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Est. April 5, 2002
 
           
May 25, 2017 - Issue 700

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In a Probe Regarding
Tampering with an Election



"If proven guilty, you have to remove the
whole administration, and all that came
along with the tainted election. And install
the runner-up (Hillary)."


When the president does it, that means that it is not illegal - Richard Nixon. 1977

In the case of guess who came to dinner it's not the Russians I'm worried about, it's our Commander-in-Chief. You can’t find more ridiculous scenarios watching the WWE. On the President and his Russian cabinet, I am forced to remember the innocent days of Richard Milhous Nixon. All the poor guy wanted to do was spy on the DNC, and hide his cassettes. We at least had a president who knew how to act presidential in public. What we have today resembles someone going through what most teenage boys go through, political adolescence. Or political masturbation. Granted Tricky Dick was a piece of work behind closed doors, he prolonged the already unnecessary Vietnam War, he bombed countries that wanted to do right by their people and supported despots, and told us the good elected foreign leaders were communists. He was a drunk who beat his wife, he got the ball rolling on blacks and mass-incarceration as best he could, and of course his war on drugs was a precursor to Reagan's. Other than that he was a pretty nice guy. Trump fails to make himself that interesting. He's a 24/7 idiot across the board.

Have we become too desensitized by government corruption to be concerned about Trump treason and borderline behavior? We've been given a steady diet of Watergate, infidelity, 9/11 coverup, CIA torture etc., over the past several decades, that by the time Trump arrives the word Impeachment lost its sting. His blunders and incompetence resemble a reality TV show. People compare Trump to Nixon, in reality he compares best to late-Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. The mere commonality between them is their raw hatred for America or American democracy. In other words America on paper. In fact Trump is such a fan of Scalia that his candidate (Neil Gorsuch. 4/10/17) that replaced him was based on his “Scalia-ness. ”I hear people (especially blacks) saying “Trump is doing what he wants to do.” As if this makes him okay, or somehow better than Obama, or imply Obama didn’t do what he wanted to do. Decent people have no desire to do the things President Trump wants to do. Back in 2009 Obama did what Obama wanted to do, he was the last president to update the rules on classify/declassify:

This order prescribes a uniform system for classifying, safeguarding, and declassifying national security information, including information relating to defense against transnational terrorism. Our democratic principles require that the American people be informed of the activities of their Government. Also, our Nation’s progress depends on the free flow of information both within the Government and to the American people. Nevertheless, throughout our history, the national defense has required that certain information be maintained in confidence in order to protect our citizens, our democratic institutions, our homeland security, and our interactions with foreign nations. Protecting information critical to our Nation’s security and demonstrating our commitment to open Government through accurate and accountable application of classification standards and routine, secure, and effective declassification are equally important priorities. NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, by the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered as follows:

Skipping down to the important parts (no I’m not going to quote all 27 pages. You can see for yourself the whole doc on this link.)

Sec. 1.2. Classification Levels. (a) Information may be classified at one of the following three levels: (1) ‘‘Top Secret’’ shall be applied to information, the unauthorized disclosure of which reasonably could be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to the national security that the original classification authority is able to identify or describe. (2) ‘‘Secret’’ shall be applied to information, the unauthorized disclosure of which reasonably could be expected to cause serious damage to the national security that the original classification authority is able to identify or describe. (3) ‘‘Confidential’’ shall be applied to information, the unauthorized disclosure of which reasonably could be expected to cause damage to the national security that the original classification authority is able to identify or describe. (b) Except as otherwise provided by statute, no other terms shall be used to identify United States classified information. (c) If there is significant doubt about the appropriate level of classification, it shall be classified at the lower level.

Sec. 1.3. Classification Authority. (a) The authority to classify information originally may be exercised only by: (1) the President and the Vice President; (2) agency heads and officials designated by the President; and (3) United States Government officials delegated this authority pursuant to paragraph (c) of this section. (b) Officials authorized to classify information at a specified level are also authorized to classify information at a lower level.

Even though what The Donald disclosed the day he invited the Russians to the White House was not illegal, the problem of course is, it was to the Russians. And what was his relationship with them during election time? And what exactly did they do regarding the 2016 Presidential Election, before and during the voting? No other president would have done this. Never forget that Trump was the first nationwide candidate purely elected out of anger. Commentators like Fox’s Lou Dobbs is calling the recent special counsel appointment of Robert S. Mueller III by the Justice Department a “coup.” Trump of course see’s himself as the poor victim of a “witchhunt.” Right now Mueller is heading a probe into Russian tampering into the election, nothing of course has been determined yet. More than a few consider this a first step to impeachment, or at least are hoping it is.

Of course this is not an ordinary run-of-the-mill impeachment, this has to do with suspicion of direct activities relating to one of the candidates reaching out to a foreign nation to help him win an election. In this case the usual set of rules related to impeachment or the 25th Amendment shouldn’t apply, more extreme measures have to be considered.

I posted the following question on Facebook to get a general feel of what the public thinks about this: “If it can be proven that the Russians rigged the Presidential Election, then shouldn't Hillary become the new President? Making someone from the Trump Administration like Pence succeed him still means Trump's people run the country.” This garnered a few interesting comments, including Scotty Reid of Black Talk Radio who said “If we go by that scenario, shouldn't Bernie Sanders become President since the DNC is admitting in court it did not run a fair and impartial primary and cheated to give Clinton the nomination?”

The current problems relating to this administration stem from the decisions of the man who runs it. It’s been said that appointing incompetent people to serve under you can be grounds for impeachment also. Who else is an incompetent president capable of appointing to his cabinet, but like-minded people? Before Trump even took office it was known he was close to people who believed in flat-earth theories and they would eventually be granted key positions. Steve Bannon, Betsy DeVos, Jeff Sessions. It is his appointment of a man previously fired by then-President Obama which could eventually prove most costly to him. Michael Flynn came with warning signs, signs Trump clearly knew about and ignored, in fact Flynn is reported to have told Trump’s transition team that he was under federal investigation for working as a paid lobbyist for a foreign country (Turkey)... without registering as a foreign agency (American). Considering Trump’s alleged ties to Russia you would think he’d pass on Flynn, like all the other presidents would have. When it became apparent that Flynn had not only his own ties to Russia, but enough to compromise Trump’s administration (as if such a thing is possible), acting attorney general Sally Yates tried to warn him about it. Some of you may remember Yates being more famous for refusing to enforce President Trump’s insane travel ban, after which she was fired on Jan. 30.

Some feel she was fired for the Flynn warning considering the two events were so close together. What baffles me is why would Obama warn Trump not to hire Flynn, since it was the Obama Administration which renewed his security clearance... after they fired him as head of the DIA? Part of the strangeness of Obama is his reluctance to put the final nail on the coffin on some erring white officials, whether it’s the banks, military, or police. Even Flynn’s Turkish dealings are suspected to be Russian. The over half-million dollars or so he earned as a lobbyist seems to come from a Russian man operating several front companies with Turkish names; Dmitri “David” Zaikin. Zaikin is said to be close to Putin.

We really have yet to know whether or not Flynn goes all the way back to the beginning of Trump’s ties to Russia, and to be honest with you, President Trump’s hardline supporters really don’t care. They are busy making up better lies to these discrepancies than Flynn does, which means there desperately needs to be a DOJ investigation into any Russian tampering of Campaign 2016, as well as an independent investigation. And if evidence is found the House must make an across-the-board impeachment of the whole Trump Administration, and senate votes must seal the deal.


BlackCommentator.com Columnist, Chris Stevenson, is author of “The MAO Syndrome: A Timeline of Newspaper columns Tracking Hate, Fear, Loathing, Obstinacy, and Stubbornness of many on the right & some on the left who are simply Mad At Obama.” He is also a contributor to the Hampton Institute, his own blog www.thebuffalobullet.com, and a syndicated columnist. Follow him on Twitter, and Facebook. Watch his video commentary Policy & Prejudice for clbTV & Follow his Blogtalk radio interviews on 36OOseconds. Contact Mr. Stevenson and BC.
 
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