Former judge, Andrew Napolitano, speaks: "Trump guilty as charged in impeachment trial"

Judge Andrew Napolitano

You have a combination of factors here starting with the fact that Napolitano is a respected retired jurist. He is a conservative. And he works for the news network known for skewing its reporting solidly to the right, telling a lot of lies, and always, always promoting Donald Trump. The judge may work for Fox, but he tells the truth, unlike another Fox personality, Sean Hannity, who accused Democrats of supporting "abortion after birth."

Andrew Napolitano really lowered the boom on Senate Republicans for closing the impeachment trial without witnesses. He commented...

"The former New Jersey Superior Court judge said a trial should be a search for truth, but the Fox News contributor wrote in his new column that GOP senators instead turned the impeachment into “a steamroller of political power” by blocking witness testimony."

He added one of my favorite quotes from George Orwell's 1984...

“The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”

The jurist questioned Alan Dershowitz’s argument against impeachment, explaining how Republican Senators ate it up when almost no legal expert would confirm it. Napolitano says it almost looks like states have ceded power on the impeachment issue refining its language to...

"permit a president to engage in high crimes and misdemeanors so long as he believes that they are in the national interest and so long as his party has an iron-clad grip on the Senate.”

The judge went on to say...

"that House investigators had made their case that Trump had abused his power in office, committed bribery and broken campaign finance law — all of which could be defined as high crimes."

He said the evidence was "overwhelming and beyond a reasonable doubt," with numerous government officials confirming Trump's bribe, and the meter is still running. In a parting comment...

"Napolitano warned that Trump and his GOP allies had established a dangerous precedent and irreparably damaged the Constitution."

The latter is pretty much true of everything Donald Trump and his administration has done from the inauguration. Add to that a cowardly and clueless Congress backing him all the way, and you have the chaos we live with today. 
READ MORE... 

It's official: New York will prosecute NRA for violating insurance laws, deceiving members

Wayne LaPierre

New York state has been working on a case they have just filed against the National Rifle Assn. for "acting as an unlicensed insurance producer and deceiving its members with misleading marketing practices." NRA head, Wayne LaPierre and his gang of gun nuts have apparently screwed their membership by...

"having worked with insurance broker Lockton Companies to offer insurance products such as the NRA-branded “Carry Guard” to the group’s members without a license."

Lockton was fined $7 million by the New York regulator in May 2018 over its involvement with Carry Guard. The New York’s Department of Financial Services states...

"the NRA misrepresented to its members that the products were being sold at the lowest possible cost, when in
fact the group kept “substantial” royalties, sometimes exceeding 20% of premiums paid."

"The NRA sued the regulator and Governor Andrew Cuomo the same month, accusing them of illegally trying to pressure banks and insurers to stop doing business with it, in what it called 'blacklisting.'” And, a recent NRA lobbyist took a job at the US interior department in the Donald Trump administration in 2017, currying favor with LaPierre and the NRA. One can only hope this all puts Wayne LaPierre and the National Rifle Assn. where it belongs, out of business. 

READ MORE...

Trump State of the Union took a 21% drop in TV viewers from last year

It looks like Trump supporters are either getting tired of his bullshit or have just decided that, even though they love him beyond a sane person's realizations, they clearly grasp now that he is a pathological liar. Almost 16 thousand lies to date since entering office. They have a right to feel that way with his performance in the 2020 State of the Union speech. Here are seven lies from his SOTU...

• 1. “We will always protect patients with pre-existing conditions.” This is the way it is: "despite claiming credit for President Barack Obama’s achievement at passing into law protections for people with pre-existing health conditions, are in fact backing a lawsuit that seeks to dismantle those protections."
• 2. “Thanks to our bold regulatory reduction campaign, the United States has become the #1 producer of oil and natural gas in the world, by far.” Here's the truth: “The US became #1 in 2012, under Obama, though its advantage has grown under Trump.”
• 3. "Trump claimed credit for the low unemployment rate and ending the “failed policies” of the Obama administration." The truth: The unemployment rate was on its way down significantly in the Obama administration.
• 4. “We will always protect your Medicare, and we will always protect your Social Security.” Truth: "Trump recently suggested that cuts to entitlements will be on the table in his second term, though he tried to walk that back. And Trump’s previous budgets have already pushed for cuts to the programs."
• 5. “We will never let socialism destroy American health care.” Truth: "Right after promising to protect Medicare — which is a socialized health insurance system for the elderly — Trump had the audacity to suggest that socialism destroys health care."
• 6. "Trump claimed he has confirmed a record number of judges to the federal bench." Truth: "Trump has not confirmed a record number of judges; 187 is not a record.” 
• 7. “In America, we celebrate faith. We cherish religion. We lift our voices in prayer and we raise our sights to the Glory of God.” Truth: "Trump embraced the rhetoric of 'religious freedom' that Republicans like to use to protect Christian dominance in American society. But the idea that the Trump administration cherishes religion and celebrates faith in the abstract — rather than just Christianity in particular — is clearly nonsense in the wake of the expansion of the Muslim ban."

Thanks to AlterNet for the compilation of this information.

Sorry, but I say don't bleed for Rush Limbaugh

No, a cancer diagnosis is never something to celebrate, but AlterNet says at the same time...

"Limbaugh’s illness doesn’t mean he should be deified or put up on a pedestal, and President Donald Trump was clearly pandering to the extremists in his far-right MAGA base when he chose Limbaugh for the 2020 Presidential Freedom Award."

The far-right talk radio host has Stage 4 lung cancer. Never Trump conservative and GOP strategist Rick Wilson exclaimed...

"no one should be celebrating his illness no matter how much they despised his politics. Wilson tweeted, 'I’m going to show you how this should be done: I wish Rush a speedy and complete recovery from his cancer. Human being pro-tip: don’t wish cancer on *anyone*…even on your adversaries.'”

But AlterNet returns to Limbaugh, the man, and a not-so-decent characterization. "Limbaugh has an abysmal track record when it comes to health care. Here are some of the most appalling, idiotic things he has said about the health care and wellbeing of others."

• Number one: "Limbaugh mocked Michael J. Fox’s Parkinson’s symptoms." The radio show host's remark: “He’s either off his medication or acting. He is an actor, after all.”
• Number two: "Limbaugh championed mass incarceration for addicts." In the 1990s and 2000s he repeatedly insisted that addicts deserved to be thrown in prison. "It turned out that the hypocritical Limbaugh was seriously addicted to painkillers and was abusing OxyContin and hydrocodone in violation of the drug laws he had been applauding."
• Number three: "After being hospitalized in Hawaii for chest pains in 2010, Limbaugh showed his cluelessness about the state of health care in the U.S. when he declared, “I don’t think there’s one thing wrong with the United States’ health system.” And he was lambasted for overlooking the fact that while the health care system in the U.S. was working well for millionaires and billionaires, it wasn’t working well for all the Americans it left bankrupt and all the Americans who died because they couldn’t afford treatment."

I still hope for a full and speedy recovery, but at the moment cannot raise one ounce of sympathy.   READ MORE...

Mitt Romney did it - He voted to convict Donald Trump in impeachment trial

Sen. Mitt Romney

Here is a direct quote from Mitt Romney today...

"Corrupting an election to keep oneself in office is perhaps the most abusive and destructive violation of one's oath of office that I can imagine."

This after his dramatic floor speech to the Senate...

"The grave question the Constitution tasks senators to answer is whether the president committed an act so extreme and egregious that it rises to the level of a 'high crime and misdemeanor.'"

Bingo! A major Senate Republican who has crossed both Donald Trump and the GOP, namely Moscow Mitch McConnell, and done the right thing. Maybe Romney would have made a good President after all. His decision...

"denies Trump the unanimous Republican support he had sought and is sure to invite an avalanche of attacks from the president and his allies."

Romney has been T-rump's biggest GOP critic in Congress, while still voting with Trump 80 percent of the time in the Senate. Remember the oath that all Senators had to take leading up to the impeachment trial, the one all Republicans turned up their nose at, refusing the impartiality demanded? Here's Mike Romney's new answer...

"But my promise before God to apply impartial justice required that I put my personal feelings and political biases aside. Were I to ignore the evidence that has been presented and disregard what I believe my oath and the Constitution demands of me for the sake of a partisan end, it would, I fear, expose my character to history's rebuke and the censure of my own conscience."

We may not get a conviction at 4PM ET today, but this rebuke from an honored politician is certainly guaranteed to drive the Oval Office lunatic right off the rails, sending him blubbering with self-pity. Mission accomplished! 
READ MORE... 

According to Bernie Sanders' campaign, Michael Bloomberg is an "oligarch"

Nina Turner - Bernie Sanders

The mud slinging between Bernie Sanders' campaign and Michael Bloomberg had to start sometime with the former New York Mayor crashing the Primary with everything he can muster. Bloomberg's focus has been on Donald Trump with a minimum of attention directed against Democratic opponents. But Sanders' co-chair, Nina Turner, decided to start the action going by labeling Bloomberg an oligarch. 

Her concern was about, "'the oligarchs' being able to buy their way into elections." Bernie, of course, believe there is a huge inequity between the rich, like Michael Bloomberg, and the poor and middle class, and he would be right. But you have to consider what Bloomberg has done with his billions, from fighting gun violence to attacking the climate change issue. Besides, Turner's real problem is letting the billionaire into future debates. Here's the scenario...

"The Democratic National Committee is drastically revising its criteria to participate in primary debates after New Hampshire, doubling the polling threshold and eliminating the individual donor requirement, which could pave the way for former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg to make the stage beginning in mid-February."

Here are the new qualifications...

"Candidates will need to earn at least 10 percent in four polls released from Jan. 15 to Feb. 18, or 12 percent in two polls conducted in Nevada or South Carolina, in order to participate in the Feb. 19 debate in Las Vegas. Any candidate who earns at least one delegate to the national convention in either the Iowa caucuses or New Hampshire primary will also qualify for the Nevada debate."

Those who haven't yet hit the polling threshold are: Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar, Andrew Yang and Tom Steyer. Those who are over are: Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. The new criteria eliminate the individual-donor threshold, allowing Bloomberg to participate after New Hampshire. It also makes the way for his participation with his philosophy of not accepting any donations, using his own money, to prevent any problems with donor influence.

This might very well be the new starting point for the Democratic Primary with replenished hope for a successful outcome that will beat Donald Trump.
READ MORE...

Is Michael Bloomberg good for Progressives?

After reading Mark Sommer's article in Medium, I say yes. Sommer, a lifelong progressive and climate activist, makes a stand for a moderate, but who still sounds an awful lot like a Progressive. Just look at what Mike Bloomberg has done on gun control with his organizations Mayors Against Illegal Guns and Everytown for Gun Safety. Not only have these groups fought the gun nuts like Wayne LaPierre's NRA, but they are also compiling valuable gun violence data.

Okay, I am very passionate over gun control, but this is only one of Bloomberg's Progressive issues. Sommer exclaims...

"On matters of policy I’m all in with Elizabeth and Bernie. Whatever happens to their candidacies, I will be eternally grateful to them for forcefully delineating agendas foreign and domestic that altogether affirm my own priorities. They’ve set the benchmarks by which we must measure whatever candidate the Democrats end up nominating to confront Donald Trump."

Bernie Sanders is the Godfather of Progressivism, but with Democrats fighting to dump his bid for the Primary, and some feeling he may not have the total oomph to beat Donald Trump, you have to have a Plan B. It would appear that Michael Bloomberg could be Plan B. Mark Sommer has his philosophy and it sounds mighty good to me...

"I’m neither a capitalist nor a communist, having witnessed the endemic injustices and irredeemable flaws in both systems. I believe that our tax systems need to be made radically more progressive than they are today. We urgently need to reduce the widening abyss between the richest and poorest in our society, a seismic shift that is undermining the very foundations of our democracy and social stability. I believe all political campaigns should be financed solely by public funds."

We might as well get to the one mistake Bloomberg made when it comes to social and economic justice, he...

"pursued a policy of “stop and frisk” that specifically targeted hundreds of thousands of poor young men of color. His policy triggered credible accusations of racial bias from minorities and white progressives alike. He has since apologized for the policy but many feel it has come twenty years too late."

But by comparison, Donald Trump has been labeled an outright racist, which doesn't forgive the former New York Mayor, but in the case of the apology, something which T-rump has never done, you have to look on the positive side. Also, Bloomberg is a billionaire, something Bernie rails against constantly, but this billionaire "has also promised to provide ample resources ($1 billion or more) to whomever the Democrats ultimately nominate, even if it turns out not to be him."

And the candidate does have empathy for the black community...

"In a January 19, 2020 speech in a black community church in Tulsa near the site of the notorious 1921 Black Wall Street Massacre (https://www.mikebloomberg.com/news/the-greenwood-initiative-economic-justice-for-black-america), Bloomberg admitted that had he been an African American he wouldn’t have been nearly as successful as he is today."

But he still must work a lot harder to gain the trust of the blacks, and I think he will. With his moderate appeal, he can also take back some of those Independents who just sent Donald Trump's approval rating up, the 49ers.  And there is no doubt of his commitment to the environment...

"as demonstrated by his philanthropy, marshaling of climate action coalitions, and Bloomberg News coverage and advocacy..."

"Michael Bloomberg has done most not only among all the Democratic candidates but among climate activists worldwide to deploy substantial financial resources, supply reliable information to a corporate sector critical to the green transition, and build worldwide climate action coalitions."

Today, climate control may very well be the biggest problem we have in the world, and with this kind of activism from the U.S. President, it could very well begin to solve our problem...if it isn't too late. There's so much more to the man, Bloomberg, and I encourage you to read this article. Warning, it is long, but a second warning, you will be sorry if you don't.