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Ex-GOP Congressman: Ryan Would look into impeachment if a Democratic President acted like Trump


My Comment: In America free speech is protected so our Elected Officials are free to say almost anything since the advent of Donald Trump’s Presidency. “Telling it like it is” has been the rallying cry for this Presidency along with the rise of seemingly Administration sanctioned Racism and bias. The  majority  party is using the out of touch Presidency to work it’s own agenda for its own gain , not it’s constituency. The article below states what many Americans and possibly politicians feel about this and administration’s actions and lack of action by the majority party. MA

Julia Munslow
Yahoo News June 9,2017

Former South Carolina Rep. Bob Inglis fired off a series of tweets Friday challenging a claim by House Speaker Paul Ryan that Republicans wouldn’t try to impeach a Democratic president accused of the same actions as President Trump.
Inglis, who served on the House judiciary committee that impeached former President Bill Clinton, wrote to Ryan: “You know that you would be inquiring into impeachment if this were a D.”

Inglis told Yahoo News on Friday that he hoped that Ryan and his party would put country over party and take the investigation seriously.
“We just need to be honest and … call it like it is,” Inglis said, describing the allegations against Trump far more serious than those against Nixon or Clinton. “It’s beyond a break-in at the Watergate. It’s beyond sex with a White House intern. It is the substance matter is really serious. … This investigation deals with the interference of an American election by a hostile foreign power.”
Inglis’ tweets followed former FBI chief James Comey’s testimony Thursday that included a number of explosive allegations, including that Trump fired him because of his agency’s probe into whether any Trump campaign associates colluded with Russia to influence the 2016 election.
During a press conference, Ryan said after the testimony that Republicans wouldn’t point to impeachment if Comey had been testifying about a Democratic president. Meanwhile, some Democrats have already called for Trump’s impeachment, claiming that Trump obstructed justice.
Ryan, who called Trump’s alleged request for Comey’s loyalty “obviously” inappropriate Wednesday, had told reporters Thursday, “No. I don’t think we would [pursue impeachment], actually. I don’t think that’s at all the case.”
Trump’s lawyer denied that Trump sought to influence any FBI probe and claimed that the president never demanded Comey’s loyalty.
But Clinton was sent to trial in the Senate in 1998 for “matters less serious than the ones before us now,” Inglis tweeted.
Inglis, who had voted in favor of all four articles of impeachment against Clinton, which included allegations of perjury, obstruction of justice and abuse of power, nevertheless said on Twitter that Ryan should focus on the Russia probe rather than “draft articles of impeachment.”
It’s not yet clear whether Trump obstructed justice and should be impeached, Inglis said.
“[The investigation] should sound like very serious lawmakers who are looking into very serious allegations at the heart of our republic. That’s not what I’m hearing yet [from my party],” Inglis told Yahoo News. Inglis now runs RepublicEN.org, a group that pushes conservative policy solutions to climate change.
Inglis concluded his tweets with a final message to Ryan and the rest of his party: “Put the country first.”

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The American Dream (Nightmare?)


Apparently we Americans are so used to “BS” in the news and from our elected officials that we cannot see the truth even when it affects our day-to-day lives. We elected a scammer based on BS much like we elected members of Congress on the same basis. Now we have another “Watergate” situation brewing. While all of this is happening our Congress is busily working to impose more burdens on the least of us by altering or eliminating current Health care (ACA) and financial protections (Dodd-Frank). I cannot personally speak for everyone but I can offer my opinion based on what I have read, remember and read daily. Our political system was designed to offer a method of  having all citizens represented along with their views. What we have come to is 535 seta fillers whose views are not always ours and who make every attempt to insure us that they are looking out for us. According to history, if you tell a lie long enough and often enough it becomes the “truth”, then we had a world war with the murder of millions of  people based on ethnicity and birth. Now we have a similar scenario in several countries producing millions of murdered and displaced individuals based on the same standards. The difference is now we have instant communication where the truth is often misread or obscured by true sounding lies. Our current local and national administrations at not good for us much like overeating or smoking.

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Trump Effect?


The recent split in the Arab nations seems to be a result of the President Trumps visit. It is remotely possible that that visit was a factor however my opinion is that this split was well under way and Trumps visit is being used as a “hat”

 

Libya and Yemen join four Arab nations in severing ties with Qatar as Gulf crisis deepens

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Yemen and Egypt accused Qatar of supporting terrorism, opening up the worst rift in years among some of the most powerful states in the Arab world.

world Updated: Jun 05, 2017 17:09 IST

Agencies, Dubai

Iran — long at odds with Saudi Arabia and a behind-the-scenes target of the move — immediately blamed US President Donald Trump for setting the stage during his recent trip to Riyadh.

Gulf Arab states and Egypt have already long resented Qatar’s support for Islamists, especially the Muslim Brotherhood which they regard as a dangerous political enemy.

The coordinated move, with Yemen and Libya’s eastern-based government joining in later, created a dramatic rift among the Arab nations, many of which are in OPEC

Announcing the closure of transport ties with Qatar, the three Gulf states gave Qatari visitors and residents two weeks to leave. Qatar was also expelled from the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen.

Oil giant Saudi Arabia accused Qatar of backing militant groups — some backed by regional arch-rival Iran — and broadcasting their ideology, an apparent reference to Qatar’s influential state-owned satellite channel Al Jazeera.

“(Qatar) embraces multiple terrorist and sectarian groups aimed at disturbing stability in the region, including the Muslim Brotherhood, ISIS (Islamic State) and al-Qaeda, and promotes the message and schemes of these groups through their media constantly,” Saudi state news agency SPA said.

It accused Qatar of supporting what it described as Iranian-backed militants in its restive and largely Shia Muslim-populated Eastern region of Qatif and in Bahrain.

Qatar said it was facing a campaign aimed at weakening it, denying it was interfering in the affairs of other countries.

“The campaign of incitement is based on lies that had reached the level of complete fabrications,” the Qatari foreign ministry said in a statement.

Iran points at US

Iran saw America pulling the strings.

“What is happening is the preliminary result of the sword dance,” Hamid Aboutalebi, deputy chief of staff of Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani, tweeted in a reference to Trump’s recent visit to Saudi Arabia.

Trump and other US officials participated in a traditional sword dance during the trip in which he called on Muslim countries to stand united against Islamist extremists and singled out Iran as a key source of funding and support for militant groups.

US secretary of state Rex Tillerson told reporters in Sydney on Monday that the spat would not effect the fight against Islamist militants and that Washington has encouraged its Gulf allies to resolve their differences.

A split between Doha and its closest allies can have repercussions around the Middle East, where Gulf states have used their financial and political power to influence events in Libya, Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Yemen.

Kremlin and Turkey urge dialogue

The Kremlin commented on the decision by a number of Arab nations to sever diplomatic relations with Qatar and said on Monday it is in Moscow’s interest to have a “stable and peaceful” situation in the Gulf.

Moscow also hopes that the current diplomatic row in the Gulf will not affect “the common determination and resolve” in the joint fight against “international terrorism”, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told a conference call with reporters.

Turkey’s foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said he was saddened by a rift between Qatar and other Arab states, and called for dialogue to resolve the dispute.

“We see the stability in the Gulf region as our own unity and solidarity,” Cavusoglu told a news conference.

“Countries may of course have some issues, but dialogue must continue under every circumstance for problems to be resolved peacefully. We are saddened by the current picture and will give any support for its normalisation,” Cavusoglu said.

India not affected

India will not be impacted by some Gulf countries cutting off diplomatic ties with Qatar, external affairs minister Sushma Sara said on Monday.

“There is no challenge arising out of this for us. This is an internal matter of GCC (Gulf Coordination Council). Our only concern is about Indians there. We are trying to find out if any Indians are stuck there,” she told reporters.

Read | The Qatar-Gulf Arab nations conflict is not good news for India

Fall-out

The economic fallout loomed immediately, as Abu Dhabi’s state-owned Ethihad Airways, Dubai’s Emirates Airline and budget carrier Flydubai said they would suspend all flights to and from Doha from Tuesday morning until further notice.

Qatar Airways said on its official website it had suspended all flights to Saudi Arabia.

Qatar’s stock market index sank 7.5% with some of the market’s top blue chips hardest hit.

The measures are more severe than during a previous eight-month rift in 2014, when Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the UAE withdrew their ambassadors from Doha, again alleging Qatari support for militant groups. At that time, travel links were maintained and Qataris were not expelled.

The diplomatic broadside threatens the international prestige of Qatar, which hosts a large US military base and is set to host the 2022 World Cup. It has for years presented itself as a mediator and power broker for the region’s many disputes.

A Qatar Airways aircraft is seen at a runway of the Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport in Athens. (Reuters File Photo)

Kristian Ulrichsen, a Gulf expert at the US-based Baker Institute, said if Qatar’s land borders and air space were closed for any length of time “it would wreak havoc on the timeline and delivery” of the World Cup.

“It seems that the Saudis and Emiratis feel emboldened by the alignment of their regional interests — toward Iran and Islamism — with the Trump administration,” Ulrichsen said. “(They) have decided to deal with Qatar’s alternative approach on the assumption that they will have the (Trump) administration’s backing.”

Qatar used its media and political clout to support long-repressed Islamists during the 2011 pro-democracy “Arab Spring” uprisings in several Arab countries.

Muslim Brotherhood groups allied to Doha are now mostly on the backfoot in the region, especially after a 2013 military takeover in Egypt ousted the elected Islamist president.

The former army chief and now president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, along with the new government’s allies in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, blacklist the Brotherhood as a terrorist organisation.

Egypt, the Arab world’s most populous nation, said on its state news agency that Qatar’s policy “threatens Arab national security and sows the seeds of strife and division within Arab societies according to a deliberate plan aimed at the unity and interests of the Arab nation.”

Oil prices rose after the moves against Qatar, which is the biggest supplier of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and a major seller of condensate — a low-density liquid fuel and refining product derived from natural gas.

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Internment?


A recent Fox news show had contributor Nigel Farage calling for internment camps for Muslims was met with pushback from fellow host Clayton Morris. Internment camps have been touted as a solution against “other” groups for centuries , these “camps”  were used in many countries disguised as “communities”  but in reality were ghettos that contained certain races and religious groups. These ghettos were created by force or through quasi legal means. The Nazi internment camps were in essence “ghettos”  of death. The Native American “reservations” were and still are ghettos. African Americans were redlined into ghettos in many major cities. Some ethnic groups are still  ghettoized in some areas. To be clear: this is the defined meaning of Ghetto as it applies in  this  case:

Ghetto: “Any section of  a city in which many members of a minority group live, or to which  they are restricted as by social discrimination”. 

Reservation: Public land set aside for a special use, as for American Indians.

Internment: Internment is the imprisonment or confinement[1] of people, commonly in large groups, without trial. The term is especially used for the confinement “of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects”.[2] Thus, while it can simply mean imprisonment, it tends to refer to preventive confinement, rather than confinement after having been convicted of some crime. Use of these terms is subject to debate and political sensitivities.

The amassing  of certain groups to deflect, defer or defuse the power of people by confining them in particular areas is Racism and in many cases denial of religious freedom. This activity has not changed a lot in hundreds of years yet we as human beings still allow it by action or lack of action. There will always be Racists, religious bigots and anti anyone who is different type people but we do not have to elect them to office because of a few “buzz words and sound bites” or because we are upset with the Government. These outspoken “leaders?” usually have real solutions for any of us and will stunt the growth of us all  financially and personally. We will always have people who have different opinions even to extremes but we do not have to elect them to office or allow them to hijack our democracy. The real tragedy is that we all are looking for the same things but have not found a way to accept the non-essential differences between us and embrace the sameness to work towards a common goal.

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Haley: Trump believes ‘climate is changing’


JILL COLVIN and JACK GILLUM,
Associated Press 16 hours ago

President Trump’s climate agreement announcement
WASHINGTON (AP) — Does he or doesn’t he? Believe in climate change, that is.
You’d think that would be an easy enough question the day after President Donald Trump announced he was pulling the U.S. out of the landmark global accord aimed at combatting global warming.
But don’t bother asking at the White House.
“I have not had an opportunity to have that discussion” with the president, responded press secretary Sean Spicer on Friday.
“You should ask him that,” offered White House counselor Kellyanne Conway.
Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt dodged the question, too.
The president also ignored it during an unrelated bill-signing.
But his U.N. ambassador, Nikki Haley, answered the question in a new way this weekend.
“President Trump believes the climate is changing,” she said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” ”And he believes pollutants are part of that equation. So that is the fact.”
If so, it’s quite a reversal for Trump, who spent years publicly bashing the idea of global warming as a “hoax” and “total con job” in books, interviews and tweets. He openly challenged the scientific consensus that the climate is changing and man-made carbon emissions are largely to blame.
“Global warming is an expensive hoax!” he tweeted in 2014.
But Trump has been largely silent on the issue since his election last fall. On Thursday, he made scarce mention of it in his lengthy remarks announcing America’s exit from the Paris accord. Instead, he framed his decision as based on economics.
Here’s what he’s said before:
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TRUMP’S TWEETS:
The president’s twitter feed once was filled with references to “so-called” global warming being a “total con job” based on “faulty science and manipulated data.”
An Associated Press search of his twitter archives revealed at least 90 instances in which he has referred to “global warming” and “climate change” since 2011. In nearly every instance, he expressed skepticism or mockery.
“This very expensive GLOBAL WARMING bulls— has got to stop,” he wrote in January 2014, spelling out the vulgarity.
Often the president has pointed to cold weather as evidence the climate scientists are wrong.
“It’s 46 (really cold) and snowing in New York on Memorial Day — tell the so-called “scientists” that we want global warming right now!” he wrote in May 2013 — one of several instances in which he said that warming would be welcome.
“Where the hell is global warming when you need it?” he asked in January 2015.
The same message was echoed in the president’s books.
In “Great Again: How to Fix Our Crippled America,” Trump made a reference to “the mistaken belief that global climate change is being caused by carbon emissions.”
“If you don’t buy that — and I don’t — then what we have is really just an expensive way of making the tree-huggers feel good about themselves,” he wrote.
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CANDIDATE AND SKEPTIC:
“I’m not a believer in man-made global warming,” Trump told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt in September 2015, after launching his bid for the White House. He bemoaned the fact that the U.S. was investing money and doing things “to solve a problem that I don’t think in any major fashion exists.”
“I am not a believer,” he added, “Unless somebody can prove something to me … I am not a believer and we have much bigger problems.”
By March 2016, the president appeared to allow that the climate was changing — but continued to doubt humans were to blame.
“I think there’s a change in weather. I am not a great believer in man-made climate change. I’m not a great believer,” he told The Washington Post. “There is certainly a change in weather,” he said.
Then-campaign manager, Conway explained Trump’s view this way: “He believes that global warming is naturally occurring. That there are shifts naturally occurring.”
___
EVOLVING PRESIDENT:
In an interview with The New York Times in November, after the election, Trump was asked repeatedly whether he intended to leave the Paris accord and appeared to have a new open-mindedness.
“I’m looking at it very closely,” Trump told the newspaper. “I have an open mind to it. We’re going to look very carefully.”
He went on to say that he thought “there is some connectivity” between human activity and the changing climate, but that, “It depends on how much.”
Asked about the comment several days later, Trump’s now-chief of staff Reince Priebus told Fox News that Trump “has his default position, which is that most of it is a bunch of bunk.”
“But he’ll have an open mind and listen to people,” he said.
Stay tuned.

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Own it or change it.


We have all heard people say what they are not, in reality they usually are. If you have to say you are not Racist, sexist or any other disparagement, then you are. Your beliefs right or wrong are your beliefs, own them or change them. It is unfortunate that many of our high profile people in government and private industry have mastered ( or attempted to) the art of “double speak”. Double speak is the way a person will say one thing to your face and something else in private. This type of person is why we have Donald Trump as President. No matter if you voted for Mr. Trump or not, it is important for  each person to be as honest with themselves before they (we) can be honest with anyone else.  This lack of moral compass has brought us our Current Congress which is steeped in rhetoric that sounds like the truth but is fueled by lies that serve the liars not the people who elected them. Right now we have an incompetent National leader who is on a path of creating a split country that surpasses the pre and post civil war divide which still has not completely healed. To add to the already  downward spiral , there is the withdrawal from the International climate accord which will allow China to assume a leadership position. This coupled with the recent European visit which netted nothing more than a sale of arms to a known sponsor of terror and pushed  other European leaders away. The Neer do well Congress has taken a “let it ride” attitude that needs to be addressed in the voting booth. The combination of  Administrative Naiveté and incompetence will cause many years of problems for us at home and abroad. The actions of this administration seem to be reversing anything done in the Obama years no matter what effect it has on ALL of us. The trump supporters are lauding his actions but do not realize these actions will have no effect on job loss, will not bring back lost coal jobs and will not move us ahead as a Nation. The lies issued during the campaign have no basis in fact and will ultimately create larger problems for us all.

Disadministration


Today the news is new but tomorrow it will be old but revised to reflect the events that have occurred today and tonight. The worst thing about news is that it evolves so quick, that is also the best thing about it. With that statement I have been following the “antics” of the Trump administration. His picks for his cabinet all appear to be anti anything Obama. Every action they take is against whatever Mr. Obama has done. This is a simple way to “fix” things but a detriment to progress. All actions made by Executive orders do not go into effect immediately so what is the point of doing it haphazardly with no investigation of the long range effect on all of us. An example of this type of action is the push for repeal of “Obamacare”. The proposed replacement has been shown to be lacking and worse than the “Affordable Care Act” with all of its issues. Now some of the legislators are looking into fixing the ACA as they should have done at its inception! The newly minted Attorney General whose track record as a Senator was less than stellar on Human rights has risen to a new low in issuing orders on sentencing regardless of severity of crimes(talk about human right violations). The education secretary is so steeped in “Rich Bitch” as to have no idea of what education is or what is required. These two appointees coupled with Dr. Ben Carson serve show that our TOTUS seems to be in a wonderland of his own and is in the process of building walls between the USA and our closet Allies. The recent European trip was more like a tourist than a world leader  in that he appeared to have no clue about protocol and procedure. All of this with the swirl of Russian interference still in the air, where will we be by the end of the year? Is disarray the order of the day for this administration?

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Failure To Thrive


100 plus days into his term the President is looking more like someone who is looking to be impeached or someone who is clueless about governing. Our neer do well Congress appears to be unable to do anything about it unless they just want a cover for their personal agendas. The anti Trump messages from radicals like Ann Coulter is a sure clue that we are heading for a potential disaster at home and abroad. The President has the idea it seems that he is the smartest person in the room however when you  ignore the counsel of seasoned diplomats, you are not the smartest and are bound to board the mistake train which does not have many stops. It is a sure sign of distress when the neediest of us all vote for whoever can promise the most and crow the loudest while ignoring the underlying character flaws that could surely bring the government to a stop at home and abroad. Our allies are in a state of awe after the recent Presidential visit as they have not figured out what his agenda is (perhaps Trump hasn’t either). If we look at the current administration as a medical condition we would consider it as being  in Hospice care, just being made comfortable with no medical treatment. Many times this results in a cause of death as “failure to thrive”, along with any other medical causes leading up to the demise. The “aftershock” will be years of unraveling the mess locally and abroad while the country’s progress slows to a snails pace. The opportunity we have now is to pay close attention to our current elected officials especially the long serving ones as they have ridden to victory on promises (not kept) and innuendo.

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Why Now!


Recently and in the recent past fired TV personalities have stated that their demise was due to pressure from the Liberal left rather than their own improper actions and statements. If these once closely followed opinion providers  were really honest about their situations then they would realize that those situations were of their own making during the years they were making their way to the top. Their poor judgement is part of their character and not something that just arose when they became celebrities. There are many of us who have what could be called quirks in their character however more of us realize the difference  between what is correct and what is not. These celebrated people have no special dispensation to do their wrongs just because of that celebrity. To protest their plight and blame that plight on someone else is what children do, not supposedly grown up responsible adults. This brings up the question of how much of their on air offerings can we believe? I would offer another question of Why now? Why didn’t these folks attempt to change their ways before, considering their status and the idea that their followers have a high regard for their opinion and would believe what they say on air? There was a time when the people you viewed on TV were people of character and their personal opinions did not enter into what ever information they were giving us. It appears now that the opinion rather than the facts are more important which amounts to misinformation and often outright lies. Why now look at someone else for your failures when you alone could have done better?

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How To Push Back


The current and administration is depending on the public to be upset but to take no action. The appointed cabinet members and their boss have nothing good in mind for us. Trump appointed people who he thinks will do a good job based on what he is told and not always on what he knows. Where we stand as a country is hotly debated due to the many and varied opinions of reliable or unreliable sources. So many of us rely on sources that grab our attention with headlines that are not always backed up by facts. This shading of the facts is what has led us to the current administration and the “tweet storm”. We currently have a group of cabinet members whose legacy will undo years of progress and lower the health and education standards we have achieved over the years. What can we do about it? The first thing as voters that we can do is to examine the track record of the people we have voted for regularly and see how they have represented us. Keep in mind that what they say is not always what they actually do. To roll back what has been done previously sounds and looks good in print but in reality can be devastating. If your circumstances are not as good as someone else’s, do not blame that person look at what caused the difference and you will usually find that it’s the existing laws and the people who passed them (the people we voted for on a regular basis). The pushback is simple: Listen to what the candidates say then research their records. Listen and view several news sources. You will find that there are differences and somewhere among those differences lies the truth and that is what you are seeking. Finally politics is no more than theater, entertaining but not serious enough  base an opinion on.

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