Pay Up NATO!

There are 30 countries in NATO and they ALL agreed to pay 2% GDP.

Twenty-Five (yes, 25) countries DO NOT pay their share.

America pays 4%, well above our agreed upon share.

I’m all for helping, but come on.  Seriously people, pay up!

How Does the President Defendant Himself?

How does the President defend himself against unnamed sources who are breaking the law themselves?  I don’t believe he can.

This is getting beyond ridiculous.  There are so many stories against President Trump coming out and they all have unnamed sources.  Is no one willing to stand up and state their name?  I mean NO ONE?

I understand that some “leaks” are necessary to maintain some checks & balances — however, unless you have actual evidence, just stating this information IS NOT enough.  Most of the media reports have only unnamed sources and no evidentiary backup.  Also, NOT all “leaks” are good leaks. (i.e. Bradley/Chelsea Manning case).  WHY IS THERE NO LEAK INVESTIGATION??

The media has turned to convicting the President automatically with every story that comes out.  MEDIA=RUSH TO JUDGMENT.  Even when the story turns out to be false, they dismiss it because the headlines are so devastating.  Bottom line in my opinion, the reporters and their newspapers are trying to become the next Woodward & Bernstein (can’t help but refer to Watergate, even though I do not believe (as yet) this has risen to that referral).  After the OJ Simpson trial in the 1990s they created the cable channel CourtTV.  With all things going on now I think they should create a cable channel called DebateNewsTV.  That way we can take all the “Breaking News” off of all other channels.  I also think the hysteria in the media over this has weakened the opinion of the US in the world.

It’s like the Democrats on the Hill are in “the world is ending” mode with all this.  I haven’t heard one Democrat say anything about putting forward bills/legislation regarding (1) creating jobs, (2) fixing the Affordable Health Care Act (Obama Care) even though in debates they state that it needs help (yet they refuse to admit it’s dying a slow death), or (3) working across the isle on tax reform.  They only ever get in front of the cameras to claim “the world will not end if” we get an independent prosecutor.  (Goodness, there is no evidence of a crime, but they want a prosecutor).  If we are going to prosecute one, why can’t we prosecute all?  If we get an independent panel – who would be on it?  Who, at this point, is truly independent on these issues?

When did it become a Congress/Senate job to micromanage the White House & President?

How is AG Jeff Sessions wrong in sending a recommendation to fire Fmr. Director James Comey?  AG Sessions is the direct supervisor of the FBI Director?  He recused himself from one investigation (and only one investigation–the Trump/Russia probe, which is why the Deputy AG was the supervisor on that investigation).  Why on earth would AG Sessions not be able to do all other FBI supervision?  The FBI has thousands of cases.  The Democrats suggest that AG Sessions was not supposed to speak or supervise Comey on anything because of that one case. RIDICULOUS.  I mean if Congress/Senate believes we are so stupid as to think that Comey is the ONLY person who worked or supervised agents on the Russia investigation they are kidding themselves.  I believe there was a bevvy of agents working on the investigation and reported their findings to Comey.  (I’m not suggesting Comey didn’t see documents related to the reported findings.)  As you would in any big organization.  Also, Acting FBI Director McCabe, testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee just last week and stated that NO RESOURCES OR ADDITIONAL FUNDS WERE REQUESTED (another media false “breaking news” headline).  McCabe also testified that the FBI had enough resources for the Trump/Russia investigation and THERE WAS NO INTERFERENCE in that ongoing investigation (another media false “breaking news” headline).

 

Trump / Comey / Russia Investigation

Questions and comments from today’s morning news:

Question 1: Isn’t it in the Constitution that the Director of the FBI serves at the pleasure of the President?

• Answer: YES.

Question 2: Isn’t it also true that there are 2 parts to the Russia Investigation?
(Part One: Russia hacking/disinformation into election process; Part Two: Possible collusion between Trump Campaign and Russia)

• Answer: YES
• Commentary on Part One: Investigation DOES NOT stop just because Comey is fired. (Even if Trump doesn’t believe it was the Russians who were doing the hacking)
• Commentary on Part Two: Investigation DOES NOT stop just because Comey is fired. (Even if Trump states he has no ties w/Russia and that it’s a fake narrative)

Question 3: Why does the media seem to always merge the two parts of the investigation as if it’s the same?

• Answer: ?
• Opinion: To confuse the hell out of the American people and hope they

Morning Joe (MSNBC): FBI Director Comey Requested Funds & Resources for Russia Probe.

• Acting FBI Director McCabe Response from Intel Committee Hearing:
  The Russia case is adequately staffed and funded.  I do not need someone to take this away from the FBI and do it for us.

Intel Committee (Burr & Warner) press conference: They had a meeting with Deputy AG Rosenstein (which was requested prior to Comey departure) to  set up a process for deconfliction. Warner (D-VA) still has concerns about Rosenstein re Comey departure and memo; Warner (D-VA) continues to state he’s disappointed about the timing of Comey dismissal; Deputy AG told them he would take the “independent counsel” issue under advisement.  They have sent Comey a request to brief the Intel Committee next Tuesday; have received no response yet.  They have had unprecedented access to interviews and information from the FBI and the level of cooperation has been excellent.  Sometimes they were concerned about pace, but in this is all uncharted territory.  Cyber is the most important threat!

Breaking News (CNN):  COMEY TOLD ME I’M NOT UNDER INVESTIGATION

• Trump tells Lester Holt that he planned to fire Comey regardless of recommendation from the DAG.  Trump says he made the decision.  Trump asked Comey “if it’s possible to let me know am I under investigation?” and Comey told him “no you are not under investigation.”
• Trump says “He’s a showboat and grandstander…the FBI is in turmoil.”
• Pundent: All our sources state Trump didn’t like Comey and Trump was looking for a reason to fire him.
• Pundent: FBI sources were shocked when they heard no charges were being pursued against Clinton

Breaking News (CNN): WHITE HOUSE CONTRADICTIONS

• Why did the WH officials state the reason to fire Comey was because of the DAG recommendation; Rosenstein is not happy with the way it went down and that they were pinning this on him; stories clearly changing.

WOW – It’s only 1:20 PM.  I need a break from the media hysteria….LUNCH!

 

 

First PB&J post

This is my very first blog post.  I’ve never done this before so I may be all over the map until I get a handle on how to do this.  Wish me luck!

Since I work from home (mostly) I have the TV on all day to give me a sense that I had people around me like an office setting with sound all around me.  For years my background noise was listening to HGTV or The Food Network, however it just got to be too much because I could not afford to do any of the improvements that I liked and I was too lazy to do the work to prepare the mouth watering meals that are “so simple.”

So I found myself flipping through the cable channels and landed on CNN.  It was February 2016 and from what I remember, there was all this talk about how Donald Trump was bringing down the Republican Party in his bid for the White House.  Of course I knew who Donald Trump was and that he caused a major media storm in 2015 with his initial speech to announce his bid.  Trump was also being vilified for the protests and expulsions at his campaign rallies.  I started to pay more attention.

Since I never attended a rally or campaign event I only had the media to go on for what transpired at these events.  I started noticing that there was a lot of violence outside the rallies for Trump but not for Clinton or Sanders.  Again, I started to pay more attention.

I also started listening to people around me and was hearing that they thought Trump had a real shot.  Trump talked like an “every man” and was saying things that no politician would ever say.  This was interesting since Trump was clearly an elite, entitled top 4% millionaire (or billionaire) and had never been an “every man.”

In order not to write a book, but a blog, I will fast-forward to today.  I have become an avid (if not downright junkie) consumer of the news (to my husband’s chagrin).   I am so frustrated at the news media that I wanted to write this blog/journal so that I could air my thoughts on information being disseminated.