We are of the opinion that the GOP threw both the 2008 AND the 2012 elections -- and that it is about to throw the 2016 election as well. Mainstream America, however, may block that path, and elect a non-politician antithetical to the political corruption endemic on Capitol Hill.
Palin kicked their butts in Alaska, and garnered enough payment from Big Oil to eliminate the income tax for her Alaskan constituents. And, Big Oil continues its slander campaign against her recognizing she will likely be included in the Trump Administration.
A first in the history of US elections.
But, Big Oil knew that if Sarah were in the national limelight, she'd go after Big Oil -- to include Warren Buffett's highly polluting and dangerous oil trains -- and make them not only clean up after themselves, but pay a higher price to the American people.
Would McCain have made a better President?
At worst, he would not have been as bad as Obama [but we'll reserve our criticism of him for another time].
The Tea Party, a new political force, has many rough edges, but its independence and focus on supporting their constituents vs special interests was refreshing. Nonetheless, the GOP managed to gather enough blackmail on them, and offer them special benefits, that they eventually fell into line with the GOP leadership.
The GOP was surprised when Scott Brown, a Tea Party Independent unexpectedly beat Martha Coakley in a landslide victory, the Establishment's Democrat candidate who ran for Ted Kennedy's seat. Brown filled the remainder of Kennedy's term, but, when the GOP determined Brown voted independently, they joined forces with the Democrats -- and supported Elizabeth Warren to defeat him. Brown then shifted to New Hampshire to run against Jeanne Shaheen, who as governor, had reneged on her promise of "no new taxes", and as senator, endorsed ObamaCare, and supported gun control -- all opposed by her constituents. Nonetheless, with GOP support, she defeated Brown.
And then, in 2010, we watched in horror as the GOP campaigned against its own candidates to defeat them, and elect their Democrat opponents. And the GOP told us these GOP or Tea Party candidates were crazy, and wouldn't represent THE PARTY very well because they were an embarrassment.
But, when we dug into the history of those candidates, we learned that they each had independent streaks, couldn't be bought, and had declared they would represent their constituents rather than bow and scrape to THE PARTY.
Angle had whipped all the other GOP candidates in the Primaries by large percentages and was leading Reid in the election by 10 points when the GOP marshaled its forces and the Las Vegas Media to condemn Angle as a crazy woman who had expressed an interest in witchcraft when she was in high school. And, the GOP elected Harry Reid to return to the Senate.
We learned only later that the GOP opposed her because she had challenged the GOP governor's tax plan as unconstitutional, and fought that battle all the way to the Supreme Court, paying the costs out of her own pocket -- and she won! The GOP never forgave her, and recognized she'd be an independent force to reckon with should she be elected to the US Senate where she would most likely be outspoken in her condemnation of GOP [and Democrat] corruption.
In 2011, we had Benghazi, which should have led to Obama's impeachment since all indicators pointed to a White House-State Department-Pentagon collusion.
But, the GOP Congress pointedly refused to acknowledge the blatant lies and only raised lackluster complaints and investigations into that conspiracy -- alluding to all who questioned the official stories of Hillary and Rice and Jarrett as conspiracy theorists wearing tin-foil hats.
And, we gradually came to understand through Benghazi Committee testimony and Wikileaks releases of official documents, to include Hillary's classified emails, that all those accusations were accurate, and the evidence mounted that the GOP leadership had not only been aware of the White House - State Department - Pentagon collusion, they had been part of the conspiracy.
In the second debate, all Romney had to do was respond with force against Candy Crowley and demonstrate he was a strong leader with the experience to fix the problems of the US economy.
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| Barack, I concede the election to you and Candy! |
Romney remained mute, and let Crowley cow him with her attack on national TV, and the American people figured this wimp, who clearly couldn't defend himself against a lying, conniving, obese, witch wasn't the leader they thought he was.
And, he still could have won the election had he paid attention to the famous Bill Clinton slogan being shouted from the rooftops:
'IT'S THE ECONOMY, STUPID!"
All he had to do was present to America his track record of creating tens of thousands of jobs.
But, mysteriously, he omitted those facts from his campaign. At this point, it was clear he was throwing the election.
And, Obama was reelected.
And Congress, both Democrats and Republicans, were then free to continue their corruption unfettered. And, Mainstream America was bewildered.
By 2014, the American Rebellion continued, and more Democrats were evicted, and more Tea Party candidates came to Capitol Hill, but more were corrupted by either promises of Party support for reelection, or perhaps coercion.
In 2015, Congress jumped on the money wagon to pass Obama's Fast Track package for the Trans-Pacific Partnership {TPP}Trade Proposals which would bar Congressional Members and Senators from
1) Submitting amendments to trade proposals
2) Limit how long proposals can be debated
3) Restrict dilatory tactics that create a 60-vote hurdle in the Senate
Essentially, Congress voted to opt out of the Trade Proposal process, and to remain ignorant of the content of those proposals -- not what we call due diligence in fiscal responsibility, and in direct contradiction to the Constitution -- passing its powers of legislation and Executive Oversight to the Oval Office.
How did this happen? Were they coerced? or, were they bought.
You're Right!
It was door number 2, and the bill passed Congress by eight [count them] 8 votes!
Who paid what and to whom?
The money came from Wall Street, Big Pharma, Defense Contractors, and lobbyists for special interests. Interestingly, the Republicans took most of the money, and many Democrats abstained.
Open Secrets and MapLight identified 346 companies [e.g., Monsanto, Google, Facebook, Lockheed Martin, Pfizer, and Walmart] and key organizations provided the bribes.
A sampling of the payouts and recipients:
HOUSE: [partial list; note, Democrats can be bought for less]
1) John Boehner: (R-OH) $5.3 Million
2) Paul Ryan: (R-WI) $2.4 Million
3) Kevin McCarthy: (R-CA) $2.4 Million
4) Pat Tiberi (R-OH) $1.6 Million
5) Jim Hines (D-CT) $1.14 Million
6) Pete Sessions (R-TX) $1.06 Million [House Rules Committee Chair]
7) Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) $1 Million
8) Ron Kind (D-WI $1 Million
9) Cathy Rogers (R-WA) $900,732
10) Mike Pompeo (R-KS) $949,708
11) Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) $700,687 [voted for uncontrolled immigration]
12) Ami Bera (D-CA) $602,985
13) Gerry Connolly (D-VA) $408,305
14) Don Beyer (D-VA) $461,454
15) Rick Larson (D-WA) $359,965
16) Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) $352,711
17) Debbie Wasserman Shultz [ D-FL] $303,400 [Chair: DNC]
18) Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR) $273,500
SENATE:
1) Mitch McConnell (R-KY) $9.01 Million
2) John Cornyn (R-TX) $5.30 Million
3) Mark Warner (D-VA) $5.04 Million
4) Claire McCaskell (D-MO) $4.4 Million
5) Mike Bennett (D-CO) $4.36 Million
6) Marco Rubio (R-FL) $4.17 Million7) Ted Cruz (R-TX) $3.70 Million
8) Tim Kaine (D-VA) $3.66 Million
9) Ron Wyden (D-OR) $3.4 Million
10) Lindsey Graham (R-SC) $3.4 Million
11) Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) $2.86 Million
12) Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) $2.02 Million
[Note: Figures are cumulative and reflect the varying stages of the Bill from introduction to name and content changes to enactment]
How did this Bill even get to the floor without public awareness?
On 12 May 2015, HR 2146 [Defending Public Safety], a routine bill for benefits for Law Enforcement Officers and Firefighter retirement funds passed the House 407-5.
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| My Bible Proves I'm Pure |
On 4 June 2015, Ted Cruz added the magic amendment "with changes" to the House Bill, adding "TPA" [Trade Promotion Act] and "TAA" [Trade Adjustment Assistance (offset US worker job loss due to international trade agreements)] with "unanimous consent".
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| Me? Corrupt? |
The TAA element was the kicker here, since politicians of either Party who voted against this Bill would be accused of voting AGAINST benefits for Police and Firefighters -- the kiss of death in local elections back home.
On 29 June 2015, President Obama signed the Fast Track Trade Promotion Authority into law, giving the Executive Office unprecedented power and gutting Congressional oversight.
To further emasculate Congress, Senator Cruz defeated an amendment contained in HR 1314 that would have required Congress "to be consulted" if China [or other nations were to join after the fact.
Meanwhile, Trump was protesting the deal noting that TPP carried a "backdoor for China and Russia to join" this trade agreement -- which Cruz and Rubio had officially denied.
However, Secretary of State John Kerry, on 4 November 2015] invited China and Russia to join the TPP. This followed declarations by Cruz and Ryan that neither China nor Russia would be allowed to participate in the TPP.
So, now that you are completely outraged and frustrated by this Byzantine corrupt political process, you might ask:
How do these sleazy SOBs get away with this!
Why don't the new politicians raise a stink?
Why not prosecute them!
Two words:
1) Bribes: From the day Congresspersons are elected, they spend virtually all their time soliciting campaign donations and campaigning for reelection, selling their souls to get reelected. Sometimes, they even have time to represent their constituents. Some even do that well - specifically those who have made their fortunes before arriving on Capitol Hill, such as Darrell Issa [R-CA] and Thomas Massie [R-KY].
2) Blackmail: This practice goes back to the LBJ Administration, which employed J Edgar Hoover to illegally wire offices in both the House and the Senate; LBJ then used recordings of the politicians to coerce them into supporting is initiatives; in some cases, he even used videos recorded in condominiums of his White House "hostesses" who invited newly elected Representatives and Senators [geographical bachelors] to their "homes". Later, those wiretaps were reactivated by Clinton Administration and First Lady Hillary who purloined the "Background Investigation" files from the FBI [we're not sure how she managed that], and which the Secret Service found in her bedroom.
But, all that is such "Old School" technology. Today, Obama has the NSA and an obsequious Director of National Intelligence to pander to the every need of Valerie Jarrett and David Axelrod to tap into every bit of communication of every politician and staffer on Capitol Hill, but that of their family members as well. Essentially, no one on Capitol Hill is clean, except for the few who made their fortunes before being elected and have been smart enough to avoid NSA eavesdropping and DHS surveillance.
As you may have noticed, key bureaucrats and occasionally politicians who speak out against the crooks on Capitol Hill, or God forbid, against Obama, and find Men in Black at their doors at 3:00 am with "urgent safety updates" to discuss about very private family issues; in some cases with bureaucrats, arrests are made regarding specious allegations such as discovering child pornography on their home computers -- followed by quick trials in tiny courtrooms, and sentences of unique qualities.
So, the concept of truth and justice will win out is a stretch these days.
It is workable, however, if the incoming Trump Administration can rid the government of the Obama actives [and sleepers -- as we found following the Carter Administration] including a majority of the political appointees and replace them with professionals in the Department of Justice [we recall such days in the Reagan Administration].
An honest and professional DOJ would be capable of targeting the worst on Capitol Hill and certain agencies, and we firmly believe, with that lead, many on Capitol Hill would be more than willing to take plea bargains rather than have them and their families endure potential charges of corruption or treason to testify against the most corrupt on the Hill; the ultimate weapon is the potential loss of their lucrative federal pensions.
The end-product will be a strengthened Constitution, the same as we knew and understood throughout our history, through good times and bad. It's really all up to Mainstream America in this Presidential Election. We trust the American people can pull this off.
We do hope Mr Trump survives the campaign without being assassinated by Obama, the DNC, or the GOP [or all of the above] since it is certain that he will bring a new level of integrity to Washington. We strongly suggest he surround himself with the very best and most trustworthy security personnel - and keep the Secret Service as his second tier [they weren't so effective with JFK and Ronald Reagan].
