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
Carla Jasper says
Looks like you totally ignored Bertrand Russell wisdom!
Paul Plante says
Ah, dear Chas, what a piece of work this is that you have put together for us hayseeds and yokels and bumpkins out here in the uncivilized wilds of America to have to consider and you know what, Chas?
Up here in the cold country, the so-called “Mueller Report” is considered a BIG ******* JOKE and a total waste of taxpayer money given that it is based on the testimony of a bumbling, ignorant A-HOLE ex-lawyer and convicted liar named Michael Cohen, who the Democrats are portraying to the American people as a VICTIM, AMERICAN PATRIOT, AND HERO, and people, whether liberal or conservative, are simply sick and tired of hearing the same **** over and over and over that the Russians “interfered” in our elections, when everybody knows different.
“Government intelligence” is considered up here just as much an oxymoron as is “military intelligence,” for the same reasons, so to tell us that Mueller’s findings are based on “intelligence” meets with derisive laughter, since it is based on the lies of Michael Cohen and Democrat pipe dreams, which meets with “**** those multiple perjorative expletives Democrats, when they hell are they going to shut the **** up and leave us the hell alone,” an opinion I happen to share.
And a great Easter to you, dear friend Chas.
I hope it is a glorious one!
Jack Trump says
Well, I absolutely and most certainly completely disagree with this opinion from the left. My opinion, from a self proclaimed socially responsible and independent republicrat, sees a completely different result in the rubble of this complete waste of time and resources in the swamp that is D.C.
Mr. Mueller was supposed to investigate the meddling/collusion of Russia in our election, AND also specifically see just how deeply it involved The Trump campaign. That means, he was not only supposed to limit the scope of his investigation within that Trump campaign.
As an investigator who was hired to discover a non-biased, factual and accurate result to his investigation, he made a laughingstock of his result before he started, when he hired so many “investigative assistants” who were deeply entrenched in the democratic party, and whose discoveries could not be certified to not be biased, he destroyed the credibility of his “work” from instant one.
Let us not forget that this was the 2016 campaign, and Mr. Obama was then President. His people were in charge of our intelligence forces, and they are the ones responsible for allowing, and doing nothing aboutn the Russian meddling. Don’t lose sight of the time frames.
It is also the responsibility of those agencies to inform political candidates that meddling is taking place, and they should request the assistance of the Trump campaign during that time frame to counter attack. But our agencies did not do that. This was entirely an attempt to entrap Trump and his people, and it did not work. In other words, Trump and his people acted more as true Americans that the very heads of our security personnel. DISGUSTING.
Approximately 6 months into his investigation, Mueller already knew the dossier was paid for by the Clinton campaign. Therefore, as a federal attorney and investigator with decades of experience, he knew the dossier was tainted and could not be believed, or used, as a serious basis of “evidence”. Yet he continued. Not only did he continue, but he did not expose and condemn the lies by omission that used that dossier 4 times to get FISA warrants. Disgusting.
Mueller simply continued the practice of creating a smokescreen so that Hillary Clinton would not be investigated and charged for all of her hijinks. Mueller was not conducting an investigation. He was preventing the swamp from being drained and exposed.
When an investigation like this commences, it has one directive. Expose and charge, or not charge if no laws broken. There is no political middle ground. It doesn’t get thrown back w/o a conclusion to create continuing questions only to continue on the process of damaging the presidency and the country.
Saying that Trump tried to hinder the investigation is a blatant lie. We all know Trump is a bull in a china shop and dives headfirst into things. He is not shy. If he wanted to, he completely had the power to fire Mueller. It would have fired up a lot of people on both sides, but he did not fire him. Instead, he pointed out how Mueller was best friends w/Comey and many hired were biased. So Trump pointed out Mueller should go and that the fix was in. But he did not fire him. Complaining that odds and biases were stacked against him is not hindering prosecution, unless you are biased. It’s a man shaking his head at the unfairness of it all, and shaking his fist at the alligators in his swamp. Or are they crocodiles ?
Mr. Trump completely co-operated and gave all legally requested info for the investigation. He hindered nothing and held back nothing. He bitched and Twittered. Who wouldn’t ? He refused to be interviewed, as was his legal right. If I was innocent of charges, I too would refuse to incriminate myself by miss-stepping in an interview that I could not be forced to participate in. On the other hand, FISA warrants illegally obtained, Hillary, destroyed blackberries and bleachbit her hard drives. She exposed all our secrets with an unsecured server, and we’re wondering how the Russians gained access ?
Why did Mr. Mueller only investigate the Trump side ? Why not the Clinton side ? The e mails hacked by Wikileaks ?
Barr only looks like he’s the President’s lawyer to those who believe he should allow the press to judge the findings of this investigation. Mr. Barr is dong his job and will allow the procedures of the law to continue to direct the usage of these findings. The press has demonstrated their liberal and democrat party leanings during this process and certainly have no right to bully him to taint the proceedings.
In the meantime, he is going to investigate the investigators. He has already stated the felonies committed that created this political investigation will begin to be exposed, and I guess charged.
Personally, I am not considering any philosophy. I like the ones we have. Political freedom and a democracy. I see a democrat party that is flaunting a serious lean towards socialism and is driving it home with a complete lack of tolerance for any other side, and it is looking more and more to be a totalitarian view we have fought wars against. God Bless America. I’ll have nothing to do with this enemy within, and I will speak out against them every chance I get.
Paul Plante says
Points well made, Jack, and for some further clarification, let’s go to a Fox News article that our dear friend and fellow American patriot Chas Cornweller might have missed in all the noise and confusions surrounding this Mullet, er, sorry, misspelling, Mueller Investigation, which article is entitled “Mueller took many improper actions investigating Trump – Here are a few” by Tom Del Beccaro on 18 April 2019, where we have as follows:
The release Thursday of the redacted report of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe of Russia’s interference in our 2016 presidential election should mark the end of a long, expensive and pointless investigation.
It was an investigation that damaged the American legal system in ways that should not be forgotten.
But don’t expect the Mueller report to fade into history in coming days.
Democrats who control the House of Representatives are already demanding to see the entire report without any redactions.
The Democrats also want to see President Trump’s tax returns for the past six years, an enormous amount of other information about the president’s long and successful business career going back decades, and information about his activities and communications with aides in the White House.
What’s next?
Demands to see Trump’s elementary school report cards?
end quotes
And personally, I would not at all be surprised if the THREE DEMOCRAT HORSEMEN OF THE TRUMP APOCALYPSE, smarmy little Adam Schiff, Elijah “The Prophet” Cummings, and “Jumping Jerry” Nadler were already preparing subpoenas to get those very records, to see if Trump might have been colluding with some Russian kid when he was in grade school, just to make sure no stones were left unturned here in the efforts to punish Trump for cutting line and getting to the White House before Hillary Clinton could.
Getting back to the Fox article:
Instead of wanting to legislate and serve the American people, the Democrats are determined to investigate, investigate and investigate some more to serve their own political needs.
They are desperate to find something – anything – to deny the president a second term in office.
end quotes
And regardless of what Chas would like us to believe, bless his soul, there in just a few words is what all these tiresome continuing DEMOCRAT WITCH HUNTS are all about – partisan political horse****.
Instead of working to solve all this nation’s serious problems, these stupid Democrats are simply wasting time and creating gridlock just as they did before, because that is all they are good for, which is nothing at all.
Getting back to Fox, and staying on topic here, since it is Chas’s thread, we have:
We’ve already learned from Attorney General William Barr that after nearly two years of investigation Mueller concluded there was no collusion between Trump and his presidential campaign and Russia to win the 2016 presidential election.
And we’ve learned that Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein concluded from the Mueller report that the president didn’t obstruct justice.
The truth is that President Trump is right when he says the investigation should never even have taken place and that Mueller was the wrong person to head the probe, hired the wrong people as prosecutors, and conducted the investigation improperly.
end quotes
With all due respect to Chas, who has done a yeoman’s job of bringing a whole passel of things to our attention above here which everybody in this country should have to consider, especially high school children, that is a truth which seems to have eluded our dear friend Chas, which takes us back to the Fox article as follows:
.
Space doesn’t permit me to list everything Mueller did wrong.
But let’s look at the Top Four most improper actions by the special counsel.
Taking the Job
Mueller never should have taken the job as special counsel.
Federal law, 28 CFR § 45.2, states: “No employee shall participate in a criminal investigation or prosecution if he has a personal or political relationship with: (1) Any person or organization substantially involved in the conduct that is the subject of the investigation or prosecution.”
Mueller, who served for 12 years as FBI director, knew when he took the job of special counsel that his friend and former FBI colleague James Comey – who replaced him as director of the bureau in 2013 – was at the center of the activities related to the Russia investigation.
That meant Mueller would have to judge the actions of his friend and longtime associate, along with other FBI officials Mueller who had worked with.
Mueller was interviewed by President Trump for the job of FBI director one day before he took the special counsel position.
That made Mueller a witness to any potential obstruction of justice charge, because Trump spoke to him about replacing Comey.
In America, you should not – or rather, cannot – be both a witness and a fact-finder.
Mueller’s decision to take the special counsel position under those circumstances must cast doubt in the mind of any fair-minded person about whether he was taking the position for partisan reasons and whether he wanted to protect Comey and his other friends.
end quotes
Now, let me say that I am not a Republican, I don’t vote Republican, and wouldn’t even if Jesus himself got down off the cross and ran for office as a Republican, and I am not a Trump fan, and I don’t get my news exclusively from Fox, but even so, I find nothing there that I can dispute or argue with, which takes us to the next important point, as follows:
Hiring biased prosecutors
When Mueller became special counsel, he knew divided Americans were and would be throughout his investigation.
The law says that Mueller was not allowed to consider the political affiliation of the prosecutors he hired to help him.
Yet he somehow wound up with a raft full of Democrats and Hillary Clinton donors.
We were supposed to believe it was sheer coincidence.
Mueller should have avoided all of that by going outside Washington to find his team.
He didn’t.
The hiring of biased attorneys compromised his efforts from Day One.
end quotes
And the result today is that now America is even more divided, and people by and large, regardless of political persuasion up this way, think the Mueller Report is nothing but a collection of horse****, bull**** and pig**** that proves nothing and means nothing, which again takes us back to Fox, as follows:
One-sided referrals
Mueller referred several cases of potential crimes unrelated to the Russia collusion narrative to federal prosecutors in New York City to investigate and possibly prosecute.
Yet Mueller claims he couldn’t find any unsavory evidence related to the manner in which the Russia investigation was launched by his friend Comey and the FBI.
Really?
After all, Comey admitted on TV that he leaked documentation that he took (read: stole) from the FBI.
That remains a crime that is in plain sight – but Mueller couldn’t find it.
Beyond that, there is no doubt Mueller reviewed the investigators’ “sources and methods” and their lack of evidence of Russia collusion.
While Mueller was concluding there was no evidence of collusion, the FBI abuses of the Foreign Surveillance Intelligence Act had to be in plain sight as well.
So why didn’t Mueller make any referrals related of alleged misconduct by Comey and others in the FBI?
The answer is because he was investigating the work of his own friends and work associates.
This is why he never should have taken the job of special counsel.
end quotes
And again, how can any rational American citizen over the age of 18 argue with that conclusion?
Paul Plante says
Chas, dude, I can think of no better evidence that your words above here, when you so passionately and quite accurately state “I am challenging you to step outside your comfort zone and truly see where America is today, this is not a reality show,” are being heard and taken seriously in the highest of high places than an article in none other than your favorite rag The Washington Post entitled “Former vice president Joe Biden jumps into White House race” by Michael Scherer and John Wagner on 25 April 2019, where we have as follows:
Former vice president Joe Biden opened his third campaign for the presidency on Thursday, taking direct aim at President Trump and declaring that “we are in the battle for the soul of this nation.”
“The core values of this nation — our standing in the world, our very democracy, everything that has made America America — is at stake.”
“That’s why today I’m announcing my candidacy for president of the United States.”
end quotes
I have to say in my own estimation that those words “we are in the battle for the soul of this nation” uttered by Joe Biden just four days after this article appeared in the Cape Charles Mirror came to Joe after reading your words above, which describe very vividly that very battle, and it was those words of yours above that finally brought Joe Biden into the fray with a not only a ready made slogan and soundbite, both of which are super-critical to a presidential candidate in America today, along with the ability to fundraise, of course, because the office of president goes for big bucks these days, but a potent nickname as well for Joe, now known as “THE SOUL MAN,” and something even more important than that, which is a personal theme song which for Joe Biden goes as follows to a catchy reggae beat in three-part harmony with some DO-WHOPPA-DOO being crooned in the background, to wit:
Comin’ to ya on a dusty road
Good lovin’ he’s got a truck load
And when you get it you got something
So don’t worry cause Joe Biden’s coming
He’s the soul man
He’s the soul man
He’s the soul man
He’s the soul man
Got what he got the hard way
And he’ll make it better each and every day
So honey don’t you fret
‘Cause you ain’t seen nothing yet
He’s the soul man
He’s the soul man
Play it Steve!
He’s the soul man
He’s the soul man
Listen
He was brought up on a side street
He learned how to love before he could eat
He was educated from good stock
When he starts lovin’ he just can’t stop
He’s the soul man
He’s the soul man
He’s the soul man
He’s the soul man
Well grab the rope and he’ll pull you in
Give you hope and be your only boyfriend
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
He’s the soul man
He’s the soul man
You’re a soul man
He’s the soul man
He’s the soul man
He’s the soul man
end quotes
So, Chas, thanks to you, it very much appears that now with Joe Biden in the race as AMERICA’S CHAMPION, the nation’s prayers for its soul to be saved have been answered, and if it weren’t for you and the Cape Charles Mirror, it never wouldn’t have happened!
So a grateful nation owes you its thanks, Chas.
Paul Plante says
And dear friend Chas, above here, in your excellent, thought-provoking essay reminiscent of a speech by a noted statesman like William Pitt the Elder, you say as follows, to wit:
“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?”
end quotes
And what indeed, dear friend Chas?
Isn’t it because we have become intellectually stupid and just plain dog-lazy in this country when it comes to our duties as citizens?
Consider the fact that back in 1924, the state of Oregon required electors to read the Constitution in English and write their name, and today, you don’t even have to be able to spell your name or even know what country or universe you are in, and still, you can vote with everyone else, which is why we are in the serious straits you call to our attention above here, dear friend Chas – when you create a STOOPID electorate, and by God, we have sure done so in this country, then how on earth can you expect anything different than what we now have?
As to us being fed unfiltered dis-information and just plain horse**** by the MSM, how about this Yahoo! News article entitled “AOC joins Bernie in backing voting rights for prisoners” by Kadia Tubman on 25 April 2019, as follows:
Ocasio-Cortez, the freshman Democrat from New York who has emerged as a de facto spokesperson for the party’s progressive wing, weighed in after Sen. Bernie Sanders was criticized for proposing that people in prison for any reason should be allowed to cast a ballot.
When asked during a CNN town hall Monday night if incarcerated felons like the Boston Marathon bomber or those convicted of sexual assault should be eligible to vote while serving their sentences, Sanders firmly replied, “The right to vote is inherent to our democracy — yes, even for terrible people.”
“As it happens, in my own state of Vermont, from the very first days of our state’s history, what our Constitution says is that everybody can vote,” he said.
“So people in jail can vote.”
end quotes
Except that statement by “Barmy Bernie,” dear friend Chas, about the Vermont Constitution happens to be more horse****, which is so easy to prove these days, so why did that dis-information by “Barmy Bernie” go unchallenged?
Let’s take a look at the Vermont Constitution on voting, as follows:
CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF VERMONT
AS ESTABLISHED JULY 9, 1793, AND AMENDED THROUGH DECEMBER 14, 2010
CHAPTER I.
A DECLARATION OF THE RIGHTS OF THE INHABITANTS OF THE STATE OF VERMONT
Article 8. [Elections to be free and pure; rights of voters therein]
That all elections ought to be free and without corruption, and that all voters, having a sufficient, evident, common interest with, and attachment to the community, have a right to elect officers, and be elected into office, agreeably to the regulations made in this constitution.
end quotes
Now, that hardly says that in Vermont, everyone can vote including the murderers and rapists whose political support “Barmy Bernie” so eagerly seeks, along with AOC.
Does the statement that “all voters, having a sufficient, evident, common interest with, and attachment to the community, have a right to elect officers, and be elected into office” include the murderers and rapists who are “Barmy Bernie” Sanders base of political support?
Do you think, dear friend Chas, that murderers and rapists really do have an evident, common interest with, and attachment to the community, so that they too should have a right to elect officers like “Barmy Bernie” Sanders to be president?
If they really had an evident, common interest with, and attachment to the community, why then would they be raping and murdering members of that same community?
Does that make any kind of sense to you what “Barmy Bernie” is saying there about rapists and murderers having common interest with, and attachment to the community as people who aren’t rapists or murderers?
And you wonder why today America is as clearly totally ****** up as it is.
Which takes us back to that article as follows:
Sanders continued: “If somebody commits a serious crime, sexual assault, murder, they’re going to be punished.”
“But I think the right to vote is inherent to our democracy — yes, even for terrible people,” he added, “because once you start chipping away and you say, ‘Well, that guy committed a terrible crime, not going to let him vote.’”
“… You’re running down a slippery slope.”
end quotes
But isn’t that exactly ***-backwards, dear friend Chas?
Don’t you start running down the slippery slope when you give the right to elect the president of the United States of America to rapists and murderers like the Boston Bomber?
Isn’t “Barmy Bernie” playing some kind of a mind-**** with us there, trying to turn black into white and night into day?
Which takes us back to that article as follows, to wit:
The Republican National Committee issued a statement denouncing Sanders, who during the town hall accused Republican governors of a “cowardly” effort to suppress votes.
“Bernie Sanders, the current front-runner for the Democratic nomination, just made it clear he wants convicted terrorists, sex offenders and murderers to vote from prison,” the statement read.
“The Boston Marathon Bomber killed three people and injured 280 more.”
“Bernie’s concern?”
“That he gets his absentee ballot.”
end quotes
Your thoughts, dear friend Chas?
The terribly confused candid world would love to hear them, as would I!