closer to fact and truth.




TRUMP-Ukraine Impeachment Inquiry Report  : The Summary - more to come.

The impeachment inquiry into Donald J. Trump, the 45th President of the United States, uncovered a months-long effort by President Trump to use the powers of his office to solicit foreign interference on his behalf in the 2020 election.  As described in this executive summary and the report that follows, President Trump’s scheme subverted U.S. foreign policy toward Ukraine and undermined our national security in favor of two politically motivated investigations that would help his presidential reelection campaign.  The President demanded that the newly-elected Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, publicly announce investigations into a political rival that he apparently feared the most, former Vice President Joe Biden, and into a discredited theory that it was Ukraine, not Russia, that interfered in the 2016 presidential election.  To compel the Ukrainian President to do his political bidding, President Trump conditioned two official acts on the public announcement of the investigations:  a coveted White House visit and critical U.S. military assistance Ukraine needed to fight its Russian adversary.

During a July 25, 2019, call between President Trump and President Zelensky, President Zelensky expressed gratitude for U.S. military assistance.  President Trump immediately responded by asking President Zelensky to “do us a favor though” and openly pressed for Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Biden and the 2016 conspiracy theory.  In turn, President Zelensky assured President Trump that he would pursue the investigation and reiterated his interest in the White House meeting.  Although President Trump’s scheme intentionally bypassed many career personnel, it was undertaken with the knowledge and approval of senior Administration officials, including the President’s Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and Secretary of Energy Rick Perry.  In fact, at a press conference weeks after public revelations about the scheme, Mr. Mulvaney publicly acknowledged that the President directly tied the hold on military aid to his desire to get Ukraine to conduct a political investigation, telling Americans to “get over it.”

President Trump and his senior officials may see nothing wrong with using the power of the Office of the President to pressure a foreign country to help the President’s reelection campaign.  Indeed, President Trump continues to encourage Ukraine and other foreign countries to engage in the same kind of election interference today.  However, the Founding Fathers prescribed a remedy for a chief executive who places his personal interests above those of the country:  impeachment.  Accordingly, as part of the House of Representatives’ impeachment inquiry, the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, in coordination with the Committees on Oversight and Reform and Foreign Affairs, were compelled to undertake a serious, sober, and expeditious investigation into whether the President’s misconduct warrants that remedy.

In response, President Trump engaged in an unprecedented campaign of obstruction of this impeachment inquiry.  Nevertheless, due in large measure to patriotic and courageous public servants who provided the Committees with direct evidence of the President’s actions, the Committees uncovered significant misconduct on the part of the President of the United States.  As required under House Resolution 660, the Intelligence Committee, in consultation with the Committees on Oversight and Reform and Foreign Affairs, has prepared this report to detail the evidence uncovered to date, which will now be transmitted to the Judiciary Committee for its consideration. ...

And Consider ...

The Mueller Report or "TheGenius President is not above the law and Congress should IMPEACH and remove him from Office."


#TRUMP - #Ukraine #Impeachment Inquiry Report - Summary 1 page - Intelligence House Committee - #IndictTrump 

Do you have an ideal decade for the tag "Make America Great Again" ?

I would pick the 1950s - 1960 plus or minus a few years.  Honestly, what do you think?  Write it down now, before you look at the rest of this post.

What's wrong with the "now"?  Nothing!  But as always we are struggling to know how to deal with change or trends.

The last part of the following program brings out that our constant problem is intrinsically being human and that we like to "share" and we cannot always know everything - so we have to trust.  We have created a super highway of information flow and there are just as many bad drivers as ever.

HIDDEN BRAIN: Facts Aren't Enough: The Psychology Of False Beliefs

As a result of listening to the podcast I bought the book -

The Misinformation Age: How False Beliefs Spread


Now for the IRONY !  Let's take just one look at the decade that I chose.  They were great economic times, war was over, GI Bill was putting people through college, employment was good, you would be able to put your kids through college, etc.

I put forward a major character of the times that I think most of us have forgotten or never knew.  A little Wikipedia History lesson - follow the money.



History of taxation in the United States (mostly gov doc)

For tax years 1944 through 1951, the highest marginal tax rate for individuals was 91%, increasing to 92% for 1952 and 1953, and reverting to 91% for tax years 1954 through 1963.^[36]

So am I to conclude that "good times" are associated with high tax rates.

For the 1964 tax year, the top marginal tax rate for individuals was lowered to 77%, and then to 70% for tax years 1965 through 1981. In 1978 income brackets were adjusted for inflation, so fewer people were taxed at high rates.^[37] The top marginal tax rate was lowered to 50% for tax years 1982 through 1986.^[38] Reagan undid 40% of his 1981 tax cut, in 1983 he hiked gas and payroll taxes, and in 1984 he raised tax revenue by closing loopholes for businesses.^[39] According to historian and domestic policy adviser Bruce Bartlett, Reagan's 12 tax increases over the course of his presidency took back half of the 1981 tax cut.^[40]

For tax year 1987, the highest marginal tax rate was 38.5% for individuals.^[41] It was lowered to 28% in revenue neutral fashion, eliminating many loopholes and shelters, along with in corporate taxes, (with a 33% "bubble rate") for tax years 1988 through 1990.^[42][43] Ultimately, the combination of base broadening and rate reduction raised revenue equal to about 4% of existing tax revenue^[44]

Read the book and read the document in Wikipedia.


WI 1848 Forward: Do you have an ideal decade for the tag Do you have an ideal decade for the tag "Make America Great Again" ? #MAGA #FakeNews If only our memories were as good as reality in telling us how it really was?!

Do you have an ideal decade for the tag "Make America Great Again" ? #MAGA #FakeNews If only our memories of the depression were as good as reality in telling us how it really was?! So think "great recession" times 100!

Medicare For All - KERFUFFLE

Lots of ideas start and/or end with some sort of tag or label.

"Medicare For All" is one such tag and whoever introduced it I'm sure meant it "positively".  Now it is being construed or conflated with all kinds of negative tags.


Denial of choice.  You are only one step away from government takeover!

We can't afford it is another common refrain.


I'm still stuck back at the basic idea that "everyone deserves equal access to healthcare".  What does that mean?  Does it mean if you have the money you can have access?

There are other things going on with healthcare - personal/family bankruptcies, unnecessary suffering, premature deaths.  What causes these problems?

How should clinics and hospitals be sited? Discriminate against rural populations?  How come some physicians have three or more offices.  How many MRI or CAT SCAN facilities do we need in a city?

Why are drugs so expensive, e.g., here in the U.S. but not Canada?

Clean Air? Pure Water? Climate Change?

The discussion is needed.  What we mean by Medicare For All embodies a concept or idea.  How we choose to define it or implement it is downstream.  A consensus will emerge if the fear mongers and immoral are recognized for what they are.

1/8/2020

More than a third of U.S. healthcare costs go to bureaucracy - Linda Carroll

(Reuters Health) - U.S. insurers and providers spent more than $800 billion in 2017 on administration, or nearly $2,500 per person - more than four times the per-capita administrative costs in Canada’s single-payer system, a new study finds.

Medicare For All - #KERFUFFLE #MedicareForAll #Sanders #Warren #HealthCare

Wisconsin GOP - Republican senators vote to oust Gov. Tony Evers' ag secretary

Madison.com 20191105 ... Follow the money ... critically - who benefits ... small vs big, corporate vs family, are urban interests really in conflict with rural interests?

Wisconsin Republican senators vote to oust Gov. Tony Evers' ag secretary

The state Senate voted along party lines to remove Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection Secretary Brad Pfaff during its floor session on Tuesday. 

Pfaff drew the ire of Republicans after he targeted the Legislature's powerful budget committee this summer over the release of farmer mental health funding. But Fitzgerald's office pointed to other issues, including a proposed rule change for livestock siting operations that's faced criticism — though DATCP on Friday announced it was postponing a plan to pursue the tweaks.

What kind of lobbying does DATCP do?



#DefeatFitzgerald #Fitzgerald ... Wisconsin farmer's deserve better ... #DefeatVos #Vos #GOP .  End the #Gerrymandering #FollowTheMoney 

How Trump could win in Wisconsin! Ohio! Where Else? Vote Suppression ...

Will courts approve voter suppression?  A GOP court will!

Conservative legal group alleges Elections Commission in contempt of court

The conservative legal group leading a lawsuit against the Wisconsin Elections Commission's handling of the state's voter rolls is calling on the commission to be held in contempt of court for failing to follow through with a controversial voter purge. 

On Thursday, the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty announced it is asking the circuit court to hold the Elections Commission in contempt and fine it up to $12,000 per day until it carries out Ozaukee County Judge Paul Malloy's Dec. 17 order to purge thousands of registered voters who may have moved to a different address off the rolls. 

The case is before a state Appeals Court, but the conservative-controlled Wisconsin Supreme Court is likely to take it up. ...

Gerrymandering hurts us all and polarizes politics as WI GOP continues to use its minority status to wield power.


Complaint could make up to 234K Wisconsin voters ineligible, Associated Press SCOTT BAUER ,Associated Press•October 16, 201

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — More than a quarter-million voters in Wisconsin identified as having moved could be made ineligible to vote before next year's presidential primary election if a complaint filed Wednesday by a conservative law firm is successful.

The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty argues that the state Elections Commission broke the law when it decided to wait up to two years, rather than 30 days, to make ineligible voters who may have moved. The complaint asks for that decision to be immediately revoked, which could lead to as many as 234,000 voters losing their eligibility until they can confirm their addresses or re-register.

The outcome could affect how many voters are able to cast ballots in both the April presidential primary and November 2020 general election in Wisconsin, a key swing state that both sides are targeting. President Donald Trump narrowly won the state by less than 23,000 votes in 2016.

The concern from liberals is that younger and lower income voters who are more likely to vote Democratic are also more likely to be flagged as movers. The result, they fear, is that more Democrats would be made ineligible than Republicans, making it more difficult for them to vote. ...

Ohio Was Set to Purge 235,000 Voters. It Was Wrong About 20% NY Times.

When Ohio released a list of people it planned to strike from its voting rolls, around 40,000 people shouldn’t have been on it. The state only found out because of volunteer sleuthing.

How #Trump could win in #Wisconsin !  #Ohio ! #VoteSuppression follows from #Gerrymandering ... #GOP Legislature and EX-Gov #Walker #Vos #DefeatVos  #Fitzgerald #DefeatFitzgerald

Groper In Chief: Donald #Trump Allegedly Hid Behind a Tapestry to #GropeWoman at #Mar-a-Lago

Donald Trump Allegedly Hid Behind a Tapestry to Grope a Woman at Mar-a-Lago in the Early 2000s

Esquire: 

While the president has publicly faced allegations from two dozen women, this book reveals another 43 allegations of alleged inappropriate behavior, including 26 instances of unwanted sexual contact. In this exclusive excerpt from All the President's Women, Levine and El-Faizy investigate an alleged wave of unwanted touching that preceded his proposal to Melania Knauss, including a disturbing instance of groping at Mar-a-Lago. —Adrienne Westenfeld 

Groper In Chief: Donald #Trump Allegedly Hid Behind a Tapestry to #GropeWoman at #Mar-a-Lago in the Early 2000s - #Impeach Trump - oh ! wait ! He did it before he was #President :( 

VOS - 'Drunk With Power': State Assembly Approves Gubernatorial Veto Change

'Drunk With Power': State Assembly Approves Gubernatorial Veto Change - WPR

The state Assembly approved a rule change Thursday that gives Republicans unlimited shots at overriding gubernatorial vetoes.

The measure passed 61-35, with all Assembly Republicans voting in favor and Democrats voting against.

Under the new rule, the GOP-controlled Assembly will get as many chances as legislators would like to reach the necessary two-thirds threshold to override vetoes made by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers. Current law only allows one veto override attempt.

Current law also says a two-thirds vote is only required by members "present" at the time of the vote — opponents of the proposed change say that would make it possible for Republicans to call multiple override votes with little notice and without Democratic attendance. They say that could open up Wisconsin to a situation similar to one seen earlier this year in North Carolina, when GOP lawmakers held an important vote while Democratic lawmakers were away attending a 9/11 memorial service. 

Vos on safe COVID-19 election ... perspectives


#DefeatVos  #VOS - 'Drunk With Power': #WI #Assembly Approves Gubernatorial Veto Change - #WPR - end #Gerrymandering #VoterId #VoterSuppression 

#DefeatVos  #VOS - 'Drunk With Power': #WI #Assembly Approves Gubernatorial Veto Change - #WPR - end #VOS #Gerrymandering in Chief - #VoterId #VoterSuppression 

Pacific Gas & Electric - Deregulation Reduces CA to Appalling Uncertainty

A generation of short-run profit maximization for shareholders (not in the public interest) has combined with conditions of drought and climate leading to projections of shutting off the power in many parts of California.  Fire risk from high winds is the worry;  where we have built houses; forestry management practices are at the root of the problem supposedly?

Or are they the problem or is it the drive to deregulate.  Why can't PG&E turn around safety inspections in a day or less.  Is infrastructure being maintained ... what is the PG&E workforce composition today ... what was it 10 years ago?

This kind of trade off happens all too often.  The costs to people of losing a home are ignored.

See from over two years ago -

Private & Corporate Greed vs Public Good & Neighbors - Why Regulation? Perfect Poster Child

...I have an engineering friend who deals with zoning and regulation all the time.  He is glad to have some government "rules" or he would be building high rises without sprinkler systems - because the customer would want it that way in order to compete with other builders. ...

Pacific Gas & Electric #PG&E - #Deregulation Reduces #CA to Appalling Uncertainty - No #Power to the People - #Profits first

Who is being duped? > How The U.S. Hacked ISIS ?!

How The U.S. Hacked ISIS ?!

They began moving through the ISIS networks they had mapped for months. Participants describe it like watching a raid team clearing a house, except it was all online. Logging into accounts they had followed. Using passwords they discovered. Then, just as their move through targets started to accelerate, a roadblock: a security question. A standard, "what was your high school mascot"-type security question.

The question: "What is the name of your pet?"

The room quieted down.

"And we're stuck dead in our tracks," Neil said. "We all look to each other and we're like, what can we do? There's no way we're going to get in. This is going to stop the 20 or 30 targets after this."

Then an analyst stood up in the back of the room.

"Sir, 1-2-5-7," he said.

"We're like, what?" Neil says.

"Sir, 1-2-5-7."

I guess this is ok and strategic but it does concern me.  The same tools and techniques can be used against us.  After 9/11 the government illegally listened in on our phone calls for a longtime before being uncovered and stopped.  What is going on now with "foreign governments" with Congress being blocked, in a general sense, from oversight is alarming in these times.  Large corporations are not held accountable for illegally cooperating with the government.  Targeting journalists, like Jamal Khashoggi, has evidently been done by other governments and is even included in the NPR story. Tools used by journalists, let alone the rest of us, make them vulnerable and I doubt they are really secure (WhatsApp is owned by FB after all).  The interference, like dropped connections, may be just frustrating but also deadly.  The story has a "tell" ... can you believe they could say "FIRE" and not anticipate "password security questions" for potentially aborting such a high level program ... who is being duped?


Who is being #duped? > How The U.S. Hacked #ISIS ?!  #Journalists #NPR - Remember #GlomarChallenger #CoverStory #HowardHughes

Terror Management Theory

Now We Know - Income Disparity Makes People Unhappy



We're All Gonna Die!

Many people tend to push frightening realities out of mind, rather than face them head on. That's especially true when it comes to the terrifying event that no one can escape—death. Psychologist Sheldon Solomon says people may suppress conscious thoughts about their mortality, but unconscious ones still seep through.

In the book The Worm at the Core: On the Role of Death in Life, Solomon, along with psychologists Jeff Greenberg and Tom Pyszczynski, illustrate how death anxiety influences people's behavior in ways they would never suspect. The fear of death is so overwhelming, they say, that people go to great lengths to seek security; they embrace belief systems that give them a sense of meaning—religion, values, community.

Through decades of studies, Solomon and his colleagues have shown that people suppress their fear of mortality by supporting those who are similar to themselves. "If somebody does something that's in accord with your belief system then being reminded of death should make you like them more so," Solomon says.

People don't just respond by clinging to their in-group. They act in ways that make them feel better about themselves, whether that's demonstrating their physical prowess or buying status goods. In short, Solomon says, "we shore up our self-esteem in response to existential anxieties." [Hidden Brain]

NPR: As Income Gap Balloons, Is It Holding Back Growth?

Greed is good? NOT!  A perspective on the implications of inequality of incomes.  How deregulation has led to current  problems and other ideas.  After 1933 banking crises disappeared until the 1980s.

The GOP Social Security Medicare Plan - Political Suicide

• Red states by population derive more social benefits from Federal programs than Blue states?
• The only major group that Romney clearly carried was white males, especially "old ones"?
• By cutting social benefits older white males will die off even faster since they will be forced to chose between eating and healthcare? [e.g., Chained Cost of Living Adjustment]
• The majority of Tea Party members and politicians come from Red states where the 2010  Census was used to give them secure seats?

Effects:

• The Tea Party and/or GOP is reducing its only significant voting block nationally and especially in Red states by cutting social benefits.
• Blue states will become more blue.
• Secure "Tea Party" districts will become less secure and surviving spouses may become even more resentful and resolved to change the situation.
• By killing off seniors faster Medicare and Social Security may become even more solvent than it currently is.

#TerrorManagementTheory - The Strange Way It Affects Our #Behavior!   We are all going to die! Now We Know - Income Disparity Makes People Unhappy ; As #Income Gap Balloons, Is It Holding Back Growth?

Real Time with Bill Maher -- Alan Lichtman on Impeachment

Food for thought ...

Real Time with Bill #Maher -- Alan #Lichtman on #Impeachment of #Trump - Is he a human of #GoodCharacter ?

It's enough to #Impeach #Trump .

Wikipedia - Title of Nobility Clause

The Title of Nobility Clause is a provision in Article I, Section 9, Clause 8 of the United States Constitution,^[1] that prohibits the federal government from granting titles of nobility, and restricts members of the government from receiving gifts, emoluments, offices or titles from foreign states and monarchies without the consent of the United States Congress. The Clause is subject to interpretation.^[2] Also known as the Emoluments Clause, it was designed to shield the federal officeholders of the United States against so-called "corrupting foreign influences." The clause is reinforced by the corresponding prohibition on state titles of nobility in Article I, Section 10, and more generally by the Republican Guarantee Clause in Article IV, Section 4.^[3]

What is the ‘Emoluments Clause’? Does it apply to President Trump?

A good discussion  -

By David A. Fahrenthold and

Jonathan O'Connell

January 23, 2017

On Monday morning, a liberal watchdog group filed a lawsuit against President Trump, alleging he’d violated a previously obscure provision in the Constitution, the “Emoluments Clause.”

The watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said that the clause prohibits Trump-owned businesses from accepting payments from foreign governments.

They asked a court to stop Trump’s businesses from taking them now.

“This cannot be allowed,” the group wrote in its legal complaint. 

#Emoluents Clause - It's enough to #Impeach #Trump now, already. ... #GOP want to use process to muck up the process!  Is he a HUMAN of #GoodCharacter ? 

Corporate Cronies get Payoff from WI GOP on Road Transportation Fixes - John Doe Pays

WisGOPs want everyday drivers to pay to fix Scottholes, but not their trucking buddies -

Jake's Wisconsin Funhouse

So people that drive light trucks every day are looking at a fee increase. But companies who have 4-5 ton dump trucks will GET THEIR FEES CUT, some by $55! And 18-wheelers won’t pay anything more than they do today, which removes a provision Evers had that would have raised their fees by 10%. 

I can't think of any reason to do this other than as payback for campaign contributions from the trucking and construction industries, and it causes a disgusting free ride for the business owners whose vehicles do the most damage to our roads. Oh, but it’s people that are on Medicaid that are the real “welfare” cases, right John Nygren?

So now I know ... Gov. Evers wanted to pay by "use" tax, i.e., raise gas tax!  Which do you think is fair?  Which lobbyists wrote the GOP proposal?


Corporate Cronies get Payoff from WI #GOP on #Road #Transportation Fixes - John Doe Pays for #Scottholes #Vos #DefeatVos #Fitzgerald #DefeatFitzgerald

#SCOTUS Beware: DredScott, Plessy v. Ferguson, Roe v. Wade

The appointment of Brett Kavanaugh as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States for it's significance was so problematic.

The controversies of his accused behavior and the examples of the behavior of our President, who nominated him, toward women is beyond ironic.

...  that we now seem certain to see the Supreme Court reconsider Roe v. Wade.

During his testimony he was questioned again and again about "settled law".  Part of his various answer(s) was to hold up the "Dred Scott Supreme Court decision" as an example "settled law" that was justifiably reversed.

This was alarming because it means Kavanaugh will use "Dred Scott" as rationalizing justification for reversing "Roe v. Wade" - bad law

Said more bluntly "The Supreme Court took a man and made him into a slave."

What "right" will supersede a "women's right to privacy" under the "Due Process Clause" of  the 14th Amendment. 


#SupremeCourt #SCOTUS Beware: #DredScott , #Plessy-Ferguson , #Roe-Wade , #Dreamers , #BLM, #Thomas #Alito , et al

#SupremeCourt #SCOTUS Beware: #DredScott , #Plessy-Ferguson , #Roe-Wade , #Dreamers > If #Trump is above the #LAW SCOTUS becomes his tool :(   #Thomas #Alito , et al 2022 

The Mueller Report or "TheGenius President is not above the law and Congress should IMPEACH and remove him from Office."

The Mueller Report or "The President is behaving as if above the law and Congress should IMPEACH and remove him from Office."

Hope I just don't let it sit there :)


MAY 29, 2019, AT 2:22 PM - How To Think About Mueller’s Statement - By Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux - Filed under Russia Investigation

...
In some ways, Mueller’s statement felt out of sync with the current political moment — particularly since it came more than a month after the report was released by Attorney General William Barr and more than two months after Barr’s much-criticized summary initially relayed Mueller’s findings. But now that Mueller has exited the political fray, it’s entirely up to Congress as to what happens next — and many 2020 hopefuls are using it in a new push for impeachment, which could complicate House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s agenda.

Here are three takeaways from Mueller’s press conference:
Mueller quietly rebuked Barr, repeating that he did not exonerate the president.

Underneath the polite, straightforward summary of his findings, Mueller poked holes in Barr’s presentation of his findings in March. In contrast to Barr, who said he had concluded that there was insufficient evidence to charge President Trump with obstruction of justice, Mueller said that if his team “had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so.”

He added that charging the president with a crime was a non-starter from the beginning, thanks to Department of Justice guidelines that bar prosecutors from indicting a sitting president. But he also stressed that he did believe he had the authority and the obligation to investigate potential obstruction. Barr, meanwhile, suggested in congressional testimony earlier this month that Mueller should not have continued his investigation if he felt he couldn’t make a “traditional prosecutive decision” about whether the evidence supported criminal charges.

Mueller — true to his reputation as a law enforcement veteran who dislikesthe public spotlight — didn’t openly engage with the political theatrics that have consumed his investigation, adding that he “didn’t question [Barr’s] good faith” in choosing to release the report publicly, and stressed that he would have nothing to say to Congress that wasn’t already in the report.

And Consider ...

TRUMP-Ukraine Impeachment Inquiry Report - Summary 1 page - Intelligence House Committee

#TheGenius and #Barr are both #Corrupt and should be #Indicted - According to "My Great and Unmatched #Wisdom" - Donald J. #Trump - #GoodCharacter or at best #Hubris ? #Putin his fellow Genius !!

The #Mueller Report or " #TheGeniusPresident is #notabovethelaw and #Congress should #IMPEACH and #removefromOffice " :: #TrumpsCriminalEnterprise #GoodCharacter or at best #Hubris ?

NYTimes: Stung by Trump’s Trade Wars, Wisconsin’s Milk Farmers Face Extinction The flagship industry in a pivotal swing state faces an economic crisis.

Stung by Trump’s Trade Wars, Wisconsin’s Milk Farmers Face Extinction The flagship industry in a pivotal swing state faces an economic crisis. NYTimes  - April 26, 2019.

KENDALL, Wis. — For decades, Denise and Tom Murray rose before 5 a.m. and shuffled through mud and snow to milk cows on the farm that has been in their family since 1939. This month, after years of falling milk prices and mounting debt, the Murrays sold their last milk cow, taking pictures while holding back tears as the final one was loaded onto a truck and taken away.

“It’s awful hard to see them go out the last time,” said Ms. Murray, 53. “It’s scary because you don’t know what your next paycheck is going to be.”

Wisconsin is known as “America’s Dairyland,” but the milk makers who gave the state its moniker are vanishing, falling prey to a variety of impediments, including President Trump and his global trade war. ....

... and another view ... for the 1% Farmers ...

Majority of Trump’s Trade Aid Went to Biggest Farms, Study Finds, Mike Dorning July 30, 2019, Bloomberg

More than half of the Trump administration’s trade-war aid for farmers went to just one-tenth of the recipients in the program, according to an analysis of payments by an environmental organization.

Eighty-two farming operations received more than $500,000 each through April under the U.S. Agriculture Department’s Market Facilitation Program, according to the Environmental Working Group, which analyzed records it obtained through the Freedom of Information Act covering $8.4 billion in payments.

Trump farm secretary: No guarantee small farms will survive

Especially when the big can lobby for rules and get subsidies that advantage them over the small.

President Donald Trump's agriculture secretary said Tuesday during a stop in Wisconsin that he doesn't know if the family dairy farm can survive as the industry moves toward a factory farm model.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue told reporters following an appearance at the World Dairy Expo in Madison that it's getting harder for farmers to get by on milking smaller herds.

"In America, the big get bigger and the small go out," Perdue said. "I don't think in America we, or any small business, we have a guaranteed income or guaranteed profitability."

Walker implicitly organized the "rural" population with gerrymandering to vote for their own demise.  Only solution is for that group to hold their "pols" accountable.

4/16/2020 ... now Trump and Perdue are buying farmers ... probably the really big ones not the real American farmer. $19 billion for who?



Stung by #Trump ’s Trade #Wars, #Wisconsin ’s Milk #Farmers Face #Extinction - after nearly a decade of #GOP and ExGov- #Walker #Vos #Fitzgerald <- What did the pols do for you? #Perdue is a chicken ... bye bye #USDA