Once Again, Trump's "Space Force" Is A Colossal Boondoggle That Rivals Reagan's "Star Wars" Idiocy

The recent news that Donnie Dotard  approved funding – embedded within the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) -- for  the U.S. Space Force, ought to have every American's attention and outrage.   After all, in this age of outrageous military expenditures do we really need to be spending money on space wars. Trump, who first mentioned the Space Force idea in March 2018, and the U.S. Congress thinks so!

Among the lies put forward accompanying this phony event is that "Space force" marks  the first new U.S. military service in more than 70 years.  Trouble is,  it's not a "military service" but simply an unimaginative reinvention of the 'wheel'. To be specific,  a broken 'wheel' once known as the 'Strategic Defense Initiative' or SDI, other wise known as "Star Wars".   But now gussied up with PR and renamed "Space force".


According to The New York Times, Trump’s advisor and son-in-law-in-chief, Jared Kushner, “helped broker a deal to create the Space Force, a chief priority of the president’s, in exchange for the paid parental leave, a measure championed by his wife, Ivanka Trump, also a senior advisor to the president.”   

Which is more recycled bollocks that plays as a legit claim because most Americans can't keep up with the details of what's happening from one news cycle to the next.  Thanks to Trump and his incessant tweet storms and diatribes, crimes - as well as starting wars (like with Iran - and later likely North Korea) he won't be able to finish.

The truth?

The original idea for this boondoggle  was hatched some years ago by my feckless Colorado congress critter, Doug Lamborn  

 Lamborn is easily the most craven, mendacious, useless POS to ever grab power in our state.   Some  may recall that back in 2014 this walking turd wanted to slice Medicaid and food stamps for poor kids in order to feather the nest of the Pentagon and for expansion of already extensive military bases etc. near Colorado Springs.  Most recently, the miscreant mutt was almost eliminated from the GOP primary because of flouting Colorado law. To wit, a candidate may get his name on a primary ballot if he manages to get at least 1,000 signatures from likely voters- but these must be residents.

Problem was that 'Lame brain' used a lot of out- of -state dupes to garner signatures.  A legal case was brought, lawsuit filed, and the Colorado Supreme Court agreed, kicking him off the ballot. However, the slimy little douche took his case to federal court (which we know is stacked with Trumpie appointees) and argued that the residency rule for signature gatherers in Colorado was unconstitutional and "violated" his free speech. The federal judge (Philip Brimmer) agreed and tossed the case out so we're saddled with this shit head again.

Flash forward: the whole Space Force idea was originally Lamborn's, hatched in order to grab more money in campaign contributions-  from defense contractors  promised gigs here in Colorado Springs.  Lamborn as well as the defense contractors  saw only huge dollar signs,  with $$$$ pouring in at taxpayer's expense.

Cue the startup music and we beheld that  the knuckle dragger GOP House (prior to the 2018 midterms) had approved the creation of a "Space Corps" inside the Air Force. (Not separate from it!)  There  followed Trump's alleged novel brain fart on June, 18, 2018  at a meeting of the National Space Council  (WSJ, 'Trump Calls For A Space Force', 6/19/18, p. A3) 

But anyone with more than air between the ears could see it was merely a regurgitation of Lamborn's - though he also called it a "Space Corps".  At the time reported  (Denver Post, May 14, 2018) Lamborn had insisted :

"I don't care what we call it, or what it looks like as long as we make space the priority in the Department of Defense that it deserves to be".

According to the Times' piece:

"The aim of Space Force is to maintain U.S. superiority in space, particularly weighed against threats by China and Russia. The Space Force is part of a $1.4 trillion government-spending package. (Congress approved $40 million for Space Force operations and maintenance in the fiscal year 2020 appropriations.)  It will not be its own military department, like the Navy, Army and Air Force, as the secretary of the Air Force will administer it. The Space Force will have its own representation on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, according to the law that created it."


Now let's cut to reality as opposed to fantasy:  What's really behind this bull crap? Well, the old term - which I still prefer - is "pork barrel spending". In other words, Lamborn's and Reagan's reincarnated boondoggle was merely revived under a new(?) title and different PR.  But like most current defense projects  it is merely an expedient device to  funnel  money to the Pentagon and its defense contractors for a fake project with the U.S. taxpayer the easy mark.  This, btw, is after the Pentagon has already lost track of trillions of dollars of funding, since at least 2002. (According to former analyst Chuck Spinney, see e.g.  
The Pentagon Merits NO Further Budget Increases Un...   )

So we are on the same plane of reality here (and why I used the term "specious") , let's note this is another one of those "bad ideas" exposed by Matt Miller in his book The Tyranny of Bad Ideas.  I.e. god awful, already proven disasters like trickle down tax cuts,  that keep coming back like bad pennies....or zombies.  In this case, no matter what Dotard and his cabal of lackeys claim about  being "a matter of national security', this is simply Reagan's Star Wars boondoggle in a new guise.  What's worse this time around is that this money waster could be approved under the "enactment" of the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act.  Talk about snake oil scams!

Indeed,  as we read in the Times' piece:

“Roughly 16,000 active-duty and civilian personnel who used to make up Air Force Space Command are now assigned to the Space Force following the enactment of the fiscal 2020 NDAA.” And, over the next year-and-a-half, "


So, in other words, those 16,000 recruited for this sham "service" will now be forced into a pretend job that supposedly makes us all more secure, but in reality is a Potemkin ruse.   ("Potemkin" is derived from "Potemkin Village" -  which term signifies any deceptive or false construct designed to mislead those within the false enclave and those peering in from the outside.)

For the benefit of those with poor memories, recall Star Wars, or the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), was never proven workable or even remotely feasible.  It depended upon incorporating space-based interceptors as well as powerful lasers mounted on satellites to take down Soviet ICBMs.   The  most devastating exposure of the missile defense con appeared in the May, 1987 issue of Physics Today and was entitled "APS Directed Energy Weapons Study (Executive Summary)".   Versions of it  subsequently appeared in other journals, including the Reviews Of Modern Physics, e.g.
https://journals.aps.org/rmp/abstract/10.1103/RevModPhys.59.S1


The study basically took apart the SDI  piece by piece  with no fewer than 26 major  deficiencies identified on everything from the weaknesses of the proposed lasers to shoot down the incoming missiles (too weak by several orders of magnitude) to the problem of identifying the targets at sub-micro-radian resolution in the boost phase to "lack of precision tracking via active sensor systems".

 This more recent iteration of the Star Wars snake oil emphasizes the theme that "we need to protect our satellites from being shot down",  say by the Chinese, Russkies...or maybe even the Iranians.(According to a recent Pentagon report China and Russia pose the main threats  and are "making serious headway in space and could develop technologies to 'disrupt or destroy U.S. and allied satellites" in a future conflict.  

But let's get real here: satellites typically fly in predictable orbits and so will always be fairly easy to target, say by a determined bad actor.  But launching a typical weather or defense satellite is expensive enough without adding hundreds of pounds more weight for defenses (excimer lasers?) , or attempting to devise expensive ground A.I. systems to disable enemy satellites in orbit.  A more practical solution - which maybe trillion less in cost- is to employ greater redundancy in the satellites we do put up.  Thus, the military - say Air Force, not a redundant useless "Space Force"- could also deploy backup systems on unmanned aerial vehicles - integrating them into a fraction of the fleet.

But  here's the hard fact.  These wastrels and weasels in the Pentagon never ever got over their little 'Star Wars' (SDI) farce being exposed for the claptrap scheme it was.  As proof, I point to a little known 1989 congressional report entitled  "Military Space Forces - The Next Fifty Years".  Therein we learned that  the aerospace industry had a boner for the resurrection of a bottomless money pit  analogous to the original SDI but using fear, to concoct a "space force".    The money wastrels realized SDI had its day so they needed a new con and  new con artists. Enter the likes of Doug Lamborn - and later, Donald Trump - the ultimate con artist.   As Bruce Gagnon, coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power In Space noted in a recent press release regarding this plan:

"The aerospace industry has long claimed that  this new Star Wars would be the largest industrial project in the history of our planet. So much money would be needed that the industry has identified the ‘entitlement programs’ for defunding to pay for ‘everything space.’ That means Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and the remaining tattered social safety net would be cut to pay for Space Force.”

Which is exactly what defense analyst Chuck Spinney also warned when the  portion of  GDP allocated to national security, defense spending doubled  post 9/11, e.g.

Former Defense Analyst Chuck Spinney Predicted ‘Wa...

But now the spending for the "space force" will be on steroids.  While the malignant and malicious budget -busting cost is bad enough, there is also the destabilizing effect for global security.  Translation: the 'Doomsday' clock  (of The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists) will now move another minute closer to midnight, if this scheme is implemented -at least to the exent other nations believe it to be a real threat.
  

Writing for Counterpunch, Karl Grossman, professor of journalism at State University of New York/College at Old Westbury, and  the author of the book, The Wrong Stuff: The Space’s Program’s Nuclear Threat to Our Planet, pointed out that the Space Force deal flies in the face of “the landmark Outer Space Treaty of 1967, put together by the U.S., then Soviet Union and the U.K., designating space as a global commons to be used for peaceful purposes”.

The Outer Space Treaty “bans weapons of mass destruction in space,” Grossman pointed out.  Further:

 “The Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space (PAROS) treaty that the three nations have sought to expand would prohibit the placement of any weapons in space. But the U.S. “has opposed the PAROS treaty and effectively vetoed its enactment at the United Nations.”

Oh, one last thing you ought to know:  the magic words "Space force" have been a reliable applause line at Trump's political rallies  - appealing to the cabbage brains that flock to them and cheer. (I.e. those in the lower half of the IQ curve.)   Most of these goobers are delirious because no one explained to them that 'space force' doesn't really mean Trump will be leading a military unit against extraterrestrials, aka aliens.  Why would he if 'Captain Bonespurs'   wasn't even prepared to fight any wars on Earth,   choosing to get out of service five times using the ruse of bone spurs.   (He did this by getting a special doctor's letter each time as opposed to undergoing an actual draft physical - such as I had to take in March, 1965.)

But now this consummate con man and grifter pestilence has succeeded in getting even the Dems to sign on to his cockamamey bullshit space force idea.   No wonder so many Dem voters (and others) are terrified at the prospect of the ambulatory orange maggot getting reelected this year.

See Also:

Armed Forces | Donald Trump | Space & Astronomy

With Space Force, Congress Hands Trump a Major Victory

Excerpt:

"The idea for Space Force started out as a joke by Trump when he flippantly said, during a 2018 speech in San Diego, California: “I was saying it the other day because we’re doing a tremendous amount of work in space. I said, ‘Maybe we need a new force, we’ll call it the Space Force.’ And I was not really serious. Then I said, ‘What a great idea, maybe we’ll have to do that.’” A year ago, when Democrats won enough congressional seats to claim victory in the House, the fate of Space Force was in serious doubt. The Atlantic speculated that “[w]ith the House of Representatives flipped and Congress split, the Trump administration’s Space Force will probably never get off the ground.” But just 13 months later, Democrats and Republicans together gave the most unpopular president in memory the approval he needed to fast-track his idea into reality.

In 2018, Democratic Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island expressed his opposition to Space Force, saying it was “not the way to go.” A year later, Reed capitulated when he voted for the latest NDAA encompassing the creation of Space Force, saying the bill was “a responsible compromise that strengthens our national defense capabilities.” Regardless of the liberal party’s feigned opposition to warfighting, militarism has always been a bipartisan project, and it is no surprise that the militarization of space is as well."

And:

Armed Forces | Donald Trump | Space & Astronomy

Trump: Make Space Great Again

by John Feffer | January 16, 2020 - 7:33am | permalink

Barr Disgraces DOJ By Invoking Cockamamey "Russiagate" Conspiracy Idiocy - To Justify Criminal Investigation Of DOJ

"You shall do my bidding catching  flies as a go-fer conspiracy toad until I say no more!"


"I think this is the most concerning development out of the Justice Department we've seen since Donald Trump became president.  Look, obviously if there was a crime committed it ought to be investigated. But we know more about the Russia probe than probably any investigation in the Justice Department's history.  Bob Mueller wrote a 450 page report that became public, the DOJ released a FISA application which it's never done before in its history...and through all of that we've never seen a single evidence of a crime, or an allegation of a crime that would give a single predicate for an investigation. 

I think it's notable in this story it doesn't say what the allegation of a crime is that the Department is now investigating.   I don't think it's a coincidence that the day after an ambassador goes up to the hill and gives incredibly damning evidence about the president extorting a foreign government that we see this leak from the Department of Justice. And I think it's incredibly concerning about the administration of justice and the rule of law in this country."  -   Matt Miller, former Director of Public Affairs, Justice Department, on 'Last Word' Thursday night.

"What do you do when one party stakes its faith — and ultimately government itself — on observable, measurable realities while the other has made the cynical decision to cast these principles away? How do you strategize? How do you cope?"  - Jennifer Senior, NY Times Friday,

Assume for the sake of argument there is a parallel reality in which one nation's political party believes it can control that nation's governance in perpetuity. Impose an indefinite rule of autocratic, one party fascism if you will.  That nation has a constitution which decrees a separation of powers and the existence of a co-equal branch of government to the executive. However, this political party fancies it can rig the system - with the right president-  to remain in power as long as it wants. Also to render the co-equal branch a neutered nonentity. How to do it?

First define a 'unitary executive' doctrine giving an authoritarian president not only total power over the executive branch but also transcendent power over all branches.  

Second, enable this power to be tested with the election of the "right" candidate. Preferably a flouter of norms who also believes the constitution is just a piece of paper and that he can bully or intimidate any group in the nation: intelligence agencies, media, any other political parties, or other voters, i.e. who never voted for him.

Get this character to then commit impeachable offenses, say collaborating or conspiring with a foreign power to steal an election to shoehorn him into office. Then challenge any supposed co-equal branch to hold him in check or administer  constitutional justice. Such that even if he shot someone on the parallel reality's 5th avenue there'd be no crime, and he'd get away with it.

Then third, to escape any predicament of accountability (by media and the co-equal branch), recruit an attorney general who will not be independent but do this odious autocrat's bidding and investigate the investigators of the original debacle and conspiracy, i.e. that got him into office.   This will come in especially handy when he's later caught shaking down the head of another foreign power to dig up dirt on a political opponent.

Far fetched nonsense? Nope, it's already unfolding even as we've seen William Barr now commence a criminal inquiry into the alleged "Russiagate" conspiracy despite Mueller's judicious probe (involving dozens of FBI agents and others) that led to the Mueller report, e.g.

www.justice.gov/storage/report.pdf

In other words, Barr and his Justice Department is in the process of opening a criminal inquiry into its own  Russia investigation.  See e. g.  NY Times:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/24/us/politics/john-durham-criminal-investigation.html

How can this head popping anomaly be, you ask? Well, because the DOJ has now been taken over by rank authoritarians and puppets of such who intend to push the specious doctrine of the unitary executive to its limits, devil take the hindmost.  

No surprise then that Barr has mutated into an officious, hop scotching  human toad -   hopping all over the world trying to dig up dirt on his own agency, the intelligence agencies under its roof (the FBI) and ancillary investigators who probed the Russian infiltration into the 2016 election.  Except in this case it isn't to go after the Russkies (and Trumpies who collaborated with them), but those who investigated the conspiracy to steal the election for Donald Trump. In other words Barr has debased the DOJ by converting it into an expeditious vehicle for Trump's political revenge.

Of course, by shamelessly acting on Trump's behalf, Barr has now put himself into impeachment jeopardy. . He's also created enormous embarrassment for the nation in his desperate antics, even as everyone with a brain knows exactly what he's up to: providing an alternative "criminal inquiry" to counter and offset the Democrats justifiable impeachment inquiry. One, I might ad, that now has even more ballast after a federal court judge deemed it legitimate and that the DOJ and Barr now must turn over all previously concealed (e.g. grand jury) materials from the Mueller probe.  See:

Impeachment Inquiry Is Legal, Judge Rules, Giving Democrats a Victory

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/25/us/politics/house-impeachment-subpoenas.html

As for embarrassing the nation, Giuseppe Conte,  the  Italian prime minister was asked by Italian lawmakers to explain what in the world the U.S. attorney general wanted. The New York Times published this striking account yesterday:

Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte of Italy said his country’s intelligence services had informed the American attorney general, William P. Barr, that they played no role in the events leading to the Russia investigation, taking the air out of an unsubstantiated theory promoted by President Trump and his allies in recent weeks.

“Our intelligence is completely unrelated to the so-called Russiagate and that has been made clear,” Mr. Conte said in a news conference in Rome on Wednesday evening after spending hours describing Italy’s discussions with Mr. Barr to the parliamentary committee on intelligence. 

Mr. Conte publicly acknowledged for the first time that Mr. Barr had twice met with the leaders of Italy’s intelligence agencies after asking them to clarify their role in a 2016 meeting between a Maltese professor and a Trump campaign adviser on a small college campus in Rome, Link Campus University.

As bizarre as this may seem, Barr appears to have also gone to other allied nations in his Quixote- like tilting at fantasy conspiracy windmills. The toad was driven by the need to find something, anything to save Trump's butt, looking for damaging information about American officials involved in "Russiagate" , which he thought might help Donald Trump.

Italy, not surprisingly, had no such information, and seemed baffled as to what the United States’ top law-enforcement official was looking for.

The precise details of the relevant  conspiracy idiocy -  I can't dignify it with "theory" -  are mind-numbing in themselves.  They apparently involve George Papadopoulos, who served as an adviser to the Trump campaign, a London-based Maltese professor named Josef Mifsud, and assorted characters. The sum of the accusations, speculations and misinformation are enough to blow a hole into the sanity and mind of a normal person, but would do a QAnon zombie proud.  To be sure they are absolutely  ridiculous, almost on the level of the "Pizzagate"  rubbish that pushed the hare -brained malarkey that Hillary was operating a child sex slave ring in the basement of a D.C.  pizza parlor.

You laugh, but one Trumpie imbecile actually took a rifle to the suspected establishment to mete out justice and a tragedy was only averted by quick thinking - and reaction.  Needless to say I am not going to waste time (or blog space)  regurgitating this latest horse shit. Anyone who really wants
 more information can obtain it from Thursday night’s A block and this Vox piece from last month. Be sure you ration your neural exposure time!

In the end, sadly, the Trumpies and their cabal have succeeded in literally reducing our country to a laughing stock.  If my Revolutionary War ancestor Conrad Brumbaugh was alive to day to see this, he'd puke. The United States – the world’s preeminent superpower, ostensibly the global leader on matters of international affairs – has an attorney general who has gone to foreign countries, cap in hand, looking for dirt on his own country’s officials, begging for help with a ridiculous conspiracy, only to be told by our allies, “We don’t know what you’re talking about.”

If that doesn't embarrass any red-blooded American I don't know what would.

See also:

https://www.salon.com/2019/10/25/bill-barrs-alternate-universe-investigation-has-a-goal-right-wing-authoritarian-rule/


And:

The Trump Administration | 2016 Elections | William Barr

Watch Out for Bill Barr's Flunky John Durham to Fabricate a Report That Would "Absolve" Russia of 2016 Election Interference

And:

Donald Trump | Republicans

What Would Republican Senators Do If Trump Shot Someone on Fifth Avenue?

And;

Donald Trump | Republicans

The GOP: Trading Its Future for a Criminal

Mueller's 9 Minutes of Fame Punts The Ball To Congress As Trump & Co. Continue Spinning More Lies

Robert Mueller delivering his nine minute statement earlier today, which left most Americans seeking courage, unimpressed.

"Bob, your trail of bread crumbs just isn't good enough. We're just not that smart anymore! America is now an aging shortstop.  You have to hit it right at us."  Bill Maher on Real Time, Friday, April 26, on why Mueller's indirect, detached approach is useless

"If we had confidence that the President did not commit a crime, we would have said so."  - Robert Mueller, earlier today.


Well, at least one major milestone was passed earlier today, we finally got to hear Mueller's voice live and in person. No filters. The problem is it was mostly pro forma and the message enunciated: "If you want to see what I found, read the report."  Righto, like 100 million Americans will now rush to read it ASAP. Hell, I already published the 'juiciest' parts of Vol. II (with all the obstruction behavior involving WH Counsel Don McGhan that- propelled  GOP Rep. Justin Amash to call for impeachment) and  42  have read it to date. Not an auspicious sign.  On the upside, reading between the lines - or rather interpreting between Mueller's careful words- one beheld he wasn't letting Trump off the hook. Also, it was now time for House Dems & Pelosi to get some cojones and initiate impeachment inquiry - at least.

Bottom line: Mueller punted again but basically - in his Volume II - left the means to bring impeachment proceedings against the Vulgarian criminal fouling the highest office.  On the other hand, he isn't keen for any more public appearances, basically averring if the House Dems subpoena him to testify all he will do is read what's already been published, nothing more. Well, hell, at least it will be kinda like a parent reading a bedtime story to his kid - when the kid wouldn't have opened the book on his own.  It would be better than nothing, and hey, for each question Mueller could direct willing readers to the key parts of Volume I or II as he reads. It sure beats the Mr. Silent Sphinx Act we've beheld the past two years. At this point we will take anything, and so should Nancy Pelosi and the House Dems.  Pelosi claims she's still seeking facts and evidence of obstruction, but what do you call Trump's universal blocking of all subpoenas  - laughing them down, blowing them off - as he metaphorically pisses down the Dems' throats and laughs?

Finally launching an impeachment  might even shut up Trump and his top sycophant ass licker, Sara Sanders, who predictably came out with their own forlorn lying spin and distortions, yapping crap like "case closed", and "it's time to move on."  No, it's time for impeachment!

Mueller himself in his 9 minute spiel gave the usual reasons cited earlier for not going the whole hog and failing to issue and indictment: basically that DOJ policy (from the Office of Legal Counsel) "doesn't allow it".  Which is bull pockey. It's only a guideline, a policy after all, not an iron clad law or rule. And we've seen in the past two months how Dotard has spit on norm after norm blocking subpoenas  while congress is made to sit on its fingers fuming.  The correct interpretation of Mueller's citation of limits in issuing an indictment is:  "We found Trump guilty but the DOJ wouldn't allow us to say it."

Never mind. Dotard and his retinue of sycophants tried to spin this to mean "exoneration".   The first tool they used was to interpret a partial affirmation as a total negation. Thus, Mueller admitted he found "insufficient evidence" to identify a conspiracy with the Russians (in Vol. I). But Trump, his malleable cow press secretary Huckleberry Sanders and others tried to portray that as meaning "nothing was found" and hence "exoneration".  Nope, because insufficient evidence is not the same as zero evidence. One may have insufficient evidence a neighbor bludgeoned his wife with a hammer, as there are bloody fingerprints on it. But there is no confirming DNA evidence to match the suspect to the actual weapon and crime.

Mueller did (in Vol. 2) identify 10 incidents in which Trump attempted to obstruct justice, for example by firing the director of the FBI, though he stopped short of charging the Dotard with a crime.  Never mind, because again by the OLC guidelines Mueller's hands were cuffed on the issue of finding crimes. (As already explained.) But again, he clearly left the process open for congress to pursue "high crimes and misdemeanors" under the Article I powers allotted to it.  

Mueller himself fucked up badly during his soliloquy,  asserting:

"A president cannot be charged with a federal crime while he is in office.  That is unconstitutional."

No, it would not. As one legal specialist and former prosecutor noted on MSNBC, "there hasn't even been a court decision to render a verdict on constitutionality".  Adding, he could find just as many to assert it was constitutional as not. In the end it is an OLC "guideline" that appears no where in the Constitution per se.

As MSNBC legal specialist Ari Melber and others put it (e.g. former DOJ spokes person Matt Miller) it wasn't a 100 % nothing burger. There were some actual ounces of 'meat' in the statement terms of Mueller saying (between the lines, as it were): "I could not deliver a criminal prosecution but congress can still act on its own".

Bingo! But most Americans - even with IQs in the normal range- might have missed that. As Bill Maher once put it in a New Rules segment (see top quote) on Real Time, Americans are like aging shortstops. They need the ball hit directly at their midsections to make the play. Or in this case, the connections. The perfect illustration was one of the Michigan voters  highlighted at a recent question-answer session held by Justin Amash. This woman was astonished to learn- after Amash educated her- that Trump was NOT "exonerated" in the Mueller Report. She'd only heard that by having been isolated in the conserve media (i.e. FOX, Rush Limburger ) echo chamber the past 8 weeks.

At least a number of Senators - following Mueller's performance- have sounded the proper perspectives to counter the balderdash of Trump and his minions, e.g.

Julian Castro:

Mueller made clear this morning that his investigation now lays at the feet of Congress. No one is above the law—Congress should begin an impeachment inquiry.

May 29, 2019

Elizabeth Warren:

Mueller leaves no doubt:

1) He didn't exonerate the president because there is evidence he committed crimes.

2) Justice Department policy prevented him from charging the president with any crimes

.
3) The Constitution leaves it up to Congress to act—and that's impeachment.

May 29, 2019

Kamala Harris:

What Robert Mueller basically did was return an impeachment referral. Now it is up to Congress to hold this president accountable.

We need to start impeachment proceedings. It's our constitutional obligation.

May 29, 2019

Again, I present the link to the full Mueller report which readers can access here:

www.justice.gov/storage/report.pdf

Please read it yourselves to see why the above takes by the D-Senators are correct. If pressed for time, at least read my transcription of Vol. II to do with obstruction of justice involving Trump White House Counsel Don McGahn! (May 22 post).

Your country will thank you for it, and so will Democrats when they begin impeachment proceedings.  (IF they do!)  It will mean one less segment of citizens to have to educate.  In any case, I am for the Jerrold Nadler and House Judiciary Committee bringing Mueller in to testify - even if it means only seeing and hearing him read sections of his own report.

Something is better than nothing!   

See also:

Donald Trump | Robert Mueller

Mueller Also Had Accountability, but Evaded It

And:

Donald Trump | Impeachment | Robert Mueller

Mueller Just Invited Congress To Do Its Job: Impeach Trump

And:

Alex Henderson

Article Tools E-mail | Print Comments (0)

Donald Trump | Robert Mueller

Here Are 4 Key Moments from Mueller’s Stunning Statement on the Russia Investigation

Another Reich Wing Loser Roused To Febrile Ruminations Of Retribution - And Busted Just In Time

Robert Bowers (top left) who committed the Spring Hill Synagogue massacre last October, and Trump and Hitler - two authoritarians of a feral kind.  Below:  Christopher Hasson, the White Nationalist who plotted the latest domestic terror - but which the DOJ let out nary a peep for a week.

"To hear the Republicans you'd believe all these violent acts are just spontaneous events like some weird meteorological event. All of a sudden strange things happen, sun changes  positions with the Moon, floods appear, tornadoes erupt.....as if there is no coherent explanation for the mass killings, the hate crimes. It's incredible!"  - Julia Ioffe, October 29  on 'Morning Joe', after the Spring Hill massacre.

"It's not to say Trump's words cause crazy people to be crazy. It's to say his words have impact and they have particular impact on people who are mentally unbalanced or who have an inclination to violence.  The other problem is that Trump personally has lied over and over to convince us that Muslims from outside the U.S. are the greatest threat to Americans. And in fact it is domestic terrorism. He's lied about this, lied about it to Congress and it's about time we have some oversight hearings from Jerry Nadler and others to really explore why we have not taken domestic right wing terror more seriously."  - Jeennifer Rubin, speaking on All In Wednesday night, following the arrest of Christopher Hasson for a domestic terror plot..


In October,eleven people were killed and six wounded in the worst ever massacre of Jews in U.S. History. The slaughter  - at a synagogue in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh -   was the work of a hate -drive, right wing psycho named Robert Bowers, a  46 y/o truck driver and Pittsburgh resident.  There was no doubt Bowers held far-right views.   After all he was a committed poster on "Gab"  then the  'go to' haven for Nazis, White Nationalists, Aryans and other extremists - oh, and plenty of Trump supporters too. In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, the local CBS affiliate KDJA reported that a “white male [with] a beard …walked in yelling ‘All Jews must die’.”

The latest sick-MAGA -ized whackjob is Christopher Hasson, fortunately busted before he could mount a terrorist slaughter using a stash of weapons, e.g.

Prosecutors said Hasson was a “domestic terrorist” and that he should be detained. He was arrested last week on drugs and weapons charges. Incredibly (and inexplicably) there was no DOJ alert or news release - as if the agency sought to contain the news that this bad guy was not a Muslim,  But as noted by David Cay Johnston on 'All In' Wednesday night, after Jeff Sessions came in as AG, cases involving  right wing domestic terror were "downgraded", i.e. shuffled to the backburner.     In the case of Hasson, we needed  the help of an astute university prof (Seamus Hughes) to expose the bust.  For nearly a week after Hasson's arrest there was complete radio silence from the FBI, from the investigators, from the prosecutors, from the Justice Department - not to mention the White House. Why? Likely because busting these turds would puncture the main tropes and narratives, propaganda of MAGA country.  In Johnston's words:

"Big surprise given Sessions background and Donald Trump's race baiting through his campaign. Trump had been giving aid and comfort to these people, many of whom are mentally unbalanced. These people are being encouraged by Donald to act on their impulses not just fantasize about them."

That still doesn't excuse the top law agency in the nation  remaining silent on the terrorist perp for over 5 days (We already knew Adolf 'Dotard' Drumpf would, duh!).  As former DOJ spokesperson  and Justice analyst Matt Miller put it last night on All In:

"There are good law enforcement reasons why this case and similar ones should be publicized. I mean this isn't the only white nationalist, domestic terrorist out there. These cases are on the rise and by publicizing this case you send the message it will be taken seriously and you let other people who might be around these domestic terrorists know the warning signs, like stockpiling guns, reading right wing manifestos. Those are warning signs that it's time to call the FBI. It makes our country less safe by not publicizing these cases."

Miller went on to note this isn't the first time the DOJ has sat on such a case. He cited a Nebraska incident last January in which white supremacists tried to take over an Amtrak train, but was subdued by the crew and passengers. Again, the DOJ put out no press release and the public only learned after a beat reporter was coming court filings and happened to come across it. As Miller added: "It makes no sense. It's not the way we did things when I was there. I wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt but find I just can't do that."

But it is the way things are done in an administration that wants to protect itself against the charge it's stirring up hate with its vile rhetoric and often praising neo-Nazis and other filth.

The toxic change since Trump's arrival has also been documented and verified by the SPLC .  The organization (to which I belong) has found the number of U.S. hate groups hit a record high last year at 1.020.  Most appalling, the number has jumped 30 percent since 2014, and followed three consecutive years of decline following President Obama's time in office.  The center also noted: "The rise in hate movement coincides with President Trump's campaign and presidency."

Anyway, we now know Hasson - who incredibly reached the status of Lt. in the Coast Guard-  intended “to murder innocent civilians on a scale rarely seen in this country”, according to a filing to federal court in Maryland. Law enforcement officers seized 15 guns and 1,000 rounds of ammunition from his home.

The POS had Democrats in his sights and his online targeting materials read like a 'Who's Who' of liberal media stars and politicians.  The filing acknowledged  Hasson to be a fan of the Norwegian mass killer Anders Behring Breivik, and that he had compiled a spreadsheet of targets, including:  Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Joe Scarborough, Kirsten Gillibrand, Kamala Harris,  Cory Booker and Ilhan Omar, as well as Chris Hayes ('All In') and CNN anchor Chris Cuomo.  

Sound familiar? Recall back in October another Trumpie dirtbag named Cesar Sayoc was also planning a mass assassination of the current liberal-progressive leadership. Sayoc - picture din the image below at a rally with his red MAGA cap,

mailed out pipe bombs to a slew of Dem legislators.  NY and federal  investigators all made it clear they were damned dangerous, even equating them to IEDs. The one that ended up at Robert DeNiro's place, for example, could have blown his eyes out or fatally injured him had the mail not been intercepted by a former NYPD detective.  TO remind readers of Sayoc's similar terror tactic, see:

Broad-Daylight Fascism and the Bombs of October

The demented loser Christopher Hasson also  clearly was infected with  Trumpist racial tropes and hateful mind viruses.  The wack job evidently searched online for “civil war if trump impeached” and “what if trump illegally impeached”, according to investigators.  This again, shows me all the more reason to impeach the Dotard and bring the rest of these rats and roaches out of their rotted woodwork.

Incredibly,  Hasson’s  terror plot was first noted by Seamus Hughes, the deputy director of George Washington University’s program on extremism and a former US anti-terrorism official.  It was, as I said, not put out there by the DOJ.   We also now know this rabid dog  had been stockpiling weapons in his cramped basement apartment in Silver Spring, Maryland - probably for months in anticipation of his Nazi-spawned bloodbath.

After all, the court filing quoted emails recovered from Hasson’s account in which he spoke about “dreaming of a way to kill almost every last person on the earth”. He  also mused about biological attacks (using plague) to foul the food supply,  along with bombings and shootings.

Most incriminating - not just for Hasson but the whole White Nationalist cancer invading the nation -  he used far-right slogans spread in recent years by other supporters of Donald Trump as well (like Synagogue killer Bowers) ,   The same sorry tune was sounded, i.e. warning that “liberalist/globalist ideology” was destroying white Americans and discussing conspiracies by “((((People))))” – a styling frequently applied online by the far right to the names of Jews.  Also used by Robert Bowers, the Synagogue killer

I know the average American has the attention span of a gnat, and even less memory of recent political events, far less historical ones. But it shouldn't be too much of a stretch or mental demand  to recall the incendiary words of the Swine-in-chief  often just before major massacres or displays, including before the Synagogue massacre by Bowers. 

Is Trump partly responsible for triggering these murderous misfits? Is the Sun a star?  Does a bear shit in the woods? Is gravity real (or fake news)? Dotard has regularly called reporters "enemies of the people" and encouraged his zombies to "knock the crap out of protesters".

A good summary of Trump's rhetoric, in speeches and ties to Neo-Nazis, appeals to White Nationalists can be found here.
https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2018/2017-year-hate-and-extremism

 In the wake of the Squirrel Hill Synagogue massacre one onlooker was heard to say, in regard  to the viral hate issuing from Trump:

“I can’t believe it has spread out this far,”.

But so long as Trump is rallying his crazies, it will.   The fact this pissant could have condemned the attack on the synagogue  but instead  turned around and heaped attacks on his critics. All of which shows his words are empty as far as any condolences. They're merely a pause before he launches the next hate screed on the media, the caravan, the Democrats, you name it.

Meanwhile, we will have to keep a watchful eye out for entitled, bat shit  Nazi goons like Christopher Hasson - convinced their whiteness gives them license to murder, plunder and destroy with impunity.  All of that merely to try to resurrect some long dead "ideal" that never truly existed in the first place. Like Lance Morrow's fanciful "Neverland" of the Saturday Evening Post 1950s - when blacks were still being lynched and burned if still out at sundown. And using a white water fountain in Mississippi got them two months behind bars.    

All of which points to the essential necessity of ousting Trump and his entire administration next year, given it must now be considered an existential threat. As former Acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal  put it on MSNBC  'All In' two nights ago:

"All the accounts together show that Trump is engaged in a serial murder of the Constitution and rule of law. He fires anyone investigating him who wants to seek the truth,  whether it's McCabe or whether it's Comey or even Jeffrey Sessions. He puts in place constitutional jokes like Matthew Whitaker.  He tries to discredit and destroy investigations.  He dangles pardons at people who could help him out in any trials. He declares national emergencies without warrant. He discredits judges. All together  this is someone who is unfit to discharge his duties as our chief executive officer."

Like a metastasizing cancer all of the toxic tentacles of Trumpism will need to be eradicated, eviscerated from the nation's memes and political processes as far as humanly possible - especially the odious white supremacy.  We must also hope there are no more hoax incidents of racial victimization such as concocted by Jussie Smollett in a desperate bid to grab more fame than he probably deserves. At least in Smollett's case there will likely be judicial retribution, unless he pleads temporary insanity or that he was on a strong medication  that affected his brain.  But no one ought to believe for one nanosecond that Smollett's pathetic stunt relieves Trump and MAGA country of all the racist transgressions and hate crimes committed under his banner!

See also:

Conservatives and the Right

Report: In 2018, Hate Groups Are More Popular Than Ever

by Ilana Novick | February 22, 2019 - 7:42am | permalink