When Justice Is Corrupted at the Top, a Society Becomes Corrupted Downstream So much unfinished business demanding to be dealt with promptly. by DOV FISCHER March 29, 2019, 2:30 PM Ted Eytan/Creative Commons Top Stories Pelosi’s Pivot by HUNT LAWRENCE AND DANIEL J. FLYNN Jordan Peele Can Do What He Wants by SCOTT MCKAY The Tsunami Approaches by ERIC PETERS Sign Up to receive Our Latest Updates! REGISTER Hot Off The Press POLITICS Corruption of the Insiders by JEFFREY LORD FREE THE MARKET Henry Hazlitt in the Long Term by BOB LUDDY First a meme — from our pledge of allegiance: With liberty and justice for all. Now a second meme — from the 1950s “Superman” TV show: Truth, Justice, and the American Way. Now the Bible: Tzedek Tzedek Tirdof — Righteousness Righteousness [alt. version: Justice Justice] [Shalt] Thou Pursue. Deut. 16:20. And now a few solo words: Hillary. Yoga. Bleach. Comey. Lynch. Matter. Strzok. Page. Andy. Insurance. McCabe. Ohr. Steele. Fusion. Dossier. Yates. FISA. Flynn. Stone. Tarmac. Smollett. Kimfoxx. College. Admissions. Coxswain. CNN. MSNBC. Maddow. Behar. Lemon. Clapper. Brennan. When a society’s justice system breaks down, the society collapses. When justice is corrupted, the society devolves into chaos. Justice is the foundation of the earth, and a nation’s population needs to know that, at some bottom-line fundamental level, the rules by which all are supposed to play are applied and enforced evenly, fairly. The image of the masked lady of justice holding the scales is evocative: justice must be blind. It may not favor the rich over the poor, the strong over the weak, the favored over the unfavored. When people truly believe that they cannot get justice within the law, chaos inevitably ensues as law-breaking becomes commonplace — because there is no justice. Even an American free-market system needs to revolve around not only just economic principles but also other fair principles that include but are not limited to freedom to communicate thoughts and ideas without fear of repercussions, freedom to worship, freedom to engage in the social enterprise under the rules of fair play, and equal justice under the law. When principles like those are perverted, the social construct breaks down. This past week has offered both a bright moment in the sun and several dark clouds in the way our system of justice operates. By now it is beyond doubt that, to some extent, we have a “two-tier” system of justice. It is otherwise inexplicable that Hillary Clinton has not yet been tried on felony charges for spoliating evidence — the bleached 33,000 emails, the smashed computer. Beyond the underlying question as to what was in those emails, whether she perpetrated felonies by unlawfully sending classified information outside secure and permitted zones, it remains that even if those emails all were about wedding dresses and yoga it is unlawful in America to destroy evidence that is sought in a proper legal investigation. Martha Stewart learned that. Despite what is portrayed on television and in movies, the failure to produce properly discoverable evidence can be grounds for serious imprisonment. As we have learned how the Comey FBI and the Obama-Lynch Department of Justice conspired to redefine the Clinton investigation as a mere “matter,” how they drafted the terms of her exoneration before the investigation even took off, how they arranged to grant immunity from prosecution to a swath of critical witnesses who could have been leveraged to reveal truths in exchange for such immunity, how they even allowed some of them to sit in and listen to the questioning of Hillary so that they would be able to synchronize their own storylines, we emerge disgusted. She got away with the missing billing records of the Rose Law Firm, Travelgate, the Cattle Futures, so many other lies and scandals. She seems to have gotten away with the corruption of leveraging the Clinton Foundation as a vehicle to get rich personally by allotting special favors as Secretary of State to people who paid for access. She and her husband may even have gotten away with compromising some of America’s uranium supply. This lifetime of exemption from the laws that the rest of us must follow does not breed jealousy — none of us would want to exchange our lives for that of Hillary Clinton. But it breeds dismay that, if she is exempt from the laws and enjoys a different level of justice, such profound unfairness gnaws at the core of our laws. Yes, to a degree she has paid a certain penalty for her decades of corruption. She is despised deeply and therefore was denied her dream of a lifetime — the Presidency. However, she has not paid the price that the justice system has imposed on others who removed secure and confidential emails and other governmental communications without authorization. In like measure, we have been witness to the injustice and cruelty of the two-year Mueller “witch hunt.” The Russian Collusion Hoax caught a wide number of human fish in its net on “process crimes,” ensnared misstating one fact or another and thus imprisoned on perjury charges that never get filed against so many other far more despicable actors. Even Paul Manafort, who under normal circumstances deserves punishment for tax fraud and related crimes, ultimately also deserves the Presidential pardon or commutation awaiting him after the November 2020 elections because he was not caught “fair and square.” Rather than being pursued by a suspicious IRS that fairly wondered about his taxes, he was hounded by a team of prosecutors that went after the Trump Campaign manager who righted a tottering ship at a critical moment in the campaign, secured the delegates to win the nomination, coordinated a fabulous convention that avoided predicted chaos, and set Mr. Trump on the path to November victory. That is how Mr. Manafort’s defalcations were uncovered, and that is why he deserves a commutation, if not outright pardon. The ubiquitous injustice cries out for so much more to be righted. Now that Mr. Trump’s patriotism has been investigated, it is time to investigate John Brennan’s loyalties. He voted for Gus Hall, the Communist Party candidate, to be President of the United States. Although Obama named him CIA head — itself an act worthy of a Special Counsel — what do we know of this man who calls others “treasonous”? Has he lied under oath? Has James Clapper? Has Jim Comey? Did Comey break the law by leaking confidential FBI information, notes obtained in his capacity as FBI chief, to the New York Times? Did Loretta Lynch break the law? How was the Steele Dossier composed? Funded? Will Steele face American justice? What exactly was told to the FISA court? Did Samantha Power or Sally Yates or Andrew McCabe or Bruce Ohr break the law? How was Hillary Clinton and the Clinton campaign involved? Was there an interplay with the Clinton Foundation? And is it conceivably possible that all this went on during the Obama Administration without Obama knowing about it? And if Obama knew: “what did he know, and when did he know it?” And what about his Vice President? Are there other dirty players whose names we do not yet know, who remain as Deep State moles within the FBI and CIA? Equal justice under the law cries out for a powerful investigation equal to the two-year Mueller investigation. Yes, the Republican Senate can investigate, but we have seen the limitations of Congressional investigations: they mostly are for political show but do not result in punishing a Lois Lerner or an Eric Holder. Yes, Inspector General Michael Horowitz can investigate. But if “equal justice under the law” means anything in this context, nothing short of a two-year $25-40 million Special Counsel investigation — the kind that runs 675 days, entailing 19 lawyers, assisted by 40 FBI agents, intelligence analysts, forensic accountants, and other professional staff, where 42 people are interrogated or are summoned before a grand jury, with 2,800 subpoenas issued, 500 search warrants executed, with 500 witnesses and 13 requests to foreign governments for information — nothing short of that would constitute equal justice under the law. The Prophet Amos spoke poetically of “Justice [alt. version: Judgment] roll[ing] down like waters and righteousness as a mighty stream.” Amos 5:24. These are important times because social gravity also pulls the waters of injustice at the top-most echelons of government to roll downstream such that corruption flows into greater society like a mighty brook. We are a good people under law, and yet we see the corruption of the Hollywood-celebrity class and others among the fabulously wealthy who have learned from actual life experience that the liberal laws and taxes for which they advocate do not apply to them. They speak the liberal mantra of needing to raise our taxes to pay for leftist “social justice” programs and social-engineering schemes popular among the glitterati, but they and their corporations steer clear of their new taxes. They do not take the high-speed rails but fly in the private jets that pollute. They impose “affirmative action” quotas on college admissions, further demanding additional set-asides for children of those here illegally — but, with so many fewer seats available in college for the hard-working kids of hard-working taxpayers who do not fit into an intersectional pigeon-hole, these “progressive” elites are not disadvantaged because they then clandestinely pay bribes to professional college-admissions-coyotes who smuggle their Tide-pod-ingesting airheads into college. Yes, some of these despicable cheaters finally have been unmasked. But the “jury is out” as to whether they will face justice — indeed, as to whether they even will face a jury. In a just world, every single one of those kids already would have been expelled from the colleges. “But the kids are innocent; they didn’t know.” They didn’t know? They posed for pictures in a scull or as a coxswain, and they did not know? They sat for scholastic exams and were given extra time, authorized by medical passes they presented for diseases and illnesses they did not have, and they did not know? We await justice. As we await it for Jussie Smollett. Every person under our system of laws is innocent until proven guilty. Someone like Smollett is entitled to his day in court to clear his name. But not only is he entitled. Rather, the greater society, too, is entitled to his day in court. If he is guilty of doing what he reportedly did, he could have ignited race wars. The hoax was aimed at inducing greater society to deem Trump supporters uniformly as racist, even as Klansmen lynching people of color. It was not just a stupid April Fool’s Joke gone wrong. This was an evil so vile that, if true, the man belongs in prison for years. That would be equal justice under the law. His sudden release seems so terribly evil and corrupt. If he had been spared prison as part of a plea deal entailing a fine of perhaps a quarter million dollars, perhaps a year or two of real community service, and perhaps five years of supervised release, so be it. Such a deal would parallel the unsatisfying plea deals that happen all too often. But a complete exoneration, lack of remorse, cleansing of his record, sealing of all case documents? This “Chicago way” reeks of corruption in a city whose name is synonymous with corruption, regardless of color, from Al Capone through the Daley machines and the 1960 vote count, to this day. Five Illinois governors in the past half century or so ended up in prison: William Stratton, Otto Kerner, Dan Walker, George Ryan, and Rod Blagojevich. When an Illinois Secretary of State died, they found $800,000 cash stuffed in shoe boxes. Even a state Attorney General, William Scott, ultimately went to prison for tax fraud. When there is no equal justice under the law, a society degrades into a Sodom. By now, it is common knowledge that Obama rose within Chicago politics by associating with the likes of Tony Rezko, who arranged Obama’s property acquisition, even as his wife netted a suspiciously high-paying hospital job in tandem with his rise in state politics. His Illinois U.S. Senate election was marked by the unsealing of embarrassing divorce files, first exposing his Democrat primary opponent’s sordid but secret past, then exposing his Republican opponent’s sordid but secret past. The Chicago way. Now Kim Foxx, graduate of Southern Illinois University School of Law, ranked among the bottom ranked law schools by U.S. News, enters for her fifteen minutes. There must be justice for Jussie Smollett, for Kim Foxx, and thus for our society. The federal Department of Justice can look into it; they have spent so many decades investigating corruption in Chicago that they do not even need a GPS app to find the addresses, and they probably have all the key phone numbers, including the prisons, in speed dial. For the sake of our greater society, we need that Special Counsel to be named in Washington, we need those kids expelled from the colleges and their parents fitted for wardrobe and roles in “Orange Is the New Black,” and we need the Smollett-Foxx “matter” investigated in Chicago. And we need it in weeks, Mr. Attorney General, not months. https://spectator.org/when-justice-is-corrupted-at-the-top-a-society-becomes-corrupted-downstream/
Is there a bigger crybaby sore loser than you? Get over it. Your side lost the election - you cried and lied for 2 straight years plus. Now you don’t like the results of Mueller and you are back to crying and lying again. A lot of jail time ahead. For real traitors. Most of them will be Dems. Time to drain that swamp. MAGA!
We dont know the results of the Mueller investigation because the criminal president is covering them up. March 29, 2019 - 10:21 AM EDT Poll: Just 36 percent say Mueller report clears Trump Just 36 percent of registered voters say the report submitted by special counsel Robert Mueller clears President Trump of any wrongdoing, according to an NPR–PBS pollreleased Friday. Fifty-six percent say they think questions still exist about Trump, while 9 percent say they are unsure. The poll showed broad support for the release of the full report, the culmination of Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, but showed a mixed response to questions about what Democrats should do next. Seventy-five percent say Mueller's complete report should be made public, compared to 18 percent who say the four-page summary released by Attorney General William Barr is enough. "People clearly want to see more about the report," said Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion, which conducted the poll for NPR and PBS. "They want it released publicly, are eager to see the principals — Mueller and Barr — testify, because they want to see how the sausage was made. They want to see how we got to this point."
Corruption of the Insiders by JEFFREY LORD March 29, 2019, 12:05 AM Call it the corruption of insiders. The latest news from Chicago has a very angry Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson attacking the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office for abruptly dropping the 16-count indictment of actor Jussie Smollett. Recall that, in the words of the New York Times: Mr. Smollett, who is black, gay and outspoken on social issues, had told the policethat two men jumped him, while taunting him with homophobic and racial slurs and yelling “This is MAGA country,” a reference to President Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan. The assailants, according to Mr. Smollett, tied a rope around his neck and poured a chemical substance on him. He was briefly treated at a hospital. Then, of a sudden, the Chicago police, after investigating, came to the conclusion Smollett’s tale was not only a lie but that it was a stunt. A stunt which Smollett had carefully planned himself and carried out with two Nigerian brothers who were captured on video purchasing the supplies used in the “attack.” The idea was to gain national attention for Smollett, who was said to be dissatisfied with his salary on his Empire TV series — and at the same time take a smack at President Trump, whom Smollett despises. Abruptly, Smollett went from heroic victim to perpetrator and found himself formally charged. Now, the judicial proceedings formally underway with indictments in hand, of a sudden the charges were all dropped. Astounding Mayor Emanuel and Police Superintendent Johnson. Said the Mayor: “This looks like he’s an actor, a person of influence, he got treated differently than everyone else.” In fact, the New York Times reported this in the same story linked above: Until Tuesday, the prosecutor’s office had appeared to be taking a hard line with Mr. Smollett. A couple of weeks after his arrest, the office announced that a grand jury had indicted him on 16 separate counts of disorderly conduct related to the filing of a false police report. The move appeared to increase the pressure on Mr. Smollett, whose lawyers described it as “prosecutorial overkill.” But the state’s attorney’s office had already drawn scrutiny for its handling of the case. The Chicago Tribune reported that after police department sources began leaking their doubts about Mr. Smollett to local reporters, Tina Tchen, a former chief of staff to Michelle Obama, had emailed Kimberly Foxx, the top prosecutor, saying the actor’s family had “concerns about the investigation.” Ms. Foxx told Ms. Tchen, and separately a member of Mr. Smollett’s family, that she had asked the police superintendent to request that the F.B.I. take over the investigation. “Omg this would be a huge victory,” the relative replied in a text message, according to The Tribune. Once it became clear that Mr. Smollett was himself a suspect, Ms. Foxx recused herself from the case, but her actions had already embittered the police department, and the head of the police union accused her of interference. Over at the entertainment site TMZ was this report: Jussie Smollett logged a total of 18 hours of community service over 2 days — withJesse Jackson‘s organization, the Rainbow PUSH Coalition — and that was enough to satisfy prosecutors in Chicago. In other words? Insiders in Chicago — from Tina Tchen, the ex-chief of staff to former First Lady Michelle Obama, to Jesse Jackson — put the pressure on to have the charges dropped. And the all-too-responsive Cook County State’s Attorney, Kimberly Foxx — she of widely reported political ambitions who had previously recused herself from the case — suddenly jumped back into the case and had the charges dropped. It doesn’t get more “insider corruption” than that. Meanwhile, in Washington, the Trump-Russia collusion case imploded with the Mueller report. But not before revealing a cast of insiders who spent volumes of time trying to, first, prevent the election of Donald Trump to the White House. Then, second, when the attempt at preventing his election failed, a veritable parade of the same insiders began going about the business of plotting a silent coup to remove the new president. These insiders all have names and held major jobs. They include both an ex-Director of the FBI and CIA, plus over twenty officials in either the FBI and the Department of Justice. Most have now either been fired or resigned. What both the Smollett case and the “get Trump” silent coup attempt have surfaced is a bold case of the corruption of insiders in Chicago and Washington. Revealing an elitist mentality that has those with power and influence deliberately and willfully ignoring the law in an obsessive drive to satisfy their own personal political whims — freeing Jussie Smollett in Chicago or blocking Donald Trump from the White House and then plotting to remove him once duly elected. And in both cases the elite media aided and abetted in the pushing of the false Smollett narrative and, in Washington, the phony Trump-Russia collusion fairy tale. It should not go unnoticed that in both cases there were ties to former President Obama. In Chicago, at the center of the corruption in the Smollett case was Michelle Obama’s insider ex-chief of staff. In Washington the plotters began their anti-Trump activities as players of various influence in the Obama administration. From Obama Attorney General Loretta Lynch to the Obama appointed FBI Director Comey and CIA Director Brennan and on down through the ranks, each and every one were tied to the Obama administration. Whatever else this says it is crystal clear that in both the Smollett and Trump-Russia collusion cases insiders were seeking to achieve their objectives outside the law — the law they took an oath to uphold. They sought to pull strings, to leak to the press, to manipulate, to lie — anything and everything went. The question now is what to do here. In Washington it would be a serious mistake for President Trump to follow Karl Rove’s advice in the Wall Street Journal. Said Karl: Team Trump should use the Mueller report to pivot to issues, like the economy and the opioid crisis, that matter to swing voters who will decide the 2020 presidential election. Certainly it is always right to stay focused on policy issues — health care, infrastructure, and so on. But “pivot” away from what has been done here to the Trump presidency — and ultimately the American people? Decidedly not. Over at Fox News, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has headlined his views this way: On Trump-Russia Collusion — Let’s investigate why we’ve been lied to for two years Says Speaker Gingrich: The political and media elitein America have some explaining to do. As the reality sinks in that the Trump campaign didn’t collude with Russia during the 2016 election — and that no obstruction of justice charges levied against President Trump are forthcoming — Americans are going to start asking whywe have been lied to for two years. Additionally, Congress should fully make the Mueller report and all its supporting documents public — to the extent that the law, national security and decency allow. The agents who wrote and signed the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant applications that were based on the absurd, unsubstantiated Christopher Steele dossier should be heldaccountable. As a part of all this, members of Congress should pressure their colleague Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., to step down as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. Even after Mueller’s findings have been made public, Schiff has continued to lie to the American people about alleged secret intelligence. He has no business knowing our national secrets if he’s willing to fabricate them for political gain. Second, Congress should look at the wide gap between the Justice Department’s willingness to aggressively pursue phony allegations about the Trump campaign while completely ignoring documented lawbreaking by the Clintons. The group at the FBI that has doggedly pursued the false collusion story is the same group that let Hillary Clinton slide on deleting official emails, creating an illegal computer server and destroying evidence of her wrongdoing. If fully uncovered, I expect the extent to which these agents were motivated by political bias would be astounding. Finally, the third investigation should be completed by the news media. The major media outlets should form a commission — perhaps with Pew Research or the Poynter Institute — to examine the role the media played in spreading falsehoods for the last two years. It’s clear that the media were either handily used by — or fully in league with — the political enemies of President Trump. Exactly right. What the Speaker is describing is a full-fledged scandal of corrupt insiders lying to the American people day in and day out for over two years. It is time — past time — to start the ball rolling and get to the bottom of exactly what was done and who was responsible for what. There must be accountability in both Chicago and Washington and start to put an end to the corruption of the insiders
From the comments section from the article above: " Lorraine2 days ago I think Mr Lord is assuming there is enough professional and personal integrity and gumption left in Washington and the field of journalism to do the right thing. There are individual voices crying out in government and the media but they need our dedicated help. It’s up to us as citizens. I have faith and confidence there are enough good and true patriotic Americans to get the job done, by voting out the corrupt and exposing those inside and outside of government who would undermine our freedom, for the good of the country to protect and preserve our great Republic and to decry the lies and shun those who promote them. The United States of America has been blessed from its origin and remains so because of God’s Divine Providence and His gift of wisdom to our founding fathers. We the People have recognized when we have gone astray and corrected the ills of this human endeavor to fulfill our glorious potential and we will continue to do so by the grace of Almighty God." Avatar Harry 2 days ago "Corrupt insiders, including members of the MSM, need to be prosecuted and imprisoned. If the subversive criminality of the Dem/MSM/Deep-State Axis of Evil goes unpunished then what will happen when the Dems get control of the White House again? What crimes and what lies will they be afraid to perpetrate, after having gotten away with a criminally subversive attempt to rig an election, and when that failed, a criminally subversive attempt to take down a duly elected president and thereby undo an election? Yes, they failed at these criminal endeavors, but they succeeded in that their crimes have not resulted in any of their crew going to prison, and their criminally subversive, Nazi-like big lie about Trump-Russia collusion gave them the house in the midterms. If people don't go to prison over all this subversive criminality, then America's criminal establishment can rest assured that their crimes don't get punished, they get results! Then the United States of America is over. And the Divided Banana Republic of America has officially begun. AG Barr, do your job. America's future depends on it. President Trump, use a horse whip if you have to, but get AG Barr to do his job."
Most Americans don't think Trump is in the clear yet on Russia, new poll finds March 31, 2019, 7:59 AM CDT By Carrie Dann WASHINGTON — Even as the White House claims vindication from the summary of special counsel Robert Mueller’s findings in the Russia probe, the American public does not see a clear verdict about whether President Donald Trump has been cleared of wrongdoing. A new NBC News/ Wall Street Journal poll finds that 29% of Americans say they believe President Trump has been cleared of wrongdoing, based on what they have heard about special counsel Robert Mueller’s findings, while 40% say they do not believe he has been cleared.
POLITICS Voters Agree With Trump on Russia Probe \ by DAVID CATRON April 1, 2019, 12:05 AM Top Stories May Turns Brexit Into Wrecks-It by JED BABBIN AOC, Bernie, De Blasio: Free Sex For All by JEFFREY LORD Don’t Let Google Fool You, Mr. President by MYTHEOS HOLT Sign Up to receive Our Latest Updates! REGISTER Hot Off The Press CONSTITUTIONAL OPINIONS The Left Loves Activist Judges — Unless They Rule Right by DOUG BANDOW AMERICANA Fulton Sheen and a Real-Life Miracle by PAUL KENGOR Congressional Democrats are committing a grave political blunder by continuing to push Russia conspiracy theories and insinuating that Attorney General William Barr is perpetrating a cover-up by complying with the law in his handling of the Mueller report. In addition to the special counsel probe, which produced no evidence of collusion or obstruction of justice by the Trump campaign, there have been two congressional inquiries that also failed to find proof of malfeasance. Several polls conducted since the Mueller probe ended suggest that most Americans believe the President is innocent of wrongdoing and that the Democrats are merely playing politics. A Harvard CAPS/Harris poll, for example, found that two-thirds of registered voters want Congress to accept the special counsel’s finding and forego any further investigations. The survey of 1,437 registered voters, which was first reported by the Hill, asked respondents the following question: “Should the Democrats in Congress accept the finding of the special counsel or contest the finding and do another investigation?” No fewer than 68 percent of the voters answered, “Accept finding.” The survey also found that 64 percent of voters are themselves willing to accept the conclusions reached by the Mueller report, and 61 percent personally agree with them. Another poll conducted on behalf of CBS News found that a majority of Americans believe the Mueller probe was a political hit job. The survey asked 1,002 adults, “Do you think the investigation into possible dealings between Trump associates and Russia was justified, or was the investigation politically motivated?” Fully 54 percent answered, “Politically motivated.” Predictably, CBS buried this datum deep in its article on the poll. Still, the Harvard CAPs/Harris and CBS polls confirm that the public agrees with President Trump that it was all a “witch hunt.” Yet another poll confirms that most voters are saying enough is enough: A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that just 31% of all Likely U.S. Voters think congressional Democrats should do their own investigation even though the Mueller probe has failed to prove that the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government. Sixty-one percent (61%) say Democrats in Congress should move on to other issues. In light of these indications that the electorate is suffering investigation fatigue, the Democrats should use the Mueller report to rid themselves of a dog that not only won’t hunt but which may come back to bite them in their collective posterior. Lindsey Graham, the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has vowed to dig into possible abuse of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to launch the Russia probe. Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz is already investigating possible misconduct related to FISA warrants. And Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) says he is planning to submit criminal referrals to the Justice Department. It’s unlikely that the Democrats will emerge unscathed from the combined scrutiny of the Senate Judiciary Committee, the Inspector General, and the criminal investigations resulting from Rep. Nunes’ criminal referrals. Yet they continue to draw attention to themselves by making weird, unsubstantiated claims. A day after the Mueller report was released with no evidence that the Trump campaign colluded with the Russians, Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-CA) told the Washington Post, “We will continue to investigate the counterintelligence issues. That is, is the president, or people around him, compromised in any way by a hostile foreign power?” Schiff, terrifyingly, is the current Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and his continued advocacy of such irresponsible inquiries prompted the Republican members of that committee to demand his resignation. The President has also suggested that he resign, and Donald Trump, Jr. labeled him “the leader of the tinfoil hat brigade.” Lindsey Graham echoed this theme: “He’s getting into conspiracy land and acting like an Oliver Stone type figure.” Despite the evidence that Chairman Schiff has got a screw loose upstairs, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi came to his defense with this howler: “I’m so proud of the work of Chairman Adam Schiff.” And Schiff is by no means the only remaining member of the Democratic “delusion caucus.” Rep. Eric Swalwell (D. Calif.) recently held forth on Trump thus: “Just because he’s not been criminally indicted for collusion doesn’t mean he has not conducted colluding behavior with the Russians.” Using Swalwell’s logic, anyone in the U.S. not indicted for collusion is potentially guilty of this crime. According to Rep. Maxine Waters, Trump’s very denials render him guilty, “He’s been saying ‘No collusion, no collusion, no collusion,’ over and over.… This is not the end of anything.” By this logic, he can be impeached if he denies kidnapping the Lindbergh baby. Back on Earth, a poll conducted for NPR shows that a majority of Americans are satisfied with Mueller’s findings, including a majority of Independents. This last point is what should get the attention of sane Democrats, assuming there are any left. Predictably, Republicans were happy with the results, and most Democrats are disappointed (imagine what it must be like to be so infected by TDS that you hoped the President was a foreign agent). NPR puts a lot of emphasis on the public’s alleged desire to see the full Mueller report (like they’re really going to read 300 pages of tedious legalese) but the following passage carries a lot of information for Democrats: At the same time, 56 percent said Mueller conducted a fair investigation, and 51 percent said they were satisfied with it. That included 52 percent of independents who said they were satisfied with the investigation. It’s one of the rare questions in the first two years of the Trump presidency in which a majority of independents sided with Republicans instead of Democrats on a subject. All of which means that, if the Democratic leadership expects to hold their House majority in 2020 — let alone win back the Senate and the White House — they had better come up with a platform that goes beyond, “Trump is the Manchurian candidate.” After two years they have failed to sell the voters on Russian collusion, and William Barr is obviously not engaged in a cover-up. Meanwhile, the President’s successes are mounting up and his rallies are more successful than ever. He will still be here in 2020 and he is already defining the Democrats as the party of politicized investigations and socialism. The voters are increasingly inclined to agree. PRINT David Catron FOLLOW THEIR STORIES: VIEW MORE David Catron is a health care consultant and frequent contributor to The American Spectator. You can follow him on Twitter at @Catronicus.
Only about a third of Americans believe, from what they've seen or heard about the Mueller investigation so far, that President Trump is clear of any wrongdoing.