No one is above the law.

A sitting President and Vice President can be indicted. Why is there ever a question? Because the Plutocrats spend so much money to put them into office?

The United States Constitution

Article II

Section 4.

The President, Vice President and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.

If they drive a car and park in a no parking zone, shouldn't they have to pay a fine like everyone else? Getting a parking fine is not impeachable, but, high crimes and misdemeanors are.

To say a President or Vice President is above the law is to say they can get away with murder. Even in international relations that is illegal and indictable. There is a no assassination law for those in government in the USA. So, the entire idea the Executive Officers of the Executive Branch are above the law is nonsense. Any such policy within the DOJ needs to be discarded. It has questionable etiology.

If there is such a policy at the DOJ, it is unconstitutional.

It was stated Rod Rosenstein had cried during the early weeks of the Trump administration. That happens when a person’s sensibilities are shaken.

He wasn’t alone, either. 

The real issue is why did Trump want Russia listed in the memo?

Rod Rosenstein did not lie in his memo explaining the firing of Jim Comey. He only wrote what he needed to write.

Trump had just conducted a victory lap with Russia at the Oval Office and provided payment in full to Putin for his election by releasing classified documents to Russia. 

Is there really a question where Trump's loyalties lie? No one ever asks Trump who he is loyal to. Why?

Rod Rosenstein would not write that the Comey investigation into Russian influence in the 2016 election was the reason for Comey's firing, because, you never elevate your enemy to a level of influence. Russia has an influence on Trump. In including Russia in an FBI memo as the reason for firing the FBI Director it would prove to the world that the USA is now Russia's puppet. Rod Rosenstein is not Russia's puppet. The integrity of the FBI and it's investigation remained and continues intact, regardless of Trump's loyalty to Putin and Russia.

If Rod Rosenstein had written that James Comey, the Director of the FBI, was fired because of an investigation, it could have stopped everything and put others within the organization at unease regarding the continuing investigation and their role in it.

Rod Rosenstein, by leaving out the word Russia, in his memo explaining the firing of the Director of the FBI, James Comey, protected the agency and the country. Rod Rosenstein is a hero. He didn't have to fire a shot and he didn't lead a military into battle, but, the early days of the Trump administration demanded heroics and Rosenstein was prepared to be that hero. The country owes a great debt of gratitude to Rod Rosenstein. He was passed over to promote to US Attorney General because he loved his country. Trump was trying to coupe the USA Constitution and Rod Rosenstein would not have any of it.

It could be said if Rod Rosenstein had included Russia in that memo it would come back to haunt him as it was proof Trump obstructed justice. If Trump were accused of obstructing justice, Rosenstein could be dismissed immediately as Trump refused that assessment in his memo. Either way, Rosenstein should be US Attorney General right now and the country is hurt because he is not.

And that is the truth.

More voting corruption in Texas.

February 21, 2019
By James Barragan

More than 30 civil rights and community groups (click here) are calling on Senate Democrats to block the confirmation of embattled interim Secretary of State David Whitley, who oversaw the botched rollout of an investigation into the citizenship of tens of thousands of Texas voters.

“Under no circumstances should Mr. Whitley be allowed to continue to serve as the Texas Secretary of State. The Senate Democratic caucus - and each of you individually - have the power to unite in defense of the voting rights of all Texans and stop his confirmation,” the groups wrote in a letter sent to Democratic senators on Thursday morning. “We call on you to affirmatively block the confirmation of David Whitley for Texas Secretary of State.”...

David Whitley abuses power and sought to jail people that were actually lawful citizens. This is a government that does not care about the people and only seeks control for it's own corrupt purposes. I am very surprised the Texas governor, Greg Abbott would tolerate such unlawful behavior by his Secretary of State. Perhaps the Texas governor is afraid of the reality Trump has brought to the Republican Party and finds it necessary to control the vote rather than accept the will of the people.

This is exactly the trouble in the country caused by the Robert's Court and it's dismissal of vital voter rights. Corruption knows no bounds.

Greg Abbott is taking on the methods of Russia's Putin, throwing innocent people in jail until the election is over. We have already witnessed ballot stuffing in North Carolina.

February 7, 2019
By Alexa Ura

Almost two weeks (click here) after calling into question the citizenship status of almost 100,000 registered voters, Texas’ new chief elections officer, David Whitley, defended his office’s decision to hand over those voters’ names to law enforcement around the same time his office was also acknowledging to local election officials that the list of names could contain mistakes.

At a Senate hearing to consider his confirmation as secretary of state, Whitley vacillated between telling lawmakers he referred the list of voters to the attorney general’s office because his office had no power to investigate them for illegal voting and describing the citizenship review efforts as an ongoing process based on a list that still needed to be reviewed by local officials. But he made clear is that his office knew from the start that the data could be faulty....

New Zealand is a two island country, the water between them is called "Cook Strait."

February 22, 2019

KiwiRail is buying two new, large, rail-enabled ferries (click here) to replace the current three-ship Interislander fleet. This is an investment in a future that is not only ours but also New Zealand's.

Our ferries play a crucial role linking the north and south of the country but the Aratere, Kaiarahi and Kaitaki are all reaching the end of their useful lives.

Every year 800,000 passengers cross the strait on nearly 4000 sailings. The ferries also transport the equivalent of a queue of freight trucks 1200km long and a train with 500km of wagons carrying goods for supermarkets and commodities such as grain, gas, wood products and aluminium....

"Big Brother" is not overseeing the safety of citizens when it comes to flood control.

22 February 2019
By Patrice Dougan

Piha residents (click here) who had their homes damaged in a major flooding event last year will be asked to develop their own evacuation plans to deal with future emergency events.

The plans could potentially work alongside more drastic large-scale engineering options - such as a $45 million tunnel to take the Piha stream straight out to sea, or the building of two dams - which have been presented to Auckland Council this morning.

In a media briefing on the two independent reports by consultants Tonkin+Taylor into three floods at the west Auckland beach last year, councillors said "community resilience" will be a key part to ensuring lives are saved if and when future flooding occurs.

Glenesk Rd in Piha flooded three times last year. April saw the worst flooding, with 80.5mm of rain falling in four hours, resulting in a catastrophic surge in the stream that swallowed roads and houses. Flooding reached a depth of 2m in some parts of Glenesk Rd, causing residents to flee, and extensively damaging 24 properties....

The flooding in the North Island has been horrific.

New Zealand storm brings wild winds, flooding and power outages to North...

In this video there are descriptions and pictures of the tragedy New Zealand has experienced because of the Climate Crisis. In one picture there is a wedge tornado over the ocean delivering heavy rains to the cities on land. The Climate Crisis is letting itself known to the southern hemisphere.

This is at least the third White Supremacist attacks or planned attacks inspired by Trump's hate speech.

The three hate inspired killers occurred in less than a year, didn't they? There is a direct correlation between the incidence of motivated White Supremacist and Trump's hate speech.

Trump's hate speech is dangerous and this is proof. (click here) Media outlets have a legitimate reason to ask for less hate rhetoric in the speeches by Trump. The Democrats have as well. Free Speech is not absolute and crying fire in a crowded room is not legal. Donald Trump is inspiring violence and it is obvious. From the previous media attacker wannabee to the attacks on Jewish Americans and now this again. Donald Trump needs to be called out for the hatred he is inspiring.

Just the other day when signing yet another Executive Order he was asked about yet another embarrassing but necessary question and his answer was "Fake News." Those two words are becoming an excuse and not an answer. "There is a lot of fake news out there," and he dismisses the question as irrelevant. The "No Information Voter" is more than willing to accept that as an answer rather than a dodge from the truth.

February 20, 2019
By Vanessa Romo

A 49-year-old Coast Guard lieutenant (click here) charged with stockpiling weapons and drugs is being described as a "domestic terrorist" who was planning "to murder innocent civilians on a scale rarely seen in this country," according to court documents filed in U.S. District Court in Maryland on Tuesday.

Federal prosecutors say Christopher Paul Hasson, a self-described white nationalist living in Silver Spring, Md., was amassing firearms since at least 2017, while cultivating plans to launch a widespread attack on prominent Democratic lawmakers, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and several high-profile television anchors from MSNBC and CNN...

If the charges are true, there should be three people charged and not simply one and two witnesses.

Is CPD allowing witnesses to be discharged because of embarassment? The two men carried out the crime. I don't care if they were hired to produce an end result for Smollett, they were assailants.

The two assailants are just as guilty in participating in this as Smollett.

February 21, 2019

Chicago — “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett (click here) was charged Wednesday with making a false police report when he said he was attacked in downtown Chicago by two men who hurled racist and anti-gay slurs and looped a rope around his neck, police said.

Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said prosecutors charged Smollett with felony disorderly conduct, an offense that could bring one to three years in prison and force the actor to pay for the cost of the investigation into his report of a Jan. 29 beating.

Authorities were trying to get in touch with Smollett’s attorneys to “negotiate a reasonable surrender,” Guglielmi said. That could involve the actor, who is black and gay, turning himself in to a Chicago police station....

A victory lap.

Sometimes I think Americans don’t understand what the picture of Trump and Russian leadership in the Oval Office is all about. That was a victory lap for Russia and the highly classified document was Putin’s payment for his Russian intelligence agency role in Trump’s victory. I am sure Julian Assange is still waiting for the USA case against him to be dropped. Anyone redefining any of that is a fool for their ideologies.”The Law” would see that assessment as speculation. But, that is exactly what it is.

The meeting was not about adoption and Putin would not assist Trump because they were merely friends.

Andrew McCabe should absolutely sue the USA government for his pension. If that is all he files suit for then he is a humble man that wants no trouble in his life anymore.

However, I do believe Andrew McCabe and his wife and quite possibly the DNC and other Democratic donors can sue Donald Trump personally. He defamed Andrew McCabe and his wife for his own purposes. My understanding is that she was a very viable candidate for office in the USA. I do believe the defamation of Mrs. McCabe is of interest to the DNC.

This is a very dramatic example of how politics is not a part of the decisions of FBI agents. There is absolutely no doubt Andrew McCabe was acting in the best interest of the country and its citizens. His actions definitely maintained the integrity of the FBI.

There was an active investigation of Russia being conducted before Trump approached James Comey. What was he thinking? Trump asked Russia to intervene during this campaign. Trump's assertions about the leadership of the FBI are ridiculous. I don't see how a court of the USA would see it any other way. The FBI and other agencies of the USA government have purpose according to Congressional laws. It doesn't change because the political wind is different on Inauguration Day.

Donald Trump had a responsibility to put the FBI at ease with his presidency. Asking Russia to intervene with Russian hacking of an opposition candidate occurring and known is a huge red flag. Trump failed to put Jim Comey at ease with his leadership. Instead, he made it worse by firing Jim Comey by tweet and then invited Russians to the Oval Office to receive highly classified information. The FBI had every reason to be confrontational. The evidence continued to mount and Trump was not willing to legitimize the FBI concerns. Trump failed here and he failed incredibly.  

She should be admitted to the USA and arrested as a terrorist as soon as she does.

This is a no brainer. If she has legal standing with the USA and wants to come back, she should bring her husband and children with her and submit the children for adoption. She and her husband should be arrested and tried as terrorists. End of discussion.

Aid and comfort to the enemy. We have to know who if anyone was killed by her husband or her and what capacity did they serve Daesh.

This is ridiculous. She can't have it both ways. She can't be a terrorist and an American at the same time. She left this country to join a terrorist organization that is now being diminished and ended. To think someone has the nerve to seek to come back to the USA and pick up where she left off while having lived among terrorists is the most outrageous request I have ever heard.

If she has family here, they can come to visit her. She might be valuable to intelligence, but, I don't see she will never see a prison.

By the way, what is she doing in a refugee camp where innocent people are seeking safety? She should not be in a refugee camp with innocent people and children. Absolutely not. She is a terrorist.

February 20, 2019

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (click here) on Wednesday said “ISIS bride” Hoda Muthana is not a US citizen and will not be allowed back into America.

“Ms. Hoda Muthana is not a U.S. citizen and will not be admitted into the United States. She does not have any legal basis, no valid U.S. passport, no right to a passport, nor any visa to travel to the United States. We continue to strongly advise all U.S. citizens not to travel to Syria,” he said in a statement.

But a lawyer for Muthana — who grew up in Alabama and fled to Syria in 2014 to join ISIS, but is now in a refugee camp, begging to be allowed back into the United States — insisted to The Post that she is indeed a citizen....

Trump is planning a unilateral Space Force. I believe he will weaponize lasers. The UN has a role with this.

The IAEA has to be expanded to include weaponized space warfare. Basically, a resolution no different than that of the nuclear resolutions to inspect and order deactivation of any hardware with the potential of turning current peaceful international space missions STANDARDS into a potential of war.

Earth must be a peaceful place where people are safe from technology with consequences that kill. The only warfare that should be tolerated is conventional warfare and non-proliferation pursued vigorously.

There were crimes committed by Russia that the FBI was investigating before Trump took office.

Trump then tells the FBI he believes Putin and it RIGHTFULLY raises red flag with the investigation. Trump implicated himself when he sided with Putin. There is no doubt the FBI had more red flags raised when Jim Comey was then fired by Tweet when the investigation of Flynn was not dropped. 

What the American people need to realize regarding ANY of these resignations and firings is that we have invested a great deal of our brain trust in growing dedicated members of our intelligence community and Trump is trashing that for his own political purposes. 

So, while Andrew McCabe’s accounting is exceptionally alarming, he is also a very valuable member of this country’s intelligence community that is being diminished to the cronies for Trump. THAT also services Russia’s purpose.

If it took Trump and his greed to bring William Weld to the race for the presidency then it was worth the wait. He was a great governor. He will change the debate and demand real solutions and not internet garble.

It is very possible to bring down the cost of higher education in the USA. It is easy to track the ridiculous increases in tuition for the past two decades. Every time there was an increase in lending and grant amounts by the federal government, universities and colleges increased their tuition.

The reason Pell Grants were increased was to keep up with cost of books and housing, but, the final translation resulted in an increase in tuition. That increase would result in more increases in the student loan limit which would result in more tuition increases. The past two decades are the most exploitive cost based tuition in the history of the country. 

Additionally, public institutions were targeted by the construction lobby and then college fees would increase for the new building that was just erected. The entire paradyme of tuition cost increases can be tracked directly with federal monies for student loans and grants. It was ridiculous to see Congress act like an economic lap dog to the dynamics of higher education in the country.

There is no reason why spending limit increases for colleges can’t be applied to tuition, housing and fees for universities and colleges accepting loans and grants and COSTS drastically reduced.

To say there can be no or will be no improvement to the cost of higher education is to pander to those that have no plans for education but to privatize it and put it out of reach of most Americans.

The only exception to that was California that does back flips to maintain reasonable tuition costs for students and families.

Roger Stone is in violation of his gag order. He should be in jail now.

February 18, 2019

CNN's Sara Murray (click here) reports that longtime President Donald Trump associate Roger Stone has apologized to the court after he shared a controversial Instagram post of the federal judge who is presiding over his case.

The Democrats should revitalize President Obama's clean energy savings.

There may be funding still available or can be reopened and continued. While I applaud "The New Green Deal," President Obama was laying the groundwork for it. There is absolutely no reason for the TVA to continue poor policies for producing energy.

July 19, 2016

President Obama is committed (click here) to ensuring that every American family can choose to go solar and to cut their energy bills – and that every American community has the tools they need to tackle local air pollution and global climate change.

Since President Obama took office, solar electricity generation has increased 30 fold and solar jobs are growing 12 times faster than the rest of the economy. Last year, we announced a set of actions to increase access to solar and create a more inclusive workforce, but there is still more work to do. That is why, today, the Obama Administration is announcing a new cross government partnership – the Clean Energy Savings For All Initiative – between the Departments of Energy (DOE), Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Agriculture (USDA), Health and Human Services (HHS), Veteran’s Affairs (VA), and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to increase access to solar energy and promote energy efficiency across the United States and, in particular in low- and moderate- income communities....

There is always a reason McConnell does something. This is why he wanted to force a vote on "The Green New Deal."

The facts regarding these findings of the TVA need to be made part of the federal record through a US House request.

These plants are known to be outdated. They need to come offline. There should be no further funding for the continuance of the operation of these plants. The plants are too expensive to repair.

We know for a fact 35 percent of CO2 emissions from the USA are from coal-fired plants, including these.

February 13, 2019

The Tennessee Valley Authority’s Paradise Fossil Plant in Muhlenberg County. The town of Paradise, which no longer exists, was made famous in 1971 by John Prine’s eponymous anti-strip mining song. 

...Despite the opposition (click here) from Trump, McConnell and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, TVA released final environmental assessments on the evening of Feb. 11 concluding that both plants should be shut down by 2023 because of the projected expense of maintenance and complying with environmental laws, as well as a high forced-outage rate and stagnating or declining power demand in the seven-state region it serves, Dave Flessner reports for the Times Free Press in Chattanooga. The assessment also noted that gas is cheaper than coal and likely to remain so, and that more customers are using energy-efficient appliances and furnaces as well as generating their own power with renewable sources such as solar panels and windmills....

The only federal agency of the federal government that builds stuff is the US Army Corp.

Trump may be in violation of the NEA by signing contracts to build a wall. Presidential spending is not what this is about. This is about providing authority to AGENCIES of the federal government to act in an emergency. There is no additional infrastructure provided by the NEA. The NEA acts with current federal government infrastructure.

The NEA does not provide any specific emergency authority on its own, but relies on emergency authorities provided in other statutes. A national emergency declaration allows for the activation of these other statutory authorities. Emergency statutory provisions are not activated automatically, however; they must be specifically identified in the president’s declaration before these authorities may be given effect. 

Declaration

NEA Section 201 authorizes the president to declare a national emergency. The proclamation of a national emergency must be immediately transmitted to Congress and published in the Federal Register. (click here) Under NEA Section 301, statutory emergency authorities enabled by the national emergency declaration cannot be exercised until the president specifies the provisions of law under which the president or other officials will act. Such specification may be made either in the declaration or in subsequent Executive Orders published in theFederal Register and transmitted to Congress.

I don't see anything published in the Federal Register. He has been writing all sorts of national emergency declarations about Venezuela, but, nothing about the southern border. 

How many Executive Orders has Trump written?

Termination

A national emergency can be terminated if the president issues a proclamation or if Congress enacts a joint resolution terminating the emergency. A national emergency will terminate automatically upon the anniversary of the proclamation unless the president renews the proclamation by transmitting notice to Congress within a 90-day period prior to the anniversary date and publishing it in the Federal Register.

Immunity and Liability Issues

The national emergency provisions of the NEA do not address liability issues or provide any immunity. The act could be used to activate emergency authorities in other federal statutes that provide immunity during emergency events.

What is the most corrupt party in the USA?

The Republican Party and now we know that for a fact.

The polls before the 2018 election for 9th Congressional District in NC was a dead heat. One week there was a small margin in favor of Dan McCready and the next week that same margin was in favor of Mark Harris. When realizing the public polls are completely unclear to the outcome of that race, it needs to be reinstated as an open seat and the candidates should continue to raise election monies in anticipation of the new election.

February 18, 2019
By Brian Murphy

Raleigh - The stepdaughter of a Bladen County political operativen(click here) detailed how she said his ballot harvesting operation worked on the first day of a hearing Monday into voting irregularities in the unresolved 2018 election in North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District.

Lisa Britt, whose mother was married to Leslie McCrae Dowless in the early 1990s, testified that Dowless paid workers to collect absentee ballot request forms and mail-in absentee ballots and drop them off at his office and his home.

She said Dowless and others made copies of request forms and had specific criteria for matching pen colors, where to mail ballots from, how many to mail at a time and even how to place stamps to avoid setting off alarms.

“He fussed at me for putting on stamps upside down,” Britt testified before the N.C. Board of Elections. “We didn’t want to throw up a red flag.”...

Keeping with the strange and unlawful out of North Carolina is the loss of watches shipped via FedEx.

February 18, 2019
By Simone Jasper

A repair shop in Southern Pines, North Carolina (click here) has filed a lawsuit against FedEx, say the company delivered a package that was missing watches worth almost $50,000, according to court records.

A repair shop in North Carolina says it shipped watches worth almost $50,000 through FedEx. But the retailer instead got just a padded envelope, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court.

Cote Timeworks, which is based in Southern Pines, says FedEx was negligent and “didn’t take responsibility, forcing it to pay out-of-pocket to compensate its watch-less clients,” the Triangle Business Journal wrote.

The watch business in a lawsuit filed Tuesday said it paid to ship five watches to New Hampshire and back so that work could be done on them. The items included an 18-karat gold Rolex worth almost $20,000, according to a court document.

A Cote worker in July 2017 signed for the North Carolina-bound package, which was missing all five watches, the lawsuit said....

North Carolina forensics can't determine a wolf from a dog? Here is a reality check for North Carolina; I betcha is was a domesticated wolf. Domesticated wolves are not all that unusual in "the woods" of NC. Ah, "The Dire Wolf."

What do these issues prove about lawlessness in North Carolina?

February 18, 2019

Beaufort County - A North Carolina teacher has died, (click here) three days after she was attacked by an unknown animal.

Brenda Hamilton, 77, had been in critical condition at Vidant Medical Center since Friday morning's attack outside of Pantego. Members of the woman's family confirm that she passed away this morning at the hospital.

Hamilton was an English teacher at Pungo Christian Academy, having taught at the school since 1968.

Biologists with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission performed preliminary DNA tests over the weekend.

Originally, authorities said the woman was killed by a domesticated animal. But now deputies say test results from DNA evidence found on her clothing do not differentiate between wild K9s, such as wolves or coyotes, and domesticated dogs.

Deputies are now collecting DNA from dogs in the area for additional testing.

Wildlife officers say this morning they turned all their evidence over to the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office.