“LEFT JAB AND RIGHT JAB”

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“LEFT JAB AND RIGHT JAB”

“Right Jab And Left Jab” was created because we have two commenters that post on a daily basis either in our “IS IT TRUE” or “Readers Forum” columns concerning National or International issues.
Joe Biden and Ronald Reagan’s comments are mostly about issues of national interest.  The majority of our “IS IT TRUE” columns are about local or state issues, so we have decided to give Mr. Biden and Mr. Reagan exclusive access to our newly created “LEFT JAB and RIGHT JAB”  column. They now have this post to exclusively discuss national or world issues that they feel passionate about.
We shall be posting the “LEFT JAB” AND “RIGHT JAB” several times a week.  Oh, “Left Jab” is a liberal view and the “Right Jab is representative of the more conservative views. Also, any reader who would like to react to the written comments of the two gentlemen is free to do so.

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15 COMMENTS

  1. Starr Report Veteran Says Trump’s Crimes Are “Thousandfold” Worse

    Paul Rosenzweig, who served as a senior counsel to Ken Starr as a member of the independent counsel team that recommended the impeachment of President Bill Clinton says that President Trump’s attempts to obstruct justice are “blunter by a thousandfold” than anything Clinton did and more than justifies the House Judiciary Committee opening impeachment proceedings, and said that a “significant number” of his former colleagues from the independent counsel office share his views

    “My view is that there’s ample reason right now for the House Judiciary Committee to begin an impeachment inquiry, and if it were up to me, I would recommend them to impeach. If I were called to testify today at the first of those hearings, I would say that Trump’s obstruction of justice and frankly Trump’s dereliction of duty in failing to address the issue of Russian interference in our electoral processes, are by themselves grounds for his impeachment. Add to that, his recalcitrance in responding to Special Counsel Robert Mueller and his stonewalling of congressional investigations and the case becomes much more compelling than that which attended the recommendation with respect to Clinton”

    The views of Rosenzweig and others on Starr’s team could be a factor in the debate as House Democrats weigh whether to formally initiate an impeachment inquiry into Trump. The Starr report’s referral to Congress in September 1998 outlined 11 possible grounds for impeachment of Clinton. Five of the recommended articles accused Clinton of attempting to obstruct justice and a sixth asserted that he failed to fulfill his constitutional duty “to faithfully execute the laws” by invoking “groundless” executive privilege claims to try and prevent some of his aides from testifying

    Rosenzweig says it is a pattern of conduct that has been repeated in spades by Trump. The Starr referral cited as evidence of obstruction Clinton’s refusal to be questioned by Starr’s prosecutors for seven months thereby delaying the investigation until the independent counsel threatened the president with a subpoena. Trump refused to be questioned by Mueller at all, agreeing only to answer written questions relating to issues that arose during the 2016 campaign, but none at all relating to his conduct as president. After reviewing those responses, Mueller’s team found them “inadequate” and sought to follow up with additional questions, a request that Trump refused

    Another of the potential articles of impeachment Starr referred to Congress cited, as evidence of obstruction, Clinton’s lies to his staff, contending that those lies were then repeated by those aides to the grand jury and the public. But Mueller found that Trump did more than that: He directed aides, former deputy national security adviser McFarland and former White House counsel Don McGahn, to write false memos that could be used to mislead investigators

    Rosenzweig added “Trump’s efforts are blunter by a thousandfold. He doesn’t even have the sophistication and subtlety of Clinton” and points to Trump’s directive to McGahn to fire Mueller. This was an order that, according to Mueller, McGahn refused to carry out fearing a repeat of the infamous “Saturday Night Massacre” in which special prosecutor Archibald Cox was fired on President Richard Nixon’s orders after the two top Justice Department officials resigned in protest. When the New York Times later broke the story of Trump’s directive, Mueller showed that Trump called in McGahn and ordered him to write a memo denying that Trump ever gave such an order. But McGahn refused to do so

    As Rosenzweig noted Trump didn’t just ask leading questions of McGahn intended to influence his testimony as Clinton supposedly did. He didn’t say to McGahn “I didn’t really try to fire him, or ask you to fire him” and Trump instead told McGahn “Create a false memo”

    Rosenzweig noted Trump’s more recent decision to invoke executive privilege over his conversations with McGahn to prevent him from testifying before the House Judiciary Committee on its own echoes the impeachment investigation into Nixon. Among the three articles of impeachment passed by the House Judiciary Committee in 1974 was one accusing him of “contempt of Congress” for failing to comply with “duly authorized” subpoenas from the panel

    All of this has resonated with Rosenzweig’s former colleagues on Starr’s staff who pushed for the impeachment of Clinton. “We’ve been talking. I would say that there are a significant number of them who see Trump’s activities as worse”

    http://bit.ly/2Pweas0

      • Right-Wing Racist Who Kicked Pregnant Muslim Woman In The Stomach Causing Her To Lose Unborn Twins Is Jailed

        A racist has been jailed for four years for repeatedly kicking a pregnant Muslim woman in the stomach before she miscarried her unborn twins. David Gallacher attacked the expectant mother and her husband in a car park last year

        The 37-year-old racially abused her as she sat in the car before kicking her in the stomach despite her shouting “I’m pregnant” and then set upon the husband hitting him across the head while the woman was left rolling around on the floor in agony and miscarried

        Prosecutor Christopher Wing said Gallacher told the expectant mother “You come here with your clown outfit on, you [expletive] people, you are the [expletive] problem in this place”

        The court heard when the husband went to try and calm Gallacher, he was hit across the head with a wine bottle and bag of ice. The husband received a four-inch cut which required stitches

        Sentencing Gallacher Judge Francis Sheridan noted “Gallacher swung the bottle towards her before he kicked her. She told him she was pregnant and he continued to kick her again even after Gallacher was told she was pregnant. There was a racial element to this attack. The defendant is a racist on the language that he used towards this lady”

        Addressing Gallacher, the Judge told him “You are a thug and a racist to boot. It is time you learned that your vile conduct and abhorrent views are a thing of the past. This county will not bow to the views of racists, because decent society demands that intolerance is shown to all racists of any sort, however they chose to express their hatred of others, or dislike of others and the abuse that goes with it”

        Gallacher admitted two counts of racially aggravated assault occasioning actual bodily harm, and three counts of assaulting a police officer during his arrest. When arrested Gallacher was aggressive, spat at officers, and attempted to bite them, telling them he had Hepatitis

        http://bit.ly/2vmAiMn

    • Day 827: Defensive

      1/ Trump defended his 2017 comment that there were “very fine people on both sides” of the white supremacist protests in Charlottesville, in which an avowed neo-Nazi rammed his car into a group of protesters, killing a woman and injuring dozens of others. At the time, Trump condemned what happened “on many sides” arguing there were “very fine people on both sides” of the incident. Now nearly two years later Trump stands by his statement, claiming that he answered questions about the incident in Charlottesville “perfectly” as Trump’s comments came a day after Joe Biden launched his presidential campaign with a video comparing the violence and racism displayed in Charlottesville to Trump’s response. The “Unite the Right” rally was organized by self-proclaimed white nationalist Richard Spencer (Washington Post / Politico / CBS News / Bloomberg / CNN)

      2/ Trumps advisers: Biden poses the biggest threat to Trump’s re-election. (Politico)

      3/ FBI Director Christopher Wray: Russia “poses a very significant counterintelligence threat.” Earlier this week Jared Kushner downplayed Russian interference, suggesting that the Mueller investigation was more harmful to the U.S. It was also reported this week that senior White House staff have felt “it wasn’t a good idea to bring up issues related to Russia in front of the President” (CNN)

      4/ Trump called the Russia investigation “an attempted overthrow of the United States government” claiming “this was a coup” in an interview with Fox host Sean Hannity Trump complained that Mueller and his team had gone “hog wild to find something about the administration which obviously wasn’t there” and had spent the last two years “ruining lives” of people associated with his 2016 campaign. Trump called the special counsel investigation “possibly the biggest scandal in political history” characterizing the investigation as a “one-sided witch hunt” by “angry Democrats” who are “very serious Trump haters.” Trump warned that some people involved in the investigation should be “very nervous” (Politico / CNN / Vox)

      Notables

      A federal judge ordered the Trump administration identify ALL of the migrant children separated from their parents at the border (NPR)

      Democratic Rep. Gerry Connolly threatened to jail White House officials who refuse to comply with oversight or testimony requests from congressional committees. Connolly sits on the House Oversight Committee, and warned that the committee would use “any and all power in our command” to ensure compliance with its requests and subpoenas, “whether that’s a contempt citation, whether that’s going to court and getting that citation enforced, whether it’s fines, whether it’s possible incarceration” (CNN)

      The White House is calling on key Republicans in Congress to raise the debt ceiling in order to avoid a budget impasse that could damage the economy later in the year (Washington Post)

      Trump denied that the U.S. paid North Korea in exchange for the return of Otto Warmbier, disputing the report that he approved a $2 million payment to Pyongyang. North Korea sent the Treasury Department a bill for $2 million, which remained unpaid (Reuters)

      https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/2019/04/26/day-827/

    • Trump’s ‘Great General’ Robert E. Lee Was a Traitor and a Bad Person

      Trump calls himself a student of history either doesn’t know or doesn’t care much much about it.

      Yes, Robert E. Lee was an “American” general who attended West Point, led American soldiers to victory as a commander in the Mexican War and was beloved by his men

      Until 1862, when he turned traitor and gave up his commission in the Army for a stint as commanding general of the “Confederate States of America” after South Carolina fired on Fort Sumter, South Carolina in 1861 as an act of war. Lee returned home and took up arms against the United States of America whose Constitution he had sworn to protect and defend

      What Trump does not get is that but for the grace of President Abraham Lincoln, Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis and their whole posse should have been hanged for treason

      It is sad to hear a president in 2019 who is so clueless or indifferent to the signals he sends about who he is and what he supports. Thursday Trump was silent when a federal judge approved the released of Coast Guard Lt. Commander Christopher Hassan, a white supremacist arrested for planning to kill Democratic presidential candidates, members of Congress and others in the media whom he saw as the “enemy”

      Friday Trump spoke out in praise of Lee, a “great General” as he said that the racists and anti-Semites who marched with torches and confederate flags in the summer of 2017 were simply “historians” upset that the statues of the great general were being removed

      What conclusion is there other than that Trump, who returned to the subject in a clear response to Joe Biden’s presidential announcement video calling out Trump for his apparent support of the white supremacists in Charlottesville, supports nationalism and racism?

      Of course Trump is wrong on the facts as well. The actions of these so-called “fine people”-turned-“historians” resulted in one young woman’s murder, as others were seriously wounded, beaten and assaulted. The march in Charlottesville, filled with changes of “blood and soil” and “we will not be replaced” was a battle cry for white racists across the country, not confederate statue enthusiasts

      The ugly truth about General Robert E. Lee, despite how Trump wants to revise history in 2019, is that he was a slaveholder who never spoke out against the institution of slavery and was also known to harshly discipline his own slaves when they tried to escape to freedom

      The real issue is not a dead traitor from a different time. It is a living American president who is by no means the “student of history” he called himself during his impromptu press gaggle on Friday, and who does not care about the history he knows. As Trump praised Lee he expressed no concern for Heather Heyer, who was intentionally rammed by a car driven by a crazed white supremacist since convicted of her murder

      In praising Lee, Trump has demonstrated, once again, that he does not understand that his job is to unify us as citizens in the spirit of our founding motto, E Pluribus Unum. Out of Many, One

      http://bit.ly/2PA3Ejr

    • *** BREAKING NEWS***

      One Dead, Killed By White Gunman in Synagogue Hate Crime Shooting Near San Diego

      On the last day of Passover, a 19 year-old white male gunman opened fire inside a synagogue in California, killing one person and wounding three others

      The Poway Station of the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department said that the shooting happened around 11:30 a.m. local time at the Chabad of Poway synagogue

      A man was taken into custody, officials said. The gunman, identified as a white 19-year-old man, used an AR-style weapon and opened fire on the people inside the synagogue, Sheriff William Gore of San Diego County said at a news conference, who stated he considered it a hate crime “because of statements that were made when the shooter entered”

      Representative Jimmy Gomez said “Another tragedy in a place of worship. Another instance in America where people went to pray and find peace, only to be met with violence and bloodshed”

      The Idiot in Chief, when commenting on the potential hate crime stated “hard to believe” as he once again offered the typical “thoughts and prayers” crap by the right-wing

      https://cnn.it/2vskEyM

    • A Washington State Republican Politician Took Part In Private Discussions With Rightwing Figures About Carrying Out Surveillance And “Psyops” And Violent Attacks On Perceived Political Enemies

      State representative Matt Shea, who represents Spokane Valley in the Washington state house, participated in the chats with three other men. All of the men used screen aliases. The Guardian confirmed the identity of those in the chat by cross-checking phone numbers attached to the Signal accounts. The group included Jack Robertson, who broadcasts a far-right radio show and also included Anthony Bosworth, whose history includes a public altercation with his own daughter and bringing guns to a court house. Bosworth participated in the 2016 occupation of the Malheur national wildlife refuge, reportedly at Shea’s request

      The chats on the messaging app Signal took place in the days leading up to a supposed “Antifa revolt” in November 2017. Throughout late October far-right media outlets had been stoking fears of political conflict on the basis of planned peaceful protests by a small leftist group. The men proposed to confront leftists whom they repeatedly refer to as “communists” and “Antifa” with a suite of tactics including violence with “When we locate antifa members we can confront their parents their workplaces their landlords. We can hit them in there safe spaces” and “If we can catch a few of them alone and work him over a little bit”

      Other acts of extreme violence were also suggested. When a specific female Spokane resident was nominated for surveillance in the chat group, Robertson suggested “Fist full of hair, and face slam, to a Jersey barrier. Treat em like communist revolutionaries. Then shave her bald with a K-Bar USMC field knife” and “Would make good attachment points for hoisting communists up flag poles. Especially the ones with nipple rings” and “If you cinch up zip ties enough, you don’t even NEED nipple rings for hoisting”

      Shea, an elected Republican legislator, did not demur from any of these suggestions. He also appeared willing to participate directly in surveillance of activists. In response to a request in the chat for background checks on Spokane residents, Shea volunteered to help, going on to name three individuals including an organizer for the liberal group Indivisible and a college professor. They talked about the broad outlines of what they appeared to consider to be a looming civil war. They also discussed using symbols from what they understood to be Russian anti-communist groups as a way of spreading paranoia among their adversaries. The group talked about making stickers and cards using skull and crossbones images from post-revolutionary Russian nationalist groups

      Shea has long promoted conspiratorial views about the cooperation of leftists and Muslims in creating “counter-states” in the US. He has associated with conspiracy-minded far-right groups, and later this month will emcee a dinner for the anti-communist John Birch society in Couer D’Alene, Idaho and denied surveilling his political opponents, but added “If someone is in my community and they are threatening violence, I want to know more about them. That just makes sense” and claimed that the apparent threats of violence were not authentic. Shea came to international attention in 2018 after a document he authored surfaced laying out a “biblical basis for war” which appeared to be a plan for an apocalyptic battle with people who practiced “same sex marriage” and “abortion” and instructed “If they do not yield, kill all males” and “A lot of people in private conversations say things tongue in cheek about what they would like to see happen to these people, but that is not setting a policy or establishing a protocol for people to carry things out”

      Shea has a long record of both espousing extremist “Patriot” movement ideas as well as multiple dalliances with far-right extremists, notably participating in a press conference at the Malheur Wildlife Refuge standoff supporting the radicals at the federal center there

      The Western States Center, a progressive organization, has also previously criticized Shea. Its executive director Eric Ward said via email “The violent extremism that Representative Matt Shea espouses is a clear threat to our democratic institutions and has no place in mainstream political discourse. We call on Washington State Republican Party leaders to censure Representative Shea”

      After the Guardian contacted Robertson and Shea for comment Robertson spoke on Thursday night on the Spokane Christian radio station on which he and Shea broadcast weekly programs. In a rambling broadcast, Robertson confirmed the existence of the chats, called the Guardian a “propagandist” and read biblical accounts of war and followed with “If it comes time for war and it’s forced upon you, do you not want a leader who is going to surround himself with warriors? I do”

      Remarkably, in responding to Wilson’s report Shea posted an attack on Wilson on Facebook claiming he is linked to “violent Marxist revolutionaries” while including a link to an insane Australian white-nationalist site renowned for posting vile anti-Semitic articles. Shea’s extremist advocacy and alliances made him subject to monitoring by the Southern Poverty Law Center long ago, which has long listed him as an extremist political candidate. His record in recent years has become substantially linked to far-right “constitutionalist” belief systems, and is especially problematic for anyone holding an official position within state government since he has participated in both armed standoffs involving rancher Cliven Bundy and his sons, first in Nevada in April 2014 and then in 2016 at the Malheur, distributed a “Biblical Basis for War” document that contemplated creating a new state that would be based on “constitutional” and “biblical” principles, including outlawing homosexuality and open public lands, and negating the power of the federal government, helped organize the Spokane chapter of the Islamophobic organization ACT! for America in 2016, which is listed by the SPLC as a hate group,

      Some of Shea’s most prominent critics have been political conservatives. Sherriff Ozzie Knezovich, a conservative Republican, voiced his concern too saying “The allegations concerning Rep. Shea are troubling, however, they are not surprising. Shea has used these types of tactics against anyone he deems to be a political enemy for years and is currently being sued by a Spokane County Deputy Sheriff for the use of similar tactics. To me, it is unconscionable that a State Representative would be involved in such discussions targeting those he has been elected to represent and protect. It appears that Shea has no use or respect for the Constitutions of the United States, the State of Washington nor the principles upon which our nation was founded”

      Sheriff Knezovich has repeatedly criticized Shea’s far-right ties saying “It’s part and parcel of what this group has been saying for years. I think if a state representative is condoning violence against his constituents then that person needs to be removed from office, and I hope the voters will do that at the next election. Matt Shea is a poor representative for the Republican party. Extremism on both sides is tearing this country apart”

      Asked if the people around Shea were dangerous, Sheriff Knezovich said “Yes”

      http://bit.ly/2Ps7BXn

    • Trump Wants To Jail Migrant Children At Guantánamo Bay

      Trump has considered jailing migrant children at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba, the New York Times reports. Because it’s the optics, not the overseas jailing of children escaping violence, that’s the issue here

      Officials discussed the plan in their effort to figure out how to jail more people in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention. Congress set a limit to how many immigrants ICE can detain (45,200) but ICE commonly defies Congress, goes beyond that number and just figures out the money part later. ICE is currently housing 50,223 migrants, one of the highest numbers on record

      Guantanamo, which jailed thousands of asylum-seekers in the past under direction of Attorney General Bill Barr, came up as a way for an unleashed ICE to continue boosting its numbers

      Where could this idea have come from? In what’s surely just a coincidence, anti-immigrant leader Mark Krikorian recently tweeted “Why not Guantanamo? It’s a big place” in response to another report on the administration looking for more space to jail kids. Stephen Miller, the White House aide and white supremacist behind the administration’s most hateful policies, has ties to Krikorian’s group

      Truthfully, immigrant and human rights activists have already criticized existing prison camps in the U.S. as “Gitmo for kids” in particular the now-closed prison camp for migrant kids in Tornillo, Texas. But as that one was shut down earlier this year another one rose in its place. When three congressional members recently tried to visit to conduct their oversight responsibilities they were blocked in violation of law

      There are more humane alternatives to detention, like the Obama-era Family Case Management Program, which meant “Instead of keeping children in detention centers with their parents, families in certain cities were released and monitored by social workers, who helped them find lawyers, housing, and transportation, and made sure they attended their court hearings” NINETY-NINE PERCENT OF PARTICIPANTS SHOWED UP TO THEIR COURT HEARINGS. The Trump administration shut down the program

      http://bit.ly/2PyBx4t

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