U.S. Supplies Weapons for Israeli Killing in Gaza

The following compilation of articles about the Israeli war against Palestinians is painful to read. I know, because it was extremely painful to write.

Israel has expanded its ground offensive in central and south Gaza, and  hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have fled into Deir al-Balah, formerly a town of 75,000.  The areas which Israel identified as “safe” is also being hit by their bomb strikes, crushing homes full of people. Refugee camps are one of the targets from land, sea, and air in central Gaza which Israel calls “a new battle zone.” Yesterday Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he is “deepening operations in southern Gaza” with the air force hitting 100 targets in 24 hours. Many Israelis hold him responsible for the attacks and the failure of national security. 

Israel claims that Gazans have a “humanitarian zone,” but it is 3.3 square miles for 2 million Gazans with few buildings, on largely sandy dunes and agricultural land. Water may come in for one day every two weeks, and electricity is equally lacking.  Israeli tanks are less than a half mile away, and strikes causing damage occur just 550 yards (under five football fields) away.

The United States has stored billions of dollars of weapons in Israeli warehouses, and the stockpile is generating scrutiny. The storage system began in the 1980s to quickly supply U.S. forces for any Middle East conflicts, but Israel has been allowed to draw from the extensive reserves. With no public and congressional oversight, Israel’s drawing significant quantities to attack Gaza receives little transparency. The large release allows Israel to indiscriminately drop tens of thousands of bombs, 40 percent to 45 percent of them lower-accuracy unguided munitions, that kill Palestinians and destroy buildings, over two-thirds in northern Gaza and a quarter of structures in the southern area. U.S. weapons include 2,000-pound (900-kilogram) “bunker-busters” that have killed hundreds in densely populated areas. Former Pentagon  Marc Garlasco, a former Pentagon defense official and a war crimes investigator for the UN, Marc Garlasco, said about the bunker-buster:

“It turns earth to liquid. It pancakes entire buildings.”

According to Garlasco, the explosion of a 2,000-pound bomb in the open means “instant death” for anyone within about 100 feet, and lethal fragmentation can extend for up to 1,200 feet. Investigations question Israeli claims that they are trying to minimize civilian casualties; Israel doesn’t deny its use of unguided munitions. The U.S. is also providing Israel with 155mm shells, each one releasing 2,000 lethal fragments with accuracy degrading over distance.  

In addition, the U.S. provided Israel with white phosphorus munitions, considered a war crime. It burns at high temperatures, produces billowing smoke while falling haphazardly over a wide area, and sticks to skin causing potentially fatal burns and respiratory damage. The shells were made in Louisiana and Arkansas in 1989 and 1992.

To restrict transparency, Israel is denying visas for UN employees because of the UN criticism of the Israel’s war on Gaza. An Israeli spokesperson accused the UN of being “complicit partners” with Hamas. Israel has killed at least 134 UN workers in Gaza and accused members of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East of being members of or having ties to Hamas. Israeli Holocaust scholar Raz Segal accused his country’s government and military of acting with “genocidal intent” through their “unprecedented level of mass killings” in Gaza. Over 1.9 million of Gaza’s 2.3 million people are forcibly displaced and face growing hunger, winter cold, and disease.

Netanyahu wants a “voluntary migration” of Palestinians out of the Gaza Strip. Shani Danon, an Israeli parliament member, recommended facilitating their departure. Last month, Danon wrote an op-ed for Wall Street Journal with another parliament member Ram Ben Barak pushing Europe and the U.S. to help resettle Gazans; another one on Monday argues to Gazans’ relocation to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. In 1948, over 700,000 Palestinians were forced from their homes when Israel took over. Netanyahu said he’s proud to block a Palestinian state in opposition to the U.S. solution of a “two-state solution.” Instead, the Prime minister wants complete control over the Palestinians by weakening the Palestinian Authority.

Bragging about preventing a Palestinian state, Netanyahu claimed he blocked the Oslo peace process beginning in 1993, objecting to the “little Palestinian state in Gaza” created in 2005. Several Israeli officials agreed with him that the end of the war would not result in a two-state solution. An Israeli real estate developer is already advertising beachfront property for Jewish colonists in Gaza with an image of luxury homes over bombed-out ruins.

With over 20,000 killed and almost 55,000 wounded in Gaza during the past 80 days, Israeli’s military campaign is among the deadliest and most destructive in recent history, even worse, proportionally, than the Allied bombing of Germany in World War II.

U.S. companies are profiting from Israel’s “genocidal” war, and their stocks are skyrocketing. President Joe Biden has requested $14.3 billion for the war in addition to the $3.8 billion in Israel’s annual military aid. Billionaire donors are also arming and enabling Netanyahu’s war. Boeing provides fighter jets and attack helicopters for Israel, and Caterpillar makes bulldozers to “demolish Palestinian homes and civilian infrastructure in the occupied West Bank and to enforce the blockade of the Gaza Strip,” according to the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC). These bulldozers “have been crucial in the Israeli military’s ground invasion” of the enclave. Other weapons giants include General Dynamics, General Electric, L3Harris Technologies, Leonardo, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and RTX—formerly Raytheon—as well as vehicle companies AM General, Ford, Oshkosh, Toyota, and drone manufacturers AeroVironment, Skydio, and XTEND. U.S.-based Colt’s Manufacturing Company makes firearms including the M16, and Emtan Karmiel, an Israeli firm that “delivered some 12,000 rifles” to the country’s forces within a week of October 7.

Driving out the Palestinians will not necessarily make Israelis safer; studies indicate that people become terrorists because their land is taken away. Every year since 1980, Jewish people moving into Palestinian territories have increased worries about their confiscating more land. After the 1967 settlement following the Arab-Israeli war, only a few thousand Jews lived in the West Bank and Gaza; Israeli-Palestinian relations were primarily harmonious. The right-wing Israeli government promised Jewish takeover in Palestinian territory, and “settlers” numbered 116,000 by 1993. In 2022, about 500,000 Jewish Israelis lived in Palestinian territories, coinciding with the disharmony between the two groups.

The U.S. news is filled with tales of the Israeli hostages but nothing about the Palestinian prisoners in Israel, many of them taken with no charges. Israeli call them all “terrorists,” some of them detained for carrying knives or flying the Palestinian flag. When a few of them were released in exchange for the Israeli hostages, the police ordered no celebration in East Jerusalem:

“My instructions are clear: there are to be no expressions of joy,” he said. “Expressions of joy are equivalent to backing terrorism, victory celebrations give backing to those human scum, for those Nazis.”

In the West Bank, Israeli authorities detained more Palestinians than the number of those released after the post-October 7 crackdown almost doubled the Palestinians in Israeli custody. The Israeli security forces swept up over 3,000 Palestinians, primarily in the West Bank, and put them in administration detention with no charge or trial that can be indefinitely renewed. Israeli human rights group B’Tselem stated:

“The power to incarcerate people who have not been convicted or even charged with anything for lengthy periods of time, based on secret ‘evidence’ that they cannot challenge, is an extreme power. Israel uses it continuously and extensively, routinely holding hundreds of Palestinians at any given moment.”

A human rights group is demanding an independent investigation into alleged “torture and murder of Palestinian civilians,” many of them uncharged, at the Israeli Sde Teman camp. According to a Euro-Med Monitor, they were “blindfolded and bound, with both their hands and feet handcuffed, and if they tried to ask for anything, were met with abuse and threats.” Israelis keep detainees in “open-air chicken coops” and withhold food and drink for long periods of time. During harsh interrogations, “lights are turned on and intensely shone upon them at night, with the intention of exhausting and torturing them.” They may not use phones to contact their families, meet with lawyers, or receive medical care from the Red Cross. Elderly prisoners are forced to endure “cruel beatings and humiliating treatment.” Several of the hundreds of Palestinians detained since October had died in Israeli custody, and an undetermined number of detained Palestinians in Israel have disappeared.

Hostages held by Hamas may have suffered from hunger and bad housing, but conditions were likely comparable to living conditions for Gazans because of Israeli bombings and denial of resources.

According to Anne Applebaum, Netanyahu’s leadership in an undemocratic Israel led to successful Hamas attacks. Mass protests resulted in the country’s polarization and government’s distrust of people responsible for national security. The conservative party ignored reports of Israeli settlers attacking West Bank Palestinians while attacking judges, courts, independent media, civil service, universities, and protesting army activists and military leaders. Conservatives destroyed national unity by calling protesters “traitors.” The U.S. echoes Israel with far-right politicians and propagandists exhibiting the same suspicion of the U.S. military, the FBI, and the entire government. Disinformation campaigns rejecting democracy replicate those from Russia that helped elect former Dictator Donald Trump (DDT) in 2016. Applebaum writes:

“The next step in the U.S. is increased terrorism, both domestic and foreign.”   

Another Sunday with DDT

Deposed Donald Trump’s (DDT) continues his mental confusion. At a campaign rally in Texas, he repeated his bragging about having “ended” the 750-mile undersea Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline carrying natural gas to Germany although President Joe Biden “approved it.” DDT saw most of the project built while he was in the White House.   

DDT began his rally with his support for the January 6 insurrectionists, calling them J6 hostages and promising to pardon all of them. Steve Bannon had called DDT’s earlier rally in Waco (TX) as DDT’s “Come Retribution” speech, referring to the Confederate Secret Service’s code words for their plot to take Abraham Lincoln hostage and then assassinate him. DDT said:

“[Success] is within our reach, but only if we have the courage to complete the job, gut the deep state, reclaim our democracy, and banish the tyrants and Marxists into political exile forever. This is the turning point.”

DDT and his allies continue to compare his indictments to those of Al Capone, another criminal in the 1930s. Ben Carson said that the notorious killer had only one indictment, but DDT has four, meaning people “feel that he is an existential threat to their existence.” They also continue to blame the indictments on both the DOJ and Biden: the DOJ is responsible for only two of them and Biden, none. DDT’s allies sometimes make as little sense as DDT does.

Indictments are supposed to help DDT, but his luxury branded hotels and golf courses are flailing since he left the White House. Bookings are down, and his Doral (FL) golf resort is offering large discounts with revenue dropping from $75 million in 2017 to $45 million in 2020.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has returned to a vigorous defense of DDT with his claim that the world would be safer and more peaceful if he were still president, and DDT told a rally that the U.S. had no terrorist incidents during his four years in the White House. According to a database, far-right extremists’ domestic attacks became far more lethal during DDT’s four-year term. An internet search shows the large number of terrorism attacks after DDT’s election.

By the time DDT left the White House, he had alienated almost all NATO countries by trying to extort more money from them and told them he would not protect them if Russia attacked their countries. DDT’s first impeachment came from blackmailing Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky into finding dirt on his rival Joe Biden in exchange for congressionally-approved military aid. He repeatedly praised Russian president Vladimir Putin while siding with him and called Hezbollah “very smart.” Like Graham, DDT wants to bomb Mexico for its drug production.

Another DDT complaint about the indictments is that his opposition politically timed them for his 2024 campaign, instead of three years ago. That was when DDT was in the White House and couldn’t be indicted. Any time since them, his lawyers have complained about a “rushed” process. In addition, he’s also being indicted on behavior that has emerged since he left the White House through investigations which DDT kept obstructing.

The Florida indictment is based on DDT’s refusal to return classified documents, and the government gave him time to do that after the National Archives discovery about missing documents in early 2022.

The New York civil case about business fraud was delayed from differing views about the prosecution as Alvin Bragg, Manhattan DA, didn’t take office until January 2022. DDT was indicted in March. Earlier, his legal team fought the subpoena for his tax returns until the Supreme Court ordered him to do it in February 2021.

The charges in Washington, D.C. about his attempts to overturn the 2020 election came from the House’s January 6 hearings that didn’t result in a criminal referral until December 2022. The FBI resisted investigating DDT for over a year.

DA Fani Willis’ extensive Fulton County (GA) investigation took a long time because of its thoroughness.

For the types of alleged crimes against DDT, lengthy processes are standard, an average of 452 days between criminal referrals and prosecution filings for white-collar cases, not including the investigative steps done secretly. The time between National Archives referring the case to the DOJ and his classified-documents indictment was 484 days. The time for overturning the election was 225 days, and the civil business fraud case in New York took 491 days. The difference between investigations and indictments of DDT comes from the exceeding caution that everyone has taken because he spent years ridiculing the “witch hunts” to rally supporters for his impression of persecuted victimization. Indictments of presidents isn’t a problem to DDT—unless it’s against him: he has consistently promoted indictments for opponents Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden. Only “never” would have suited DDT for his indictments.   

Cases:

New York – Civil Suit Assessing Damages for the Business Fraud for Which He Has Been Judged Guilty

For those who haven’t been keeping up with this case, a good overview. DDT had several more tantrums in the past week, using as excuses the requirement for his three oldest offspring to testify as his excuse and Judge Arthur Engoron’s extension of the gag order to DDT’s lawyers. Engoron stated that lawyers “are prohibited from making any public statements, in or out of court, that refer to any confidential communications, in any form, between my staff and me.” The reason is their “falsely accusing [his law clerk] of bias against them and of improperly influencing the ongoing bench trial.” Lawyers didn’t want Engoron to talk with his law clerk during the trial. Before issuing the gag order, Engoron exploded, pounding on the bench.

DDT’s estranged niece Mary Trump said that Eric Trump’s testimony last week lost the whole case for the family. She noted:

“After testifying he ‘never heard’ about the Trump org statement of financial condition until recently, he later admitted that he knew about it in 2013.

Donald Trump Jr.’s contribution to the trial was asking the courtroom sketch artist to make him look “sexy.”

DDT may have proved he knew he didn’t win the 2020 election. One of the documents show that he “restored himself” as trustee of the Trump Organization on January 15, 2021, five days before Biden’s inauguration. DDT may also be facing another case in New York: AG Letitia James is considering a racketeering lawsuit. State offices under former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration may have blocked her until now.

New York – Defamation Lawsuit for E. Jean Carroll for an Additional $10 Million

To protect the members, the jury in the trial about DDT’s infamatory comments about E. Jean Carroll and his raping her will be anonymous. U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan used DDT’s treatment in Engoron’s court as his reason. Trial overview here.

Washington, D.C. – DDT’s Attempt to Overturn the 2020 Election

DDT can return to calling for violence after the 2^nd Circuit Court temporarily lifted Judge Tanya Chutkan’s gag order in opposition to DOJ’s request to leave it in place. Chutkan also issued directions and deadlines to both sides for vetting the jurors. She had asked DDT if he wanted his trial televised, but special counsel Jack Smith has filed a request against broadcasting it.

Georgia – Fulton County Racketeering Case with 15 Remaining Defendants  

DDT can’t pardon himself for this state charge that has a mandatory sentence of five years in prison, and the state law is very strict about pardons. This “order of official forgiveness” is granted only to those who complete their sentence and only five years after the completion of the sentence. Pardon power rests with the State Board of Pardons and Paroles.

Florida – Refusal to Return Classified Documents and Obstructing the Process

Smith also blasted DDT’s lawyers for not notifying him about a late-night motion on Wednesday to dismiss the trial based on his presidential immunity. The trial is set for May 20, 2024, but earlier DDT asked for it to be postponed until after the 2024 election in November. DDT-appointed Judge Aileen Cannon said she might push back the date for the trial.

Colorado – Removal of DDT’s Name from State Ballot

Last week, Colorado voters called eight witnesses to testify about why the 14^th Amendment should keep DDT’s name off the 2024 presidential ballot because of his insurrectionist activities. DDT’s lawyers called seven witnesses after they failed to get the case dismissed. Arguments are here. Ending last Friday, the trial is under an expedited process before a January deadline with the judge’s ruling, but the Supreme Court will likely make the final ruling. One of DDT’s witnesses teaches a first-year law course.

On Monday, DDT filed a lawsuit in Michigan after a judge refused to let him intervene in a similar case; on Wednesday, a federal judge dismissed a New Hampshire challenge; and on Thursday, the Minnesota Supreme Court heard arguments about removing DDT’s name from the ballot.     

In the cases with possible sentences, DDT’s lawyer Alina Habba has a new reason that her client won’t go to prison: “He’s protected by the Secret Service. Period.” She added that DDT has done nothing wrong because the “First Amendment is a thing.” Whatever that means.

The Disaster of Bush’s Wars, 22 Years Later

Foreigners attacked the United States over two decades today, and Republicans have spent those 22 years attacking the national from within. With a thriving economy from President Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, appointed as president by the Supreme Court, and his mastermind VP Dick Cheney declared preemptive and destabilizing wars on two Middle Eastern countries in the interest of power and oil—the Texas obsessions. Inept leadership and costs rising to trillions of dollars for their actions led to the Great Recession, saved only by Democratic President Barack Obama.

The economy rose again in the Obama administration, only to be turned over to the “trickle-down” Republicans and an ignorant unsuccessful real estate developer in the White House who used their power to benefit only the wealthy, including themselves. Once again, they failed, but their lies of a “rigged election” in 2020 caused chaos with the U.S. House, whose GOP leadership from only four GOP members more than the minority, wants to give themselves and the other wealthy people and businesses in the U.S. an even bigger tax cut while stripping the rest of the population from any salaries and assets.

The attacks were horrifying, but what the U.S. has experienced since then has been equally horrifying as a person in the White House praises his supporters who stormed the Capitol and suggested that he would pardon them. A U.S. president attacked a country that had nothing to do with the attack but ignored 15 Saudi Arabian citizens, over three-fourths of the 19 men responsible for turning four planes into bombs attacking targets across the country. Later another GOP resident of the White House ignored the actions of the Saudi leader responsible for capturing, torturing, and murdering a U.S. journalist.

September 11, 2001, rescued a faltering Bush presidency and turned the weak Bush into a national unifying figure. In three weeks, his approval rating rose 35 points, and New York’s mayor, Rudy Giuliani, was pictured as a noble figure instead of the reprehensible criminal now facing RICO charges for his following the wishes of the former Dictator Donald Trump (DDT). Congress passed the USA PATRIOT Act, allowing almost unlimited warrantless surveillance of private citizens and even erasing the previous privacy of what books they checked out of the library. Legalization of police-state practices resulted in extensive torture of suspects in secret prisons although no evidence of crimes existed. 

Bush and Cheney manufactured the non-existent “weapons of mass destruction” used to justify the war. With the CIA, they then lied to Secretary of State Colin Powell for his UN speech, convincing not only U.S. residents but also other democratic countries of the danger they faced. Much later he admitted his mistake and blamed the CIA, but he knew he was wrong before the speech. Powell had told British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw that he feared the doubtful claims would “explode in their faces.”  

The lies were manufactured by Cheney and then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Cheney’s top aide, Lewis “Scooter” Libby, and Rumsfeld’s Office of Special Plans director, Douglas Feith, prepared bogus claims including the falsehood that Iraq had purchased a uranium source from Niger. They also purported non-existent links between al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein’s government. 

From Bush’s need to look like a president and Cheney’s desire to build up his company Halliburton came at least 500,000+ deaths, half of them civilians and many of them people the U.S. claimed to protect. Direct financial costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for the 20 years were at least $2 trillion with another $4.5 more trillion by 2050.

The Defense Department tried to conceal information about the war, banning photographers on military cases from covering caskets and paying Iraqi journalists to write positive accounts. Articles had to be submitted to the military for approval, and statistics on civilian casualties were not provided.

Before the attack, Bush and Cheney had been warned about its possibility. Richard Clarke, the government’s top counterterrorism official at that time, told them that an attack by al-Qaeda was imminent. Preoccupied with personal issues about Iraq, they kept telling him to find something on that country instead of investigating why Saudi nationals were taking pilot training in the U.S.

Republicans seeking violence haven’t changed and neither has its lack of understanding about its source. Focusing on foreign terrorists has made the U.S. a failure in blocking domestic ones who strengthened their hold on the nation in the past two decades. Claiming a “rigged election,” MAGA supporters are pushing a second violent American Civil War since DDT legitimately lost the 2020 presidential election. They’re already killing people who disagree with them although the media calls them “lone wolves.”

In the month after 9/11/2001, the Taliban controlling Afghanistan offered to arrest Osama bin Laden, but Bush turned them down because he wanted to be a “wartime president” to have a “successful presidency.” Thom Hartmann wrote about another resident in the White House who wanted to use the war in Afghanistan to stay for another term:

“Almost two decades later, though, then-President Donald Trump and Mike Pompeo gave the Taliban everything they wanted—power, legitimacy, shutting down 9 of the 10 U.S. air bases in that country to screw incoming President Joe Biden, and the release of 5,000 of Afghanistan’s worst Taliban war criminals—all over the strong objections of the democratically elected Afghan government in 2019.

“Trump did this so he could falsely claim, heading into the 2020 election, that he’d ‘negotiated peace’ in Afghanistan, when in fact he’d set up the debacle that happened around President Biden’s withdrawal from that country….

“Following that betrayal of both Afghanistan and America, Trump and the GOP scrubbed the record of their embrace of the Taliban from their websites, as noted here and here.”

Hartmann provides more details about intentions of Bush and Cheney to attack Iraq years before the Saudis killed over 3,000 people in the U.S. on 9/11. DDT joined the “lie about Afghanistan” scheme that would allow him to brag that he’d “ended the war in Afghanistan” by going around the government and inviting the Taliban to Camp David. His deal sent thousands of their fighters back to war and withdrew U.S. troops to cause chaos in Afghanistan that could no longer rely on U.S. assistance—all in his attempt to be reelected.

Highly criticized for his withdrawal from Afghanistan, President Biden gave the history of DDT’s actions:

“When I came to office, I inherited a deal cut by my predecessor—which he invited the Taliban to discuss at Camp David on the eve of 9/11 of 2019—that left the Taliban in the strongest position militarily since 2001 and imposed a May 1, 2021 deadline on U.S. forces. Shortly before he left office, he also drew U.S. forces down to a bare minimum of 2,500.

“Therefore, when I became president, I faced a choice—follow through on the deal, with a brief extension to get our forces and our allies’ forces out safely, or ramp up our presence and send more American troops to fight once again in another country’s civil conflict. I was the fourth president to preside over an American troop presence in Afghanistan—two Republicans, two Democrats. I would not, and will not, pass this war onto a fifth.”

The fear generated by GOP leadership started the war with great support, but by 2019, 62 percent said it wasn’t worth fighting, including majorities of military veterans including those who served in the two wars. Two decades after the wars started, surveys showed that support was based on two lies, the one of weapons of mass destruction and the other that Hussein was part of the 9/11 attacks—the falsehood that Bush spread.  

On 9/11 in 2023, people need to remember the history of the disaster and the lies that led to it. And on 9/12 in 2023, people need to look at all the lies they will hear when the Republicans return to explain why they oppose assistance for the poor and middle class, why they want to impeach the president with no evidence, and why they want to investigate the judiciary involved in DDT’s indictments while ignoring the lack of ethics on the Supreme Court.

Stories of Unbalanced Conservatives

When Fox fell for a hoax in the New York Hudson River Valley, even credible media such as the Washington Post reported the lie. The false story was about veterans thrown out of a hotel because and replaced with migrants. Seven homeless men of a group of 15 now say they were each offered $200 along with food and alcohol to pretend they were vets, but they never got paid. The New York Post first reported the story on its front page,and Fox stated that the network “confirmed” the story.

The small local Mid Hudson News uncovered the scam. Sharon Finch claimed her nonprofit, Yerik Israel Toney Foundation, paid to house veterans and had to scramble for other housing for them. She even said, “Last night, I was crying.” Brian Maher, a GOP assemblyman in New York, introduced legislation to block veterans’ housing displacement. The probe discovered a $37,000 credit card receipt from the foundation for the hotel had been doctored. The hotel said it had no payments on the credit card, no veterans stayed there, and vacant rooms were available.

Trying to cover her lies, Finch changed the date when veterans were displaced, the number of them, and names of hotels where veterans were being evicted in exchange for migrants. One homeless man hired for the hoax said Finch told him to answer any questions from reporters or politicians with “I am too traumatized to talk about it.” She finally confirmed that she arranged for a volunteer to pick up the men at the shelter and taken them to an event to present their plight as “veterans.” Maher is now investigating Finch.  

Another Republican, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA), has led the crusade against drag shows, but her new boyfriend wore drag on his right-wing “news” program, available to children, to promote a theatrical production. Greene has “dated” Brian Glenn since her husband filed for divorce last September. He filed for divorce three days later. He evidently enjoyed wearing women’s clothing because he said:

“I may keep the pantyhose on. It does feel kind of good.”

Complaining about a Drag Queen Story Hour in Georgia, she wrote on Facebook:

“Trans does not mean gender change, it just means a gender refusal and gender pretending. Truth is truth, it is not a choice!!!”

Green confronted a library worker at the event and asked why they were hosting “an event that went against her personal beliefs as a taxpayer” before she posted a 90-minute video from the library attacking the drag queen. Filming youth and adults, she said:

“That’s the abomination that just read four children’s books to children in our public library here in Alpharetta, Georgia. I do not hate or have any ill will against that man. I just don’t like that gender confusion being put on young children.”

In 2021, she called on a drag queen to be “arrested and charged!” A year later, she compared drag queens to strippers although they didn’t take off their clothes. This year, she accused Antifa of defending “drag queens targeting our children with drag queen story time,” called them “domestic terrorists,” and tried to get them officially declared a terrorist organization. About Glenn, though, she tweeted that she “lol” (laughed out loud) at his drag performance and lambasted liberals for commenting on it. (Above right: Glenn in one of his drag performances.)

In another diversion from illegal activities by Deposed Donald Trump (DDT), Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), chair of the House Judiciary Committee and the weaponization subcommittee, considers “another investigation” into Hillary Clinton. Fox host Maria Bartiroma asked him if he wanted to see the probe, and he didn’t say no.

“[W]e’re going to talk with our lawyers. We’re going to talk with Speaker McCarthy on where we proceed from here. In fact, are there people that were highlighted in the Durham investigation and the Durham report that we need to talk to on the Judiciary Committee? We’re going to give that a good, hard look. But nothing is off the table.”

Actually, DDT is off the table for Republicans. Instead, congressional Republicans, including DDT, fixated on Clinton for almost a decade. Rep. Josh Hawley (R-MO) still wants to imprison her but doesn’t have any reasons. DDT accused the FBI of looking for Clinton’s emails when it followed up on a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago for classified documents. In 2015, Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) bragged about the GOP’s Benghazi committees to damage Clinton’s presidential campaign instead of being a valid investigation. At that time, he told Fox:

“Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right? But we put together a Benghazi special committee, a select committee ― what are her numbers today…”

Rep. James Comer (R-KY), chair of the Oversight Committee, told Fox & Friends Ashley Strohmier, that the GOP was doing the same thing to President Joe Biden during his reelection when she asked about the probe into Biden. He claimed proof about Biden’s families receiving money from foreign nationals but presents no evidence:

“You look at the polling, and right now Donald Trump is 7 points ahead of Joe Biden and trending upward, Joe Biden’s trending downward. And I believe that the media is looking around, scratching their head, and they’re realizing that the American people are keeping up with our investigation.”

The 7-point edge he claimed on Fox was earlier this month; other surveys show Biden leading with an overall tight race between Biden and DDT. Polls have also shown no indication that Comer’s investigations have a major effect.

In opposition to an Illinois bill approving bathrooms open to all genders, a GOP state senator threatened violence if “a guy” walked into the same bathroom as his 10-year-old daughter. The bill passed the Senate by 35-20 and needs only a signature from Gov. J.B Pritzker (D). Bathrooms would require floor-to-ceiling stall dividers with locks and coverings preventing anyone from seeing through the space between the stall divider and the door. The senators might be more worried about his family and friends: over 90 percent of child abusers are people who children know, love, and trust. A “guy” coming into a bathroom is an unlikely perpetrator.

Republicans want to put librarians in prison if they let youth have books about racism or the LGBTQ+ community—aka “obscene” books to the GOP. At least seven states have passed these laws in the past two years, two of them in the last two months, although Idaho and North Dakota GOP governors vetoed the legislation. Another dozen states considered over 20 similar bills this year, half of them likely to come up in 2024.  An Arkansas measure imprisons school and public librarians as well as teachers for up to six years or fined $10,000. Keith Gambill, president of Indiana’s teachers union, said about the state’s new law:  

“It will make sure the only literature students are exposed to fits into a narrow scope of what some people want the world to look like. This is my 37th year in education. I’ve never seen anything like this. … We are entering a very frightening period.”

A Republican asserted that any librarian or teacher afraid of the law obviously has obscene material available for students. All 50 states, including the ones enacting new laws, have obscenity laws prohibiting the distribution of obscene material to minors with heavy fines and prison sentences for violations. The majority of the states, however, had exemptions to ensure educators could provide information to children on biology, health, and sex education without litigation. States enacting new laws to imprison librarians: Arkansas, Indiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Tennessee.

A conservative group taking over the Woodland Park (CO) school board has adopted the American Birthright social studies, created by a right-wing group warning of the “steady whittling away of American liberty.” It promotes only “positive aspects” of the U.S., pushes patriotism, and does not encourage “social strife.” The program argues that teachers should not encourage civic engagement, such as registering to vote or petitioning local lawmakers on issues that interests students. David Randall, research director for the organization creating the standards for a district with 2,000 students said:

“It is terribly important to be a disengaged citizen, and indeed, a disengaged student.”

Far-right groups and activists providing input into the curriculum include the Claremont Institute, the Family Research Council, and Moms for Liberty. The far-right agenda presents Bill Clinton’s impeachment but not those of DDT. The Colorado State Board of Education rejected American Birthright in October, and the National Council for the Social Studies issued a rare warning against using it. Forty percent of the high school’s teachers said they won’t be back next year, and at least four top administrators have already quit. Three of the five board members are up for a vote in November 2023.

Despite the emotional problems of students in the community, the new superintendent refused to apply for grants paying mental health professionals, losing $1.2 million covering the annual salaries of 15 positions.

Conservatives are furious with Biden for his statement at Howard University calling white supremacy the “most dangerous terrorist threat.” Fox’s Rachel Campos-Duffy called the U.S. “the least racist country in the world” in the same week that 150 white supremacist Patriot Front members marched in Washington, carrying swords and battle drums while wearing masks to conceal themselves as part of the “Reclaim America.” A March study from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) shows a 38 percent increase in white supremacist activity from 2021 to 2022, with more than 6,700 incidents reported throughout the year.

Biden Works, DDT Obstructs

Sixty-four days before Dictator Donald Trump (DDT) leaves the Oval Office: he fired the man in charge of protecting the nation’s electric grid, two Republicans briefly held up the certification of 863,000 votes in Michigan, DDT’s personal lawyer may have destroyed all validity of DDT’s lawsuits regarding fake election fraud, Emily Murphy still won’t permit the next U.S. president’s transition, and a witness heard a senator violate the law in asking Georgia to throw away valid ballots. And more.

President-elect Biden:

Biden continues to build his team with these nine members. Without a transition, he’s moving in two directions: showing how DDT’s refusal to permit transition hurts people in the U.S. and how roadblocks are stopping him for addresses the nation’s crises. Picks thus far. 

Even if Biden doesn’t investigate DDT, he could get DDT’s tax returns. Biden may prefer not to do this, but a refusal could cause Democrats to lose face after a long battle and court cases for over a year. In August, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (R-CA) said DDT’s records would be released if Biden won, and she doesn’t back down. DDT is the only inaugurated man who hasn’t made his tax returns public since Richard Nixon. DDT will likely file a new suit to prevent their disclosure.

Biden can count on Republicans to not follow through. Last week, Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) promised to personally “step in” and intervene by Friday if Biden weren’t permitted classified information. This week, he said, “I’m not in a hurry, necessarily, to get Joe Biden these briefings.” He said he meant he could take care of it if he wanted to. After the election, Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO) said DDT’s lawyers had to give evidence to support claims of election fraud; two days later Blunt said DDT “may not have been defeated at all.”

Republicans agree they don’t like DDT’s decision to drop service members in Afghanistan down to 2,500 before he left the Oval Office. Followed by other GOP senators, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), DDT’s top loyalist, lambasted the idea as hurting national security. Undermining democracy is fine, but moving troops back to the U.S. is too much for them. The Pentagon wasn’t happy about the idea of bringing troops home with no justification so DDT just fired his appointees and got new ones who would follow any of his poorly thought-out orders. 

Reasons for opposing DDT’s plans, some of them from the military:

• DDT is not meeting the conditions of withdrawal in the U.S.-Taliban agreement. 
• Taliban fighters can take control of Afghanistan and make it a base for terrorists.
• Rapid withdrawal hurts our allies.
• Afghanistan, like Saigon before, will fall quickly, compromising operations against terrorists.

DDT:

DDT’s Fire:

After Christopher Krebs, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), protected the elections in the U.S. and ran a website debunking false rumors, DDT terminated him with a tweet. Krebs said “59 election security experts all agree, ‘in every case of which we are aware, these claims [of manipulated election systems] either have been unsubstantiated or are technically incoherent.’” CISA works with state and local officials running U.S. elections, private companies supplying voting equipment addressing cybersecurity and other threats, the monitoring of balloting and tabulation, and industry and utilities to protect the nation’s industrial base and power grid from threats. Firing Krebs leaves the nation’s power grid wide open to the possibility of hacking.

DDT’s Recounts:

Graham said he only talked to Raffensperger about election procedures, but Gabriel Sterling, voting system manager, reported Graham asking if Raffensperger could throw out all the ballots if a percentage of signatures don’t match. Asked why he called Raffensperger, Graham said he also talked about election procedures with Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey and someone in Nevada. Neither Nevada nor Arizona secretaries of state heard from Graham. His interference in a state election could be a felony.

Today, two GOP-appointed board members refused to certify the votes of Michigan’s Wayne County, home to Detroit and the state most populous county, before reversing their position after a huge public backlash. The two had no reason to block the certification except to eliminate enough ballots to hand the state to DDT. Biden won the county by over 37 percent.

Georgia’s hand recount, scheduled to be completed by tomorrow night, won’t replace the official tally with Biden leading by about 14,000 votes, according to Georgia’s election officials who obtained legal advice. Any serious county discrepancies, such as the discovery of 2,600 uncounted ballots in Floyd County, will result in redoing machine counts for a new total becoming part of the official count. The new Floyd County count puts DDT’s state loss at 13,378. Sterling said the hand count is to verify which candidate won, not to establish a perfect vote count. Thus far, the manual count closely matches the original counts. Candidates have the right to a recount if they lose by less than 0.5 percent; another recount would rescan ballots through computers.

DDT has until tomorrow to decide whether to pay almost $8 million for a recount in Wisconsin, almost four times the cost for Green Party candidate Jill Stein in 2016. Additional charges come from the coronavirus, a shorter time frame, and increased security needs. Biden is ahead in the state by over 20,000 votes. An audit of Milwaukee County gave Biden a 17-vote increase. December 1 is Wisconsin’s deadline for certifying the vote. DDT may not have money for the recount because donations are primarily going to his PAC or the RNC.

DDT’s Lawsuits:

DDT’s campaign asked a Carson City court to declare DDT the winner of Nevada’s six presidential electors or annul the election, removing the state’s electoral votes. All lawsuits in Nevada to block or delay vote counting in Democratic-leaning Clark County have been rejected for little or no evidence of wrongdoing and fraud. Former Senate candidate Sharron Angle sued to replace the November 3 election with a completely new one. GOP state Senate candidate April Becker also sued Clark County and its registrar of voters for a new election in her race.

DDT’s legal team met today’s 5:00 pm deadline in Michigan to file proper paperwork to keep its case from being dismissed. This lawsuit is to stop the state’s certification of results until review of the election process. DDT’s team had not added three additional defendants—Detroit and Michigan’s NAACP and DNC.

Over a week ago after the media called the election for Biden/Harris, Pennsylvania attorney Marc Scaringi said on his radio show, “The litigation will not work.” His law firm’s website described Biden as the president-elect because he “successfully claimed the role of the 46^th president of the United States.” That post has been deleted. After five DDT lawyers withdrew, Scaringi joined the DDT legal team to block Pennsylvania from certifying its election results. The judge has refused Scaringi’s request to delay today’s hearing; the judge won’t decide until Friday.

Lead attorney in the In Pennsylvania case, DDT’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani perplexed the judge with wild unsubstantiated allegations about “widespread nationwide voter fraud” before admitting he isn’t alleging fraud. The attorney for the state questioned whether Giuliani understands basic legal procedures. Giuliani also had to admit the complaint had been narrowed by dropping claims about poll watchers lacking access after he had declared the opposite the night before. Although not appearing in federal court since 1992, he maintained he hadn’t tried a case in “four or five years.”

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court reversed a lower court’s ruling, DDT’s only win, that a legal violation in Philadelphia not giving observers access to observe the vote count didn’t exist. State law “requires only that an authorized representative ‘be permitted to remain in the room in which the absentee ballots and mail-in ballots are pre-canvassed,’” according to the opinion signed by five justices.

Put in charge of DDT’s “election fraud” litigation, Giuliani is causing chaotic infighting among the campaign’s legal team and campaign officials. He and newly-assigned lawyer Jenna Ellis are attempting a campaign “coup” by wresting power. They claim DDT gave them full control over the legal strategy. Ellis, who refers to herself as “President-elect Jenna Ellis” on Twitter, told campaign staffers they report to her and ordered any remaining campaign staff they follow orders only from people named “Rudy or Jenna.” All other directives are to be ignored. Last Saturday, senior adviser Jason Miller and Ellis ended up in a “screaming match” in front of other staffers and threatened to call DDT to settle the question of who is in charge. Miller also called Ellis “crazy.”

Ellis has frequently given DDT questionable information about election fraud such as the false claim about Dominion Voting Systems deleting DDT votes. She also appeared on television without asking for approval from campaign officials. Yesterday, several lawyers representing DDT in a Pennsylvania lawsuit quit. That case can determine the litigation’s fate. DDT joined Giuliani and Miller in falsely claiming the campaign had not dropped an important part of the federal lawsuit in removing observers not being permitted to watch a count of 680,000 ballots in Pennsylvania. The revised case now affects only dozens of votes. Legal expert Richard Pildes refuted the GOP claims.

Tomorrow will be the fifth day with nothing official on DDT’s schedule. The only work he’s done for months has been to keep a job, and he only wants to stay out of prison and make money—and play golf.                   

COVID-19 in U.S. on November 17, 2020: 157,261 new cases; 1,615 deaths.

The U.S. Stands Alone

A bully always expects an adversary to back down—the philosophy of Dictator Donald Trump (DDT) in his mistaken belief that running a government is the same as running a business. He ordered the assassination Iran’s military leader, Qassem Soliemani, on Iraqi soil to show that he is the boss, but events prove him wrong.

Two days after Soliemani’s murder, the Iraqi Parliament voted by 170-0 to rid itself of U.S. troops by 170-0, primarily Shiites, with many of the 328 Parliament members, mostly ethnic Kurdish and Sunni Muslim minorities, absent. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spent Sunday on the “news” shows explaining that Iraq certainly didn’t want the U.S. to pull its troops.

Since its expulsion vote, the Iraqi Parliament determined that U.S. troops cannot leave their bases or fly in Iraqi airspace while plans are being made for their departure, according to Brig. Gen. Abdul Karim Khalaf, the military spokesman for Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi. The U.S. sent a letter to Iraq giving information about moving troops out of Iraq, but Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Mark Milley explained that sending it was an accident because it was a draft, poorly worded and “that’s not what’s happening.” DDT said that he wanted the letter “cleaned up.” Someone in the Iraqi military provided Information about the contents of the letter. DDT also threatens sanctions on Iraq if it expels U.S. troops and demands reimbursement for costs for keeping a military presence in the country, especially the “extraordinarily expensive air base [that] cost billions of dollars to build.”

During his appearances on TV, Pompeo kept assuring people that there was no danger but asked about retaliation for Soleimani’s assassination, Pompeo flippantly responded, “It may be that there’s a little noise here in the interim.”  The Pentagon has sent six B-52 bombers to the Indian Ocean for use against Iran. DHS has also warned businesses to take precautions about possible cyberattacks. Computer experts also cautioned about Iran targeting such infrastructure as energy grids and financial institutions.  

Pompeo, supposedly in charge of diplomacy instead of violence, persuaded DDT to kill Soliemani against the advice of the Pentagon after a ten-year fixation to attack Iran. Defense Secretary Mark Esper, Pompeo’s classmate at the U.S. Military Academy, and VP Mike Pence reinforced Pompeo’s recommendation. Esper ignored the traditional decision-making process when he failed to discuss plans with senior Pentagon leaders and the Joint Chiefs of Staff about the killing. Pompeo had expected European allies to cheer his decision but discovered that they are giving him the cold shoulder.

DDT usually gets rid of people who don’t make him look good, but Pompeo thinks that he can stay, deciding that he won’t run for U.S. Senator from Kansas. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) had wanted Pompeo to be a candidate because he was considered a shoo-in. Kansas, known in the past as solid red, elected a Democratic woman governor in the last election because her predecessor ruined the state with his draconian tax cuts.

Brand new at his job, Esper has lost more experienced support when his chief of staff Eric Chewning, a former Army intelligence officer, quit. Esper had already not told senior Pentagon leaders and the Joint Chiefs of Staff about the killing, ignoring the usual decision-making process. Chewning departure followed those of six other senior Pentagon officials in December.  Chewning’s replacement is Jen Stewart, minority staff director for the House Armed Services Committee. 

On March 16, 2003, Bush’s VP Dick Cheney said, “From the standpoint of the Iraqi people, my belief is we will, in fact, be greeted as liberators.” For almost 14 years since George W. Bush set into motion the killing of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and his male relatives, Iraqi life has worsened, and ISIS built a powerful organization that threatens the world. The U.S. put Shiites into power, and they developed a coalition with Iran. Bush’s VP Dick Cheney’s prediction that Iraqis would rejoice over the regime change and Bush’s early claim of “Mission Accomplished” have both proved to be wrong.

On January 3, 2020, Pompeo said, “I know that the Iraqi people will ultimately demand that the Iranians get out.” That and his claim that Iraqis would be “dancing in the street” after Soleimani’s death was as false as W.’s and Cheney’s statements. Instead Iraqis turned out in tens of thousands to mourn the Iranian’s killing.

In the past few months, the Iraqi government and militias, supported either by Iran or the U.S., have killed hundreds of unarmed protesters and injured thousands of them, mostly led by young men who came to age after Bush’s 2003 preemptive war who want to end foreign interventions. The U.S. escalated the military conflict by blaming Iran, and Iran blamed the U.S. as Iraqi militias attacked U.S. bases in Iraq 11 times within the last week of 2019. One U.S. military contractor was killed, and U.S. bombs killed 24 Iraqis and injuring another 50. After the Iraqi militia protested at the U.S. embassy in Baghdad (Iraq), the U.S. killed eight people at the Baghdad airport including Soleimani and the leader of the Iraqi militia.

Even Iraqis who oppose Soleimani are opposed to U.S. occupation in their country because they see DDT, like Soleimani, a villain because they don’t want foreigners to control their country—either the U.S. or Iran. That belief led to their vote “to end the presence of any foreign troops on Iraqi soil and prohibit them from using its land, airspace or water for any reason.”

U.S. interference in Iran goes back over a half century. In 1953, the U.S. ousted democratically elected Mohammad Mosaddegh because the oil industry was taken from Western petroleum companies. When the U.S. attacked Afghanistan after 9/11, it obtained intelligence from Soleimani about fighting the Taliban, but the U.S. lost this source when W. Bush, through his VP’s direction, listed Iran as one of his “Axis of Evil.” Soleimani, however, continued to be a major influence in Iraq in opposition to the U.S. DDT continued to eliminate any diplomacy with Iran when he imposed sanctions on the country and dropped out of the six-country Iran agreement.

After Soleimani’s murder, Iran ended its commitments to limit nuclear fuel production but promised to return if U.S. economic sanctions are removed. Soliemani’s killing stopped the fight against ISIS in Iraq and Syria.

Esper and Pompeo have claimed that DDT won’t attack Iranian cultural sites, but DDT repeated his threats to commit this barbaric war crime which would be a declaration of war. Targeting cultural sites violates the Hague Convention on Respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land, ratified by the Senate in 2008. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) tweeted, “Targeting civilians and cultural sites is what terrorists do.”

The threats of destroying their cultural sites have united Iranians with the rally cry, “Attend the funeral for our cultural heritage.” Iranian information minister Mohammad Javad Azari-Jahromi tweeted:

“Like Isis, Like Hitler, Like Genghis! They all hate cultures. Trump is a terrorist in a suit.”

European allies are trying to provide for the safety of their troops in the Middle East, and the EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, invited Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif to Brussels for talks. Germany’s foreign minister, Heiko Maas, said he would seek direct talks with Iran to discuss the safety of its troops in Iraq and continue the fight against ISIS. DDT has blocked Zarif from addressing the UN Security Council on January 9 by refusing him a visa to enter the U.S. in violation of a 1947 agreement with the UN that the U.S. allow foreign officials into the country for UN affairs.

Russia condemned DDT’s killing Soliemani, calling it “fraught with grave consequences for regional peace and stability.” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov expressed his condolences over Soleimani’s death in a conversation with Zarif, and they agreed that DDT’s actions “grossly violate the norms of international law.” Putin has been working with Soleiman on Syria including Soleimani’s invitation to Moscow for an Iranian-Russian coalition. The Russian Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, connected the attack’s timing to DDT’s re-election campaign, something that millions of people in the U.S. also believe.

Immediately after Soliemani’s assassination, Israel was the only country to support DDT’s actions. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has drawn any support since then, saying, “We’re not involved.” After losing two elections in less than a year, Netanyahu wants to win the March 2 election to keep his position and protect himself from criminal prosecution after his indictment.

Over the weekend, al-Shabaab, US African Command killed a U.S. service member and two private contractors for the DOJ at a Kenyan Defense Force used by U.S. Special Operations forces. Al-Shabab is affiliated with al-Qaeda, but DDT has said nothing about bombing Kenya which has no natural resources that he would want.

Bogus DHS Immigration Report Supports White Supremacy

In his campaign against non-white immigration, Dictator Donald Trump (DDT) is responsible for “an analysis conducted by DHS” concluding that 73% of terrorists were “foreign-born. The report actually came from AG Jeff Sessions’ office that assembled the statistics and led the briefing. DHS career analysts told DOJ that they did not have the data because DHS does not correlate international terrorism data by citizenship or country of origin, that the data DOJ wanted doesn’t exist. DOJ cobbled together fragments for propaganda  to frighten people into supporting DDT’s non-immigration policy. It was issued just before the vote on the spending bill with the intent of funding for the border wall and eliminating legislation for diversity. Republicans refused to help Dreamers, and GOP leaders such as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and DDT now call them “lawless,” “illegals,” and “non-citizens.”

The report was also released the same week that DDT’s Muslim ban went on appeal to the Supreme Court. All examples in the report are Muslims although there was no evidence of the severity of conduct or basis of the threat. Five were deliberately selected for coming to the U.S. through family connections, which DDT calls “chain migration.” During the time of the report, however, almost 11 million people came with family relationships. Other examples were the child of someone who won the immigration lottery, a program with almost 750,000 people, and a refugee, one of almost a million.

The claim that the report concentrates on gender-based crimes by foreign nationals is false because the DOJ said that they have no idea how many of the 1.3 non-fatal domestic violence victimizations were “perpetrated by foreign nationals.” Husbands, boyfriends, or former partners kill over 3,000 women each year, another 1,000 of their children, and hundreds more people nearby or involved in the murders. Yet Dictator Donald Trump (DDT) wants people to concentrate on crimes committed by immigrants.

The stated intent of the document is “protecting the nation from foreign terrorist entry into the United States.” AG Jeff Sessions added to the purpose of the report to oppose any immigration from non-white countries:

“This report reveals an indisputable sobering reality – our immigration system has undermined our national security and public safety.”

A huge problem with DDT’s report is its lack of to domestic terrorism, i.e., Dylann Roof’s mass shooting at a black church in Charleston (SC).  Over the past 10 years (2007-2016), domestic extremists of all kinds have killed at least 372 people in the United States. Of those deaths, approximately 74% were at the hands of right-wing extremists, about 24% of the victims were killed by domestic Islamic extremists, and the remainder were killed by left-wing extremists. Yet, as in the case of a white supremacist killing a woman with a car in the Charlottesville (VA) protests, the Department of Justice stated that the U.S. has no criminal law against domestic terrorism. Of 155 people killed in the United States since 1/1/02, 34 were by foreign-born terrorists, and 121 by domestic terrorists. Thus native-born people committed 78 percent of all murders in terrorist attacks on U.S. soil, leaving only 22 percent of the murders by foreign-born terrorists. The chance of being murdered by a foreign-born terrorist is about one in 145 million per year; the annual chance of being murdered in a non-terrorist homicide is one in 19,325—about 1,641 times greater.

Yet there are far more problems in the report’s “scientific research”:

It includes people extradited into the United States for prosecution with those who voluntarily moved to the U.S. Sessions describes people involuntarily brought here as “immigrants” just as HUD Secretary Ben Carson referred to slaves brought to America as “immigrants.”

It identifies 549 convictions for terrorism and terrorism-related charges, but the number is for 15 years, an annual average of 35.6. Of those only 26.8 were foreign or foreign born while annual nation-wide murders number over 15,000, totaling 325,000 for the same time as the convictions. The number of convictions by the end of 2015 is 627, a larger number for a year earlier.

It states that “DHS and DOJ do not yet have complete, final information” about the full list of 549 people convicted of the same charges in the same paragraph describing eight people of 402 foreign-born people it claimed were convicted of international terrorism-charges in U.S. federal courts from 9/11/01 and 12/31/16. There is no explanation of the charges levied against these people. Immigration policy analyst Alex Nowrasteh found only 154 cases of foreign-born terrorists convicted of planning or committing a terrorist attack in the U.S. between 1975 and 2015. The supposed analysis also goes through only 2016; natural-born citizens are becoming an increasing percentage of those who are ISIS trained.

It fails to distinguish between terrorism convictions and the fuzzy category of “terrorism-related charges,” people who prosecutors thought would have a connection to terrorism but never charged with a terrorism defense. The Justice Department significantly overstated its “terrorism-related” convictions in 2013, according to the AG. Earlier DOJ numbers show that of 40 convictions (less than three per year) were connected to planned terrorist attacks on the U.S.; 70 percent were for material support which includes donating a small amount of money to someone overseas and translating a document. The U.S. statutes have no definition of “terrorism-related” as a crime but the term is also used for offenses such as fraud or illegal immigration. Half of terrorism prosecutions involve FBI sting operations which encourage people with no criminal history to participate in terrorism. In fact, the report concentrates on “terrorism-related convictions” that includes numerous convictions that have nothing to do with terrorism. In one case, three Middle-Eastern grocers were convicted of stealing boxes of Kellogg’s cereal and ended up on the list of “terrorism-related” cases after a source erroneously said that the men had tried to buy a rocket-propelled grenade.

It demonstrates the DDT administration’s focus on “nationalism” (aka racism) through distinguishing not only between citizens and non-citizens but also between people born in the U.S. and those who were naturalized. The report even tried to identify “the citizenship status of the parents” of those who were born in the U.S., placing more emphasis on ancestry and crime. DDT has long done this, as in the time that he called an Indiana-born federal judge for the lawsuit against DDT’s Trump University as a prejudiced “Mexican.”

It fails to differentiate between encounters and individuals and uses meaningless encounter numbers. The 2,554 encounters with people on the terrorist watch list could be multiple encounters with the same people. Many people on the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Database aren’t even terrorists; they can be people in Congress. The FBI fails to update its TSDB. The report has no record of how many of the people on TSDB committed a terrorist attack or were arrested for a terrorism offense. “Encounters” are not necessarily convictions.

It admits that DHS lacks information about “individual radicalization”: “DHS and DOJ lack unclassified, aggregated statistical information pertaining to the timing of individual radicalization.”

A television commercial released in conjunction with the shutdown vote and approved by DDT stated, “Democrats who stand in our way will be complicit in every murder committed by illegal immigrants.” Marc Short, the White House’s legislative affairs director, claimed that the ad came from an “outside group” and not anyone in the White House, but he was caught by Chuck Todd’s question, “Donald J. Trump for President is an outside group?” Short defended the ad because “it’s helpful to continue to raise awareness of the crisis we have.” Short characterized all immigration as a “problem” and a “threat” posed to the United States.

Using the rationale exposed in this ad, Republicans who stand in the way of gun safety will be complicit in every murder committed with a gun.

The GOP’s growing white nationalism (aka racism) has made domestic terrorism far worse since DDT’s campaign and election. White supremacist attacks are growing more frequent, and more young people are involved. A boy who killed two students at his New Mexico school followed the “alt-right,” and a 17-year-old neo-Nazi from Virginia allegedly killed his girlfriend’s parents. A 26-year-old white man who had supported the right-wing protest in Charlottesville (VA) attempted an attack on an Amtrak train in rural Nebraska.

The year 2017 was the fifth-deadliest year for extremist violence since 1970. Concerns have been expressed that the alt-right feels unsuccessful in a lasting political movement and therefore commits random acts of violence.

DDT has breathed life back into white supremacy and energized them with his support. The bogus “DHS report” is just one example of his giving governmental validity to hatred of all non-white people.

DDT Moves BFF from Russia to Saudi Arabia

Weeks ago, several Middle East countries led by Saudi Arabia opened diplomatic war against the tiny country of Qatar. Saudis said that they oppose Qatar’s terrorism, but they have other reasons. Qatar’s wealth from natural gas creates independence from Saudi’s dictates. The exports can also be shipped by sea instead of through pipelines like Saudi oil. Because natural gas comes from the Persian Gulf, Qatar keeps friendly connections with Iran.

In the past, Qatar had close relations with the United States after Saudi Arabia told U.S. forces to leave its country in 2003. The U.S. military base heading operations against ISIS moved to Qatar and houses 11,000 troops at this time. Some of Qatar’s wealth goes to the media service Al Jazeera, which is not always kind about Middle East governments as well as supporting grassroots efforts to overturn autocracies during the Arab Spring. But the power structure in the Middle East is shifting.

After only two years leading Saudi Arabia, King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz has named his son as his replacement  instead of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef bin Abdulazizto. The transfer to Mohammed bin Salman, 31, was peaceful perhaps because he demanded that the Israelis send 18 fighter jets in case of any measures by bin Nayef. Bin Salman has headed up the country’s military campaign against Houthi rebels in Yemen, and U.S. officials expressed concern over his reckless gambles last year with the economy and the Yemen conflicts. His leadership may seriously affect gas prices because he support’s OPEC’s desire to prop up oil prices through limiting worldwide oil production.

Dictator Donald Trump (DDT) had banked on his friendship with Russia to make money, but widespread publicity has caused serious problems with this close relationship. His fawning over Saudi Arabia during his May trip indicates that he may have transferred his allegiance to another country that can provide him great financial gains.

Foreign agents for Russia are disappearing from DDT’s circle, but he started to add at least one with Saudi connections. Richard Hohlt, who earned $430,000 thus far this year as a registered foreign agent lobbying for Saudi Arabia, is DDT’s nominee for the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships. The donor to DDT’s campaign would make recommendations for prestigious White House fellowships. “I will issue a lifetime ban against senior executive branch officials lobbying on behalf of a FOREIGN GOVERNMENT! #DrainTheSwamp,” DDT tweeted last October.  DDT has turned to stocking the swamp.

DDT has shifted his position toward Saudi Arabia in several ways. During his campaign he claimed that the Saudis were behind the 9/11 attacks, and after he was inaugurated, he complained about the U.S. losing a “tremendous amount of money” defending the kingdom.  The U.S. has long known about Saudi Arabia’s terrorism. According to then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2009, “donors in Saudi Arabia constitute the most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups worldwide.” In September 2014, she wrote that “Qatar and Saudi Arabia… are providing clandestine financial and logistical support to ISIL [Daesh] and other radical Sunni groups in the region.”

The adulation that DDT received during his stay in Saudi Arabia flipped his attitude. He needed a reason for his 180-degree turnabout so he is claiming that the U.S. “can no longer be funding of Radical Ideology.” Another DDT tweet read, “Perhaps it will be the beginning of the end of the horror of terrorism.” His position is terrifying other Gulf States that fear the same ostracism as Qatar. Saudi’s goal is to isolate Iran. Bin Salman said, “We will not wait until the battle is in Saudi Arabia, but we will work so the battle is there in Iran.” He claims that Saudi Arabia is fighting the Houthis because of Iran although the group has almost no support from Iranians.

The Saudi war in Yemen has killed thousands of civilians because of their targeting hospitals, marketplaces, civilian neighborhoods, and even a funeral for bombing. Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) has said that these actions “look like war crimes.” Washington has provided the Saudis with cluster munitions, aircraft, and aerial refueling services as well as intelligence on targets. The destruction has blocked aid groups from providing food, medicine, and other essential supplies to civilians suffering from a cholera outbreak and a massive famine. The result is a strengthened al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula from its increased influence in Yemen.

The Obama administration supported Saudi Arabia to persuade the leaders that the U.S. had not moved over to Iran but backed off after Congress and humanitarian groups opposed the Saudi targeting of Yemen civilians. In December 2016, the U.S. suspended a sale of laser-guided bombs and other munitions to the Saudi military.

The new administration has lifted this suspension despite 47 votes collected from a Senate coalition led by Al Franken (D-MN), Chris Murphy (D-CT), Rand Paul (R-KY). Defense Secretary James Mattis has advocated far more support for Saudi attacks with intelligence sharing and possible U.S. troops. Mattis had declared that Iran is “the single most enduring threat to stability and peace in the Middle East.” DDT has promised $110 billion worth of arms to the Saudis, about the same as during both President Obama’s terms. That includes over 100,000 bombs like those used on Yemen.

For Saudi Arabia, DDT is the ideal U.S. president if they can overlook his rejection of Muslims and non-white people. He prefers dictatorships to human rights, prizes loyalty above all else (except money), is controlled by fanatically anti-Iran generals, and shows himself to be highly susceptible to flattery. DDT’s missile strikes in Syria put him on the side of Saudi Arabia instead of Syria and prolongs the civil war that the Assad regime will most likely win.

While DDT was making a speech in Saudi Arabia telling people that he is not there “to tell other peoples how to live, what to do or who to be,” Iran’s reformist president, Hassan Rouhani, was re-elected on a platform of combatting extremism and expanding individual freedoms. On the other hand, the Saudis spend tens of millions of dollars to place its violent, extremist version of Islam throughout the world, including the European Union. The Saudi extremist version of Islam, Wahhabi, has been responsible for 96 percent of terrorist casualties since 2001, and Saudis were 15 of the 19 hijackers in the 9/11 attacks. Dissent in Saudi Arabia is punishable by beheading—and that includes the press. Saudi Arabia lacks election and imprisons critics,and women are second-class citizens in many ways.

DDT pledged a foreign policy to stay out of the Middle East because past U.S. “foreign interventions unleashed ISIS in Syria, Iraq and Libya.” (For once, he was right!) In a conflict between Shiites and Sunnis, the Islam world is choosing sides with Russia leading Syria, and Iran. Saudi Arabia expects the United States to lead up the opposition to DDT’s former BFF, Russia. Now the U.S. is taking actions far more hawkish than voters feared from candidate Hillary Clinton. This path will divide Syria into religious/ethnic separations and be in the midst of a global war against Russia.  The U.S. shot down a Syrian army plane, the first such attack in 18 years, and sent more military member to southeast Syria. Despite a claim of staying within a “deconfliction zone,” the troops are over 100 miles from its supposed base. Another 3,000 to 5,000 new troops are destined for Afghanistan. DDT has abdicated his responsibly as commander-in-chief to “Mad Dog” Mattis who got his name from razing Fallujah in Iraq. Other general—National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly, and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Joseph Dunford—are aiding and abetting.

The generals and DDT are hoping that Congress doesn’t notice that the executive branch cannot constitutionally declare war, but the House has taken a step toward restricting DDT. For years, Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) has introduced an amendment to the 2018 military spending bill in the Appropriations Committee to require congressional debate and approval for U.S. military action in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and other world countries. Lee’s measure would repeal the 2001 authorization for the president to take action in situations connected to 9/11, a law that presidents have liberally used—over actions in almost 20 countries around the world and deployments in at least ten. President Obama kept asking Congress to create new legislation for his attacks, but the Republicans ignored him.

Every year Lee failed—until now. The House GOP leadership is resisting, but the committee vote was unanimous in favor of Lee’s amendment. Lee persisted—and achieved a victory.

War in Middle East: DDT’s Path to Popularity?

Many world leaders fear that Dictator Donald Trump (DDT) wants a war to increase his popularity. What if it is true? Less than two weeks ago, he came home for a nine-day trip that included a visit to Saudi Arabia, and a senior official declared, “Donald Trump united the entire Muslim world in a way that it really hasn’t been in many years.” The unity doesn’t exist—especially since yesterday’s rift in the Middle East when Saudi Arabia led eight countries to isolate Qatar over its supposed support for terrorism.

One theory for Saudi Arabia’s action is DDT’s empowerment of Saudi with warmth for them and an excessive criticism of Iran. DDT worsened the situation by seeming to take credit for the problems in the Middle East through his tweets. He began with this one:

“During my recent trip to the Middle East I stated that there can no longer be funding of Radical Ideology. Leaders pointed to Qatar — look!”

DDT added praise for Saudi Arabia’s actions in isolating Qatar:

“They said they would take a hard line on funding extremism, and all reference was pointing to Qatar. Perhaps this will be the beginning of the end to the horror of terrorism!”

The tweets were his usual early morning, knee-jerk reaction with no involvement with his administrative officials.

The action: Eight countries have severed diplomatic ties with the tiny country of Qatar, about the size of Connecticut with a population of under 2.3 million with only 12 percent of them natives and the others workers, most of them from India, Nepal, Bangladesh and the Philippines. Five countries—Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen—started the dispute, and Libya, Mauritius, and the Maldives joined in. Countries have stopped flights in and out of Doha, the Qatari capital, and Saudi Arabia eliminated all land, sea and air links with Qatar. The country’s diplomats have been told to leave foreign posts from some of the countries as well as Qatari citizens.

The reason: Qatar is criticized for its reputed support of the Muslim brotherhood, a nearly 100-year-old Islamist group that Saudi Arabia and UAE consider a terrorist organization. Then Saudi Arabia became incensed with Qatar-owned Al Jazeera’s news story supporting Israel and Iran; both Saudi and UAE blocked access to the television network as well as other Qatari newspaper websites. According to U.S. intelligence, the news story was fake news from Russian hackers, but Qatar’s opponents didn’t believe the information. Then Qatar’s Sheikh Tamim called Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to congratulate him on his reelection. Qatar News Agency’s website is still offline because of hacking attempts. Qatar and Iran share the biggest natural gas field in the world, and Saudi Arabia sees this as a problem to them as well as Iran’s nuclear program and its growing influence in the Middle East. The Saudis have accused Qatari officials of meeting with the head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Problems for Qatar: Almost all food in Qatar comes from Saudi Arabia which has stopped shipping to the nation, and trucks carrying food may be stranded on the Saudi side of the border. A major global airlines, Qatar Airlines must now detour around airspace above Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and the UAE at highly increased fuel costs, flight times, and ticket prices. That creates a hardship for families that live in Dubai and commute to Doha, a 45-minute flight before the barricade. Qatar is also scheduled to host the 2022 World Cup, and the recent action keeps supplies, workers, and possibly soccer fans from easily going in and out of the country.

Problems for Qatari neighbors—and the U.S.: The country has over a $300 billion sovereign wealth fund founded in 2005 to increase money from its natural resources. As the world largest LNG exporter with pipelines in the Gulf, Qatar could cut off supplies. The Al Udeid Ari Base, the principal U.S. regional center responsible for daily air missions and air operations coordination against ISIS is located on Qatar. The country also houses the forward headquarters of the United States Central Command, which manages all U.S. military operations in Afghanistan and the Middle East. About 11,000 U.S. military personnel are stationed there.

Demands: Saudi Arabia has not been specific about what they expect from Qatar although they have stated that they expect a stop to terrorism. They could also demand the closure of Al Jazeera, the television network that launched English-language programming.

Pentagon is trying to stop the damage: spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis told reporters that the U.S. is “grateful to the Qataris for the longstanding support for our presence and their enduring commitment to regional security.” Yes, Qatar supports groups considered terrorist organizations, such as Hamas. But so does Saudi Arabia. And the U.S. military bases in Qatar also allows it to be an intermediary between this country and theirs. For example, Qatar was instrumental in dealing with the Taliban to release U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. Knowing that the U.S. needs to be good terms with all countries in the region, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson asked for the countries “to sit down together and address these differences” because “it is important that the [Gulf Cooperation Council] remain unified.”

DDT’s tweet is another of his 180-degree turns. He had never accused of Qatar promoting radical ideology before, and in fact he has praised Qatar. During his visit in Saudia Arabia, DDT said that U.S. relations with Qatar were “extremely good.” During that speech to the Saudis, DDT also said, “Qatar, which hosts the U.S. Central Command, is a crucial strategic partner.” On that trip DDT also met separately with the emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani (left), on May 21 and discussed the “the purchase of lots of beautiful military equipment.” He told reporters, “We are friends, we’ve been friends for a long time now, haven’t we?” As for the sales to Qatar, DDT said, “That means jobs, and it also means frankly great security back here, which we want.”

DDT has 270,000 reasons for supporting Saudi Arabia: that’s the number of dollars that the Saudis have paid for stays at DDT’s Washington, D.C. hotel for lodging, catering, and parking. The group paying DDT is the organization lobbying against the law that permits victims of terrorist attacks to sue foreign government, meaning that Saudi Arabia could be financially responsible for the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Part of the Saudi lobbying campaign is recruiting U.S. veterans and sending them on luxury trips to Washington. DDT’s hotel is a very nice place for them to stay.

Leaders in the Western world consider the Saudi regime a danger to public security because of its dissemination of Wahhabism, a fundamentalist form of Sunni Islamism practiced in Saudi Arabia that has been identified by the European parliament as a driver of global terrorism. Saudi claimed that the restrictions against Qatar were caused by the nation’s support of terrorism. After George W. Bush’s war in Iraq put Shia Muslims in control, open polarization between Sunni and Shia Muslims have increasingly polarized the entire Middle East as Saudi Arabian Sunni fundamentalists exacerbate their battle against Iranian Shiites.

The current problem is said to be the worst in the region since the Gulf Cooperation Council was formed 36 years ago. Although Qatar, like Saudi Arabia, is predominantly Shia, the country has tried to stay neutral between the Saudi-Iran conflict. Sunnis want the nation to take sides with them. Qatar has also been blamed for the 2011 Arab Spring overturning regimes in Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia. The dispute is the most serious to hit the region since the formation of the Gulf Co-operation Council 36 years ago.

When George W. Bush blew up the Middle East in the early 21^st century, he knew little about its politics and culture. DDT knows less. But maybe he thinks that he can match Bush’s popularity if he just blows up the world.

Sunday Speeches: DDT Pandering; GOP Spin

The grand introduction to a nine-day tour by Dictator Donald Trump (DDT) was today’s pandering speech to over 50 Muslim leaders in Saudi Arabia, a speech written by Islamophobic Stephen Miller. Miller knew that DDT had to walk a fine line between not offending his racist U.S. base and the audience of 1.8 billion Muslims worldwide, including 3.3 million in the U.S. alone. Gone was the term “radical Islamic terrorism” which he used as a litmus test for conservatives, damning all people who refused to say this expression. Only once did he slip in “Islamic terrorism” among the 32 times that he referred to terrorism in the 34-minute speech. The teleprompter read “Islamist,” but DDT may be accustomed to his own term which refers to the religion rather than a political movement.

Saudi Arabia was the safest place to give the speech because DDT is in sync with the authoritarian regime there. In his desire to feel royal, DDT is comfortable with their ostentatious wealth, lack of concern for rule, and a disregard for democracy. He had also just favored them with the $110 billion arms sale that President Obama had delayed on the basis of human rights and how the weapons would be used as well as the proposed Qatar purchase by Qatar of “a lot of beautiful military equipment,” as DDT describes them. DDT brought them other multi-billion dollar deals such as $6 billion for Lockheed for 150 Black Hawk helicopters and $15 billion for General Electric.

The speech also avoided other such alien concepts to the Middle East as democracy, gender equality, and political reform—again matching DDT’s approach toward ruling. Even better for Saudi support, he blamed Iran instead of ISIS “fueling sectarian violence”; he spoke about the “despair” of the Iranians on the day after they freely elected a liberal reform president and demanded that the largest Shiite country in the Middle East be more isolated. According to DDT, Iran is to blame for “so much instability,” and Shiite Hezbolla and Yemienis were equally condemned.

DDT claimed his purpose was not to “lecture” before he launched into ponderous and repetitious demands of “drive them out” like an Old Testament prophet declaiming that the Muslims are totally responsible in this “battle between good and evil.” Nowhere did he mention that his hosts are responsible for the Wahhabi Salafit extremists who murder “innocent people.” DDT also praised Saudi Arabia for its “strong action against the Houthi militants in Yemen,” an action using U.S.-made cluster bombs in crowded cities indiscriminately killing people and exacerbating a massive humanitarian crisis.

“We are adopting a principled realism, rooted in common values and shared interests,” DDT told his audience, indicating that these “common values” can include misogyny, murder by beheading, and dictatorships in the name of oil and gas. He said, “Our friends will never question our support, and our enemies will never doubt our determination.” But the generality didn’t define “friends,” which could include Russia, Iran’s supporter, and the warring militias in the Middle East. DDT said:

“We will make decisions based on real-world outcomes – not inflexible ideology. We will be guided by the lessons of experience, not the confines of rigid thinking. And, wherever possible, we will seek gradual reforms – not sudden intervention.”

Translations for this statement could  include that the U.S. can reverse its positions at a minute’s notice based on a knee-jerk reaction to an occurrence but that the U.S. will not oppose crimes against humanity unless it will be of some financial benefit.

DDT’s speech is being declared “presidential,” the common description for words he didn’t prepare that were carefully read with no off-script comments.

Yet former deputy national security adviser Elliott Abrams pointed out a major flaw, “an understanding of what produces extremism”:

 “The president’s approach would work if terrorists were coming from outer space, and our task were solely to organize against them militarily. That is no doubt part of the task—but not all of it, because they are coming from within the societies whose leaders he was addressing. He offered no explanation of what was producing this phenomenon…. Trump had no theory and therefore could not suggest what might be done to prevent more extremists from rising.”

While DDT was in Saudi Arabia trying to overcome the ghastly scandals of May, his faithful were spinning his actions on the Sunday talk shows.  Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said that DDT talked about firing former FBI director James Comey with the Russian officials to prove he wasn’t distracted by any problems in Washington. As usual, Tillerson pressed his talking point that U.S. and Russian relations were “at a low point.”

National security adviser H.R. McMaster explained DDT’s meetings with the Russians as a desire to “find areas of cooperation.” Asked about DDT’s statements about Comey, McMaster said:

“Well, I don’t remember exactly what the president said. And the notes that there apparently have I do not think are a direct transcript.”

DDT reportedly called Comey “crazy” and “a real nut job” as well as firing Comey relieving “great pressure because of Russia.”

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) disagreed with DDT that Comey is a “nut job.” On Face the Nation, the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee said:

“This is a horrible thing for a president to say. Former Director Comey is no way, shape, or form a ‘nut job.’”

Even Republican members of Congress didn’t defend DDT’s statements. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) said that the investigating committees on Russia’s meddling need to have “the notes.” He added:

“The White House would benefit from some systems in place that perhaps avoids some of the unnecessary friction points that come up on a daily basis…. People got what they voted for.”

Asked about DDT’s speech, Rubio said that he differed with him on DDT’s approach to human rights issues:

“I think it’s in our national security interest to advocate for democracy and freedom and human rights. We just have a disagreement on the right way to approach it.”

“The White House would benefit from some systems in place that perhaps avoids some of the unnecessary friction points that come up on a daily basis,” Rubio said.

With the possibility of again running for president, Rubio may have felt the need to soft-pedal his response, but Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) was not shackled by any such requirement when he told Fox’s Chris Wallace that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey “had no business in the Oval Office” and cited Russia’s invasion into Crimea:

“Mr. Lavrov is the stooge of a thug and a murderer, who used Russian precision weapons to strike hospitals in Aleppo, who has committed human rights issues all over the place.”

McCain called himself “almost speechless” about the report that DDT told Lavrov and Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak that he fired Comey  to take “off” some of the pressure about Russia. Almost, but not completely. McCain said, “I don’t know why someone would say something like that,” he told Wallace.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) said in his interview today that the House Intelligence Committee investigation is examining possibly Russian collusion with DDT and his campaign. House Oversight Committee Ranking Member Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) said that the scandal surrounding Russia goes far beyond DDT.

DDT may be back on U.S. soil sooner than expected. His staffers say that he is “exhausted” after less than two days of travel into his nine-day trip and  is already canceling some of his performances. This from the man who said that Hillary Clinton “lacks stamina” after her constant travel around the world while she was Secretary of State. Maybe he’ll be too tired to tweet.