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Political analyst on Impeachment: Trump will emerge stronger and more forceful in his personal popularity in America


Sputnik
Thu, 19 Dec 2019 10:43 UTC
On late Wednesday, nearly all of the members of the Democratic Party in the US House of Representatives, where they constitute the majority, supported the impeachment of Donald Trump. The impeachment was supported in a 230-197 vote, with one abstention.
trump
© Reuters / Loren Elliott"Ultimately, the end result of the impeachment will either be the re-election of President Trump and the defeat of the Democrats in the 2020 election, or else it will lead to a Civil War in America unlike anything seen since the founding of America."
Scott Bennett, an independent political analyst , expressed his opinion on the possibility of President Donald Trump's impeachment.

Sputnik: What is your opinion about the results of the congressional vote?

Scott Bennett: The Democrats in the House of Representatives are realising, albeit too late, that impeachment of President Trump is going to have an enormously destructive backlash against the Democrat party all over America in the upcoming election in 2020. Polls and public surveys are showing clearly that President Trump's approval ratings are rising, despite the hysteria and propaganda the Democrats are trying to spread throughout the country through their supporters in the media at CNN, the New York Times, Washington Post, and other mainstream channels. This shows that the vast majority of Americans are beginning to clearly see and understand that the entire impeachment event has been theatre and political gamesmanship, but sadly is also an attempt to overthrow a sitting president, frustrate and stop his agenda, and violate and nullify the votes of every American who voted for Donald Trump.

Comment: From the article, Dems' Push to Impeach Trump is Merely the Latest Chapter of US Civil War 2.0
Considering that the Democrats have absolutely nothing to gain by trying to impeach Trump, another possible motive must be considered, which is that the Democrats are desperately trying to protect themselves. Unknown to many, high-level Democrats, intelligence officers, and former White House officials have been under investigation for many months by Attorney General Will Barr and federal prosecutor John Durham. The reason has little to do with Ukraine, and everything to do with Trump's promise to "drain the swamp."

In a nutshell, Barr and Dunham will soon be releasing their highly anticipated attorney general's report, which will determine whether the FBI had submitted false documents for obtaining a FISA warrant to spy on the Trump administration in 2016. The word 'treason' is even being whispered on Capitol Hill. The investigation involves a mind boggling array of top characters who played a role in creating the Steele Dossier (home of the famous pee tape), a largely debunked 'intelligence' document that ultimately failed to prove a link between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin.


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Star of David

Human Rights Watch: Israel has suspended core Palestinian rights for half a century

Maureen Clare Murphy
The Electronic Intifada
Tue, 17 Dec 2019 08:30 UTC
freedom palestinians
© Mahmoud AjjourAPA images“Peaceful opposition to the occupation could land you in jail,” according to Human Rights Watch’s Omar Shakir
Israel has denied Palestinians living under military occupation their fundamental civil rights for more than five decades, according to a report published by Human Rights Watch today.

Sweeping military orders imposed immediately after Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 1967 remain in place today, except for East Jerusalem, which Israel annexed in violation of international law.

"The Israeli army has deprived generations of Palestinians in the West Bank of their basic civil rights, including the rights to free assembly, association and expression, regularly drawing on military orders issued in the first days of the occupation," the report states.

"The suspension of core rights more than half a century later with no end in sight violates Israel's core responsibilities under the law of occupation."

Israeli settlers in the West Bank enjoy basic rights denied to Palestinians living in the same territory.

"Israeli officials openly speak of their intent to permanently rule over Palestinians in the West Bank," according to Human Rights Watch.

"Whatever the political arrangements, nothing can justify the continued enforcement of these restrictions and the entrenched two-tiered discriminatory system in the West Bank today."

Comment: Israel has been committing crimes against the Palestinians that the above report does not even mention, since its creation as a state. With powerful weapons and powerful allies at their disposal to whitewash their crimes, the successive Israeli governments have committed the worst acts imaginable against a population of people who all they ever wanted was their freedom to Be and live in the lands of their ancestors.

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Attention

House votes along party lines to impeach Trump

Mark Moore and Bob Fredericks
New York Post
Thu, 19 Dec 2019 01:24 UTC
Donald Trump
© AP
The House of Representatives on Wednesday voted almost entirely along party lines to impeach President Trump following a rancorous, daylong debate — making him just the third president in US history to suffer the congressional rebuke.

The historic vote sets up a showdown in the GOP-led Senate, where Republicans have said there is virtually no chance Trump would be convicted and removed from office.

The back-to-back votes came after 8 p.m. on two articles of impeachment, one for abuse of power and the other for obstruction of Congress.

The vote to impeach on abuse of power passed 230-197 with one member voting present. Two Democrats — Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey and Collin Peterson of Minnesota — broke ranks and voted with all Republicans against impeachment. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) voted present.

The vote to impeach on obstruction of Congress passed 229-198 with one — Gabbard — again voting present. Three Democrats — Van Drew, Peterson and Maine's Jared Golden — voted with all Republicans against the charge.

The White House immediately blasted the results, saying in a statement, "Today marks the culmination in the House of one of the most shameful political episodes in the history of our Nation.

Comment: See also:

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USA

An impeachment role for the Supreme Court?

Conrad Black
National Review
Wed, 18 Dec 2019 16:29 UTC
supreme court
© (Erin Schaff/ReutersThe U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., June 11, 2018
Do the charges against Trump pass constitutional muster? The justices should decide before the Senate does.

In the present overheated state of official Washington, there may be no alternative to charging into an impeachment trial whose outcome is a foregone conclusion. There is no allegation of treason, bribery, a high crime, or a misdemeanor, the four categories of offense the Constitution identifies as justifying the removal of a president, and no evidence of any such offense. The Democrats tried bribery for a couple of weeks after their focus groups were stirred by it, but gave it up as too implausible. The only bribe that has been unearthed was of the Biden family, and not even this rabid ragtag of bloodless assassins has tried treason, though that wicked act was much bandied about in the piping days of the previous Democratic putsch attempt over collusion between Trump and Russia in the 2016 election. The preferable next step would be for the Senate to ask the Supreme Court to determine whether the four grounds cited by the Constitution for removal of a president are exclusive, and accordingly this impeachment bill need not be tried, or those categories are merely illustrative, and Gerald Ford was correct when he said impeachment can be for any reason the majority in the House of Representatives determines.

I believe it is clear that the authors of the Constitution did not want a president removed for anything less than a high crime, and that none of the impeachment efforts in history would qualify. Andrew Johnson had fired the war secretary, which was his right, and he was narrowly acquitted in 1868 in the intense post-Civil War Reconstruction atmosphere. Richard Nixon was charged by the Judiciary Committee with having "made it his policy" to "obstruct," and having "through his close subordinates and agents" obstructed, the Watergate investigation; and of having "endeavored" to misuse the IRS (not having actually done so, as Franklin Roosevelt, Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Obama, and others have done); and of impeding the impeachment proceedings by temporary noncompliance with House committee subpoenas. The last was an obviously absurd charge, but even the first two were not high crimes, and there has never been any conclusive evidence that Nixon was guilty of them anyway. But his impeachment case was a model of fairness compared with the present nonsense. President Clinton may have lied to a grand jury about his extramarital sex life, but that was not a high crime either, in constitutional terms, and was rightly judged insufficient to justify his removal.
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Chess

Paul Manafort's state fraud charges dismissed, New York judge cites double jeopardy

Stephen Sorace
Fox News
Wed, 18 Dec 2019 21:54 UTC
Manafort
© Yana Paskova/Getty ImagesManafort didn't appear in court for Wednesday's ruling due to a health problem
A New York judge has dismissed a state mortgage fraud indictment against Paul Manafort, President Trump's former campaign chairman, citing double jeopardy laws.

Manafort, 70, was previously sentenced in a pair of federal cases earlier this year as part of former Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation.

Judge Maxwell Wiley ruled that state law precludes prosecution because the criminal case was too similar to that which landed Manafort in federal prison, writing that the factual overlap between the state and federal cases "is extensive — if not total."

Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance, Jr. said they would appeal the decision.
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Snakes in Suits

SOTT Focus: Dems' Push to Impeach Trump is Merely the Latest Chapter of US Civil War 2.0

Robert Bridge
RT
Wed, 18 Dec 2019 13:08 UTC
man w/sign
© Reuters/Shannon Stapleton
The US is more divided today than at any time since the historic war between North and South, and whether or not the Democrats vote to impeach Trump, Americans won't be spared a political storm looming on the horizon.

Today, millions of Washington watchers around the world are asking the same question: What happens if the Democrats go ahead and bring articles of impeachment against Donald J. Trump? The answer is twofold, and just might be the shortest story ever told: At first nothing, and then, everything. The end.

The reason nothing will happen immediately requires no degree in political science to appreciate. Should the Democrats commit the mother of all political screw-ups by voting to impeach Trump, all on the basis of hearsay, gossip and maybe reading tea leaves, the circus moves next door to the Senate, where Republicans hold a majority. This is where House efforts to impeach Trump will inevitably smack into a brick wall and disintegrate.
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Dollars

Lebanon: What led to the banking crisis of the century

Thierry Meyssan
voltairenet.org
Tue, 17 Dec 2019 00:00 UTC
Berri/Aoun/Hariri
© Voltairenet.orgThree Presidents: Shiite Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri • General Michel Aoun, Christian President of the Republic • Sunni President of the Interim Government Saad Hariri
The collapse of the Central Bank of Lebanon following a major state scam plunged the country into an unparalleled economic and financial crisis. The country is now paying for its 76 years of political dependence and 8 years of complete political vacancy. The reality of its situation is very different from the perception of its citizens.

The Central Bank of Lebanon has again authorized private banks to freely deliver Lebanese pounds, but still no dollars. This exchange control is illegal in law because it has not been validated by Parliament. Several large companies have already filed an application for interim relief before the courts. The wheat, oil and medicine import sectors are out of business, all the others are in recession.

Public debt stands at 154% of GDP. The Lebanese pound was depreciated by half its value in three months, taking the Syrian pound, already mistreated during the war by the Saudi and Qatari counterfeit currency, into its fall.

Causes of the crisis

This financial crisis led Parliament to adopt a new tax that triggered the demonstrations that have paralysed the country since October 17, 2019. In all likelihood, it originated in a massive scam set up by the country's political leaders through the Central Bank.

Comment: There is an epidemic of severe financial crises coupled with violent public uprisings amongst Western-targeted countries. The 'no cure' IMF/World Bank offers bailouts to address a deteriorating economy, but in actuality, exacerbates the demise of financial stability. Lebanon has much work to do to construct a more functional system of government that can eliminate corruption and begin to address its economic survival.

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Dollar

Keiser Report on central banks: The 'magic money machines for politicians'


RT
Tue, 17 Dec 2019 14:54 UTC
Argentina Central Bank
© MercoPress
Argentine President Alberto Fernandez said last month that he may not seek an $11 billion loan from the IMF, promising instead to "try to revive the economy."

RT's Keiser Report talks to Nick Giambruno of CaseyResearch.com about the relative calm in Buenos Aires among the populace, despite the ongoing currency and debt crises.

Argentina has gone through a number of financial crises in the past 100 years and it looks like it is on the cusp of another one, Giambruno says. According to him, the South American nation is facing another currency cataclysm "which is relatively normal for this country, it has happened repeatedly over the past 100 years."

And there are reasons for that, the analyst says, explaining that 100 years ago Argentina and the United States were "really kind-of on the same level." That was "kind-of a golden era for Argentina."

However, everything changed, a lot, since Argentina instituted a central bank in 1935, Giambruno points out. "The golden era was prior to the establishment of the central bank... like in most places the central bank is the magic money machine for the politicians and that's really how Argentina started its long descent downhill," he concludes.


Comment: President-elect Fernandez: "We were left with a debt that makes up 95 percent of our GDP... Everyone knows the International Monetary Fund is complicit in what happened."

Rather than deal with the corrupt and greedy IMF, or continue to be a punching bag for US lordship over economic solvency and a doomed dollar, Argentina will buy its way out of the America's financial empire with a plan that includes bitcoin and increasing its gold reserves. Fernandez will outright reject the $11B tranche of the IMF loan as soon as he takes office. Smart move.

See also:

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Star of David

Philip Giraldi, PhD: 'Is Israel our greatest ally?'

Philip Giraldi
TheAltWorld
Wed, 11 Dec 2019 00:00 UTC
FlagsUS/ISrael
© Unknown
Today we are joined by Philip Giraldi who is the Executive Director at the Council for National Interest to talk about whether or not Israel is our greatest ally. Phil is a former CIA counter-terrorism specialist and military intelligence officer. He is a veteran and patriot here to tell us the truth about our so-called unbreakable bond with Israel.


Comment: Very informative interview!

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Arrow Up

Kremlin: US sanctions will not stop the completion of Russia's natural gas pipeline to Europe


RT
Wed, 18 Dec 2019 10:28 UTC
Nordstream 2
© nordstream2.com/Axel SchmidtNordstream 2
The latest US sanctions targeting Russia's Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which will deliver natural gas to Germany, will not stop the project, presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday.

"We assume that [Nord Stream 2] will be completed," he told journalists when asked whether Washington's potential sanctions might result in construction being suspended.

Peskov's comments followed the approval of a bill by the US Senate, which would sanction companies involved in the construction of Nord Stream 2. It is expected to be signed by US President Donald Trump later this week.

Pending White House approval, the companies working on the Nord Stream 2 project will have 30 days to stop their operations. The sanctions would revoke US visas and block the property of those individuals involved.

European companies involved in the project include German energy firms Wintershall and Uniper, French multinational Engie, British-Dutch oil and gas giant Royal Dutch Shell, and Austrian energy company OMV.

The Kremlin spokesman called the possible sanctions "a direct violation of international law" and "an ideal example of unfair competition and the spread of their artificial dominance in European markets." He said Washington is "imposing on European consumers more expensive and uncompetitive products - more expensive natural gas."

Comment: RT, 18/12/2019: Germany's not backing down
Chancellor Angela Merkel has insisted that Berlin will not give into pressure from Washington after the US Senate approved a bill sanctioning German companies working on a pipeline that will deliver natural gas from Russia.

During Wednesday's Q&A session in parliament, lawmakers asked Merkel about the possibility of the US slapping sanctions on German companies building the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.

The chancellor said that she firmly opposes such sanctions because they have an extraterritorial effect. They will not push Berlin to abandon the project, however, she said. "We haven't backed down [to the US] with regards to the NSA [spying] affair, nor do we intend to back down now."

On Tuesday, the US Senate approved a bill that allows the imposition of sanctions on German entities over Nord Stream 2. Officials in Washington have long tried to pressure Germany into ditching the project, arguing that it would render the country too dependent on Moscow.


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