Hopefully the media will continue its hard charging exposure. Focused and hard hitting like the below. As former RNC Chairman Michael Steele said the other day, this story is growing feathers and it will soon take off.
Where are Hillary Clinton’s persecutors when we need them the most? Remember all of the hand wringing and faux outrage about emails and Benghazi? Only to learn that Hillary did nothing wrong? After all of that?
And yet today we have a major potential breach with our national security and the Republicans are hiding under their desks? A Russian submarine sits 70 miles outside of Delaware. We learned yesterday that Putin deployed missiles that violates the arms control treaty.
Trump’s fired/resigned national security advisor (for all of twenty four days), General Flynn, may have had illegal, subversive discussions with a Russian ambassador. These discussion may have had something to do with pay back for the Russian’s help in electing Donald Trump in 2016. The logical gift would be to remove President Obama’s sanctions after he learned Russian hackers had aggressively tried to throw the 2016 Presidential election for Donald Trump. Putin atypically did not retaliate when President Obama had imposed the sanctions. Trump, President Elect at the time, tweeted or boasted “Putin is a smart guy.”
A recent article reveals U.S. spies are withholding intelligence from the White House because they believe Russia is listening.
WTF?
Meanwhile the President has publicly acknowledged he admires Vladimir Putin’s leadership style. Putin, a ruthless dictator who murders journalists and his enemies. Great. I wonder who Donald Trump would like to poison first?
Earlier on Houston Public Radio I heard a political scientist at Rice University tell the host that Paul Ryan thinks it’s more important to repeal Obamacare than to investigate our country’s potential security breach. The host was speechless for a few seconds.
Ryan has his hands clapped over his ears, screaming no, no, no. Go away! He is in a big hurry to throw 20-30 million Americans under the bus by revoking their access to healthcare. Next up is big tax cuts for his and his Party’s donors and billionaires.
In a recent softball interview with MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough, Mitch McConnell waffled about Senate hearings and Intelligence hearings on the Flynn/Russia matter. He said it is not necessary to appoint an independent, non-partisan commission that would be open to the public. McConnell obviously wants to control and keep the hearings behind closed doors.
Why?
There are a lot of questions. What did Donald Trump, Mike Pence and Mitch McConnell know and when did they know it? Or un-know it?
Was Trump’s executive action on a Muslim travel ban a distraction from the fact that a real enemy is right inside the White House?
Is the GOP fearful of an investigation because, thanks to Citizens’ United, perhaps Vladimir Putin and his oligarch buddies contributed generously to top Republicans?
Given the Russian hacking and General Flynn’s behavior with regard to the country these are legitimate questions that deserve answers.
Unfortunately the Republican Party is not up any principled task, even if it means our country is potentially and dangerously compromised.
For today’s Republican Party, the former Party of Lincoln, is rotten to its core. It has put itself ahead of our country and democracy for decades. A Party that relies upon gerrymandering, voter suppression efforts, dirty dark money, rogue FBI with an agenda and Russian hackers in order to win elections can hardly be trusted on any level.
It is a Party that works almost exclusively for billionaires while it dupes hard working ordinary Americans who believe the Party’s lies. Sadly, fifty plus years of dog whistling bigotry, misogyny, homophobia, xenophobia continues to work for the GOP, at least for enough of us to get Republicans elected.
So folks, it’s up to us to howl and scream for an independent, non partisan commission from every rooftop. Those of us in red states have our work cut out because our “representatives” avoid us like the plague. But, determined, we are getting to them. Please join me below to know what we are doing and how you can participate.
We have to continue the marches, protests and rallies. These unhinge our “leaders” in heavily gerrymandered states. They are accustomed to complacency and low voter turnout. When they see large masses of us the cowards attempt to marginalize us by saying we are paid protestors or, in my state we are outside groups and sore losers. But we know we are right and we continue our actions undeterred.
We have to hand it to our hilarious fellow protestors in Utah. When Representative Jason Chaffetz accused his constituents of being bussed in paid protestors, they retaliated by sending invoices to his office. Way to go, Utah Dems!
In my district in Houston John Culberson refuses to hold a town hall meeting. But he is giving a talk to his Republican constituents at an area’s country club next week. We are going to hold a rally outside of the country club.
When our “representatives” phones are jammed, unplugged or sent directly to voice mail we react by mailing postcards to their offices. This week my postcard to Senators Cornyn and Cruz reads:
As an American citizen I demand an independent, non-partisan
commission on the Russian influence on our 2016 Presidential
Election, General Flynn’s relationship with Russia and the
President and Vice President’s involvement in all of the above.
What did Mr. Trump know and when did he know it? What is Mr. Trump’s relationship with Mr. Putin? These questions must be answered.
That’s about all I could fit on the postcard but it’s more powerful than nothing. Actually, we think our efforts are getting through to John Cornyn. When I posted the above on Facebook one of my fellow activists mentioned Cornyn is open to an investigation. We are both shocked and skeptical but Cornyn is slightly more reasonable than Ted Cruz, who will respond to no one except his donors, no doubt. Interestingly, Cruz is getting his fair share of licks in editorials and comments in the Houston Chronicle lately. People are furious they can’t get through to him.
We can join every activist group on social media, Facebook and Twitter. I’ve done this and it is how I learn about what is going on and what I can do. And one will never know where one can find fellow activists. As it turns out, volunteers for a Houston area animal rescue group is on board with what my groups are doing. If they can rescue abandoned and abused animals they sure as heck can rescue ourselves and our democracy.
I also send tweets to Senators Cornyn, Cruz, Representative Ted Poe, Senator Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan. I know they don’t read them, but their staff do. If enough of us tweet away our “leaders” will know that there are a lot of very unhappy campers outside of their DC bubble and their gerrymandered districts.
This mother is a big one. It’s bigger and far more dangerous than Watergate. There will not be any moving on, thank you.
