Senate Intel Committee Backs Mueller, Voting by Mail and Threat of a Civil War

Senate Does Right for a Change

Okay, the Senate’s Intelligence Committee (bi-partisan but nevertheless Republican-run, remember that) has finally come out and said that there was indeed collusion between the 2016 Republican presidential campaign and Russia, and that when asked about it, Donald J. Trump answered with a less than a truthful answer.  They didn't come out and say he lied, but came pretty darn close.

This was pretty much the same conclusion at which the Mueller Report arrived, but hesitated to state, mincing its words because it doubted that the President could be accused of anything so awful, leaving that to Congress.

Barr

The President’s lackey and apologist, William Barr, Attorney-General and ostensibly the people’s lawyer, not the President’s (although he fails to understand this), saw fit to clarify the Mueller Report, confusing its conclusions and whitewashing it.  Now, it is unmistakable that the Senate Intelligence Committee is saying that the Mueller Report was correct and that Barr was wrong.

Does anyone in government or in the media, regardless of party, see any reason why Barr’s resignation is not already in the hands of the President and both Houses of Congress?  This scoundrel belongs in jail along with Roger Stone and Paul Manafort, both convicted felons for lying about that same collusion to the FBI, but through the good graces of the President, currently able to remain in their homes.

Guantanamo

As I have suggested on numerous occasions, the government should provide such felons, Barr included when he is convicted, with beachfront villas at Guantanamo Bay. 

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 Is Another Civil War Possible?

Bull Run -  First Battle of Civil War

We are on the brink of another Civil War in this country.  The results of the November election will push us closer to it, regardless of the result.

A Democratic victory, giving them the Senate and the White House, will anger the 40% of Americans who, in my opinion, are still gullible and ignorant enough to believe Trumpublican lies and prefer an autocracy or oligarchy (your choice) to democracy.  And the President has even vaguely intimated that should he lose, he will accuse the winners of some kind of fraud and refuse to leave office.  This 40% encompasses the radical right including armed militias, Second Amendment supporters, anti-LGBTQ bigots, racists, conspiracy-believers and those who are still fighting our original Civil War.  They will not go quietly away, content to fight for statues of Confederate generals. 

Ensuing disorder might even go so far as to require the National Guard to restore order, and one can question who commands the National Guard anyway, the States’ governors or the Federal armed forces.  The approximately ten weeks between Election Day and Inauguration Day will be very interesting.

But on the other hand, a Republican victory leaving Trump in the White House with a Republican Senate will arouse the left-wing, progressive community to a level far in excess of the nationwide demonstrations, sometimes bordering on violence, which took place earlier this year motivated by the police murder of George Floyd. They may not have militias but as the BLM movement illustrates, the forces on the left have enormous power and the potential for violence.  They are no longer married to the non-violent behavior which Martin Luther King learned from Mahatma Ghandi and which dominated protests until recently.

Martin Luather King, disciple
of Mahatma Ghandi

We also should not ignore the history of assassinations in our country.  Clearly, some were carried out or attempted by the insane but others had political motivation.   We cannot ignore the fates of Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley, John Kennedy as well as unsuccessful attempts on the lives of Franklin Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan and the killings of 
Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy cannot be ignored either.  The potential for such internal violence in the United States is always present. Few other nations can match it.  Throw that into the mix and we are ready for another First Battle of Bull Run (or as some Southerners still call it, First Manassas, if you prefer).

JL

                                                           

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Postal Service Saved ... Apparently

The Postal Service cutbacks seem to be reversed and under control because they clearly crossed the line which thinking Americans, even Republicans, saw as impenetrable.  Trump and his cohorts got the message that the Post Office was off limits as a tool of the President to discourage "voting by mail."   Some will still be discouraged from voting by mail, but Congress and the American public spoke up and the coward in the White House chose to go out and play some golf, I suppose.  Advice:  Vote by mail, but do it as early as possible!