Lite is for Beer

If I might explain something to you, President Donald
John Trump, there is nothing light about impeachment.
Your distain for all that is sacred in the Constitution of
the United States is appalling.  You sir, are being
impeached! It will forever be a stain on your presidency,
in the history of the United States you will only be the
third president to bear this shame.  And as long as there
is a Republic it will there on your family name.  Your
children and your children's children will carry your
mark of shame.

You can joke about it, and laugh about it, but I guarantee
you, anyone with a modicum of sense is not laughing with
you, they are laughing at you, sir.  You are a disgrace to
this country and all its citizens.  And now it is there for
the entire world to see.

So, continue to hold your rallies and try to undermine
what the elected members of the House of Representatives
have charged you with.  I'm sure those thousands in your
audience, whom you hire to cheer you on, will continue
to cheer.  I know you need that constant reaffirmation;
without it you cannot function.  You surround yourself
with sycophants who massage your ego, they live in
fear of hearing the words "You're Fired".  But once they
are free from your tyranny, they regain their voice, and
recount the days of total disarray in your administration.
Soon there will be more of them on the outside than on
the inside.  What then Mr. Trump?

What I despise most about your presidency is the
contagion of prevarication that is spreading throughout
the Republican Party.  Senators, who once were held in
high regard are now seen for what they truly are; sniveling
cowards who shrink in fear of your angry tweets, as though
they were shouts of 'off with their heads'.  Do you not see,
you in the Senate, if you were to stand together and expose
this charlatan for whom he is, your constituents would see it
also?  And even if they didn't, if they reject you at the ballot
box, at least you can go out with your honor intact.

I fear, like sheep to the slaughter you follow the traitor goat,
you will be judged by history, and it won't be kindly.  If you
cannot see what will happen when this man is returned to
power, you are blind fools.  You understand what damage he
has already done to our country's image in the world.  And now
Donald Trump is being charged with acts against the
Constitution of the United States, that same document that you
swore to protect and defend from enemies foreign and domestic,
when you took your oath of office.  You trade your sacred honor
for what?   Trump's disgrace is your disgrace, when you lowered
yourself to his level you took on his ignominy and you will wear
it forever.

So, next week when the Articles of Impeachment arrive in the Senate,
think about your vote.  Your leader, Mitch McConnel, has already
said he may not call any witnesses.  Of course he won't.  There is
no defense for what the president has done, and McConnel fears
that not everyone he could call would risk perjury for the
president.  After all, they also remember what happened to those
who did perjure themselves in the Nixon hearing.  And not
everyone looks good in prison orange.  Let me ask you this, if
you cannot call one member of the president's council to offer
a defense for him, why are you?

I' just sayin'.
   

Get 'er Done

And so, it comes to this, tomorrow the United States House
of Representatives will begin drafting the Articles of'
Impeachment against the president of the United States,
Donald J. Trump.  They will pass along party lines, Democrats
close to unanimous, will vote for impeachment and the
Republicans, most probably unanimously, will vote against
them. From there they will go onto the Senate where the
Republicans hold the majority, and after a sham trial, Donald
Trump will be found not guilty of all charges.

I said not guilty, I did not say innocent, because Trump is
not innocent.  he committed all those things he stands accused
of.  That is not what is on trial here, what is on trial is whether
the Republican Senators put their loyalty to a flawed president
above their country, and the oath of office they took when they
were sworn in as a Senator.  And I sincerely hope that they vote
to acquit Trump, and let me explain my reasoning.

This all began as the result of the Mueller Report, when Robert
Mueller found there was no proof of overt collusion between
the Trump Campaign and the Russian government Trump felt
exonerated.  The report as presented by the Attorney General,
William Barr, appeared to find no wrong doings, but in fact
that is not what the report said.  The report said that since a
sitting president cannot be indicted, the Mueller Commission
did not look into the charges of obstruction of justice.  They
left that to the House of representative to examine.

Trump was so emboldened by this report, that the very next
day he propositioned the Ukrainian government, to, as he said,
"do us a favor".  He wanted the Ukrainians to announce, publicly,
that they were investigating wrong doing by Hunter Biden, the
son of Joe Biden, who was supposed to be Trumps leading rival
for the 2020 presidential election.  To insure the favor, Trump was
withholding $400 thousand in military aide already approved.
However, also listening on the phone conversation, were several
State Department employees, one of whom found this so disturbing
that he reported it to his superior.  This started the ball in motion,
resulting in where we find ourselves now.

If the president was so reckless because he felt the Mueller Report
was, 'so much ado about nothing', how do you suppose he will take
the Republican's blatant lock-step approval of what he did as a result?
As it stands, Trump feels that as president he can do no wrong, because
as he stated, he could shoot someone on 5th Avenue and not lose a vote.
And that is pretty close to right, he has shredded the Constitution and
not lost a vote, instead he has Republican Senators extolling his
greatness.  I fear what Trump has on his agenda after taking his victory
lap.

I hope one thing, when the House gets together to draft the Articles of
Impeachment, they include everything, every wrong doing by the
president.  I hope they go back to the Mueller Report and list the
incidences of obstruction of justice, I hope the list every incident of
obstruction of Congress stemming from his ignoring subpoenas and
directing his minions not to testify.  I hope they list every incident of
bribery, and withholding funds which have been approved by
Congress.  List them all, and lay them all out for the voters to see.

And then I hope the Senate makes quick work of the impeachment trial.
In-out, one and done, Not Guilty!  I hope every Republican Senator must
stand and pronounce Donald J. Trump not guilty of every illegal act
perpetrated against the Constitution, in front of god and country.  Then
let us get back to governing again.  And let the Senators, who are running
for president on the democratic ticket in 2020, get back to campaigning.
And let them repeat the charges against the president, over and over again.

It is well known that the voting public has an attention span of a three-year
old.  They will soon forget the impeachment trial, heck, most of them won't
have watched it.  But they will remember what Trump did, and what he will
still be doing.  You can bet he will be pushing the envelope at home and
abroad, charging like the bull elephant that he is.  The let us see if the
Republicans can control him, if they couldn't before, good luck now that
he is sure of their undivided support.

It is true you will remember a bad meal much longer than an excellent
dinner.  And you will be less likely to return to a place where you were
treated badly.  And even though Trump's base will still stand behind him,
it is the voters in the middle ground that will be wondering if they want
to entrust the government to those who allowed Trump to get away with
so many shady activities.  To say nothing of what he will be doing in the
interim.  Those middle of the ground voters will not be inclined to give
Trump another bite of the apple either.

I firmly believe this impeachment move by the Democrats will work in
their favor, and that  is why Nancy Pelosi is hurrying it along.  She can
see the same thing, and Trump is playing right into her hand.  But then
she knew that would happen also, Trump's ego would have it no other way.

I'm just sayin'.

Once There Was a Spot Called Camelot

Once upon a time, not that long ago, there was a country that
was the envy of the world.  Where people were proud to say
"I am an American" when they traveled the world.  But
something happened to change all that.  In the past three
years I have been to five different countries, and in each
of these countries, I was approached by natives who asked
me, in perfect English I might add, "What happened?" I
had no answer.

I had no answer, because I don't understand it  myself.  In
September of 2016, you could probably get good odds
betting that Donald Trump would be the next president.
Ask me, I had to pay handily in November.  I would have
given fifty times that to have Hillary Clinton as president
now, nay a hundred times what I had lost.  But there is no
sense wishing for what we cannot change.

When Trump was running he said over and over again that
the United States was the butt of jokes through-out the
world, and the world was laughing at us.  Russia was
laughing at us, Japan was laughing at us, the European
Union was laughing at us.  But Donald told his adoring
crowds, when he is president, he and he alone, would make
America great again.  He had little red hats, made in China,
that were emblazoned with MAGA, 'make America great
again'.  And there were people in the crowd who believed,
for some reason, that America had lost her greatness, that her
image was tarnished, that she was no longer the beacon of
democracy that the world looked to.

And yet, when I was in Great Britain in 2015, there were
several people who told me that they loved president Obama,
that he and Michelle were an 'elegant couple', I think that
was the most often used phase I heard.  In one pub I had to
turn down several pints offered to me by folks who learned
I was a 'yank'. I didn't hear anyone laughing.  In China in
2014, when I told people I was an American, they all wanted
me to take a picture so they could show the friends and family
their 'American friend'. There was no one laughing at me in
China either.  It was the same in 2013 in Italy and Turkey, when
people found out you were American,  they smiled and gave up
their seat on the tram or offered to show you the way to a good
restaurant.  I don't recall anyone laughing at me.

Quite on the contrary, people were still lining up and waiting
all day to get a visa to visit America.  Students from the far east
and the UK were vying for entrance into the American universities.
Immigrants were filling the quotas for the chance to migrate to
this land where the streets were paved with gold.  Little did we
know that America was slipping down the rungs to oblivion, and
only one man could stop the downward slide; Donald J. Trump.

The same Donald Trump who bragged about assaulting women,
who made fun of the disabled, who threatened hecklers with physical
harm.  The Donald Trump who drew huge crowds, half of whom
were bought and paid for, to cheer him on.  And while the press
and the TV/radio media - including Fox News - scoffed at the
idea that this buffoon could be a serious contender for the
Republican nomination, Trump was winning the hearts and minds
of the great unwashed, the 'basket of deplorables'.

But you can fool some of the people all of the time, and that is
what Trump did.  But he didn't fool the rest of the world, which
was aghast when the electoral college voted Trump into the
presidency, and the most surprised was The Donald himself.
The dog had caught the car he was chasing and now what to
do with it?

The first time I recall laughing at the president was when he
declared that there were more people at his inauguration than
ever before in history, even more people then showed up for
Obama's inauguration.  That was funny, in a sad sort of way.
Then there were the political cartoons in the London Times 
and the Globe and Mail some were pretty funny.  But that
meant that people were laughing at us, not with us, at us.
The comments on his ill-fitting 'off-the-rack' suits, and that
hair, what was it with that hair?  The op-eds in The Times 
that called him the 'orange orangutan'.  More laughter.

And talk about the whole world laughing, his speech at the
United Nations in September of 2018, when he said he had
accomplished more than any other president in the history
of the United States, the UN body laughed, to a man, they
laughed.  What started as a snicker burst forth as laughter.
And the G7 members laughed when Trump left early, in a
snit over some perceived insult.  One columnist at the Globe
said Trump's skin was so thin he didn't know why his bones
didn't fall out when he stood up, hee-hee. More laughter.

At the seventieth anniversary of NATO this week, poor Boris
Johnson, who is running to retain the Prime Ministry, was
hiding in the potted palms to keep from bumping into the
our president.  Trump is so unpopular in Great Britain, BoJo
was sure that being seen with Trump would hurt him in the
election.  That inspite of the fact that Trump gave Johnson a
glowing recommendation, being seen with him would be the
kiss of death.  But the crowning insult was when Justin Trudeau,
Emmanuel Macron, BoJo, and several other dignitaries were
caught on tape making fun of and laughing at Trump, yup,
our president.  I guess he was right the world is laughing at
us.  Trump was so upset he, once again, went home from the
dance early.

I am not laughing though.  If I really sat down and thought about
it, I would be crying.  How did this happen?  There are congressional
hearings going on right now as to whether Donald Trump used the
power of the presidency to try and influence the outcome of the 2020
election.  And, once again it came to light, that he has been trying to
obstruct the inquiry into what he did.  And you know the really funny
thing is?   People still think that  Trump should not be impeached.
 That's the real joke !

I'm just sayin'.

With a Grateul Heart

The holiday season is upon us once again, a time of good
cheer and celebrating with friends and family. Thanksgiving
is literally right around the corner, and once again I try to
look forward as well as looking back.  As usual I have a
lot to be thankful for this past year.  There were some sad
times, but on balance the year has been a good one.  I have
a circle of dear friends around me, though I lost too many
 this year, I shall remember them all when I sit down to dinner
this Thursday.  I am grateful every day that I live in a country
that, though I don't always agree with the policies, I have the
right to say so without fear of reprisal.  My small family didn't
get any smaller this year, a remarkable feat considering our
ages.  My health has been good and my mental acuity doesn't
seem to be losing it's edge.  I can still participate in my senior
learning classes and manage to keep up.  Physically, I challenge
myself daily, and though I am a step slower every year I still
love my sports.  I play often and my knees are still working, as so
many of my friends have new ones.   I have met some interesting
new faces this year, I hope I can add them to my circle of friends,
there are some opening I would like to fill.  Sadly, some friends
have drifted away, I miss them, but things change and I must
change with them.  Love doesn't die because someone has
moved on, it is always there in a small secret spot in your heart.

Looking at the world today, I wonder what is to become of us.
I won't live to see many of the dire predictions modern day
Cassandras are warning about.  I guess that is a good thing.  I
see things happening in my country that worry me, and I feel
powerless to change them.  But then again, I cannot change the
world, I can only change myself.  And so I try, in small ways;
I think about where and how far I drive, I gave up on single-use
coffee pods, plastic straws, plastic bags, I recycle everything, and
I put on a sweater instead of turning up the heat.  But am I fooling
myself?  I am blessed where I live; when I turn on the tap clean
water flows, both hot and cold, five-minutes from my house is
a grocery store with fresh fruits and vegetables of every variety,
the schools rank among the highest in the county, and there are
parks with playgrounds and soccer pitches, baseball diamonds
and open spaces green and clean.  Our library offers so much
more than just books and magazines, films and concerts, lectures
and classes, all pro gratis.

But that is not how it is everywhere in the country.  There, children
go to bed hungry, there, water is tainted with lead, there, grocery
stores are miles away by bus, how many bags of groceries can
you carry home on the bus?  There, schools are in disrepair with
books, if they have books, outdated by five to ten years. There,
playgrounds are vacant lots with bare ground, broken bottles,
and used needles.  Nothing is free there but despair.  There, but
for the luck of the draw go I.  I was lucky, I was born into a
white, working class family, with both a mother and a father, and
that has made all the difference.

The political climate in America, today, has turned decidedly more
partisan then I have ever seen, and I have been in politics for a very
long time.  Even during the 60's, through the Viet Nam war, and
the racial tensions, reasonable people could come together to reason.
The optimal word here is reasonable, there was a time when people
could agree to disagree, I might not have agreed with you, but I
could see why you believed the way you did.  But when one side
engages in obfuscation and, dare I say, doublespeak, how does one
counter with a reasonable, intelligent argument?  How can you
watch the sun come up in the morning and deny it's existence in
the afternoon? Tell me why is something bad, but not too bad, how
bad does bad have to be to be bad?

What is it that these good men and true are so afraid of, a bully, a
liar, a charlatan, so afraid that they can turn a blind eye to what is
happening to our beloved country?  Once, these good men could
see what the man in the presidency was, before he was elected.
They called him out for the evil man he was, and from then until
now things have only gotten worse.  And yet they turn a blind eye,
for what - a few more judicial seats, the chance to overturn abortion
rights or is it power, the power to be on top, to make the rules.
History will judge you for what you did and how you did it, the
legacy you are leaving your children and grandchildren.  A world
that is getting warmer, no clean water to drink or clean air to
breathe, a massive debt that will cripple them and leave no option
for them but to work until they die to pay it off.  You are stealing
their future for your present glory.  Shame on you all!

But still I am thankful for the chance to change what  is happening,
and I will work everyday from now until November 2020, because
I believe in this country.  And, I am grateful that you took the time
to read my poor pitiful attempts at writing this.

I'm just sayin'.
 

Curses, Foiled Again...

This is the text of a proposed amendment to the United
States Constitution that was approved by both Houses
of Congress:

    Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied
    or abridged by the United States or any State on
    account of sex...the Congress shall have the power
    to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions
    of this Article.

If you think you have heard about this amendment before,
you are right, it was first introduced in October of, ready
for this, 1921.  That's right folks, that's how long it has
been kicking around.  It was proposed after the 19th
amendment was ratified, that amendment gave women the
right to vote.  However, after giving women the vote, I guess
Congress didn't want them to get a swelled head.

It took fifty years, but on October 12, 1971 the Equal Rights
Amendment passed the U.S. House of Representatives and
on March 3, 1972, it passed the U.S. Senate and went to the
states for ratification.  It had one caveat, in the preamble to
the bill was the wording that the bill must be ratified by 38
of the states before March 22, 1979.  By 1977, the bill was
ratified by 35 states, the first of these was Hawaii, followed
by 34 other states, and that is where it encountered a problem.

The problem was named, Phyllis Schlafly.  In 1972, Ms. Schlafly
founded an organization called Stop ERA.  Her objections were
that the ERA would be bad for 'housewives' read 'stay-at-home'
moms, and women might be open to the selective service, and
it would threaten maternal custody of the children in the case of
a divorce.  Due to those, and other erroneous objections, five
states; Idaho, Kentucky, Tennessee, and South Dakota revoked
their ratification prior to 1979.  Ms. Schlafly was out in front in
her objections, but she wasn't alone.  Behind her were:
      * The National Council of Catholic Women
      * The AFL-CIO
      * Religious conservatives concerned with abortion and gay
         marriage
      * Southern Whites
      * Mormons
      * Orthodox Jews
      *Roman Catholics

In 1978, Congress voted for, and President Jimmy Carter signed a
bill extending the ratification deadline to June 30, 1982.  Since then
there have been numerous attempts to extend or remove the dead-
line to no avail.

Equal rights for women was a plank in the Republican party platform
from 1940 until 1980.  The Democratic party, because of pressures
from the unions, didn't include equal rights for women in their party
platform until 1972 when Congress passed the ERA amendment.  In
1980 at the Republican party convention, the party platform was amended
to end support for the ERA.  This resulted in women's dissatisfaction
with the GOP and there was a movement to the Democrats that helped
elect Bill Clinton.    

A new movement to pass the ERA began again in the 1960's as a result
of Betty Friedan's book The Feminine Mystique.  And it was driven by
problems with women's social and economic status and the lack of
government enforcement of the equal pay act.  In June of 1966, Ms.
Friedan and several female activist groups formed the National
Organization for Women, NOW, and begun demanding full equality.
The term 'feminist' took on a pejorative connotation, and despite being
introduced in Congress every year, the ERA failed to gain momentum.

In 2010, the Me-Too movement once again garnered interest in reviving
the ERA, and on March 8, 2011, the 100th anniversary of International
Women's Day, Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D. Wisc), introduced legislation
to remove the deadline for ratification of the ERA.  It had 56 co-sponsors.
The resolution was referred to the Subcommittee of the Constitution in the
Justice Department.  The subcommittee failed to vote on it and it died in
committee when the Congressional session ended for the year.  In 2012
Sen. Benjamin Cardin (D, Maryland), introduced a similar bill in the
Senate, it died in committee also.

In 2017 Nevada, despite the sunset clause in the Equal Rights bill, ratified
the amendment.  And in 2018 the Illinois state congress did the same.  At
this point, there are now 37 of the 38 states needed to make the Equal Rights
Amendment an article of the Constitution.  And on November 5, 2019, the
state of Virginia turned blue, with a majority of the congress and the governor
belonging to the Democratic Party.  For the first time in over 400 years, there
is a woman who is the Speaker of the House, and she is ready to preside over
the vote to ratify the ERA.

Last week, the third week in November 2019, the House Judiciary Committee
voted 21 to 11 in favor of a resolution eliminating the deadline for ratification
of the ERA.  This paves the way for Virginia to be the 38th state to ratify the
ERA - a full 96 years after it was first proposed.  Once there are 38 states who
ratified the amendment, the ratification is sent to the National Archives and
Records Administration where an archivist will certify that the amendment is
valid and has become part of the Constitution.

However Rep. Mike Johnson (R Iowa), has said he feels the proceedings are
invalid and the entire process must be restarted.  It is anticipated that the matter
will involve the Supreme Court and when that happens, both side have lawyers
waiting to file amicus briefs as soon as Virginia acts.  And if that does happen,
legal scholars say there is no reasonable chance that the ERA would be held to
have been validly adopted, since it expired 35 years ago.

Ratification of the Equal Rights  Amendment would have disastrous consequences
for the pro-life cause. It might invalidate the state laws which have placed onerous
obstacles in the way of women seeking a legal abortion.  Conservatives feel this is
why the Democrats are pushing ahead with ratification before Roe v Wade can be
re-adjudicated before the Supreme Court.

Let me say something to all the Republicans who feel they are saving me from the
disastrous consequences of the ERA; do not bother, I don't need you to tell me I am
your equal, in fact I already know I am your superior.

I'm just sayin'.      

When the Cat's Away...

While most of the world and some people in the United
States, are engrossed in the impeachment hearings, the
administration of Donald J. Trump has been busy slipping
a few things by, hoping no one will notice.

Number one is Trump's demand for a five-fold increase
in South Korea's payments for the U. S.  military presence
in their country, along with the rumor that Trump is
considering withdrawing thousands of troops from South
Korea.  This is causing turmoil between South Korea and
Japan and their intelligence sharing pact, which is due to
expire at the beginning of next year.  And that is drawing
North Korea and China closer together.

And number two is Secretary Mike Pompeo's announcement
that the United States will no longer consider the Israeli
settlements in occupied territories as being illegal.  That has
been the policy of the United States for years and was
reaffirmed by President Reagan.

The United Nations Security Council has decried the Trump
administration for the move, and has said it's position on
settlements is unchanged, they are a violation of international
law.  It has called the settlement activity "a flagrant violation
under international law, and it will undermine the prospect
of establishing a Palestinian state".

The British ambassador to the U. N. declared that Britain's
position remains unchanged, she said the Trump administration's
move "presents an obstacle to peace in the region and threatens
the two-state solution". Even Russia has called on Israel to end
settlement activity stating "the new United States position will
exasperate the already tense situation".  And the European
Union has also called on Israel to end all settlement activity.

So what has made the Trump administration such an outlier
in the rest of the world?  What has caused the Trump
administration to move the United States embassy from
Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a move that now has the embassy
under high alert and it is issuing advisories to U.S. citizens
in or traveling to Jerusalem or the West Bank or Gaza to
be vigilant and to increase security awareness?  Let me
speculate, Donald Trump will do anything to secure his
reelection in 2020.

Trump's greatest voting block is the Protestant Fundamentalist
Movement, and they have had a Pro-Israeli American policy
since 1948.  Their influence is apparent in Trump's choice of
judicial nominees, his attempts to eviscerate the ACA, which
they feel is the devil's work, his attempted banning of Muslims,
and his building the Mexican wall, but the greatest of these is
his undying support of Israel.  Why is it so important to these
fundamentalists?  For that we have to look at their belief in
the literal translation of the bible.

The fundamentalists believe Jesus will come back after the
Great Tribulation, when the true believers will rise up from
the dead and, with the righteous on earth, will be lifted into
heaven, in other words, those who are believers when this
occurs will never die.  This know as the Rapture.  But prior
to that will be the Great Tribulation when there will be great
suffering and death.  The fundamentalists also believe the
bible when it says that Jesus will return when 2/3 of the Jews
in Israel will be dead and 84 months have passed.  Thus, Jesus
will transfer the Great Tribulation onto the Jews instead of
the Christians.  So America must support Israel until after the
Rapture, so the Great Tribulation will transfer to the Jews.

The unofficial doctrine says, Kings X warns against evangelism
of Israel so god may preserve them for the sake of the destruction
of modern Israel in the Great Tribulation.  Thus, ensuring that
Christians alone will get out of this life alive.  Though no
evangelical leader will state this as truth, it is widely believed.

Support of Israel is dependent on these four things:
     *  Israel must be defended at all costs by America
     *  If Israel is militarily removed from history prior to
         the Rapture, then Christian's imminent escape from
         death would have to be abandoned
     *  That would cause the Rapture to be indefinitely
         delayed
     *  Fundamentalists believe in the doctrine of an
         imminent Rapture

Trump's support of Israel is proof that the Rapture is coming
in this lifetime.  God is working through Donald Trump, and
even though he is flawed, they believe he is the one who will
precipitate the 'second coming'.  So they will support him
without question as their pastors have dictated from the pulpit.

This kind of belief is hard to dislodge, as it defies reason, but
then most articles of faith do.  So what is the answer?  Those
of us of another persuasion must work to counter their votes
with votes of our own.  There is a good possibility that Trump
will be impeached and just as good a possibility that the
Senate will not convict him.  When this happens, it will be
further proof to the fundamentalists that he is god's chosen
one.  As dangerous as this is to our country, it will be
disastrous to the countries in the Middle East.  The riots
in Lebanon and Iran have already destabilized the area,
and Trump's interference will only make matters worse.

I'm just sayin'.

Let's Begin at the Beginning...

The much anticipated open testimony of the impeachment
inquiry of Donald Trump has begun.  Those of us who have
nothing better to do, have been glued to the TV or radio, I
myself prefer NPR radio as I like my news without added
opinion.  Also it leaves me free to do other things while I'm
listening, like folding laundry.

The opening statement of Rep. Adam Schiff was compelling.
He laid out the case which the previous closed-door hearings
had uncovered.  If the Democrats can prove their case, it will
be a damning indictment of the President.  It was a step-by-
step accounting of an orchestrated plot to obtain information,
rightly so or not, that Hunter Biden and his father, Joe Biden,
then the vice-president, were complicit in a cover-up of illegal
activities involving Hunter Biden and a Ukrainian gas company
called Burista.  That alone, would not be such a problem, but the
president was also asking for proof of Ukrainian involvement
in the 2016 election on behalf of Hillary Clinton.  And he wanted
the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, to make an
announcement, in public, of his government's investigation of
both of these allegations.

To secure the cooperation of Zelensky, President Trump was
withholding funds that had been allocated by Congress for the
defense of the Ukraine against Russian aggression.  President
Trump was also holding back an official visit to the White
House for Zelensky, such a visit would impart greater stature
for Zelensky and the new Ukrainian government.  Both of these
would be confirmed , if and when, Zelensky would make the public
announcement.  Prior to the phone call from President Trump to
President Zelensky, the two conditions were laid out by a series
of back-door visits from President Trump's private attorney, Rudy
Giuliani, and several other emissaries.  But, before that could
occur the administration had to get rid of the U.S. ambassador
to the Ukraine, who would probably object vociferously to such goings
 on.  These same back-door emissaries began a smear campaign
 against an outstanding career diplomat, Marie Yovanovich.

All of this appears to be for the benefit of Donald Trump's re-
election campaign.  And all of this
 could be construed as to be
asking a foreign country for help in interfering in an election,
as was done in the 2016 election by the Russian government.
That interference was well documented in the Mueller Report
which was released on March 22, 2019.  As a result of that report
thirteen Russian operatives were indicted for election tampering,
they will never be brought to justice as they have fled the country
and Russia has no plans to extradite them.  Despite the evidence
by both the FBI and the Mueller Report, of Russian involvement,
Trump still believes that it was Ukraine who was involved in the
election tampering.

But interference of this sort was not the first time nor was it
the last time that the Russians mounted a full-scale assault on
a democratic election.  The New York Times reported that
Russian political operatives openly interfered in the general
election of the island country of Madagascar in November
2018.  Why, you would ask, would Russia be interested in a
tiny African country.  It appears that Madagascar has a very
valuable chromium mine, and the major stake holder (70%)
of the mine is an ally of Vladimir Putin.  The election would
have returned the mine control back to Madagascar if the
right man was elected.  As many as 30 Russians, working
openly, paid bribes, spread misinformation, and ran spoiler
candidates to secure a win the election.  And win they did!

These Russian operatives are a part of Putin's private army,
the Wagner Group, which has been working in Africa for a
number of years.  The Wagner Group, headed by another
Putin ally, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the successor of the KGB,
may be uniformed, but have no insignia identifying them.
They went into Syria to retake the oil fields, they disarmed
the Ukrainian resistance, and are involved with Assad's elite
forces in Syria.  They are also moving into the Central African
Republic, Libya, and Burundi.

But Russia is not alone in interfering in democratically elected
governments.  The first and the biggest was the CIA operation
to overthrow the elected Prime Minister of Iran in 1953.  The
CIA worked to supplant the Prime Minister to strengthen the
rule of the Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, all to stop the
Iranian oil from being nationalized.  During the unrest 200-
300 people were killed.  That led to the Iran Revolution of
1978-1979 and the October 1979 seizing of our embassy
which was captured and held for 444 days.

The United States is notorious for interfering in foreign
governments when we fell they are not in our interests.
Here is but a brief synopsis:

         1954 - Guatemala, a covert CIA operation to depose
                 the democratically elected President Jacob Arbenz.

         1956-1957 - Syria, the CIA backed forces in an attempt
                to overthrow the government in both 1956 and 1957,
                both attempts failed and the CIA was expelled from
                the country.

         1957-1958 - Indonesia, the CIA attempted to blackmail
                President Sukarno to lessen the communist party
                influence in the elections.

         1959 - Cuba, where there were five attempts by the CIA
                to assassinate Fidel Castro during the years 1959-1963.
                all the attempts failed.
         
          1961- Cuba, the now famous botched Bay of Pigs invasion
                 by the CIA.

          1964 - Brazil, the CIA supported the overthrow of the
                 democratically elected President Joao Goulart.

          1965-1973 - Viet Nam, 1.4 million Vietnamese civilians
                 were killed or wounded and over 47,000 American
                 military killed, before the war ended March 29, 1973

All of these were either sanctioned by the Congress or the president
with the approval of the Congress, which does not excuse them, but
makes them legal in terms of approved covert or overt actions.  None
were done for the expressed benefit of the President personally.  This
is why we must take up these investigations, so whether it is the CIA,
the Russians, or the President himself, we Americans must say that
election manipulation will be exposed and stopped, no matter where
it occurs or who benefits from it.

                                                         I'm just sayin'.