The House passes the USMCA deal
For months Donald Trump has been pressuring Nancy Pelosi to pass the deal he negotiated to replace NAFTA, the USMCA, but unwilling to give the President a victory the Speaker of the House put partisan politics ahead of the country and refused to bring the deal to the floor of the House.
After the bill languished in the House for a year Nancy Pelosi announced the House would finally take up the measure. This announcement came just one hour after she announced the House would bring articles of impeachment against Donald Trump so that the Democrats’ radical base would not realize she was about to hand the President a political victory after the party vowed to resist everything.
Today the House has passed the USMCA, here is more:
The House of Representatives on Thursday approved legislation championed by President Donald Trump that will revamp the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with overwhelming bipartisan support.
The U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), passed by a vote of 385-41, will modernize the U.S.’s trading relationships with neighbors Canada and Mexico and represents a major victory for President Trump and his administration. 38 House Democrats opposed the bill, while two Republicans and Rep. Justin Amash (I-MI) voted against it. The bill will now go to the Senate, where it will sit until the conclusion of the upper chamber’s impeachment trial. Its passage comes one day after the House approved two articles of impeachment — abuse of power and obstruction of Congress — against the president.
“House passage of the USMCA with such huge bipartisan support is a major milestone and shows just how much President Trump is successfully changing U.S. trade policy so it works for the benefit of American workers, farmers, ranchers and businesses,” said Lighthizer. “The USMCA is expected to create between 176,000 and 589,000 new American jobs and substantially increase economic growth. The International Trade Commission’s analysis shows that USMCA will have a more positive impact on our economy, jobs and wages than any other U.S. trade agreement ever negotiated.”
I am not sure it is true that the Senate will not take up this measure until the impeachment hearing is over but if that is true it is disappointing. Especially if the Democrats refuse to sent the articles of impeachment to the upper chamber.
Again the timing of this vote is hilarious; coming one day after the House impeached the President so as to not draw attention to the fact that the Democrats approved something Donald Trump wanted. This deal will be a victory for the American people but the Democrats’ base will not be happy because they care more about taking down Donald Trump than doing what is best for the country and the Democratic leadership is afraid of angering them.
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
House Democrats float the idea of delaying impeachment
Last night the Democrats made history by making Donald Trump the first President to be impeached not based on “high crimes and misdemeanors” because they believe his alleged abuses of power are so great that he poses a grave threat to our democracy.
He is such a threat in fact that now that he has been impeached the Democrats are actually floating the idea of not sending the articles of impeachment over to the Senate for a trial right away.
Here is more on this strange new development:
A group of House Democrats is pushing Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other leaders to withhold the articles of impeachment against President Trump that emerged from the House on Wednesday, potentially delaying a Senate trial for months.
The notion of impeaching Trump but holding the articles in the House has gained traction among some of the political left as a way to potentially force Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, to conduct a trial on more favorable terms for Democrats. And if no agreement is reached, some have argued, the trial could be delayed indefinitely, denying Trump an expected acquittal.
The phrase “more favorable terms for Democrats” really tells us all we need to know; this is strictly driven by partisan politics. If you honestly believe Donald Trump is a threat to our democracy, and is on the verge of declaring himself a dictator as we have heard the left claim, than to not move to remove him from office as soon as possible is a dereliction of duty. Of they were truly convicted on this they would bring the evidence forward and fight for the country.
The brutal truth is that the Democrats know Donald Trump is going to be acquitted in the Senate, they know he will not be removed from office and the dirty little secret is they know he has done nothing deserving of removal from office. But they have been driven to this point by their rabid, radical base and now they are trying to back down without it looking like that is what they are doing.
The plan all along was not removal from office, it was to put a black mark on Donald Trump’s record and to have this hanging over his head during the election. If the President is acquitted quickly it will not help them politically and so they are looking to delay the inevitable as long as possible so they can continue to use impeachment as a political tool as long as possible.
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
Devin Nunes calls for an end to the FISA court
Yesterday a judge on the FISA court came out and rebuked the FBI after the Inspector General report found 17 so-called mistakes in the rogue agency’s application to spy on Donald Trump.
Last night Devin Nunes appeared on television and basically said that while it was all well and good that the FISA court spoke out about the FBI abuses the secret court has a shared responsibility in the scandal and should be disbanded. Here is more:
Appearing on Fox News’ show “The Story” with Martha MacCallum Tuesday evening, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) said that it is past time for Congress to take active steps against the FISA court. The ranking Republican member on the House Intelligence Committee said that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) is just as responsible for the improper wiretapping of former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page as the FBI. And, he said, the court knew about it years ago, yet decided not to act.
“I’m glad to see the FISC court come out and make a statement but your viewers need to know that the FISC court is also culpable in this madness, and I say that because we sent them two letters—very specific letters,” Nunes told MacCallum Tuesday night. He then went on to explain that Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee sent Collyer the first letter in February of 2018. The second letter was sent in the summer of that same year. In both cases, Collyer and her fellow FISA judges decided to do… absolutely nothing.
“The point here, Martha, is the court knew about all this,” Nunes explained. “I’m glad they’ve acted, I’m glad they said something, but the court has to be ended.”
I could not agree more and it is great to see a politician actually stand up and say the FISA court needs to be ended. (I am sure somewhere along the line Ron and Rand Paul must have called for its closure.) However, unlike Devin Nunes, I am not just calling for the FISA court to be shut down over this scandal. I have always believed this secret court is unconstitutional and needed to be shut down and I have been saying so here for years. This court has always had the potential for abuse and now we are seeing it.
Sadly though Americans have made the choice we were warned about all those years ago and we have given up some privacy for some pretend security and we will never get it back.
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
FISA court rebukes the FBI for mistakes
We now know according to the Inspector General report that 17 acts of what James Comey calls “sloppiness” occurred while the FBI was applying for a FISA warrant so they could spy on an American citizen. Now a judge on the FISA court has stepped forward and rebuked the rogue agency, here is more:
The secret federal court that approves orders for conducting surveillance on suspected foreign terrorists or spies issued a strong and highly unusual public rebuke to the FBI on Tuesday, ordering the agency to say how it intends to correct the errors revealed last week by a Justice Department report on one aspect of the FBI’s investigation of Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign.
Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz said the FBI made serious and repeated mistakes in seeking under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, to conduct surveillance of Carter Page, a former Trump campaign adviser.
The FBI’s submission to the court made assertions that were “inaccurate, incomplete, or unsupported by appropriate documentation,” the report said.
Rosemary Collyer, presiding judge on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, said in the unusual public order that the report “calls into question whether information contained in other FBI applications is reliable.” She ordered the FBI to explain in writing by Jan. 10 how it intends to remedy those problems.
Collyer said the FBI’s handling of the Page case “was antithetical to the heightened duty of candor” required by the law that established the surveillance court. Judges on the court rely entirely on the government’s submissions. Because they are the only documents the court sees, the government has a heightened duty of candor, she said.
Of course we never hear anything from the secret, unconstitutional FISA court so just the fact that a member of the court actually spoke out shows us just how serious these infractions really were.
We have allowed the left to win the battle over the definition of certain words over the years and somehow they have managed to redefine the word “mistake.” These were not mistakes made by the FBI, they were intentional acts designed to create evidence, or to suppress exculpatory evidence, to obtain a warrant on a United States citizen for political motives and it cannot go unpunished.
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
Latvian government flagged suspicious payments to Hunter Biden in 2016
Donald Trump is on the verge of being impeached because of shady dealings Hunter Biden had with Ukraine. It sounds unbelievable when it is put like that but that is an accurate assessment of the situation. If Hunter Biden was not crooked Donald Trump would not be in hot water with the Democrats for trying to expose it but the one good thing about this situation is that try as they might to hide the nefarious activities of Hunter Biden they are slowly but surely coming to light.
It has already been reported that Hunter Biden got $16.5 million in illegal payments from Ukraine and that billions may have been funneled to the Democratic party and now it is being reported that the Latvian government flagged suspicious payments made to Hunter Biden and asked Ukraine for help investigating the situation. Here is more:
As the U.S. presidential race began roaring to life in 2016, authorities in the former Soviet republic of Latvia flagged a series of “ suspicious” financial transactions to Hunter Biden and other colleagues at a Ukrainian natural gas company and sought Kiev’s help investigating, according to documents and interviews.
The Feb. 18, 2016 alert to Ukraine came from the Latvian prosecutorial agency responsible for investigating money laundering, and it specifically questioned whether Vice President Joe Biden’s younger son and three other officials at Burisma Holdings were the potential beneficiaries of suspect funds.
“The Office for Prevention of Laundering of Proceeds Derived from Criminal Activity … is currently investigating suspicious activity of Burisma Holdings Limited,” the Latvian agency also known as the FIU wrote Ukraine’s financial authorities.
The memo was released to me by the Ukrainian General Prosecutor’s Office and confirmed by the Latvian embassy to the United States.
the memo adds to the mounting evidence that there was ongoing investigative activity surrounding Burisma Holdings and Hunter Biden’s compensation as a board member in the weeks just before Joe Biden forced the firing of the Ukraine prosecutor overseeing the Burisma investigation in spring 2016.
The Latvian law enforcement memo identified a series of loan payments totaling about $16.6 million that were routed from companies in Beliz and the United Kingdom to Burisma through Ukraine’s PrivatBank between 2012 and 2015.
There is that $16 million number again…
It is becoming more and more clear that Joe Biden’s son was involved in some shady dealings in Ukraine and the Democrats are in a race against time to stop Donald Trump before any more comes out. Whatever happened to that saying about not killing the messenger…
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
House Judiciary Committee report accuses Trump of crimes not included in the articles of impeachment
Earlier today the House Judiciary Committee released its report on the House impeachment inquiry and according to this article the report accuses Donald Trump of bribery and fraud. Here is more:
The report, released Monday ahead of Wednesday’s anticipated vote on impeachment, accuses Trump of violating 18 U.S.C. § 201 — federal criminal bribery — because he “demanded” an announcement of investigations, which the report describes as a thing of “value.” In return, the report alleges, the president was influenced in his performance of official acts. (The report disagrees with recent Supreme Court precedent that a “meeting” is not an “official act.”) In addition, the report rejects that there was “any public purpose” associated with Trump’s request for investigations.
Moreover, the Judiciary Committee report adds a new, previously undebated crime — namely, honest services fraud: “In addition to committing the crime of bribery, President Trump knowingly and willfully orchestrated a scheme to defraud the American people of his honest services as President of the United States. In doing so, he betrayed his position of trust and the duty he owed the citizenry to be an honest fiduciary of their trust,” the report declares.
Bribery and fraud are some serious charges and if they are true Donald Trump should be impeached and removed from office. Oddly enough, however, these are not charges because they are not included in the articles of impeachment. In fact there are no crimes listed in the article of impeachment. Do you find it as strange as I do that crimes which are impeachable offences are listed in the impeachment report but not in the actual articles of impeachment themselves?
I believe the Democrats know they are on shaky ground with impeachment so they are trying to make what they are doing seem more justifiable with the American people by making it look worse for Donald Trump than it really is, but in reality they have no proof of these accusations, they just made them up, so they cannot bring these charges against the President.
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
Joe Biden claims he got Republicans to vote for Obamacare
One of the claims Joe Biden is making on the campaign trail is that he is the only candidate who can bring both sides back together, and to prove this he decided he had to come up with an example of how he has been able to do this in the past.
Do you remember the great compromise? I am not talking about the one in 1787 or even the one in 1850, but rather the great compromise of 2010 on Obamacare when the Democrats were able to bring the Republicans together with them to pass Obamacare without resorting to parliamentary tricks or reconciliation to pass the bill with absolutely not one Republican vote in the House or in the Senate?
Yeah, neither do I but apparently Joe Biden remembers those days. Here is what he had to say on the campaign trail the other day:
The fight ahead of us is not about just what we have planned, its about … whose going to take on and get these things passed. We need someone with proven ability to bring people together and do the hard work of getting legislation passed. I’ve done that, I’ve done that before. Finding Republican votes for … Obamacare.
We know this is not true and Joe Biden has to know it is not true as well, so either he is lying and he knows he is lying or he honestly believes what he is saying and if that is the case it is obvious the man is not fit for the office he is campaigning for.
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
James Comey admits he was wrong about FISA process
When the Inspector General report came out last week James Comey, despite the fact the report found 17 mistakes made by the FBI, claimed vindication. It did not take long for Michael Horowitz and others to rebuke the former head of the FBI, claiming nobody was vindicated.
Today James Comey did a 180 and admitted what we have all known, the FBI did not follow proper procedure and as head of the FBI it is his fault. Here is more:
Comey said, “He’s right. I was wrong. I was overconfident as director in our procedures of the FBI and Justice have built over 20 years years. I thought they were robust enough. It’s incredibly hard to get a FISA. I was overconfident in those because he’s right, there was real sloppiness — 17 things that should have been in the application or at least discussed and characterized differently. It was not acceptable, so he’s right. I was wrong.”
He added, “Sure, I’m responsible, I was overconfident as director in our procedures, and it’s important that a leader be accountable and transparent. If I were so director, I’d be saying exactly the same thing that Chris Wray is saying, that we are going to get to the bottom of this because the most important question is, is it systemic? Are the problems in other cases?”
While he categorizes it as “sloppiness” the key to James Comey’s statement is when he talks about it being hard to get a FISA warrant. It should be hard to get a FISA warrant and because the establishment was so hell-bent on getting something on Donald Trump they became sloppy.
But was it just “sloppiness?” This is all about the motivation and “sloppiness” is an at-best scenario, but I think this was intentional and cannot be written off as simply “sloppiness.
Donald Trump is now the one basically claiming vindication after James Comey’s admission and he would like to know what happens next and to be honest I am more than a little curious about that myself.
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
Sunday, December 15th open thread: ‘Exit Music (For a Film)’
“This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” (Psalm 118:24 KJV)
Here is this week’s open thread. Please feel free to post links to interesting articles and to discuss whatever issues arise during the course of the day. Nothing is off-topic here.
You can subscribe to America’s Watchtower to receive email updates and you can also follow America’s Watchtower on Facebook and Twitter by clicking the links on the right.
Here is Radiohead performing “Exit Music (For a Film)” live in 1998. This song was originally recorded as the exit music for a remake of Romeo and Juliet, which goes a long way in explaining the title and the lyrics. Enjoy:
This story is actually several days old but it has been a busy week and so I did not have a chance to get to it until now, but it is better late than never and it has not received any coverage so here we go:
The Democrats have been trying to remove Donald Trump from office since, well, even before he took office, on the grounds that he allegedly sought foreign help in the 2016 election. Ironically enough it turns out there was an attempt at foreign interference during the 2016 campaign but to date it all happens to be on the side of the Democrats.
First came the Russian dossier, which was paid for by Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee which was the work of a foreign operative. But that apparently was the tip of the iceberg if this story is true because William Barr has indicted eight Democrats for funneling illegal foreign donations into Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
I had to dig around for a little while to find the CNN version of this story so I would not be subject to claims my source article was not a legitimate outlet. It was not easy but I found it, here is more:
Eight people, including a longtime political networker and a CEO, have been indicted on charges of funneling money illegally into Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and other political groups.
George Nader, who has for decades hobnobbed with political elites and became a key Mueller cooperator, and Allied Wallet CEO Ahmad “Andy” Khawaja are accused of sending millions to political committees and hiding Nader as its source, with Nader allegedly reporting to a Middle Eastern government on the effort.
“With Nader allegedly reporting to a Middle Eastern government.” That is an interesting way to word it don’t you think? Almost like CNN is downplaying the connection…
But let us continue:
According to Federal Election Commission records and details in the indictment, the money primarily went toward backing Clinton’s 2016 campaign efforts. Though Clinton and her affiliated campaign finance groups are unnamed in the indictment, the money primarily went to her campaign, according to a source familiar with the investigation and campaign finance records. Attorneys for the Clinton campaign, the Democratic Party, and Bill and Hillary Clinton did not respond to requests for comment on Wednesday.
The other conspirators are alleged to have been part of Khawaja’s donations scheme, which allowed him to exceed campaign finance limits, according to the indictment.
Nader, specifically, is accused of sending more than $3.5 million through Khawaja to political committees so they could gain access to then-candidate Hillary Clinton in 2016. “It was a purpose of the conspiracy for Nader and Khawaja to use their access to Candidate 1 to gain favor with, and potential financial support from, the government of Foreign Country A,” prosecutors wrote in the indictment. The contributions were disguised so Nader’s involvement was hidden, the Justice Department said.
There it is, does that sound like a quid pro quo with a foreign government to affect the outcome of an election to you because it certainly does to me. And while all of this goes on, these very same Democrats who appear to be guilty of doing what they have claimed Donald Trump has done are poised to put the President on trial in the Senate and the mainstream media does not find this a newsworthy story.
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
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