Final Impeachment Inquiry Hearing

Thursday was pitiful. We have seen a Democratic house of congress embarrass themselves and this nation. When I used to negotiate contracts, it was my job to walk into a room and immediately know who and what I was dealing with, I was very good at it. As a stage manager it was my job to know an audience and read what would work better with them and I was very good at it. If you watch the final words by Adam Schiff, he was frustrated and desperate. He knows he has lost. He has lost more than the impeachment, he has lost his status with the Democratic party, he is the guy that messed up the Trump impeachment.

In politics and entertainment, losers are shunned. Nobody wants it to rub off on them. Mr. Schiff is done in his party. He has twice promised the world to people who hate Trump and delivered nothing. The party will not admit that Trump did nothing wrong anymore than they will admit that Trump is not a Russian asset, they will blame Schiff for not proving it.

My prediction, congress is going into recess, when they return they will do nothing about impeachment and will pivot to the new North American trade agreement. Schiff will be left to make his report to the full house and it will be mentioned and ignored. The Democrats in the House will not have a vote on articles of impeachment based on these hearings and will blame it on the Senate saying that the Senate would not act on it if they did. Put a fork in it, this meal is done.

Day 2 - Impeachment Inquiry

I stayed awake all night to watch Day 1 of the hearings and then again for Day 2. I witnessed nothing. We are told Trump is being investigated for trying to blackmail (originally we were told it was a tit for tat or Quid pro quo investigation).the Ukrainian President. One would assume we would hear from people who witnessed such a thing, we did not.

Day 1, we heard from a disgruntled employee that Trump didn't do what they told him to do regarding the Ukraine. He stated that he was not in on the call Trump had with the Ukrainian President and got all his information from someone who heard someone who had a guess. He witnessed nothing and had no evidence, at all. His co-witness knew even less; but, did say he thought that the company that Biden's son worked for should be investigated. The point that both made was that they thought the Ukraine was important to the United States. This is all fine and good; but, has nothing to do with impeaching the President. In fact both witnesses said they didn't know of anything the President should be impeached for. The general assumption was that these were the star witnesses, both of whom had previously been witnesses in closed door meetings.

To me Day 1 was a joke. My brother wanted to give them a benefit of a doubt and see if Day 2 would be the real inside dirt. Day 2 was a bigger joke. The witness had left service months before the call and knew nothing about it. Her complaint was that she was replaced by another Ambassador to the Ukraine. She claimed nothing about crimes by Trump.

The process of the hearings itself was a complete disgrace where the Chairman, Mr. Schiff, refused to allow questions by one congresswoman, a Republican. This is a kangaroo court and a disgrace of congress. This has nothing to do with what people think of Trump and everything to do with what people believe is fair and just.

I have made it clear over the years that I hate the "Patriot Act" which says people don't always get to have a trial and can be detained indefinitely without one, it is an abomination to the constitution and Bush signed it. We have no justice when we allow the process to change based on attitudes towards the accused personally.

Pimpernel has a law degree with honors and multiple American Jurisprudence Awards. I consider the United States Constitution the second greatest written document next to the Bible. The short sightedness of this by the Democrats shows their desperation over removing Trump before he gets re-elected. The techniques they are using will be used against the next Democratic president. That is how politics works and I know because I was in the game for half my life.

I remember when Kennedy was killed and even more so when his brother was. I remember Watergate and personally knew people who interacted with John Dean at the time. In fact, a friend was asked to represent Nixon before the impeachment hearing on some tax thing, he declined. He was a famous attorney and when I was in law school took me to dinner one night, he even let me stay at his beach house and was incredibly kind to allow me to have my graduation party at the same house. He met me when I was in sixth grade; but, my mom and dad had helped him. While we were dining together, prior to my graduation, he asked me if I would represent someone I knew was guilty of a crime. I told him I wasn't sure. He asked me if the system could work if the accused could not have people who understood the law refuse to represent people. He asked if Doctors should refuse medical assistance to people they didn't like. What about the fire department? I fear a society where we only make sure that the people we like get fairness in process.

You can only have a totalitarian society when you care more about personality than policy. Remember these words, they were learned by someone who live through the Nazi regimn.

FIRST THEY CAME

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out

Because I was not a socialist

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out

Because I was not a trade uinionist

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out

Because I was not a Jew

Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me.

Only fools think they are denying Trump and Roger Stone their rights, nope, they are establishing a system where those rights don't exist anymore for anyone.

News Sites

I read dozens of news sites each day. I read sites from both the left and right, I also watch dozens of YouTube political channels. For links to conservative sites I usually go to The Drudge Report, I find I no longer wish to use that site so I am creating this link list to give me quick access to the conservative sites I follow and I through in some conspiracy discussion sites as they always link to unusual news sources. This is in no way an endorsement of any site. It is also not exhaustive. On rare occasions I will read extremist sites of the left and the right; but, I choose not to list any of them. I also read multiple foreign sites, such as English newspapers, I look them up depending on the issue of the day. Perhaps down the road I will add some of them to this list.

News sites

Breitbart
Daily Caller
Daily Wire
Hill
Infowars
Intercept
LA Daily News
LA Times
National Review
New York Post
Real Clear Politics
Washington Examiner
WND
Zerohedge
Above Top Secret
The Daily Grail
Coast to Coast AM

Matt Taibbi - Substack.

Glenn Greenwald - Substack
Aaron Mate - The Grayzone

The Daily Mail - UK

Sydney Morning Herald.

The Bolt Report - Australia

The Death of Fairness Under the Law.

“We want to make sure that we meet the needs of the investigation and not give the president or his legal minions the opportunity to tailor their testimony and in some cases fabricate testimony to suit their interests,” the California Democrat said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

Wow. The above quote came from Adam Schiff. They don't believe the President should be allowed to know what he is being accused of or by whom. Think about that. Only totalitarians treat the accused that way.

Yahoo - Bloomberg - Schiff says secret testimony aimed at keeping Trump in the dark.

It is not media bias, it is propaganda.

There are countries where you are presumed guilty until proven innocent. Our government is based upon the principal that you are innocent unless proven guilty "beyond a reasonable doubt". This is to prevent the government from prosecuting people based on their political beliefs. This is why we require "probable cause" to even investigate someone. The heart of our criminal justice system is built on the need to ensure a fair trial. A fair trial means the accused: A- Gets the right to confront their accuser; B - Has the right to question witnesses: C - Has the right to have an attorney represent with them: D - Has the right to show additional information: E - Has the right to see all the evidence to be used against them in advance of the trial: F - Has the right to know what they are being charged with once the accusations are charged. This is why you are given a reading of "your rights" (Miranda rights) upon arrest. For the first time in our history, NONE of these rights are being provided to President Trump and the media and the neo-liberals and the neo-cons are all okay with that. Fundamental to making these rights have meaning is the right to talk to you attorney in privacy.

The media and the establishment scream on a daily basis that Trump asking for the same rights is "obstruction of congressional oversight" except, they are not doing oversight, they say they are conducting an "Official Impeachment Inquiry"; but they do not use the word "Formal" because that means you have to follow the rules, the form and that requires that you give due process. The inquiry being done is not official as it has not been sanctioned by the House by vote. By the way, this is still not my post on the Ukraine "scandal". This post is also not just about the impeachment witch hunt. It is about what rules we will all live under.

The second the courts say the President does not have rights to due process, it means you don't either. Many people don't care and that is scary. We are seeing the perversion of fairness. Consider the French revolution, a commoner would point to someone they disliked and say, "I accuse of helping the royals" and they would be hung as guilty, no proof needed. The Soviet Union had a presumption until proven guilty so did the Nazi's. For the past few decades the establishment has been pushing us in that direction. The "#MeToo" movement has clearly said that we should believe all women, something clearly ludicrous to anyone who has lived in a house of women where they constantly call each liars. They don't really believe we should believe all women, they believe we shouldn't believe anything men say.

The same establishment saying Trump is guilty till proven innocent doesn't accept Mueller's finding that Trump did not collude with Russia in the 2016 election. Just a small offside point, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) which has fought for the rights of Nazi's and Communists has remained completely silent on the Trump inquiry. I have supported those clowns for 50 years and now find them cowards and partisans, rather than protectors of civil rights. I should also mention that in court you cannot use second hand account (someone told me garbage), you have to have heard or witnessed something first hand to testify on it.

You might wish to believe that the denial of basic rights to Trump is one time thing; but, it would be precedent and means it can happen to everyone at anytime. I will tell you this, the Supreme Court will NOT enforce these so called congressional "subpoenas" if they do not comport to and allow for due process. The Democrats in congress know this, that is why they are trying to say "Obstruction of Congressional Oversight" is their charge against Trump without having an underlying crime. The truth is denying someone due process is an obstruction of justice.

For new readers, I did not and don't intend to vote for Trump. I have not voted for a Bush or Clinton. The Nazi's were given more rights during the Nuremberg trials where they were accused of the holocaust.

Syria and the Kurds

The Kurds are a distinct ethnic group that used to have a nation; but, lost it. It was broken up after World War I. The Kurds ended up in Turkey, Syria and Iran. There are about 50 million of them and they do not have their own nation. ISIS was an enemy of both the Kurds and the Syrian government. The Kurds fought the members of ISIS and we helped them. ISIS was ended and the Kurds wanted independence from Syria and Turkey, basically, they want to create their own country and are willing to have a civil war to do so.

After ISIS was defeated we reduced troops working with the Kurds until we had only 50 left in the area and Trump removed them too. The media has been claiming that we "abandoned" the Kurds; but, we only worked with them to fight ISIS, not to participate in their civil wars in Syria and Turkey. The Kurds and the Turkish were involved in the genocide of Armenians in the past.

Trump removed 50 soldiers from the area and other countries questioned the move. Hmmm, Australia could send 50 more soldiers there, the EU countries could too. I have never discussed why I distrust Trump on this blog, I have merely said I didn't vote for him and wouldn't. I like the fact he is anti-globalism and did not approve the TPP. I do believe that the elites hate Trump because he is against globalism and that is their main problem with him. Bernie Sanders was against those thing too, which is why the DNC cheated him.

Here is what matter, we don't have a treaty with the Kurds, we do with Turkey, in fact they are our partners in NATO. The Kurds have attacked Turkey from inside and outside the country. Technically, as a member of NATO, an attack upon one is an attack upon all. If we stayed in northern Syria and fought with the Kurds against Turkey, we would be guilty of attacking a NATO country, think about that. The reality is, Turkey wants to take over the northern part of Syria where the Kurds are. Supposedly we want to have a regime change in Syria, so what is the problem? Unless we are going to fight for an independent Kurdish nation and take away part of Turkey, why were we still there? Does anyone really want to go to war with Turkey over creating a new country for the Kurds?

I have been patiently saving articles and preparing to write about the "Ukrainian Call Scandal" but I am not ready to post yet. I am waiting on a couple of more shoes to drop. I will say this, Trump committed no crime and none has been specified by his opponents which is why they are not prepared to write articles of impeachment.