Biblical and Constitutional Politics

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Eventful Three Months in Politics

With President Trump in the Midst of Most of It

(Mid-February to Mid-May 2018)

Part One

By Gary F. Zeolla

     

      I posted the two-part article Chronology of Corruption in the US Government and Unjustified Attacks Against President Trump on February 10, 2018. After that, I was hard at work finishing my two-volume set God’s Sex Plan and then took a short break from writing.

      It is now mid-May 2018, and in the past three months, a lot has happened politically. In this two-part article, I will overview many of these events more or less in chronological order. Some of these events you might have heard about in the mainstream media, but some you might not have. That is because, as always, the mainstream media has been focusing on supposed scandals in the White House, while ignoring all of President Trump’s successes.

 

13 Russians Indicted

 

      On February 16, 2018, Special Counselor Robert Mueller indicted 13 Russians in his probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election. Investigating that issue is what Mueller is supposed to be doing, so these indictments are part of his charge.

      However, the activities of these Russians began before Trump even announced his candidacy, so this is not evidence of any kind of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Some of them did talk with Trump campaign officials, but the Trump people did not know they were Russians, as they took the identities of Americans. Of course, the media is trying to spin all of this into evidence of a conspiracy between Trump and Russia, but there simply is nothing here to support that contention (New York Times. 13).

      Moreover, those 13 Russians are in Russia, and Russia will not be expediting them to the USA. Therefore, they will not be standing trial, so these were meaningless indictments. “… the charges are a largely symbolic gesture likely to yield no real results or serious consequences for the accused” (Slate).

      In addition, what they are accused of are rather mild activities that barely rise to the level of crimes. They are accused of making up identities of Americans (not stealing the identities of real Americans), of creating social media pages about divisive US issues, encouraging “flash mobs” in support of Trump, “as well as purchasing online ads, ordering posters, and sending out press releases for political rallies” (Slate). None of these activities are illegal.

 

Democratic Memo Released

 

      In response to the GOP memo summarizing abuses occurring in the FBI and DoJ (Department of Justice), Democrats released their own memo on Saturday February 24, 2018. This was after it had to be rewritten, as it originally contained what the Democrats wrongly claimed about the GOP memo, sensitive or confidential information.

      This rewritten memo was supposed to contradict the GOP memo, but it was filled with misleading and outright false claims, as detailed in the Republican response. You can read the Democratic memo here. The Republican response is here.

 

House Intelligence Committee Ends Investigation

 

      The US House Intelligence Committee ended its investigation into Russian meddling into the 2016 election on March 12, 2018. It concluded that although there was attempts by Russia to interfere with the election, there was no collusion with the Trump campaign while trying to do so. “The House Intelligence Committee ended its probe of the 2016 election, saying it found no evidence of collusion between candidate Trump and Russia” (CNBC). This conclusion was reached after 14 months of investigation, interviewing 73 witnesses, and reviewing 310,000 documents (Fox News Channel, Fox).

      What this means is, all of the hysteria you have been hearing for the past year and half about a Trump-Russian collusion has been a gigantic hoax and a fraud that has wasted millions of dollars of taxpayer’s money. As such, this report should have initiated an end to the Special Counselor’s investigation, but sadly, it has not. That witch hunt has continued, wasting more taxpayer’s money.

 

Andrew McCabe Fired

 

      On March 16, 2018, FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe was fired by Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The reason he was fired was:

 

      McCabe misled investigators about his role in directing other officials at the FBI to speak to The Wall Street Journal about his involvement in a public corruption investigation into the Clinton Foundation, according to a source briefed on it….

      Sessions said in a statement late Friday … “Both the OIG and FBI OPR reports concluded that Mr. McCabe had made an unauthorized disclosure to the news media and lacked candor − including under oath − on multiple occasions” (CNN; Ex-FBI-).

 

      The media tried to make McCabe’s firing out to be part of the supposed Trump-Russian collusion or evidence of discord in the White House. But in fact, McCabe brought it upon himself by his misguided actions.

 

$1.3 Trillion Omnibus Spending Bill Signed

 

      March 23, 2018 was a sad day for America, as on it, President Trump signed Congress’ $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill into law. It was a massive and bloated bill, which no one in Congress actually read. But as always, Congress waited until the last minute to bring the bill to a vote, hours before the government would have to shut down yet again. Fearing the media would torch them for doing so, the bill was passed and put on Trump’s desk to be signed.

      The President signed it, but not without first chiding Congress for its habit of waiting until the last minute and for passing such a bloated bill. He even declared, “I say to Congress, I will never sign another bill like this again” (Washington Post. Trump signs).

      With signing it, Trump went back on his campaign promise to reduce spending and to limit the size of the federal government.     However, he was truly pushed into a corner. If he didn’t sign it, he would have been singlehandedly responsible for shutting down the government, and you can be sure the media would have had a field day with it. They would have trotted anyone who was even remotely hurt by the shutdown, making Trump out to be uncaring.

      Never mind that the government never really shuts down. Those on Social Security would have still gotten their checks. Government employees laid off over the shutdown would have gotten back pay when the government reopened, as they always have, giving them a paid vacation. National Parks would have remained open. Most government services would have continued. That is becuase all of the involved agencies have money in reserve for just such occasions.

      When the government shut down under Obama, such did not happen as Obama directed the parks and other government facilities to shut down, just so the shutdown would hurt as many people as possible, so that Republicans would get a black eye from the shutdown. But President Trump vowed not to play such political games and would have let all such government operations continue, just as he did with the first government shutdown under his watch.

      Trump used increased defense spending as an excuse for signing the Omnibus bill. That is one good point in it, but it contained just $1.3 billion for Trump’s long-promised wall. Moreover, “The barriers authorized to be built under the act must be ‘operationally effective designs’ already deployed as of last March, meaning none of President Trump’s big, beautiful wall prototypes can be built.”

      It does not repeal the Johnson Amendment limiting churches from speaking on political issues, as many Republicans and Trump had promised to do. It increases or maintains funding for the National Endowments for the Arts and Public Broadcasting, both of which Republicans and Trump had promised to cut (Washington Post. Here’s).

      Thus, overall, this was a bad deal for America. But it must be noted, this was more Congress’s fault than Trump’s, though the media will lay most of the blame on the President.

 

March for Our Lives

 

      The March for Our Lives gun control march occurred on March 24, 2018. It was in response to the Parkland, Fl school shooting. In it, students were clamoring for stricter gun control laws (Fortune).

      Though I encourage the student’s political involvement, the march itself was completely misguided. What lead to the Parkland shooting was not lack of laws but lack of enforcement of existing laws and many warnings being missed by both the Parkland Police Department and the FBI (Wall Street Journal. Missed).

      Moreover, the root of all such mass shooters goes far deeper than gun laws. They are related to the USA deviating from God’s Sex Plan and the Christian worldview in general, as I detail in my two-volume set by that name. I will refer the reader to those books, as I cannot repeat all of the extensive information in those two books here.

 

Assad Gases His Own People, Again

 

      On April 8, 2018, Syrian President Bashar Assad once again gassed his own people (Chicago Tribune). He has done so before, and he paid a hefty price for it, when President Trump ordered the airfield from which the planes that dropped the chemical weapons were launched. I address that incident in my article Gorsuch and Syria.

      There, I expressed misgivings about the US counter-attack. But I later state that the attack seemed to have worked, as Assad had not again used chemical weapons (see One Year of Productive Leadership). But sadly, that did not turn out to be a long-lasting effect.

      In response to the latest attack, on April 13, “U.S., French and British forces have struck targets in Syria as punishment for Syrian leader Bashar Assad using chemical weapons against his own people” (DoD). Only time will tell if this response proves to be sufficient to keep Assad from using such weapons again. But something had to be done, given the gravity of Assad’s actions.

 

Home of Trump’s Lawyer Raided

 

      On April 9, 2018, Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen’s home was raided, at 6:00 am, with FBI guns drawn, scaring a sleeping Cohen and his wife half to death. This was part of the ongoing and misguided probe by Mueller. But his charge as Special Counselor was supposed to be into Russian meddling into the 2016 election, but this raid had nothing whatsoever to do with that issue. Instead:

 

      Michael Cohen, the longtime attorney of President Trump, is under federal investigation for possible bank fraud, wire fraud and campaign finance violations, according to three people with knowledge of the case (Washington Post; Trump attorney).

 

      But such a raid was totally unnecessary, as such tactics are usually reserved for drug dealers and other dangerous criminals. All that was needed was a request for the desired materials, and Cohen would have turned them over. But Mueller is out of control and inflated with power.

 

      One-time Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort has been indicted in two different federal courts on separate charges. Manafort, supposedly a cooperating witness in Mueller’s investigation, suffered a pre-dawn raid and search of his home on Mueller’s orders, a harsh tactic normally reserved for serial killers, drug traffickers and mafia dons who might destroy evidence (American Spectator).

 

Comey 20/20 Interview and Memos

 

      On April 15, 20, Comey was interviewed on 20/20. It was a boring interview, barely worth watching, designed to promote Comey’s book more than anything else. In it, Comey’s hatred and disrespect for the President was on display. But what would you expect from a disgruntled ex-employee?

      Given that is what Comey is, a disgruntled ex-employee, the credence the media is giving to him and his book it is silly. As more details are coming out, it is becoming more than obvious that Comey deserved to be fired, as his handling of the Hillary Clinton email scandal was very incompetent.

      Then on April 20th, Comey’s memos were released. They demonstrated there was no Trump-Russian collusion or obstruction of justice by Trump. But the media has been ignoring that part of the memos and instead focusing on Comey’s opinion of President Trump, which to no one’s surprise, is not very good (The Hill).

 

White House Correspondence Dinner

 

      The annual White Hose Correspondence Dinner was held on April 27, 2018. Like last year, President Trump did not attend. He instead held a campaign-like rally in a different Washington, Washington, MI. But he sent Sarah Sanders to the Dinner as the White House’s representative (The Atlantic).

      Sadly, that was like sending a sheep to slaughter. The so-called comedian, Michelle Wolfe, proceeded to rake Sarah over the coals, with many unjustified and unjustifiable supposed jokes. But they were not even funny, just obvious attacks on a hardworking fellow female.

      It is truly amazing how leftists claim to be supporters of women, but only if the women tow the leftist line. If they dare to tout conservative principles or to support President Trump, they are degraded to no end. I truly hope President Trump ignores this idiotic tradition next year and does not send another sacrificial lamb to it.

 

Mueller’s Questions for Trump

 

      On April 30, 2018, the New York Times published a list of questions Mueller wants to ask President Trump.

 

      The special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, recently provided President Trump’s lawyers a list of questions he wants answered in an interview. The New York Times obtained the list; here are the questions, along with the context and significance of each (New York Times, Questions).

 

      The questions are all open-ended questions, not yes or no questions. What that means is, Mueller wants to get Trump to ramble on, as he often does, in order to trap him in perjury. That is clearly the intent of the questions.

      For instance, one question is, “What did you think about Mr. Comey’s intelligence briefing on Jan. 6, 2017, about Russian election interference?” The next is, “What was your reaction to Mr. Comey’s briefing that day about other intelligence matters?”

      Now, think about this. Can you remember what you were thinking on a particular day over a year ago? Can you remember how you reacted to a rather innocuous event over a year ago. Well, can you? And more to the point, since when is what someone was thinking a criminal act?

      Sure, you could probably answer if I were to ask you what you were thinking and how you reacted when you first heard about what was happening on September 11, 2001. But how about an ordinary event on January 11, 2017? Or on March 3, 2016? Or whenever. I doubt it. Yet that is what Mueller is trying to get Trump to answer.

      He will then compare Trump’s answers to Comey’s recollections of that day, assume Comey is telling the truth, and if Trump’s version differs from Comey’s, well obviously, Trump is lying and guilty of perjury. That is the trap being set here, and it is despicable.

      There is no way Trump should ever agree to such a line of questioning. In fact, he should not agree to be interviewed by Mueller at all. As already stated, the House Intelligence Committee has already concluded there was no Trump-Russian collusion. As such, the Mueller investigation should have already ended, as his mandate was to investigate such.

      But that hoax has now been exposed as the fraud that is and always has been. “In his year as special counsel, Mueller has neither produced any evidence nor made any charge that Trump or his campaign conspired with or participated in Russian interference in the election” (American Spectator).

      As a result, Mueller moved on to the claim of obstruction of justice. But since there is no underlying crime, it is hard to say justice was obstructed. As such, he is now trying to cause a crime by having the President commit perjury.

      It should be clear to any objective observer that this is in fact a witch hunt, with Mueller determined to “get Trump” on something, anything, no matter how trivial or contrived it is. But despite this ongoing distraction, Trump continues to do his job with great success.

 

Developments in NoKo

     

      On May 9, 2018, three Americans were released from North Korea (NoKo). One of them had been taken hostage by the NoKo regime 2½ years ago and the other two last year (CNN; Three). Obama was totally powerless to obtain the release of the American held hostage during his administration. In fact, the only way Obama was every able to ever get American hostages released was either by paying a ransom to the capturers or by releasing dangerous terrorists from Gitmo.

      However, President Trump was able to get these three Americans released without giving up anything in return. He was able to do so due to his previous tough talk against NoKo, that the media and Democrats chided him for. But that tough talk not only led to the release of these three Americans but also to the possibility the Korean War will officially be ended. Many did not realize the Korean War of 1950-53 never actually ended. An armistice was signed but not a peace treaty.

 

July 27, 1953

      Mark W. Clark for the UN Command, Peng Dehuai for the Chinese, and Kim Il-Sung for North Korea conclude an armistice ending hostilities. A demilitarized zone is created that roughly follows the prewar border along the 38th parallel. South Korean Pres. Syngman Rhee announces his acceptance of the agreement, but no representative of South Korea ever signs the document (Encyclopedia).

 

      But now, thanks to President Trump’s tough talk, the presidents of the two Koreas met for the first time in years, and an agreement was made to officially end the Korean War.

 

The Korean War will be formally declared over after 65 years, the North and South have said.

      At a historic summit between leaders Kim Jong-Un and Moon Jae-in, the neighbouring countries agreed they would work towards peace on the peninsula with a formal end to the conflict set to be announced later this year.

      The pair agreed to bring the two countries together and establish a “peace zone” on the contested border (Independent).

 

      In addition, Trump’s new Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, negotiated a planned summit between President Trump and NoKo President Kim Jong Un. That summit is set for June 12 in Singapore. It will discuss the denuclearization of NoKo (NBC).

      If this meeting with Jung Un proves fruitful and if there is any justice in the world, Trump should get the Nobel Peace prize. But then, the Nobel committee is not very trustworthy, given that they gave Obama the Nobel Peace Prize shortly after he took office and before he had done anything. If they had waited, they would have discovered that Obama did nothing to further world peace. His polices instead led to the rise of ISIS, which in turn killed thousands, with Obama doing little to stop them. It took Trump to take office and his tough policies to get ISIS under control.

      But be that as it may, the media’s response to these obvious achievements by Trump are truly amazing First, they chide Trump for letting the three freed hostages stand for pictures, then they berate him for thanking NoKo for their release. What did they want? For the hostages to be brought out of Air Force One with hoods over their heads and for Trump to say “na nana na na” to Jung Un?

      Moreover, every President who has gotten hostages released had them stand for photo ops, including Obama, after he paid $1.3. billion or released five dangerous terrorists from Gitmo to get them released. But somehow Trump doing the same but without giving up anything is wrong.

      The media are also downplaying the meeting between the two Korean presidents and the upcoming summit as much as possible. But no matter how much they downplay it; these two events are truly historic and worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize.

 

This article is continued at:
Eventful Three Months in Politics (Mid-February to Mid-May 2018) Part Two.

 

Bibliography:

      See end of Part Two.

 

Eventful Three Months in Politics: With President Trump in the Midst of Most of It (Mid-February to Mid-May 2018) - Part One. Copyright © 2018 By Gary F. Zeolla.

The First Impeachment of Donald J. Trump

    This three-volume set covers the impeachment of Donald J. Trump that occurred over the fall of 2019 to the winter of 2020.  It was yet one more attempt to oust the President from office by Democrats, who never accepted he won in 2016. A complaint about a phone call between President Trump and Ukraine President Zelensky led to an impeachment inquiry to begin in early September 2019. Along the way, the corruption of Joe Biden that Trump wanted investigated and which led to the impeachment inquiry is discussed.

The above article was posted on this website May 13, 2018.

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