Puppet Masters
© REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
US President Donald Trump departs the White House for a campaign rally while the House debates impeachment, December 18, 2019
US President Donald Trump departs the White House for a campaign rally while the House debates impeachment, December 18, 2019
Let's not mince words: Wednesday's vote was the culmination of efforts that began on November 8, 2016, with Trump's shocking triumph over Hillary Clinton - or maybe even before, on whatever date the FBI actually began investigating the Trump campaign for "Russian collusion" per accusations coming from Democrats.
All those paths, from "emoluments" and "Hamilton electors," via the ill-fated Mueller Report into "Russiagate," to the "whistleblower" complaint about the Ukraine phone call, they all converged on this inevitable conclusion. The actual "high crimes or misdemeanors" never mattered - or materialized, really - all anyone needed to do is repeat the mantra, Orange Man Bad.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-California) wore black and intoned about sadness and solemnity of the day for the American Republic and its importance for "our democracy." It was a bonfire of hypocrisies, as the party that has spent years denouncing everything about America - its flag, anthem, founders, and even the political system - now claiming to be defending it all from the "clear and present danger" Trump somehow represented.
Even now, it is unclear what they sought to accomplish. There is no indication that the Republican-majority Senate will actually vote to convict the president and remove him from office - and the Democrats know this. Nor is being impeached going to somehow disqualify Trump from being on the ballot in 2020, no matter what some "Republican" commentators on MSNBC and CNN may argue.
© Reuters / ISNA/WANAl; REUTERS/Amir Cohen
Iran can move in and out of the media focus as other stories and scandals begin to steal the spotlight, but in the background the pressure being mounted against Tehran is heating up on multiple fronts.
For example, the US recently rolled out a fresh load of sanctions against Iranian companies, including its largest airline, accusing it of "weapons of mass destruction proliferation," as well as the transportation of lethal aid to Yemen. The move seems to be squeezing Iran's economy ever closer to a total state of collapse, as the airline will likely be prohibited from using airports in countries fearful of facing the wrath of the Trump administration.
Comment: The US and its allies are already waging an economic and hybrid war against Iran, meanwhile those allied with peace are doing their utmost to counter these acts of terrorism:
- 4-month countdown to NATO's largest exercise in 25 years, Normandy Four meeting, and another false-flag in Syria?
- Iran and China keep banking initiatives secret to evade US sanctions - Envoy
- Iran slams US sanctions on medicine as crime against humanity and act of terrorism
- Israel & NATO's peculiar 'simulation' of Russia's S-400s using inferior US Patriot air defenses in recent war games
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.
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.
© 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."
"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."
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.
- Trump pens fiery letter to Pelosi, and to history
- The Democrats have been hoping to impeach Trump even before his election
- Hillary Clinton: We don't need a trial, just impeach the guy already
- The 'Impeach Trump' Conspiracy: A Coup Against a Constitutionally Elected President
- Polls indicate Impeachment approval is officially underwater
© Mahmoud AjjourAPA images
“Peaceful opposition to the occupation could land you in jail,” according to Human Rights Watch’s Omar Shakir
“Peaceful opposition to the occupation could land you in jail,” according to Human Rights Watch’s Omar Shakir
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.
- Making Israeli Soldiers Kill Palestinians
- Galloway: Netanyahu lost Israeli vote, Palestinians lose either way
- Haaretz editor's true opinion: 'For the Palestinians murder is a type of sport, perhaps a substitute for erotica'
- '50-year-old Palestinians have never lived in freedom': Geraldo Rivera slams Israeli Ambassador for ignoring the occupation
- The Israeli Occupation: 10 normal things Palestinians are prevented from doing
© AP
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.
© (Erin Schaff/Reuters
The U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., June 11, 2018
The U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., June 11, 2018
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.
© Yana Paskova/Getty Images
Manafort didn't appear in court for Wednesday's ruling due to a health problem
Manafort didn't appear in court for Wednesday's ruling due to a health problem
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.
© Reuters/Shannon Stapleton
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.
© Voltairenet.org
Three Presidents: Shiite Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri • General Michel Aoun, Christian President of the Republic • Sunni President of the Interim Government Saad Hariri
Three Presidents: Shiite Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri • General Michel Aoun, Christian President of the Republic • Sunni President of the Interim Government Saad Hariri
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.
Comment: Other analysts are in agreement: Political analyst on Impeachment: Trump will emerge stronger and more forceful in his personal popularity in America
As to the question, "Why are the Democrats shooting themselves in the foot with this impeachment charade?", the answer lies here:
Dems' Push to Impeach Trump is Merely the Latest Chapter of US Civil War 2.0 Putin: Trump impeachment 'far-fetched,' Senate will acquit See also,