The impeachment effort against President Trump hinges on his motives, and has he used that power for personal gain?

The questions about Hunter Biden and his involvement with Burisma Holdings, the company that paid Hunter Biden tens of thousands of dollars per month to serve on its board, was on the Ukrainian prosecutor’s radar before Mr. Trump became president. The question is whether the Obama administration, including Vice President Joseph Biden, used America’s power to influence Ukraine’s government.

These questions are matters of established public concern. A president has a right to seek answers about them.

Trump’s actions are coherent with what he has stated for decades. He believes that America’s leadership class has harmed the country even as it has enriched itself and entrenched its power through the federal bureaucracy and career politicians.

Insular Washington inside-the-beltway dealings, from foreign policy to the ways in which career politicians and their families can make millions off their connections, are seen by Mr. Trump and his voters as the source of the country’s problems.

Both parties have contributed to endless wars and declining manufacturing–and the Deplorables have felt most of the pain.

This corruption is part of the fabric that makes up politicians like Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton, and the Bush Dynasty. They are the “deep state.”

Mr. Trump can be a bull in a china shop, but like it or not, he is an outsider that was elected as a force for change. (Mr. Trump, unlike many of the politicians like Obama and Biden made his fortune before entering politics.)

Which makes it clear why he is being attacked by the corrupt political class and the media outlets that protect them. Trump is being impeached for things that are among the Executive Branch’s well-established powers.

 In 2016, Vice President Biden used the threat of withholding aid to pressure the president of Ukraine at that time, Petro Poroshenko, to dismiss the country’s prosecutor general, Viktor Shokin.

Mr. Shokin was widely perceived as corrupt by the United States and international officials. Mr. Biden potentially stood to gain something himself from the prosecutor’s firing.

Even then, those powers of the Executive Branch allow for the ability to delay supplying congressionally authorized aid. Even using a delay to get foreign leaders to cooperate with an administration’s demands is not itself an offense of the kind that the Constitution demands for impeachment.

This year, challenger, Volodymyr Zelensky, who had painted the incumbent as corrupt, won the Ukrainian election.

Trump then tries to get Ukraine’s new leader to look into Burisma, the Bidens and Mr. Shokin’s dismissal, that is, fight corruption–something he said he was going to do.

Trump’s opponents treat deep state mechanics as if they were laws. But Mr. Trump openly campaigned in 2016 as someone who would “drain the swamp” and end the legal but corrupt trade in money and influence.

The people also voted for Trump to change America’s foreign policy. The Democrats and Republicans, along with the Civil Service had embroiled the country in endless wars and dubious adventures such as Libya (which cost an ambassador his life) and Syria. Everyone knows that Trump has open disdain for career officials serving in places like Ukraine. He also believes this is something he was elected to take care of. What we have thus far seen in the impeachment hearings makes it clear. The objectives of deep state and career bureaucrats are different from the President’s.

But, Trump is the President, and he gets to make policy decisions, not worthless rats like Lt. Col. Vindmen.

Asking Zelensky, elected on an anti-corruption agenda to account for Ukraine’s dealings with the Bidens is perfectly legitimate. Exposing the corruption of the Obama Administration is in the legitimate interest of the United States.

Helen of Troy is known to those who study ancient history as the “Face The Launched A Thousand Ships,” while Hillary Rodham Clinton is known to those who study contemporary history as “The Face That Launched A Raft Of Bull****,” and out of that raft of bull****, with the aid and assistance of some of the very best architects the Democrats could scrounge up from the ranks of the Democrat party to be sure of their loyalty, the Democrats fabricated the most elaborate House of Cards this nation has ever seen in all of its history, to cover over Hillary Clinton’s dirty dealings with the Russians to make Mother Russia stronger at the expense of the United States of America, and now that the bull**** the Democrats used as glue to hold their House of Cards together is drying out with age, and the House of Cards is coming tumbling down around their ears as we, the American people, get to watch the sick and silly show in real time with technicolor and surround sound, and here I am referring to a CNN article entitled “Mueller to testify publicly on July 17 following a subpoena” by Jeremy Herb and Manu Raju on June 25, 2019, where we were treated to the following BLOCKBUSTER NEWS, to wit: 

Robert Mueller will testify before Congress on July 17 after House Democrats issued a subpoena for his appearance, a move that paves the way for a reluctant special counsel to answer questions publicly for the first time about his 22-month investigation into President Donald Trump.

The House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees announced Tuesday that Mueller had agreed to testify after they issued subpoenas for his testimony, and Mueller would appear in public before the two panels next month.

“Americans have demanded to hear directly from the Special Counsel so they can understand what he and his team examined, uncovered, and determined about Russia’s attack on our democracy, the Trump campaign’s acceptance and use of that help, and President Trump and his associates’ obstruction of the investigation into that attack,” House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler and House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff said in a joint statement.

end quotes

And of course that statement from Schiff and Nadler that “Americans have demanded to hear directly from the Special Counsel” is itself pure horse****, as can be expected from those two clowns, as we can see by going back to a poll in The Hill on 12/19/2018, where we had as follows concerning the Mullet and his report, to wit:

In a new Hill.TV/American Barometer poll released Friday, 58 percent of registered voters said they believe that Mueller’s inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election is unbiased, while 42 percent characterized the probe as biased.

As might be expected, the results were split largely along party lines.

Of respondents that identified as Republicans, 77 percent said they think the Mueller probe is biased and designed to hurt the president while only 23 percent saw the investigation as fair.

Democrats were even more lopsided in their support for the special counsel.

Eighty-seven percent of those surveyed who identified as Democrats called Mueller fair with just 13 percent describing him as being biased.

Independents continue to view Mueller positively with 60 percent saying he is unbiased and 40 percent saying the opposite.

“The polls are remarkably consistent on Mueller and the job that he’s doing on the Russia investigation,” Karlyn Bowman, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute told “What America’s Thinking” host Joe Concha. 

However, it is possible that public confidence in him may wane over time, she added.

“What I think we’re beginning to see just little hints of is fatigue with the investigation and we’ll be watching that going forward, but at this point, he has strong support for continuing the investigation and he seems to rise above politics in Washington right now.”

end quotes

So, as of 12/19/2018, some six months ago now, the American people were already showing signs of fatigue with the Mullet and his report, and today, as we shall see, that has the Democrats panicking, which then takes us to an article in The Hill on 5/7/2019 entitled “Pollster: Mueller report publication had little effect on public opinion,” where we have as follows:

The publication of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report about the circumstances surrounding Russia’s interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election has not significantly changed public opinion about President Trump and the investigation as a whole, pollster Mallory Newall said Tuesday. 

“Some Americans are always going to care, but they have cared already.”

“They have cared long before the Mueller investigation and question about [Trump’s] finances.”

“Other Americans are going to believe that — they don’t trust the media.”

“They don’t trust what they are saying, and they believe the president.”

“This is not an issue for them,” Newall, the research director at Ipsos Public Affairs, told “What America’s Thinking” host Jamal Simmons.

“It speaks to which tribe you are listening to, and which tribe you belong to,” she said.

Fifteen percent of respondents to an Ipsos/Reuters survey conducted in April said the Mueller report had changed their minds about the Trump campaign and/or Russia’s involvement in the presidential race, while 70 percent said that the Muller report did not change their mind.

“I think what it shows, more than anything, is the deep political and tribal splits right now,” Newall added.

end quotes

And then we have an article from CNBC entitled “Not innocent, not guilty, no consensus’ – The Mueller report has not changed Americans’ minds about Trump and Russia: NBC/WSJ poll” by John Harwood published May 5, 2019, which informs us as follows concerning who cares about the Mullet Report today, to wit:

So far, at least, release of the Mueller report hasn’t changed public opinion about President Donald Trump even a little bit.

That’s the conclusion of the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, taken following public dissemination of a redacted version of special counsel Robert Mueller’s findings on Russian interference in the 2016 election and potential obstruction of justice since then. 

Fully eight in 10 Americans say they’ve heard the news, but virtually no minds changed.

“The public has reached a hung jury,” said Democratic pollster Peter Hart, who conducts the NBC/WSJ poll with Republican counterpart Bill McInturff. 

“Not innocent, not guilty, no consensus.” 

Twenty-nine percent say Mueller has cleared the president of wrongdoing, the same proportion who had predicted that before the report’s release. 

A 42% plurality says Mueller did not clear Trump, while 29% remain unsure.

Nor have numbers moved on the matter of potential impeachment by Congress.

Just 17% say enough evidence exists for the House to begin impeachment hearings, virtually identical to responses to the same question in March. 

Another 32% want Congress to continue investigating and decide on impeachment later.

Taking those two together, that means 49% want Congress not to drop the issue. 

A matching 48% has heard enough to say flatly that the House should not pursue impeachment.

end quotes

So that is hardly conclusive that “Americans have demanded to hear directly from the Special Counsel,” and what it really shows is that it is a minority of Americans who really care at this point in time what the Mullet has to say that has not already been said over and over and over a hundred times now, as the Democrats flog the bejaysus out of this dead horse in a futile effort to get it to run faster, out of desperation, which takes us to a NEWSWEEK article entitled “WHO REALLY CARES ABOUT MUELLER REPORT? NEW POLL FINDS ONE-THIRD OF VOTERS DON’T EVEN KNOW WHO WILLIAM BARR IS” by Daniel Moritz-Rabson on 4/18/19, as follows:

Almost one-third of registered voters had not heard of Attorney General William Barr days before a redacted version of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report was set to be released to Congress and the public.

Thirty percent of 1,005 people interviewed in a Fox News poll said they had never heard of Barr, who has been at the center of a political firestorm surrounding Mueller’s investigation since he was sworn in two months ago.

The poll, which was released on Wednesday evening before a Thursday morning press conference about the report, seemed to hint at a political divide in the country.

“Dear Hyperventilating Beltway Folks, Please note the strong showing of ‘Never Heard Of.'”

“This is where most normal people are on this story,” Dante Chinni, the director of the American Communities Project at George Washington University, tweeted.

Barr’s release, last month, of a summary of the Mueller report similarly evoked concerns among Democrats that the attorney general was protecting the president. 

The summary said that Mueller did not conclude that either Trump or his associates had conspired with Russia to sway the 2016 presidential election, and while the evidence was insufficient to determine whether Trump had obstructed justice, the report did not exonerate him.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi harshly described Barr’s summary.

“We don’t need you interpreting for us.”

“It was condescending, it was arrogant, and it wasn’t the right thing to do.”

“So, the sooner they can give us the information, the sooner we can all make a judgment about it,” she said last month.

At a news conference on Wednesday night, House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler accused Barr of operating in a partisan manner by briefing the White House on the contents of the report before offering a version to lawmakers.

“The central concern here is that Attorney General Barr is not letting the facts of the report speak for themselves, but is trying to bake in the narrative about the report to the benefit of the White House,” Nadler said.

end quotes

And that essential background brings us back to the CNN article entitled “Mueller to testify publicly on July 17 following a subpoena” by Jeremy Herb and Manu Raju on June 25, 2019, to wit:

Mueller’s testimony is poised to be the most-anticipated congressional hearing in years, and represents a huge moment for House Democrats who have wrestled with whether to dive into a politically divisive impeachment process following the Mueller investigation and White House stonewalling of congressional probes.

end quotes

And there we have it, people!

Can you just imagine it – the Mullet’s testimony is poised to be the most-anticipated congressional hearing in years, and it represents a huge moment for House Democrats who have wrestled with whether to dive into a politically divisive impeachment process following the Mueller investigation!

Why, this is even bigger than the Beatles coming on the Ed Sullivan Show or Woodstock, people!

A once in a lifetime opportunity, so be sure to not miss it. 

And now we must pause for station identification and a word from our sponsors, but don’t go away, for this political thriller called “The Decline And Fall Of The Democrat Party” is just getting to the interesting parts, and we will be right back with more.

Special Opinion by Charles Landis

In the ES  News, May 24, 2019, guest columnist Daniel Fountain writes about why he thinks some still get indoctrinated in the Lost Cause of the Confederacy. He argues it is because the United Daughters of the Confederacy and others have been untruthful about the history of the Confederacy. Mr. Fountain is a history professor, and he should have been more truthful.

There was no referendum on decision of Southern states to secede from the Union. 854 men, mostly wealthy plantation owners, were selected by the state legislators to attend conventions  to decide on secession. 697 voted for and  157 voted against; thus a small group of rich and powerful men (697) decided for 9 million mostly poor people, not the voters.

My grandfather and five of his sons joined the Confederate Army. They had no vote in secession or to fight. Like most, all they knew was South Carolina fired on a Union fort in Charleston, and Lincoln had mobilized 15,000 troops and was going to invade the South. Slavery had been accepted for over 250 years, was legal under the Constitution, and the Supreme Court (Dred Scott) said slaves were property. Note. Until the Revolutionary War ¾ of the immigrants were indentured or bonded, and many did not live much beyond the indenture period. Some of my ancestors (from Palatine) came to America in boats where the death rate was higher than on slave ships.

 My grandfather was severely wounded at Petersburg, and three of his sons were killed. There is a memorial to my grandfather, as captain of the Granville Graves of North Carolina, and the other fallen soldiers. My grandmother and three of daughters (aunts) were among the Daughters of the Confederacy who helped erect this and other  memorials. One of my aunts went on to become administrative assistant to General Omar Bradley when he headed the Veterans Administration. There are countless testimonials to all the good works she did on behalf of veterans of every war from the Civil War to World War II and after. (Including FDR, General Bradley, and awards from veteran organizations).

Yes, slavery was the primary cause of the Civil War, but the primary purpose of Lincoln was to preserve the Union. Lincoln only freed slaves in states in rebellion. HE did not believe the black man was the equal of the white man. He was a segregationist.

A quarter of the Union Army were mercenaries from Germany, Ireland, and Scandinavia. My ancestor’s homes were looted and razed, their crops destroyed, and I have a letter written by grandfather telling of the hardships during the occupation reconstruction. They fought because they were being invaded. Period.

The memorials are not for the Lost Cause but for veterans and all the lost blood.

This opinion is special to the Mirror by Paul Ewell

Interesting story in the Eastern Shore Post written as an attempt to mislead the general population about the facts concerning the Menhaden Industry. I’ve tried to steer clear of politics and controversial issues on here as much as possible but I refuse to keep quiet about this particular issue.

This continual banter about the detrimental effects of Virginia’s Menhaden Industry is nothing more than an attack on the commercial fishing industry as a whole. Why we do we continue to hear so much about this particular industry?

It’s simply because it is the only commercial fishing segment in Virginia not controlled by the VMRC. Neither the VMRC nor the recreational fishing lobby can touch this industry and, quite frankly, it’s driving them crazy (think the Trump Effect for comparative purposes). 

Consider this. The science community (yes, that’s right) continues to contend that the menhaden population is NOT overfished. This is, based on scientific evidence, not disputable. Of course, the recreational folks, many of whom are, in fact, engaged in and dependent on the commercial aspects of the recreational rockfish industry, are continually spouting off about the rockfish population. Rockfish were not overfished.

As any waterman with experience will tell you, generally (though not in every scenario) fish are cyclical. And, they didn’t read that in a book. You can’t replace decades of experience on the Chesapeake Bay with a book. Sorry. Rockfish are on a down cycle.

As a result (yet another turn of events), the crab population appears to be on the incline. Why? There are less rockfish to eat them, of course. Understanding that concept requires no book or decades of experience, just a little common sense.

So, as I read the story in the Post I had to chuckle a little. As you read that story, please remember it is an editorial; an opinion piece and remember those age-old words of wisdom…..opinions are like arseholes. Everyone has one.

Have a good day and to Omega Protein and all others engaged in the menhaden industry, fish on! 

This special Opinion is by Chas Cornweller

Well, the big day has finally come and gone. No, I don’t mean Easter. I am talking about The Mueller Report. All four hundred and forty-eight pages of it. Redactions and all. Two years and hundreds of subpoenas and depositions and god knows how many printed words between the media and twitter accounts. Not to mention the President’s own tweets. And, where are we? Pretty much right where we began. Divided by partisanship and fed unfiltered dis-information versus truth, corruption versus anti-corruption and the balance of power and justice. America, what happened to you? 

In my view, there are two takeaways from this report. One, the Russian government most decidedly did interfere with the 2016 election. It is stated over and over within the report as fact and cannot be refuted. Two, the President of the United States, either by bumbling or fumbling or just a lack of political knowledge and Civics along with basic misunderstanding of the laws and the way justice works within this country and as written within the by-laws of the Constitution, directly tried to hinder and shut down both the investigations into the Russian meddling and the consequent investigation into possible collusion with his election staff and himself with the Russian government. Either of which, Robert Mueller clearly and succinctly instructed Congress to further pursue.

What we got, three weeks ago, was obfuscation from the Attorney General, William Barr. By his interpretation of the document, Barr ended up looking more like the lawyer for the President and not his as appointed position for the people as principal Justice. By his actions and his words, he came across as exonerating the President of any and ALL misdeeds, when the document clearly instructed him to leave that to Congress. Secondly, it appears the administration was shown certain early releases of the document before Congress. Both egregious and unlawful from the vantage point of the Constitution. But, that is the least of egregious behavior emulating from the Mueller Report.

Several members of the Trump administration were directly caught lying about certain circumstances relating to the firing of James Comey. Including Sarah Huckabee’s retraction (to the Mueller investigation team while under oath) of the “numerous contacts” stating their loss of faith with Comey, resulting in his firing. She called it a “slip of the tongue”. That “slip of the tongue” progressed through two days of questioning by the White House press Corps. Secondly, it has been pointed out that numerous times, White House Staffers either ignored, or intentionally did not carry out orders given to them by the President himself, thus saving him from direct obstruction of the investigation. Had they not done so, the President would have been in violation of the law and the duty of oath according to the Constitution. This either shows two things, the President doesn’t know what he is doing, or he is weak as a leader. Or…the third possible outcome; he is corrupt and will stop at nothing to bury or hide or wipe clean his mis-deeds. Only his staff saved him from further damage. There is no other outcome but these three. It is there in the report to read.

Lastly there is this: Mueller writes in his presentation. If we had confidence, after a thorough investigation of the facts that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state. Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, we are unable to reach that judgement. In other words, there is plenty evidence that the President is guilty of multiple things, it is just not that easy to prove it. However, besides the numerous redactions, there is still ongoing investigations in the Southern New York district into Trump’s financial dealings and numerous loans with Deutsche Bank. Meaning, this report could just be the tip of the iceberg. Just how deep the corruption runs in the Trump financial world, we enigmatically await the answers. Meanwhile, the shouts across the aisle get louder. Scholars of interpretive government scratch their heads and the American public is cast deeper down into despair while our roads and bridges rot and our children’s future grow dimmer by the day.

Is Trump the only cause of this? Of course not. In fact, we are as at fault as he. We put him in office. Handed it to him for a cart load of promises and a pile of dogmatic trifle. All the while, the Russian Troll Union fed us Red-Meat daily and denied us truth. We aren’t intelligent enough to figure all this out and therefore we elect the bland, the weak, the corrupt. The puppets that slowly and deliberately dismantle the real structure of power within this country, our rights as citizens. Trump is a symptom of what is truly wrong with us. We are blinded by the material. We over consume like pigs at a trough. We run ram-shod over third world nations and basically steal their resources. Leave them in ruins when we are done. We occupy over five hundred military bases around the world. We interfere in other’s elections. Yes, we do! We’ve been doing it for some time. We use the Monroe doctrine like a big stick or whip. God help the Western hemisphere nation that dares set its government on course to allow free democracy that isn’t in line with the intentions of this nation’s goals. I could list them, but, you are smart people. Look it up for yourself.  

When the justice system of any nation falls, so fall all rights for that nation’s citizens. This administration, by all rights, has flaunted that justice system in our faces. They’ve lied to us. They’ve allowed our security and our democratic process to be compromised and lied to us about that! They continue to lie to cover up past lies. I’m not asking you to believe me because I write this. I am challenging you to look it up for your selves. I am challenging you to step outside your comfort zone and truly see where America is today. This is not a reality show. This is our future, our children’s future and our grand-children’s future. We are at war with ideology. And the powerful are winning. In Scandinavian countries, today, class are being taught to grade school children on how to detect false information on Social Media. Why do you think this is? Better still, why do you think it is not being taught in American schools? If you think it is unnecessary, then I truly weep for you. And your children. Because the reality is, what you don’t know, can harm you. It can imprison you and it can enslave you. I leave you with this.

“When you are studying any matter or considering any philosophy, ask yourself only, what are the facts and what is the truth that the facts bear out? Never let yourself be diverted either by what you wish to believe or what you think would have beneficial social effects if it were believed. Look only and solely at what are the facts.” Bertrand Russell

ACCOMACK COUNTY SUPERVISORS NEED TO APOLOGIZE FOR THEIR  HYPOCRITICAL REMARKS REGARDING OUR DRINKING WATER SUPPLIES.

This Letter is special to the Mirror by Ken Dufty

During a recent meeting of the Accomack-Northampton Groundwater Committee (GWC),  former Chairman and current Accomack County Supervisor Paul Muhly demanded a retraction from CBES regarding a recent article in CBES Shoreline Newsletter that concluded that the groundwater reserves in the Yorktown Aquifer (where 90% of our drinking water comes from on the Eastern Shore of Virginia) were not “sustainable”.  This demand was echoed the following night by Accomack Supervisor Grayson Chesser at that board’s monthly meeting.

The refrain was broadcast by our esteemed local FM radio station WESR, fueling the fire that CBES had misinformed the public and must “set the record straight”.     Note that at the very same GWC meeting, the Committee unanimously voted to give a groundwater excellence award to Senator Lewis and Delegate Bloxom (deservedly so) for promoting legislation that would encourage increased use of the shallow Columbia Aquifer due to fears that the Yorktown reserves were threatened.  

To wit, the record reflects that all of the information that is in the files and on the table and being actively discussed at the monthly meetings of the GWC fully supports the author of the CBES monthly newsletter article.      The very reason that this Groundwater Committee has been working on getting increased use of the surficial Columbia Aquifer is because they appear to believe that the Yorktown Aquifer which recharges at only a fraction of the rate of the shallower reserves is threatened by salt water intrusion from rising sea levels and over-pumping by the 250+ industrial poultry houses planned for Accomack County.  

Indeed, because of declining reserves of fresh water both in Chincoteague and Cape Charles, those municipalities are reportedly considering expensive desalinization plants.    It has been pointed out numerous times that the same warnings being made by CBES and others about the sustainability of groundwater reserves were similarly disparaged by elected leaders in Virginia Beach in the late ’70’s. 

That smoke and mirror condemnation of the prevailing data resulted in that area running out of water just years later, triggering a half-billion dollar project to pump water from Lake Gaston (75 miles away) before economic development could resume.  

Note we do not have a Lake Gaston to tap, as we are a sole-source aquifer recharged only by rain water-the vast majority of which bleeds to the Bay and Seaside before it can seep into the three lower Yorktown supplies.       

The facts remain that CURRENT studies show that we use about 9 million gallons of drinking water from the Yorktown Aquifer daily and recharge from rain water is about equal to that number. But the projections are that once all of the Industrial Poultry houses come on line in our chicken-saturated county on the northern Virginia’s Eastern Shore, these facilities could suck anywhere from 1.1 to 3 million extra gallons each day from our Yorktown Aquifer. This tips the scale of sustainability, no matter how much fact-twisting is perpetrated upon us by elected officials who should know better.         

So it is clearly Supervisors Muhly and Chesser who owe the Eastern Shore citizens an apology for spreading misinformation in an apparent attempt to appease the poultry industry (in my opinion) and for encouraging us all  to “whistle past the graveyard” as we turn on our taps.  Their statements on the sustainability of our lower groundwater reserves stand in direct contradiction to their near hysterical praise for legislation that will encourage more use of the Columbia and less on our limited Yorkton supplies, and contrast shaply with the committee’s flagship work for over a decade, causing us to ask “if there is no problem with the sustainability of the Yorktown Aquifer, why the drool over getting people off it?”.

This Opinion is special to the Mirror by Trapper Dan.

Aw, come on, give the Mayor a break. He knows that there is a problem because he is getting complaints. The problem is knowing what to do about feral cats. He should have gotten some advice before he said what he did.

Consider a middle ground. There are gardeners who don’t like what happens in their gardens or under their window late at night. Their cats are  licensed, shots up to date, tagged, and not allowed to roam.

There are others who see themselves as on a divine mission to protect the cats and their way of life by feeding. They will happily boil huge amounts of chicken necks for them. They seek vengeance on anyone they perceive as interfering in their pursuit. They will vandalize your car, your boat, and throw rocks through your windows (remember Violent Viola?). Like feral cats, they are a breed apart. The cats are here, it is not possible for them not to be, but the problem can be mitigated. The middle ground is something called population dynamics. If enough breeders don’t breed, the numbers will go down in time. 

This requires a low-key, sustained, and broadly applied cooperative effort. 

Live trapping is legal on private property. Companion animals must be turned over to County Animal Control, Ask them to pick up and return the trap. Do not transport and release the animal elsewhere.  Low-key suggests one trap hidden, such as as under a porch, out of sight, where it wont be rained on. Cats will find it. Chain it to something immovable. The best bait is a small amount of dry cat food in a small dish covered with a mesh so it can be reused. Do not try ry to remove the animal from the trap. 

The more neighbors participating, the better. In time, a sustained and patient effort will show results.

Special Opinion to the Mirror by Paul Plante.

First of all, hand’s down, of course, the most important take-away by far from the Michael Cohen hearing before the House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Reform, the main investigative committee in the U.S. House of Representatives with authority to investigate the subjects within the Committee’s legislative jurisdiction, as well as “any matter” within the jurisdiction of the other standing House Committees, on Wednesday, 27 February 2019, is kudos once again to PR Guru Lanny “I Am The Man” Davis for another colossus of an extravaganza intended to sell a lot of soap, which has again earned Lanny a heap of praise from the Madison Avenue PR crowd, who would know these things better than the rest of us who aren’t in the PR game, but are instead its intended victims, as well as the main-stream media who were handed a blockbuster of a story that they will be able to make hay off of for at least the next several weeks, with this Cohen appearance winning the vitally important ratings game (ratings sell advertising) as the coveted Best Daytime Soap for 27 February 2019.

But seriously, people, when confronted with a Lanny Davis production, how could it possibly be otherwise?

Afterall, not for nothing is Lanny Davis known the the “PR Guru” in the trade, and that is also why he is called “The Maestro,” for how he can orchestrate these things so much better than anyone else in the game, which is why Lanny is on top, a master impresario, and the other ones aren’t. 

Simple math, people – Lanny produces, where the competition just flails around!

Results are what the game is all about, and with Michael Cohen and Committee Chairman Elijah “The Prophet” Cummings on the roster in starring roles, Lanny was assured of great success, and success is exactly what he achieved.

So what makes a Lanny Davis production so much superior to the regular run of insipid and trite daytime soaps the American viewing public is regularly treated to?

Well, dialogue, first and foremost is what the experts all say.

Rhetorically speaking, without blockbuster dialogue, how can you have a blockbuster production?

And the answer is, you can’t, which takes us to the carefully crafted and riveting opening statement of Chairman Elijah “The Prophet” Cummings, because if you don’t have the hook in in the opening lines, people, the audience is going to be channel-surfing again, and you have lost them, to wit:

Today, the Committee will hear the testimony of Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s longtime personal attorney and one of his closest and most trusted advisors over the last decade.

end quotes

Now in the PR game, that is known as the “set-up,” or “the grab,” establishing Michael Cohen as being tighter to Trump than his own underwear, and let me say that in his delivery there, Elijah Cummings is said to have delivered a flawless performance.

Let’s face it, people, even right now, after the breathtaking performance is long since over, he still has us on the edge of our seats there, straining forward to hear the next words coming, saying to ourselves, “holy ****, this Cohen is a dude with the real goods on Trump, and that is a fact,” or at least that is how the main-stream media is playing it, and that is a hallmark of a Lanny Davis production – superior scripting, which takes us back to the well-crafted Cummings opening statement as follows:

On August 21, Mr. Cohen appeared in federal court and admitted to arranging secret payoffs of hundreds of thousands of dollars on the eve of the election to silence women alleging affairs with Donald Trump. 

Mr. Cohen admitted to violating campaign finance laws and other laws. 

He admitted to committing these felonies “in coordination with, and at the direction of” President Trump. 

And he admitted, he admitted, to lying about his actions to protect the President.

end quotes

BING BADA BOOM, people, game is over for Trump, and we are barely even into the show, yet!

This is like being outside the tent where Little Egypt is going to do her thing, and listening to the barker telling us about the show, so we will want to pay good money to go in there and see her do it herself.

This is what sets a PR Guru like Lanny Davis apart from the pack – he has his finger on the pulse of what stirs the blood of the people in America, and he provides it for them, big time, which is why his productions are called extravaganzas, and rightfully so, as we see from the following dialogue, to wit:

Some will certainly ask, if Mr. Cohen was lying then, why should we believe him now? 

This is a legitimate question. 

As a trial lawyer for many years, I’ve faced this situation over and over again. 

And I asked the same question. 

end quotes

Introspection and thoughtfulness, people!

Here we have Lanny establishing the fact in the minds of the viewing public, the all-important at-home viewing audience, that here is a man, who despite being a Democrat, is not just going to go blindly rushing in there, believing every word Cohen says, when everybody already knows that in addition to being quite stupid, Cohen is also a convicted liar, which takes us back to Elijah Cummings, as follows:

Here is how I view our role. 

Every one of us in this room has a duty to serve as an independent check on the Executive Branch. 

end quotes

Actually, in reality, that statement is pure bull****, but we are not talking reality here, people – it’s a daytime soap opera, so what we are after isn’t truth or justice – it is drama!

It’s winter, it’s snowing, the governor told us it is not safe to be out when it’s snowing, so we are bored with cabin fever, and we want to be entertained, and Lanny knows that, so he gave us what we craved, which takes us back to these momentous words from the drama, as follows

Ladies and gentlemen, we are in search of the truth. 

The President has made many statements of his own, and now the American people have a right to hear the other side. 

They can watch Mr. Cohen’s testimony and make their own judgment. 

end quotes

Solemnity, people!

How important that is for the drama!

Elijah Cummings is presented to us as a modern-day Diogenes, also known as Diogenes the Cynic, the Greek philosopher and one of the founders of Cynic philosophy who modeled himself on the example of Heracles, and believed that virtue was better revealed in action than in theory, using his simple life-style and behaviour to criticize the social values and institutions of what he saw as a corrupt, confused society, becoming notorious for his philosophical stunts, such as carrying a lamp during the day, claiming to be looking for an honest man, who was also noted for having mocked Alexander the Great, both in public and to his face when he visited Corinth in 336. 

So there, people, is the first most important take-away from the Michael Cohen, but it won’t be the last, so stay tuned, as the plethora of take-aways from this Lanny Davis production come rolling in, and now, a pause for station identification.

This opinion is special to the Mirror by C. Augustus Landis.

As in the Kavenaugh hearing, due process in the Democrat party playbook does not recognize innocent until proven guilty. Northam played the race card in his bid to become Governor and now the Democrat party’s political due process is to use that card against him. As in the Kavanaugh hearing, the Democrat Party says the political due process is for Fairfax to be forced to resign.

The historical irony here is the great debate between Northam and Gillespie was held in Wise Va., named after Henry Wise, the first Governor of Virginia. Wise was the most important political person in Virginia  in the quarter century leading to the Civil War, the most forceful defender of slavery when in Congress, made a martyr of John Brown, and forced Virginia into secession.

Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood, advocated eugenics and cleansing of the negro race. Northam believes in infanticide to end the less desirable will not survive birth.

Both Northam and Wise are democrats.

Res Publica