Ever since Trump became President, many have wondered why congressional Republicans have totally abdicated oversight functions that all their predecessors routinely conducted and Americans came to expect as the norm. The inaction as regards oversight by House Speaker Ryan and Senate Majority Leader McConnell’s congress has struck most Americans as very strange and has spawned many conspiracy theories, the most popular one being that Russian President Putin has “Kompromat” on all congressional Republicans.
Well, courtesy of a bombshell article by The Daily Intelligencer, we now find out that congressional Republicans have actually compiled a secret list of things they have vowed to block from any congressional oversight requested by Dems–a sad and totally unprecedented move by U.S. members of congress.
The list of items GOP has vowed to keep away from any congressional oversight includes “election security and hacking attempts”, ” White House security clearances”, “Trump’s Tax Returns”, ” Trump’s family businesses”, among many others. Think about that, we currently have GOP members of congress whose stated mission is to hide from the public any wrongdoing by Trump and his administration–the aforementioned criminal enterprise.
Bottom line Dems and the mainstream media must start calling out congressional Republicans for totally abdicating their oversight functions. Its about time people started calling Trump’s GOP what it truly is–a criminal enterprise. What House Speaker Ryan and Senate Majority Leader McConnell are presiding over in congress today goes way beyond what Americans would characterize as “politics as usual” and is borderline if not out and out criminal conduct.
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When regular people encounter obscene images on the internet and elsewhere, the natural reaction is to recoil in dismay. Strangely however, America is witnessing daily an obscene relationship between President Trump and Fox News with seemingly no “recoiling in dismay” from politicians (especially Dems) or other sections of the mainstream media.
This lack of dismay/outrage at the obscene relationship between President Trump and Fox News leaves the wrong impression that this is okay/acceptable. Folks, this is not acceptable and Dems need to start screaming about it. There has to be a reasonable distance between the White House and a major U.S. news organization
Luckily Brian Stelter host of CNN’s Reliable Sources gets it and is beginning to call out this obscene relationship between Trump and Fox News. In a July 8 2018 segment, Stelter details how Fox News and Trump are engaged in conduct no other U.S. administration has ever engaged in with a major news organization–the stuff of state run tv stations in foreign dictatorships.
Stelter for example talks about how Maria Bartiromo literally handed Trump talking points in what was supposed to be an interview. Or how Trump promotes Sean Hannity’s show to his twitter followers and gets regular advice from him(Hannity) on political matters. Or how Lou Dobbs calls into Oval Office meetings to give his opinions(wow). Or how Kimberly Guilfoyle is now dating Trump’s son yet still appears as a host on Fox News discussing the Trump family. Or how Jeanine Pirro asked Trump for a job at DOJ. Or how Trump at the suggestion of Sean Hannity is now bringing in Bill Shine, former Fox News executive into the White House as Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications. Folks, examples of this obscene Trump-Fox News relationship are endless.
By the way Bill Shine’s wife Darla is known to post very racist things on Twitter. She has since deleted her Twitter account but Mediaite captured some of them. This blatant racism by Darla would be enough for any other U.S. administration to pull the plug on Shine’s appointment but not the Trump administration.
According to Stelter both Trump and Fox News benefit from this obscene relationship–Trump getting regular “soft” interviews which are essentially public relations campaigns and in turn he pitches the various Fox News shows, books etc to his massive twitter audience. It’s a great arrangement from a business standpoint, but goes against everything U.S. journalism has stood for–holding those in power accountable. Maria Bartiromo and her cohorts at Fox News appear to have twisted this age old journalism principle to “using those in power for ratings and profit.”
Yours Truly was on this Fox News beat way before it was vogue but admittedly, never thought it would ever get this bad.
Bottom line Dems need to start calling out this obscene Trump-Fox News affair. Simply put, this overt alliance and coordination between the president and a major news network is detrimental to a democratic society and needs to be vociferously called out.
***POST UPDATED on 10/15/23 to include the fact that CNN has since cancelled Brian Stelter’s Reliable Sources show, so the referenced 07/08/2018 video segment is no longer available***
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Americans increasingly consider the Roberts Supreme Court more of a political body than a court of law–a troubling trend. Even more troubling is this New York Times piece that says the Trump Administration conducted a “quiet campaign” to effect Justice Kennedy’s retirement before Midterms 2018. The New York Times piece, partly written by Maggie Haberman was quick to add; “There were no direct efforts to pressure or lobby Justice Kennedy to announce his resignation on Wednesday, and it was hardly the first time a president had done his best to create a court opening.”
Given the norm-breaking habit of the Trump Administration, many people including Yours Truly will take issue with this conclusory assertion by Haberman that “there were no direct efforts” to pressure Justice Kennedy into retirement before the Midterms. Dems should not treat Haberman’s conclusory assertion as Biblical truth, but instead keep inquiring into the circumstances surrounding Justice Kennedy’s seemingly strategic departure from the High Court. Any reasonable person would conclude that Justice Kennedy’s departure right before the midterm elections signals a political motivation–one highly beneficial to Trump and his GOP.
In addition to that, the Financial Times reported in 2017 that Justice Kennedy’s son was Trump’s most trusted banker at Deutsche Bank, which gave Trump loans when no U.S. bank was willing to. Deutsche Bank has also been linked to Russian money laundering and is one of the banks Special Counsel Robert Mueller is looking into in the TrumpRussia investigation. How the son of a U.S. Supreme Court Justice gets caught up in the affairs of Deutsche Bank involving Trump should be a question of the utmost importance for Dems. And Dems don’t have to take Yours Truly’s word for it, just check out this excellent thread by Amy Siskind regarding this issue.
THREAD: I know we're all focused on Justice Kennedy's son working at Deutsche Bank at the time the bank lent Trump over $1 billion as other banks would not lend due to all of Trump's bankruptcies. Also of note, is this $300 million loan 1/https://t.co/DkIsWxhvzT
Also check out this interesting 2017 Politico piece which highlighted a private conversation (hot mic moment) between Justice Kennedy and President Trump regarding Kennedy’s son; “Say hello to your boy,” Trump said, “Special guy.”“Your kids have been very nice to him,” Kennedy replied. “Well,” Trump said, “they love him, and they love him in New York.” This establishes conclusively that Justice Kennedy was well aware of his son’s interactions with Trump and his children.
Bottomline Dems must demand answers from retiring Justice Kennedy and indeed Chief Judtice Roberts about whether he coordinated his exit with the Trump Adninistration and secondly the extent of his son’s dealings with Trump while he was at Deutsche Bank and thereafter. Justice Kennedy’s son’s dealings with Trump raise genuine conflict of interest questions or at the very least create an appearance of impropriety. People’s faith in the U.S. Supreme Court as an independent court of law is waning and stories like these only add to the mistrust. Dems must raise all these lingering questions as they fight for the U.S. Supreme Court.
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After news that Rhode Island’s Senate approved a measure requiring all presidential candidates to release 5 years of their tax returns in order to be placed on the state’s ballot, the focus has again shifted to Trump’s tax returns, a major campaign issue during the run-up to the 2016 presidential elections. Grassroots Dems including Yours Truly, ecstatic about Rhode Island’s decision are now pushing for other states to follow Rhode Island’s lead and lock Trump out of the 2020 ballot unless he releases the tax returns he promised to–the #NoTaxReturnsNoBallot campaign
Left out of the renewed tax return debate however, is the fact that GOP members of Congress have played a major role in aiding the president hide his tax returns from the public, especially these 23 Republicans in the House Ways and Means Committee, or as Yours Truly calls them, the “wall of shame”.
Their efforts to block moves by Congressional Dems to have Trump’s tax returns released to the public were reported in this February 15, 2017 piece by the DailyKos. As you can see from the article, the DailyKos has done all the legwork in exposing these shameful GOP members of congress. Yours Truly is simply hitting you with a reminder now that midterms 2018 are around the corner. As usual they will be coming begging for your votes claiming they stand for “transparency in government.” They will be hoping off course that you’ve long forgotten about their lack of transparency re Trump’s tax returns. Boy are they in for a rude awakening this fall?!
Here is a handy list of the names and office phone numbers of the wall of shame members
U.S. Representative Devin Nunes (CA-22)
Phone: (202) 225-2523
U.S. Representative Kevin Brady (TX-08) Phone: (202) 225-4901
U.S. Representative Sam Johnson (TX-03)
Phone: (202) 225-4201
U.S. Representative Pat Tiberi (OH-12)
Phone: (202) 225-5355
U.S. Representative Dave Reichert (WA-08)
Phone: (202) 225-7761
U.S. Representative Peter Roskam (IL-06)
Phone: (202) 225-4561
U.S. Representative Vern Buchanan (FL-16)
Phone: (202) 225-5015
U.S. Representative Adrian Smith (NE-03)
Phone: (202) 225-6435
U.S. Representative Lynn Jenkins (KS-02)
Phone: (202) 225-6601
U.S. Representative Erik Paulsen (MN-03)
Phone: (202) 225-2871
U.S. Representative Kenny Marchant (TX-24)
Phone: (202) 225-6605
U.S. Representative Diane Black (TN-06)
Phone: (202) 225-4231
U.S. Representative Tom Reed (NY-23)
Phone: (202) 225-3161
U.S. Representative Mike Kelly (PA-03)
Phone: (202) 225-5406
U.S. Representative Jim Renacci (OH-16)
Phone: (202) 225-3876
U.S. Representative Pat Meehan (PA-07)(resigned in disgrace)
U.S. Representative Kristi Noem (SD-AL)
Phone: (202) 225-2801
U.S. Representative George Holding (NC-02)
Phone: (202) 225-3032
U.S. Representative Jason Smith (MO-08)
Phone: (202) 225-4404
U.S. Representative Tom Rice (SC-07)
Phone: (202) 225-9895
U.S. Representative Dave Schweikert (AZ-06)
Phone: (202) 225-2190
U.S. Representative Jackie Walorski (IN-02)
Phone: (202) 225-3915
U.S. Representative Carlos Curbelo (FL-26)
Phone:(202) 225-2778
Bottomline folks, #NoTaxReturnsNoBallot is a win-win fight for Dems because it puts the GOP in the unenviable position of defending a public official(Trump) who promised to release his tax returns while campaigning but now chooses to hide them, even as questions about his corrupt business practices continue to pile up. Dem State Reps across the country must introduce bills like the one in Rhode Island so as to get Republicans go on the record with a vote to hide Trump’s tax returns–a vote for lack of transparency in government. Dems can rest assured that midterms 2018 voters will not be happy with pro-secrecy in government candidates–the GOPers hiding Trump’s tax returns.
Folks see if one of these wall of shame bums is your Rep in Congress and if they are, make sure to vote them out this Midterms 2018!!
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