Here are my observations on items in the news.
(Courtesy picturequotes.com)
HOW APPROPRIATE Walter Scott’s quotation becomes today. For months, I have been writing about the politicization of the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation by the so-called Deep State holdovers from the Obama administration, many of which were Hillary Clinton supporters.
I’ll not repeat the long list of blatant political actions of the likes of Sally Yates, Robert Mueller, James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok, Andrew Weissmann, and Bruce Ohr; you know what this cast of manipulators has done in an effort to bring down the Trump presidency.
ANOTHER TWIST – The flawed case against former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn took a strange turn Friday when we learned that U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras abruptly recused himself with no explanation. An Obama appointee, Contreras sat on the FISA court while Trump transition teams were under surveillance by the Obama administration.
It is generally believed that Flynn was lured into a perjury trap by Obama holdovers, who concocted an unorthodox legal rationale for subjecting Flynn to an FBI investigation just four days after taking office. When FBI agents showed up at Flynn’s office, he had no idea it was a formal interview and had no attorney present. Unbeknownst to him, he was being tested for his memory of discussions he had with the Russian ambassador compared to a surveillance tape transcript.
When his testimony deviated from the transcript, Yates couldn’t get to the White House fast enough to report Flynn’s “lies” to General Counsel Don McGahn. Flynn was fired when the transcript didn’t match what he had told Vice President Mike Pence.
ITS IMPORTANT TO NOTE that Special Counsel Mueller was appointed to determine if the Trump team colluded with Russia to “steal” the election. Flynn was indicted for a conversation he had with the Russian ambassador on December 28, 2016, seven weeks after the election. And, it is proper and expected, for an incoming administration to discuss foreign policy plans during a transition.
NEW FBI DIRECTOR Christopher Wray, who testified to the integrity of his 37,000-agent force last week, has his work cut out for him as he awaits his inspector general’s report and Mueller concludes his assignment. I will be interested in how Mueller, who, together with Comey, have guided the FBI for 16 years, manages to clear the agency of wrongdoing.
CONTINUED DAMAGE TO THE OBAMA LEGACY – Writing for hughhewitt.com, John Schroeder cites the FBI corruption doing further damage to the Obama legacy, while reminding readers of the politicization of the Internal Revenue Service under Lois Lerner. Few would argue that no previous president abused the independence of his agencies as Barack Obama. Incidentally, I would add Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency to the list of corrupted agencies.
THANKS TO PRESIDENT TRUMP, Barack Obama’s legacy took another hit last week when the former president’s overreach, using the Antiquities Act for a massive land grab in Utah without state and local acceptance, was reversed by President Trump.
Rep. Rob Bishop (R-UT) praised the president for remedying “one of the largest abuses of power foisted upon Utah. We now have an administration that understands the importance of allowing local people to have a say.”
FOOT-IN-MOUTH DISEASE – Economist Larry Summers, who held positions in the World Bank and in the Clinton and Obama administrations, put his foot in his mouth again; this time referring to the Tax Reform Bill now in conference. I guess he didn’t want to be outdone by Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who called it “Armageddon.”
You may recall, it was Summers, who, in 2009, sparked a controversy at Harvard when he cited why women were under represented in tenured positions in science and engineering at top universities and research institutions. He later resigned as president of Harvard and probably cost him the treasury secretary position in the Obama administration.
This week, appearing on CNBC Squawk Box, he told viewers the bill would result in 10,000 extra deaths per year if the final bill eliminates the individual mandate of ObamaCare.
Because It has been estimated by the unreliable Congressional Budget Office that some 13 million Americans will opt out of ObamaCare if given the chance, Summers believes these people will forego any health insurance, which will lead to their early deaths.
A National Institutes of Health Study, pre-ObamaCare, found no relationship between the mortality risk of the insured and uninsured.
