We now know that the U.S. government began investigating Donald Trump in the Summer of 2016, months before he was elected.  There were FBI and CIA investigations into supposed collusion with Russia.  There was no collusion with Russia, so they had to get some help.  They found help in the completely false dossier that Hillary’s campaign paid Fusion GPS to hire Brit Christopher Steele to quote unnamed Russian intelligence officers, who made up a load of crap that nobody, including the FBI, ever bothered to try to corroborate.  That wouldn’t have been so bad had the Justice Dept. not used the dossier to get FISA warrants that permitted the Obama Justice Dept. to eavesdrop on the Trump campaign.  In hindsight, you can almost understand why the FBI and Obama’s Justice Dept. had to open an investigation on Trump.  They already were supposed to be investigating Hillary for her email server crimes, so fair’s fair, right?  All they were doing was employing liberal excuse Number Two.  An explanation is in order.  Whenever a liberal imbecile is confronted with an uncomfortable fact, he or she gives one of two excuses – either “That’s not true,” or “Both sides do it.”  Ergo, if Hillary was a criminal under FBI investigation, it was only fair to investigate Trump too.  And investigate they did.  The CIA and FBI looked for Russian collusion.  They didn’t find any, because there was none.  So then, Trump was elected, and James Comey decided to become a double agent.  He met with the President, and instead of playing the role of FBI Director meeting his boss, he became Special Agent Comey, meeting with a suspected criminal.  Comey took copious notes that he transcribed, and then illegally took with him after he was fired by Donald Trump.  Part of the notes detailed the President’s discussion of the investigation of Michael Flynn, during which Trump supposedly said Flynn was a good man, and that he hoped Comey could see his way clear to let the matter go.  When Comey testified to Congress in June 2017, he swore that he did not get the impression that he was being ordered to drop the investigation.  After Comey was fired, he changed his mind about that.  Comey’s firing had that effect on a lot of Democrats.  Before Comey was fired, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, and other Democrat elected officials called for Comey to be fired, including one Gerald Nadler, the current Chairman of the House Oversight Committee.  For two years, the Dems have been responding to the musical question, “What evidence is there to prove Trump colluded with Russia?” by parroting, “We have to wait for the Mueller report.  Mueller was appointed after Comey was fired to try to maintain the coverup of the FBI and Justice Dept. wrongdoing in the Trump campaign.   By all accounts, Mueller is about done with Witch Hunt 1.0, which has turned up no evidence of collusion by Trump.  Enter Nadler, who has changed the narrative to obstruction of justice, which is as improbable as the collusion narrative.  Nadler has, so far, subpoenaed 81 people, including Trump lawyers, in an attempt to find evidence that former FBI Director, former U.S. Attorney, super-lawyer Robert Mueller, and his team of 17 additional Trump-hating super-lawyers were unable to find, which is not surprising, because it doesn’t exist.  There are major problems with the obstruction of justice claim.  Chief among them is that obstruction of justice does not exist in a vacuum.  In other words, you cannot obstruct justice until or unless there is some underlying crime that you are trying to cover up.  The problem with the whole Trump Witch Hunt is that there never was a crime to investigate.  Following the investigative philosophy of Josef Stalin and Lavrenti Beria’s NKVD, “Show me the man and I’ll find you the crime,” the now more than three years of multiple investigations have been a search for a crime, any crime.  In Trump’s case, there is no underlying crime.  A president can’t obstruct justice by simply exercising his Article II executive powers.  Even Comey agreed with that.  That’s all Comey’s firing was.  A President can obstruct justice under some circumstances.  Think Nixon.  Underlying crimes, burglary, conspiracy, perjury, suborning perjury, false swearing, criminal contempt, need I go on?  Nixon was up to his neck in the coverup, including plans to pay off the Watergate burglars, and to encourage witnesses to lie under oath.  Nothing to see with the Trump Witch Hunt.  Gerald Nadler now says Trump obstructed justice, and he needs to be impeached.  How, you might ask?  Well, he fired Comey.  See above.  And oh, by the way, Nadler himself called for Comey to be fired in October 2016.  It didn’t become a crime till Trump did it.  What about the “see your way clear” with Flynn?  “I hope you can see your way clear” is not an order to drop the case.  Even Comey admitted that.  But Nadler has conclusive evidence of Trump’s obstruction.  Get this.  Nadler says Trump has said 1,100 times, that the Mueller investigation is a Witch Hunt.  We’ve come to that.  In 2019 America, a person who is accused of a crime, who is denounced every day as an insane traitor, and who dares to say he’s not guilty, has committed a new crime.  Wow!  So welcome to Witch Hunt 2.0.  We will now have never-ending Congressional investigations of the President, because Gerald Nadler says so.  Nadler already has unwittingly disclosed the true game.  He announced that he needs to investigate to gather the facts necessary to impeach the President.  Translation – We’re going to impeach, but so far, we’ve got nothing.  Nadler continued his swerve into the truth, “We’ve got to convince Trump supporters you’re not trying to steal the last – uh –  you’re not trying to reverse the result of the last election.”  Stealing the last election from Donald Trump is exactly what the Dems are up to.  They will stop at nothing.  On Saturday, at CPAC, President Trump told the crowd his opponents were trying to remove him with “bullshit.”  Bravo!  I’m sure Nadler will add  “bullshit” as an article of impeachment.  Then again, that would be redundant.

The situation in Venezuela continues to deteriorate, with the Socialist Maduro government holding on to its precarious grip on power, in the face of a challenge from former presidential candidate Juan Gaido, and a popular revolt, which has brought thousands of desperate Venezuelans into the streets.  The benefits of Socialism are on full display in Venezuela.  In light of the U.S. Socialists, led by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, AOC (Apparently On-Crack), supporter of the Green New Deal, there are lessons to be learned.  Once, not so very long ago, Venezuela was a rich country, the richest in South America.  Venezuela has the largest known oil reserves in the world.   Because of the oil wealth, Venezuelan workers enjoyed the highest wages in Latin America.  Venezuela was one of the world’s leading oil exporters.  The country once had the world’s 4th highest GDP, rivaling that of Germany.  Venezuela was prosperous, until self-avowed Marxist Hugo Chavez came to power, promising to bring about revolutionary reforms to improve the lives of the poor.  Sound familiar?  Chavez went to work nationalizing the oil industry, for the good of the people, of course.  Rampant Socialism gave Venezuelans 1 million percent inflation, over 90% of the people are in poverty. Venezuela ranks number 1 on the misery index, the most dangerous place in the world with rampant crime, the population is starving, eating zoo animals and raiding garbage trucks for food.  They owe it all to Socialism, the system that Democrats have promised us with their Green New Deal.  This result is not unfamiliar in South America.  Argentina suffered a similar fate.  Argentina was once the richest country in South America.  She had vast gold reserves, and a thriving export economy.  Argentines enjoyed a high standard of living, fed on marvelous Argentine beef.  All that ended after Socialist Juan Peron’s “Peronista Revolution” stripped the country of its wealth.  The result was a series of military juntas, hyper-inflation, and repeated devaluation of the peso, including government confiscations of bank accounts and private pensions, which cause Argentines to store cash in safe deposit boxes to protect it from the government.  The last Socialist mastermind, Christina Kirchner, hastened Argentina’s descent into bankruptcy.  To be fair though, it wasn’t just Socialism, as Kirchner has been charged with stealing $160 million from the government.  And so, Argentina went the way that all Socialist States have gone, transitioning from wealth to despair, and leaving human wreckage in its wake.  Kirchner’s brand of Socialism operated much like the U.S. variety of “Democratic Socialism”- Socialism for foes, capitalism for friends.  The little guy must suffer, for the good of “the people,” while the billionaire Bolsheviks who fund the Democrat Party live a much different life. The lesson of Venezuela is that, once again, Socialism has been proven to be a bankrupt political system, which comes to power with the promise of utopia, and always ends in abject poverty and humanitarian tragedy.  The Green New Deal is just the latest utopian promise.  The Dems are using the fantasy of free everything to regain power.  Should they do so, they would surely try to expand their giveaway programs, but even I don’t think the Dems actually mean to enact all the nutty provisions of the Green New Deal. The Democrat way is to promise the Moon to gain power. When you have a media that permits Dems not only to lie with impunity, but aids and abets the lies, then there is no need ever to deliver on your promises.
That’s a good thing for Democrats too, because even the Dem leaders have to understand that the American people will put up with only so much before they take matters into their own hands.  Donald Trump’s election was just a mild expression of American’s conclusion that “enough is enough.” In Venezuela, it took 1 million per cent inflation, near universal poverty, and the masses robbing garbage trucks for their next meal to lead the people into the streets to topple their government.  Americans are neither that patient, nor that tolerant.  We’ve lived high on the hog for too long.  Just a minor drop in the standard of living will light the fuse.  The Green New Deal guarantees economic disruptions, nationalized industries, high unemployment, and even more crippling taxes.  Restraints on personal liberty, trying to power 20 watt light bulbs with windmills and pond scum, no cars, airplanes or hamburgers?  I don’t think so. Thomas Jefferson said, “A little rebellion now and then is a good thing.” Now, I’m certainly not advocating violence, and I hope it never comes to that, but implementing the Green New Deal would spark a big rebellion.  And this is not Venezuela, where the people are defenseless.  In America, there are more than 300 million guns in private hands, and most of those hands belong to conservative capitalists.  Again, I hope that day never comes, but I’m just sayin’.  Even the Democrat leadership must be smart enough to understand they are playing with fire.  The Dems are walking a tightrope between their crazy Socialist base and the reality that Americans will not put up with Socialism.  In the meantime, the Democrats will continue to blather about their Green New Deal, and will continue to wallow in hypocrisy.  Yesterday, AOC (Admired Only by-Cuckoos), declared she would search out and punish any Democrat who voted with a Republican.  So much for the Party that likes to preach about bipartisanship.  The Democrats clearly don’t get it.  Only we can change it.

Maybe I’m just old fashioned, but I long for the days when someone who not only was in jeopardy of criminal prosecution, but already had been recommended for prosecution, had the good sense to keep his mouth shut.  Those days ended when Donald Trump was elected President.  First, James Comey was fired under circumstances under which he was likely to be prosecuted for lying to investigators.  He wrote a book and did numerous interviews.  Now comes Andrew McCabe.   When Comey was fired McCabe became the acting FBI Director.  Later, McCabe was fired from the FBI for a repeated lack of candor.  Translation – McCabe was caught in numerous lies, some of them under oath before Congress, and he was recommended for prosecution by the Justice Department.  Ordinarily, someone facing such a fate would heed his counsel’s advice and keep his mouth shut.  He didn’t.  He wrote a book, and now is doing the rounds of television interviews to promote the book.  McCabe went on 60 Minutes.  Then he went on The View, featuring the original cast of the opening scene of Macbeth.  What McCabe said proved that Fox News, Mark Levin, Sara Carter and Kimberly Strassel were right when they reported, almost two years ago, that the FBI and Justice Department attempted a coup de etat against Donald Trump in an effort to remove him from office.  Two years ago, the mainstream media said such an allegation was preposterous, and they are still denying any wrongdoing by the FBI now.  No matter how dark it gets, keep pulling down the shades, right?  What Andrew McCabe said was chilling, and had the victim of the FBI and Justice Department conduct been anyone other than Donald Trump, it would be the biggest scandal in American history.  Since only Donald Trump was the victim, the mainstream media doesn’t care.  After James Comey was fired, McCabe says he ordered two investigations of the president himself.  They asked two questions.  One,  Trump fire Comey to impede the investigation into whether Russia interfered with the election; and two, if so, Trump acting on behalf of the Russian government.   McCabe told 60 Minutes, “I was very concerned that I was able to put the Russia case on absolutely solid ground in an indelible fashion that were I removed quickly or reassigned or fired that the case could not be closed or vanish in the night without a trace.”  How inspiring!  McCabe was acting as a patriot, to protect his country.  McCabe’s story would be compelling, but for the fact that we have so much information proving that it’s a total lie.  McCabe is claiming that there was evidence suggesting that Trump may have been working for the Russians because, “The president had been speaking in a derogatory way about our investigative efforts for weeks, describing it as a witch hunt…” That’s certainly evidential.  Trump objected to being framed for something that he didn’t do.  How dare he?  McCabe told interviewers on TV that he began the counter-intelligence investigation in May of 2017 because there was evidence that Trump might be a Russian agent.  How patriotic!  There’s only one problem with McCabe’s explanation.  It’s a blatant lie.  Justice Department official Bruce Ohr has testified that in July of 2016, that’s right even before the election, he told people in the Justice Department and FBI, including McCabe, for some reason Hillary loving,  Mueller attack dog, Andrew Weissman, Rod Rosenstein and an aide to Attorney General Loretta Lynch, that the Steele dossier was an unverified opposition research hit piece, paid for by the Hillary campaign.  Ohr said, “I told them that Chris Steele was desperate that Donald Trump not get elected.” “I don’t know how reliable it is.  You’re going to have to check it out and be aware.  These guys were hired by somebody relating to—who’s related to the Clinton campaign, and be aware.”  Despite the warning, the FBI did nothing to corroborate the dossier, or to verify any of its contents, despite using it to get FISA warrants that they extended three times, from 2016 to 2017.  This means that when McCabe opened his counter-intelligence investigation on Trump, he already knew there had been no Russian collusion.  But there’s more.  McCabe went on to say that Rod Rosenstein, the man who signed off on the FISA warrants, and who appointed Mueller as the independent counsel, did offer to wear a wire when he went to the White House to speak with the President.  Translation – the FBI and Justice secretly turned Donald Trump from the Chief Executive to a criminal target from whom they were secretly trying to obtain evidence to remove him from office.  According to McCabe, Rosenstein discussed using the 25th Amendment to remove Trump.  That’s a constitutional provision which permits a president’s cabinet to declare the president unable to perform his office when he is physically or mentally disabled.  The Justice Department plays no role in the process, other than the Attorney General having a vote.  Trump’s crime?   He called the investigation a witch hunt and fired Comey.  The FBI decided Trump had to go.  McCabe claims that he notified Congressional leaders, and that none of them objected.  Trey Gowdy says that didn’t happen, but even if it did, the question is what McCabe told them.  I’m sure McCabe didn’t tell them the whole stinking mess was based on the unverified crap in the dossier.  After all, they didn’t even tell the FISA court that much.  The Congress had the right to assume that the FBI was acting within the law, so of course they didn’t object.  McCabe’s explanations simply don’t wash.  Moreover, they are insulting.  McCabe would have us believe that he did what he did for his country.  Bull crap!  He did what he did to remove a duly elected president because that’s what Il Duce Obama wanted done.  Now he’s pretending to be a patriot.  Let me remind you of the words of Samuel Johnson. “Patriotism is the last refuge for a scoundrel”?
When all else fails, the scoundrel relies on “I did it because I love my country.”  Well, I love my country too, and I want no part of a police state.

We got a bit of comic relief this week, in the form of the Green New Deal, being pushed by the darling of the progressives, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, or AOC, as she has become known.  Only it’s not funny.  I tend to credit the notion that the prominence of AOC (Almost Openly Communist) among left-wing nuts, is evidence that the Democrat party is in serious trouble.  Let me make an analogy.  In 2011, after the first 2 years of the Il Duce Obama unpleasantness, I attended a Republican National Lawyer’s Association event in Washington to celebrate the 100th birthday of Ronald Reagan.  The name tag they gave us had our names and the State we were from.  More than one person came up to me and gushed, “You’re from New Jersey.  Do you think Chris Christie will run for president?”  They were so hopeful, even desperate, and they viewed the newly elected Governor of New Jersey as the savior of the Republican party.  At the time, I was shocked by the idea that anybody would be counting on a newly elected Governor, who previously was unknown outside of New Jersey, as even a viable presidential candidate, much less a savior.  I concluded that, if Republicans were that desperate for a leader, we were in real trouble.  I was right.  Enter AOC.  Progressives have hitched their wagon to a newly elected 29 year old ignorant imbecile from New York City.  AOC has an opinion on every subject, but she can’t explain her positions on any issue.  She exhibits classic progressive delusions of rectitude, “I feel, therefore I’m right.”  If AOC is the poster-child for the Democrats, then they are in big trouble.  Take the Green New Deal.  Once AOC proposed it, lemming leftists, including announced Democrat presidential candidates, jumped right onboard.  They had to embrace it, no matter what, or risk being declared “unclean” by the inmates running the Democrat asylum.  Problem was the Green New Deal (GND) turned out to be a juvenile fantasy, right up there with a beauty pageant contestant’s promise to work for world peace.  The GND promises many things, all of which are either unattainable or downright stupid.  The centerpiece is the quest to end the use of all fossil fuels in 12 years.  Why?  Well, because global warming is a bigger threat than terrorism. Uh huh.  So that means no more oil, so no more cars or airplanes.  No more natural gas, so no more heat for your home.  Of course, no more coal.  But even that’s not enough.  She’s coming for the cows too.  Too many cows.  Too many farts, and too much methane, so goodbye beef.  We will be moving to green energy sources like windmills and solar power.  But they don’t work?  Well, you take the good with the bad.  But wait, there’s more.  There will be guaranteed jobs for those who want to work, and guaranteed incomes for those unwilling to work, yet willing to be paid to do nothing.  Oh yes, and also, free healthcare and free college tuition.  Now, many of the progressive masterminds running for president endorsed the GND before giving any thought to its contents.  But somebody ought to think about it.  I’ll try.  This mess derives from the Green Party.  This from their website, “The Green New Deal will convert the decaying fossil fuel economy into a new, green economy that is environmentally sustainable, economically secure and socially just.  The Green New Deal starts with transitioning to 100% green renewable energy (no nukes or natural gas) by 2030.  It would immediately halt any investment in fossil fuels (including natural gas) and related infrastructure.  The Green New Deal will guarantee full employment and generate up to 20 million new, living-wage jobs, as well as make the government the employer of last resort with a much-needed major public jobs program.”  I always wonder what world progressives live in.  It can’t be our world.  In our world, the fossil fuel economy is thriving, and more people are employed than ever before.  Indeed, it’s thriving principally because we lead the world in fossil fuel production.  Here’s the part AOC really likes.  “The transition to 100% clean energy will foster democratic control of our energy system, rather than maximizing profits for energy corporations, banks and hedge funds.  It will promote clean energy as a human right and a common good.”  Let me translate.  The government will take over all corporations, and nationalize energy production.”  That plan worked out well in Venezuela.  Clean energy will be a human right.  It’s all about equality, and under the GND, we’ll all be equally cold, miserable, and unable to travel.  Well, not all of us.  AOC says that her billionaire bolshevik friends can keep their private planes.  So let’s recap.  Government control over industry and finance (that worked great in the Soviet Union), and guaranteed jobs.  Okay, so, after we close down the coal industry, the oil industry, the natural gas and nuclear industries, the automotive industry, the aviation industry, and the beef industry (there goes McDonald’s), exactly where are the newly unemployed and impoverished serfs of America supposed to work?  Presumably we’ll be all retrained, at no cost of course, to operate windmills.  It’s really hard to believe any candidate for public office would support such crap, and yet they say they do.  They’re for all the pie in the sky giveaways, at a cost of, who knows, $100 trillion or more?  They’d gladly take over private industry, for the public good of course, but they’re not Socialists or Communists, oh no.  These are the people who think they have to destroy America in order to save it.  They’ll take control of every aspect of your life.  They’ll steal every bit of your personal liberty, they’ll take your job, confiscate your wealth, destroy your life’s work, and sentence your children and grandchildren to slavery, while all the time promising you that it’s all very “democratic.”  Pay no attention to that 29 year old imbecile behind the curtain.  The great and powerful Greens know what’s best.  Windmill workers of the world unite!  You have nothing to lose but your Country.

This week the theater of the absurd was fully open for business, as the country was gripped with the crucial question of whether Democrat Virginia Governor Ralph Northam will resign from office over the February 1st publication of a photograph from Northam’s medical school yearbook of two people, one in blackface, and the other wearing a KKK robe and hood.  Democrats set the stage for this idiocy by going back to Brett Kavanaugh’s high school yearbook in hopes of finding something negative.  Northam was elected Governor over Republican Ed Gillespie, who Northam accused, without evidence, of being a racist.  A photograph of a politician in blackface would have been bad enough, but the connection to the KKK, was the daily double.  Northam did not make things better.  At first, he admitted he was one the people in the offending photo.  Then, over the weekend, after consulting with aides during the Superbowl, Northam announced he wasn’t one of the people depicted.  That 180 degree turnabout would have been troubling enough, but Northam then made it even worse.  He denounced the photo as “clearly racist,” and because it was clearly racist, and because he knows he’s not a racist, that’s how he knew it couldn’t be him in the picture.  What a great explanation!  “Sir, can you identify yourself?”  “Sure, this is me.”  Uh huh.  You see, Northam was sure he wasn’t wearing the KKK hood because he doesn’t approve of the KKK, and would never wear that outfit.  That’s plausible, wearing the KKK hood might remind voters that all KKK members were Democrats.  But how about the guy in blackface?  Well, there was more to the explanation.  Northam went on tho explain that, although he’s sure he’s not in this picture, he was confused, because he was in the habit of appearing in public in blackface.  That makes perfect sense, when you think about it.  All Democrats like to promote victim status, so no self-respecting Democrat, given the choice of appearing either in blackface or in a KKK hood, would fail to choose the blackface.  But wait, Northam wasn’t done.  He went on to explain that he wore blackface, a little shoe polish, in a dance contest, which he won, for his imitation of Michael Jackson’s moonwalk.  All this during medical school?  When you think about medical school, you don’t normally think of Halloween parties and dance contests.  Northam’s excuses did not help him.  The mob immediately demanded Northam’s head.  What? Blackface?  He’s a racist, racist, racist!  It reminded me of the old movie, A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum, “Plague in Crete?  Unclean!”  Really, and just for the record, appearing in blackface doesn’t mean you are a racist, it just means that you may be a racist.  It proves you to be stupid in the extremis, and it’s clearly unacceptable in this day and age, and it’s an optic that’s the kiss of death for any politician, oh, and did I mention it’s stupid?  There were calls for Northam’s resignation, including from the head of the Democratic National Committee, who said “It’s time for Northam to step aside and let Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax serve as Governor.”  There was a bit of a problem with Fairfax, however.  Seems he’s in the middle of a slight controversy over an allegation that he sexually assaulted a woman in 2004.  Fairfax, also from the Party that lectures us that all woman must be believed, took the assault allegation pretty well, reportedly screaming “F*** the bitch!  No problem, next in line to be Governor is Virginia’s Attorney General Mark Herring.  Herring also called for Northam to resign.  But, whoops, Herring, who’s closely tied to Hillary Clinton, announced he also appeared in blackface while in school.  Hey, maybe it was Herring in the picture Northam is sure isn’t him.  Anyhow, it turns out that none of this mess came about because someone was concerned over Ralph Northam’s Halloween costume in 1984, or dance contest outfit.  The photo was posted on February 1st, because on January 30th, Governor Northam, who claims to be a pediatrician, took part in a talk about a pending bill in the Virginia legislature, which would permit abortions up to the day the baby was to be delivered.  Northam was heard to explain how it would work, “If a mother is in labor, I can tell you exactly what would happen.  The infant would be delivered.  The infant would be kept comfortable.  The infant would be resuscitated if that’s what the mother and the family desired.  And then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother.”  In other words, what pediatric specialist Northam was advocating was the dispassionate, premeditated murder of helpless infants.  Dr. Mengele would be so proud.  It seems some of Dr. Northam’s medical school classmates, the ones who were present the day they taught that doctors aren’t supposed to kill people, took offense at Northam’s abortion comments, and released the KKK photo in retaliation.  The photo blew up Virginia’s entirely Democrat executive branch.  Cool.  The Democrat party is in disarray, and its colossal hypocrisy is on full display.  For today’s Democrats, rubbing shoe polish on your face 35 years ago disqualifies you from holding office, but killing babies after they are born is cause for celebration.  In Democrat Crazyland, Al Jolson is a villain, and Kermit Gosnell is a hero.  It’s sick out there and getting sicker.