House Judiciary Committee to subpoena James Comey and Loretta Lynch
It looks like the Republican-led lame duck session of the House is going to end with subpoenas issued to James Comey and Loretta Lynch in their email probes of Hillary Clinton’s email scandal and the FBI’s handling of the Russia probe if this story is true, here is more:
The Republican-led House Judiciary Committee, in its final days in power, is planning to issue subpoenas to former FBI Director James Comey and President Barack Obama’s attorney general Loretta Lynch, according to a source with knowledge of the subpoenas.
The source said the committee chairman, Republican Rep. Bob Goodlatte of Virginia, plans to issue the subpoenas on Monday for Comey to appear for a closed-door deposition on November 29 and for Lynch to appear on December 5. The interviews are part of the House Republican investigation into the FBI’s handling of the Clinton email probe and the Russia investigation.
Chalk this up in “the little too late” or the “what difference does it make now” column as far as far as I am concerned. Why bother at this point? The Republicans have put on a front for two years and in my opinion this proves it. Now that they are headed out of power they decide to issue these subpoenas when they know the investigation is going to be dropped in the next session of the Congress?
The Republicans never really wanted to get to the bottom of this because in the end they will always have the backs of the establishment but now they can say they tried and put the blame on the Democrats for ending the investigation.
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
Middle Class tax cuts are not part of Congress lame duck agenda
You may remember while Donald Trump was stumping for Republicans before the mid-term election he promised a middle class tax cut was on the way after the Congress was back in session. Well, with the Democrats winning the majority in the mid-terms Donald trump and the Republicans have a limited time to accomplish anything in the Congress before the #resist Democrats take over control in January and they have prioritized the border wall over middle class tax cuts.
Here is more:
President Trump told Senate Republican leaders on Thursday that his top lame-duck priorities include passing a spending bill with border security funds and approving new prison reform legislation — but middle-class tax cuts appear to have fallen from the agenda.
Trump vigorously invoked the tax-slashing plan in the final days of the midterm election campaign, but public accounts of an Oval Office agenda meeting do not mention the vow.
White House spokesman Hogan Gidley and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., both omitted Trump’s “pure 10 percent tax cut” for the middle class from public descriptions of the lame-duck agenda.
Let’s face the facts here: The border wall is not ever going to happen, it was never going to happen. The establishment Republicans, with the help of the Democrats, have stalled the border wall funding for two years because they do not want the wall, so stalling it for another two months is nothing for them. Having said that, why not focus on something that will help the economy even more, something the establishment Republicans supposedly want, and something which might be easier to get through the lame duck Congress–tax cuts for the bill payers?
Donald Trump should have stayed focused on the economy and tax cuts before the election, but instead he pivoted to the border wall because that was a key promise he made that knows his base wants, but I think looking back on it now that was a big mistake. I believe most people understand there will never be a border wall and it might have done the Republicans some good to focus on the wallets of the people who put them in office in the first place.
It might do them some good now as well but by focusing on the border wall the Republicans are ensuring that nothing of significance will be done in the waning moments of the Republican majority. But the truth is middle class tax cuts were never on the agenda, that was something the President made up on the fly while campaigning so maybe that is why he pivoted to the wall in the first place.
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
As I wrote about yesterday there is a group of Democrats who are opposed to returning Nancy Pelosi as the Speaker of the House, preferring new leadership to the old guard. The plan was to get enough Democrats to oppose Nancy Pelosi so that she would not get a majority of votes and then as more votes were taken an eventual opponent would emerge.
That is certainly a long-shot bid and does not seem to be a very reliable or efficient plan but now it looks as if a potential candidate is emerging after all. Here is more:
A potential challenger to Nancy Pelosi emerged on Wednesday as her critics worked behind the scenes to try to deny her the votes to be speaker.
Former Congressional Black Caucus Chairwoman Marcia Fudge of Ohio told the Cleveland Plain Dealer that she is considering a bid for the gavel. Fudge, who has signed a letter vowing to oppose Pelosi on the House floor, does not believe the California Democrat can clinch the 218 votes needed to return to her old position.
“People are asking me to do it, and I am thinking about it,” Fudge said. “I need to give it some thought and see if I have an interest. I am at the very beginning of this process. It is just in discussion at this point.”
Fudge’s announcement comes as a tug of war within the House Democratic Caucus over the next speaker of the House kicked into high gear Wednesday. Pelosi leaned on incoming Democrats who’ve signaled a desire for new leadership — and her critics implored them to hold firm.
This is very interesting because Nancy Pelosi has already played the gender card saying it would look “ridiculous” to oust a woman from leadership after the Democrats rode a “pink wave” back into power and now a woman might just be opposing her so I guess you can throw that gender card right out the window.
Of course this is still a long shot bid and in the end I expect Nancy Pelosi to be the Speaker of the House but the opposition seems to be growing and maybe for once the Democrats will eat their own–or at least they will bruise each other a little bit and that will be fun to watch while it lasts.
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
Jim Clyburn claims Democrats are using racial dog whistles to remove him from leadership
Since winning the majority in the House last week things have unexpectedly not gone smoothly for the Democrats and it all revolves around electing their own leadership. We have seen what is happening with Nancy Pelosi and the growing opposition to her Speakership and now Jim Clyburn is accusing Democrats of using racist dog whistles in an attempt to undermine his bid to regain his Majority Whip position.
Here is more:
Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC) is accusing Democrats of using racial “dog whistles” to oust him from the party’s House leadership.
Clyburn is the highest-ranking black Democrat in leadership as the assistant leader, and he is seeking to regain his Majority Whip position that he held the last time Democrats were in the majority.
“I don’t know where it’s all coming from,” Clyburn reportedly told McClatchy on Tuesday. “But someone came to me over the weekend and told me that (they heard), when I was whip before, I was a figurehead.”
According to McClatchy, Clyburn, who said that “nothing could be further from the truth,” reportedly added that “suggestions that, as the only black member of the leadership team, he was a token and not an effective leader, were tantamount to ‘the little dog whistles that have been floating around this side for a long time.’”
Usually Democrats only use the term “dog whistle” when they are attacking Republicans and they have nothing else they can throw at them. That is when the mud-slinging usually begins but here we have a Democrat accusing his fellow Democrats of being racists and you might have noticed he said this was going around on the Democratic side “for a long time.”
Of course this is the party of one of Hillary Clinton’s heroes, Robert Byrd, so the fact the Democratic party is being accused of institutional racism is not surprising to many of us but what is surprising is that a Democrat finally brought it to light.
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
Will Nancy Pelosi be the next Speaker of the House?
Now that the Democrats have won the House the first order of business will be electing a new Speaker. This should be an easy process but there is a little bit of upheaval in the Democratic Party with regards to who should be the Speaker of the House.
Some of the new guard want to see new, younger leadership (which seems a little ageist to me) while the Democrats who have been in the Congress for years want to see the gavel handed back over to Nancy Pelosi.
It appears as if, according to this story, although there are no declared Democratic opponents at this time that it is possible Nancy Pelosi will not reach the 218 vote majority needed for her to reclaim the Speakership and even some of the old guard are coming out against her now.
Here is more:
While Democrats retook the House majority in the 2018 midterms, a new Democrat majority that will be seated in January 2019, Pelosi’s bid for another term as Speaker is anything but certain. While she remains the favorite, and has no intra-Democrat Party challenger, Pelosi’s struggle to get to 218 votes–the majority necessary to win the Speakership on the floor of the House of Representatives–could not be clearer.
On Monday, two senior Democrats–Reps. Ed Perlmutter (D-CO) and Kurt Schrader (D-OR)–made clear in comments to Politico that they would not be supporting Pelosi. Now, late Tuesday in comments to CNN, two more Democrats–Reps. Seth Moulton (D-MA) and Filemon Vela (D-TX)–joined the public opposition to Pelosi’s speakership candidacy with warnings that she will not have the votes necessary to retake the gavel.
“I am 100% confident we can forge new leadership,” Vela said, with Moulton adding that he believes anti-Pelosi Democrats’ chances are also at “100%.”
“We are trying to do the right thing for the party by solving this ahead of time,” Moulton said.
Here is what the anti-Pelosi strategy appears to be:
If no candidate receives a majority of the votes cast for a person, then the business of Congress is held up until such time as a Speaker can be elected on future ballots. This is precisely the strategy that anti-Pelosi Democrat are employing: While they do not have a challenger ready, and do not intend to, what they aim to do is tank Pelosi’s chances on the first ballot with the presumption that alternative candidates with fresher visions for leadership would emerge on future ballots.
“The Pelosi opponents don’t have anyone ready to challenge her, but are trying to garner enough signatures of lawmakers promising to vote against her on the floor to show that she cannot be elected,” Politico’s Bade wrote on Wednesday.
For two years now the Democrats have had no policy and no plan other than to resist Donald Trump. That is what they have put all their thought into, so they really have not thought about what they would do if they got power back and now with internal business being the first order of the day they are conflicted on how to proceed.
I think at the end of the day it is safe to assume the Democrats will rally around Nancy Pelosi but it could be fun to watch for awhile. And after all, Donald Trump did endorse Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats have vowed to oppose every stance he takes so naturally they should feel obligated to oppose her now…
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
CNN sues Donald Trump over revoking Jim Acosta’s press credentials
As you have probably already seen, a few days ago Jim Acosta used his white male privilege to push around and exert his will on a young lady and because of this molestation he had his White House press credentials revoked by the President. (Where is the #metoo movement by the way?)
Today we learned that CNN is now suing the President in an attempt to get Jim Acosta’s press credentials returned, here is more:
CNN filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against the Trump administration after the White House suspended White House correspondent Jim Acosta’s ‘hard pass’ press credential. Acosta clashed with President Donald Trump and a press office intern during a November 7 press conference.
The networks’ suit, filed by a team that includes former George W. Bush solicitor general Ted Olson, demands the immediate return of Acosta’s credentials.
The network claims the revocation of Acosta’s press pass violates the constitutional rights to freedom of the press and due process. CNN is asking for an immediate restraining order to reinstate Acosta’s access to the White House.
I do not see how Jim Acosta’s First Amendment rights were violated because it seems to me that having White House press credentials in the first place is a privilege and not a right. After all, not everybody can get these credentials so are their rights also being violated? Not only that but Jim Acosta will still be able to see the press conferences the same way we do and there is nothing to prevent him from reporting on what he hears.
I do not think there is a case here but you never know how anything will play out in the courts anymore so nothing would surprise me.
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
Sunday, November 11th open thread: ‘Song of the Patriot’
“This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” (Psalm 118:24 KJV)
Here is the open thread for Sunday, November 4th. 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.
Today is Veterans Day so I would like to take a moment to thank all of you out there who have served this great country and all of those who are serving today. God bless you.
“The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valour” (Judges 6:12) KJV)
Here is Johnny Cash singing “Song of the Patriot.”
Democrats will seek to impeach Brett Kavanaugh
If you thought the Brett Kavanaugh saga was over think again: Soon to be House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler revealed that the Democrats plan on impeaching Brett Kavanaugh for perjury. Here is more:
Judiciary Committee ranking member Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., revealed plans for House Democrats to investigate and impeach Justice Brett Kavanaugh for alleged perjury
The two discussed two routes for investigating new Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh. The first is to go after the FBI for how they handled the investigation into unsubstantiated claims he sexually assaulted women. “They didn’t even do a half-ass job,” he said. “They didn’t interview 30 witnesses who said ‘Interview me! I’ve got a lot to say!’” he said, while mimicking people waving their hands to be called on.
His other plan is to go after Kavanaugh because “there’s a real indication that Kavanaugh committed perjury.”
The problem with this plan–besides the fact that Nadler has his stories about Brett Kavanaugh mixed up, which you can read about in the article I linked to above–is the fact that even if the Democrats do impeach Brett Kavanaugh the Senate will not vote to remove him so nothing will change with the Supreme Court. Of course the left will then use his impeachment to make the claim that all decisions the Supreme Court makes with which they disagree are illegitimate, and they will use it to call into question the integrity of the Supreme Court. The left will continue to stoke the fires hoping for violence in the streets.
But as long as we are on the subject of perjury, isn’t interesting the Democrats are going to go after Brett Kavanaugh when one of his accusers has already admitted to lying during her testimony and Michael Avenatti and Julie Swetnick are about to be investigated for lying as well and yet the Democrats have no interest in prosecuting these people at all.
If the Democrats insist upon going along this route I would press to prosecute to the full extent of the law those whom have already admitted to lying about Brett Kavanaugh for political reasons and those under investigation for lying. Of course this will not deter the Democrats because now that they are done with the accusers they do not care what happens to them. The truth is they never cared about what happened to them, or did not happen to them, in the past either.
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
Jeff Sessions out as Attorney General
It had been widely speculated that Jeff Sessions tenure as Attorney General would end after the mid-term elections and today we got the news that he has resigned. Here is more:
Embattled Attorney General Jeff Sessions resigned at the “request” of President Donald Trump on Wednesday after more than a year of public criticism from the president.
Sessions’ chief of staff, Matthew Whitaker, will serve as acting attorney general, Trump announced.
Whitaker also will assume oversight of the ongoing investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, and possible collusion by Trump’s campaign in that meddling, according to the Justice Department.
Whitaker, who has publicly criticized the Mueller investigation, by law can serve as acting AG for a maximum of 210 days.
I was a little surprised his resignation came this quickly after the mid-terms but with the Republicans picking up seats in the Senate it makes the confirmation of his eventual replacement all that much easier–even if the Democrats try to Kavanaugh him or her–so why not cut the cord quickly and end the charade?
With Jeff Sessions out Matthew Whitaker will be acting Attorney General and because he has no conflict of interest he will now be overseeing Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. I have to admit that this is a scenario I never thought of, I just assumed Rod Rosenstein would continue to oversee the investigation but it makes perfect sense to relieve him from the oversight when the acting Attorney General has no conflict of interest.
Needless to say the Democrats are upset with this news, some are even calling it worse than Watergate and warning the President not to fire Rod Rosenstein or Robert Mueller–in other words they are up to their typical leftist fear-mongering, which is to be expected.
Isn’t it funny how the left now loves Jeff Sessions and is willing to defend him? It reminds me of how the left wanted James Comey fired for screwing Hillary Clinton out of the Presidency until Donald Trump fired him and then it became a “constitutional crisis.”
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
The sanctions against Iran resumed today
Back in August a war of words began to heat up between Donald Trump and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani when the President threatened to make good on his campaign promise to rip up the Iran nuclear deal and re-implement the sanctions on the terror-sponsoring country.
Donald Trump, much like he did with North Korea, then tried to leverage the threat in order to set up a meeting with Iran but the rogue nation refused and Donald Trump reinstate the sanctions. Today, despite John Kerry and other Obama-era officials efforts to undermine United States foreign policy, those sanctions went back into effect and needless to say Iran is none to happy because the United States actually has a President who will not back down and is not afraid to stand his ground.
Here is more:
The U.S. re-imposed all sanctions Monday on Iran that once were lifted under its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, grinding further down on the Islamic Republic’s already-ailing economy in what President Hassan Rouhani described as a “war situation” now facing Tehran.
The U.S. Treasury Department imposed penalties on more than 700 Iranian and Iranian-linked individuals, entities, aircraft and vessels in the new sanctions. Among those are 50 Iranian banks and subsidiaries, more than 200 people and ships, Iran’s state-run airline Iran Air and more than 65 of its planes.
The new sanctions particularly hurt Iran’s vital oil industry, which provides a crucial source of hard currency. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told journalists in Washington the sanctions already had cost Iran the sale of over 1 million barrels of crude oil a day.
“Our objective is to starve the Iranian regime of the revenue it uses to fund violent and destabilizing activities throughout the Middle East and, indeed, around the world,” Pompeo said. “The Iranian regime has a choice: It can either do a 180-degree turn from its outlawed course of action and act like a normal country, or it can see its economy crumble.”
Iran is basically calling this an act of war and comparing Donald Trump to Saddam Hussein. The situation is sure to get tense and the question will be, who is going to blink first? In the North Korea showdown it was Kim Jong Un, will the same think happen with Iran? Only time will tell…
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
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