Letter to the Editor

“President Trump could have shot Comey, and not be indicted”, said Rudolf Giuliani; and  “Trump could self-pardon, but would lead probably to an immediate impeachment.  The president can terminate any investigation, whenever”.  Donald Trump said, “As has been stated by numerous legal scholars, I have the absolute right to pardon myself, but why would I do that, when I have done nothing wrong?  In the meantime, the never-ending Witch Hunt, led by 13 very Angry and Conflicted Democrats (& others) continues into the midterms!”  And added falsely, “the appointment of the ‘Special Councel’ is totally UNCONSTITUTIONAL!    White House press secretary, Sarah Sanders repeated nearly a dozen times in one briefing, “The president has done NOTHING WRONG!”

We are everyday drawing closer toward a constitutional crises, which I believe the Trump lawyers are trying to push forward now .… before the fall elections.  They are ‘banking on’ the majority in THIS House and Senate finding Trump ‘not guilty’ on any articles of impeachment drawn up against him, which would also be under the purview of Congress.   The Supreme Court could be called upon to decide some factors regarding pardon powers, but “PARDONS ARE FOR CRIMINALS!”

Giuliani is continually stirring up the muck, purposely trying to muddy the waters, especially for the Trump base and the low-information crowd.    Many folks weren’t around 45 years ago to actually hear and remember how President Richard Nixon made some similar announcements saying, “if the president does IT (whatever), that means IT is not illegal”.   He obstructed justice by bribing some people and having others fired, namely special prosecutor, Archibald Cox.   Jill Wine-banks said, “If Trump is above the law, you have a dictatorship”.  The Democrats warn Trump, “You are not a king!”   In the beginnings of our democracy, we had (those constructing it) the Patriots vs the Loyalists, those loyal to the Crown.  Today the fight is between the patriots (those loyal to the Constitution) and the loyalists (those loyal to Donald Trump).

Giuliana stated, “Our recollection keeps changing; this is the reason you don’t let this president testify”.   Some note that “recollections are either accurately or inaccurately” declared.   How would this all go over with our citizenry, if a mobster under investigation publicly mused about shooting or killing a former FBI Director?   How WILL they feel about a corrupt, ruthless, “mobbed-up” president, who colluded with Russian mobsters to highjack and plunder our Democracy and our country?

Trish Forsyth Voss

Byron York recently dismissed the importance of the “first” Trump Tower meeting stating, “unless some startling new evidence appears, the notorious Trump Tower meeting seems more like a clumsy attempt to interfere with a presidential election”. Startling new evidence was revealed on March 20th; we learned of a July 2016 Trump Tower meeting, arranged by Erik Prince, (founder of Blackwater, his private military company, now known as Academi)  for Donald Trump Jr, who met with George Nader, a gulf emissary for United Arab Emirates and Saudi crown princes, and Joel Zamel, Israeli expert in social media manipulation, who Nader supposedly paid $2 million to pitch a presentation showing how effective his marketing plan could be to influence the election.  “It is illegal for foreign governments or individuals to be involved in American elections.”  Nader is cooperating in the Mueller investigation . There are a multiplicity of sins to be discovered, and most will be.

There was the April 2017 meeting between convicted felon, Charles Kushner, Jared’s father and the Qatari finance minister in an attempt to secure investment for the financially troubled Kushner property, 666 Fifth Ave, Manhattan.  Qatar refused to invest in Kushner’s firm, then in June 2017 the White House supported a blockade of Qatar organized by Saudi Arabia, whom Trump and Kushner are strongly allied with.  Qatar is a sovereign country that hosts the biggest U.S. military base in the Middle East, and is strategically important to us.  Qatar is the world’s third largest producer of natural gas, and shares the huge North Gas Field with Iran.  “The U.S. wants to secure geopolitical control over Qatar’s gas reserves.  Russia’s geopolitical control  over gas pipelines going to Europe has been reinforced as a result of the blockade”, which continues, but there might be a resolution soon.   A deal is in the making for Charles Kushner to sell that property on which he owes $1.2 billion — to “Brookfield, a publicly traded company, headquartered in Canada, one of whose major investors is the Qatar Investment Authority.”

Whenever you think “it’s” NOT about money and oil, you’re wrong!  Fortunes are made and lost in wargames.  Israel and the Saudis are worried about Iran’s growing power.  The U.S. seeks to weaken Qatar’s relationship with Iran.  I expect THAT war to break out before the year is up.   Republican Jeff Flake recently said that “America’s biggest enemies doing the worst … couldn’t hurt us more than we are hurting ourselves”.

Trish Forsyth Voss

“I was born in a crossfire hurricane”, (lyrics from a 1968 Rolling Stones song); ‘crossfire hurricane’ adopted as secret code name by FBI agents for the origins of an investigation into possible collusion of the Trump campaign with Russians seeking to influence our 2016 election.  Two FBI agents were sent to London, July 2016 — before Trump won the election — to investigate information Australian ambassador, Alexander Downer, claimed to have on the campaign due to his interaction with George Papadopoulos, who was later indicted and accepted a guilty plea.

If you think there’s bigger wrongdoing than local law enforcement can handle, or they might be involved in, call the Federal Bureau of Investigations.  News Flash — the FBI investigates potential criminal activity.  Some investigations are short, some lengthy, depending on complexity of issues and number of actors.  Some agents actually investigate under-cover; they are NOT spies, they are law enforcement officials under the auspices of the Department of Justice.  They are NOT ‘storm-troopers’ (Nazi foot-soldiers) as Rudolf Giuliani described them!

There are so many parallels between Richard Nixon’s administration and that of Donald Trump.  Nixon would have been impeached, had he not resigned, for obstruction of justice and especially for using the office of the presidency to punish or ruin his political enemies.  Thanks to John Dean we learned of Nixon’s long ‘enemies list’ and his attempted use of the IRS and FBI to attack those on his list.  The American people had no idea, before the Watergate hearings, how corrupt President Nixon was; even his staunch supporters realized that he had to resign or be impeached.  Most Americans aren’t as naïve as we were back in the early seventies.  Nixon would have loved to have had Sinclair Broadcasting, right-wing talk-radio programs, and Fox ‘News’, which did not come into existence until legislation under President Reagan allowed less stringent truth in broadcasting standards.

Trump’s pushing the Postmaster General to double the postage rate on Amazon, with whom they have a contract — to attack Amazon owner, Jeff Bezos, who also owns the Washington Post, gives cause for another article of impeachment; further proved by Trump’s tweets showing himself to be an enemy of Bezos.

Four signs of an autocratic leader:  1. politicizes independent institutions (like FBI & DOJ);  2. uses disinformation to confuse the populace;  3. eliminates checks that would hold the executive accountable;  4. trying to corrupt elections.   Trump has done them all.   DEPLORABLE!

Trish Forsyth Voss

Michael Cohen set up a Delaware shell (or front) company called Essential Consultants, LLC, through which he received very generous “donations” from some American companies like: $600,000 (for “actual work”) from AT&T (who wanted a merger with Time-Warner), $1.2 million from Novartis, pharma-giant (who wanted “insight on the president’s thinking on healthcare policy issues”), $150,000 (for “accounting advise”) from Korea Aerospace Industries,  who partnered with Lockheed Martin (a huge defense contract is pending), and a half million dollars from Columbus Nova, whose CEO is Andrew Intrater, who is “cousin Vinnie” to Victor Vekselberg, one of the richest Russian oligarchs; Columbus Nova is his U.S. affiliate.

All Russian oligarchs operate in cooperation with the Putin government; they live and enrich themselves at the pleasure and grace of Vladimir Putin!  “Robber barons of the former Soviet Union became insanely rich; Putin was a junior oligarch before coming fully into power” in the Kremlin. Victor Vekselberg and his cousin Andrew attended Trump’s Inauguration ceremony and met there with Michael Cohen.  Intrater donated $250,000 to the Trump Inauguration Fund, $35,000 to the Trump Victory Fund, and $29,600 to the Republican National Committee in June 2017.   Vikselberg was also present at the infamous 2015 dinner in Russia, which was attended by Putin, Michael Flynn, Jill Stein (and others).  Vekselberg was also present at a dinner with Jared and Ivanka Kushner.  There’s also the connection between Vekselberg and German Khan, Ukrainian-Russian billionaire (export and oil trade), who is the father-in-law of Alex van der Zwaan, Dutch ex-attorney, who is going to prison for perjury.  The above-named companies and characters were all questioned last fall by Special Counsel, Robert Mueller; no wonder search warrants were issued for Michael Cohen’s records.

Remember during Trump’s campaign, when he talked incessantly about “Pay for Play, it’s illegal”, and said, “Why would anyone plead the Fifth?  Only guilty people plead the Fifth!”  Steve Schmidt, my favorite ‘Recovering-Republican’ said, “Cohen is part of the cabal doing real damage to America, involved in unfathomable corruption.  This is fundamental corruption of our American political system!  Cohen is as mobbed-up as Morey, the wig-maker was from Goodfellas!   “Where was anybody — upon the moment of Donald Trump  assuming the awesome privilege and power of the presidency — to say ‘how can we make America better, safer?   How can we keep faith with our obligations?’  See how rancid the swamp really is!   Every one of them are Pigs at the Troughs, enriching themselves financially at our expense!”

Trish Forsyth Voss

Ex-Republicans and Recovering Republicans almost have to be feeling more angst than we Dems.  Forty-some House Republicans, so far, are planning on retiring later this year ahead of the impending blue tsunami.  There’s been an extremely high turnover-rate of White House staff, many having been fired and some forced to resign in disgrace.  Twenty-four Trump nominees have failed to be confirmed by the Senate, but the ones that have … Stocking the Swamp!  Scott Pruitt, EPA Chief, was grilled on Thursday by a Senate investigative committee on numerous ethic scandals, he has lied to them repeatedly; he needs to be fired.  The White House physician, Ronny Jackson, was a Trump-nominee for Secretary of Veterans Affairs; his nomination interview postponed due to allegations (from 23 current and former colleagues, many still in the military) of creating a hostile work environment, drunkenness on the job, handing out prescription drugs, including opioids, for which he reportedly earned the nickname: Candy-man.  Mr. Jackson withdrew his name for consideration on Thursday, but he deserves an investigation into these allegations and should be fired if ANY are proved true.

Mike Pompeo was confirmed by the Senate on Thursday as Secretary of State, leaving immediately to attend a NATO meeting.  President Trump, who should have presidential business to perform instead called into the TV show: Fox & Friends LIVE, going on a long, unhinged rant about the raid on Michael Cohen, admitting that Cohen represented him “on this crazy Stormy Daniels deal” and basically destroyed his defense on 2 fronts.  Lawyers for Cohen (and Trump) were trying to argue that materials seized in the raid should be protected by attorney-client privilege, but Trump said in the televised segment that “Cohen only handles a tiny, tiny fraction of my legal work”, those words only hours later finding their way into the court brief, working against them.

He ranted about corruption at the highest level of “his” justice department, said he’s been trying to stay away from managing it, “but at some point I won’t stay away from it”.  A Senate Judiciary committee took a bipartisan vote on a bill to protect the Special Counsel investigation; the bill might not make its way to the floor.

    The following quote from Republican strategist, Steve Schmidt’s website:  “Patriotism means to stand by the country.  It does not mean to stand by the President”, said Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States of America.  

Trish Forsyth Voss

Amid a Special Counsel investigation heating up … into Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign/Russian collusion and other related issues, Donald Trump continues to do and say so many questionable things.  We keep asking ourselves WHY?  Why was he so upset when Nikki Haley, US. Ambassador to the UN, announced further sanctions on Russia for their part in the chemical attacks, killing 40 Syrian people in Damascus?  The White House walked that announcement back.  Trump basically refused to enact the sanctions on Russia over election meddling, that Congress passed 98-2 back in summer 2017, but finally in March of this year announced ‘would be’ enacted, after Russian poisonings in the U.K.

He listens to advice from Sean Hannity over his Chief of Staff, John Kelly.  He is everyday rant-tweeting about James Comey, who said on Stephen Colbert’s Late Show, “I’m like a breakup he can’t get over”.  He’s distraught over the FBI raid on his “fixer”, Michael Cohen’s property and materials.  He had CIA Director, Mike Pompeo, secretly meet over Easter weekend with North Korea’s Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang to lay the groundwork for direct talks between Trump and Kim, “using intelligence rather than diplomatic channels to communicate”.  Pompeo is Trump’s nominee for Secretary of State, and is anxiously awaiting confirmation as secretary.  Former Deputy Secretary of State, John J. Sullivan, became Acting Secretary on  4/1/18; he is the chief foreign affairs adviser/diplomatic officer, not Pompeo.  “Mr. Trump  said he would give his blessing to North and South Korea to discuss the end of the war, opening the door to a peace treaty that would replace the armistice that halted the Korean War in 1953.”  These are very complicated, long-standing diplomatic issues.

I’m really tired of all the Obama-bashing over the ‘ignored red-line’; Obama asked Congress to authorize potential use of force against Syria, and they declined to hold a vote, after McConnell, Boehner and Corker praised him for  “absolutely the right decision”.  Protests, rallies and polls demonstrated that the majority of citizens were not on board for extended involvement in Syria’s civil-war.  “Under the constitution, the responsibility for declaring war lies with Congress.”  Barack Obama did the right thing!  However, there was a covert CIA program, arming and training Syrian rebels to fight the Russian and Iranian-backed Syrian government under Bashar al-Assad.  Trump and Pompeo pulled the plug last summer on the CIA program supporting the rebels  — in order to improve relations with Russia.  To Russia With Love.

Trish Forsyth Voss

Adriana Cohen’s lament on the “unbalanced scales of justice” shows just how deluded some GOPpers are!  Robert Mueller is a life-long Republican, as is James Comey, whom Ms. Cohen has decreed to have committed perjury and obstruction of justice by “exonerating Hillary Clinton by overseeing a sham criminal investigation” into email-text-gate.  She slanders Andrew McCabe for supposedly “misleading authorities on multiple occasions”, but praises perjurer Attorney General Jeff Sessions for firing him!  Alex van der Zwaan was convicted of perjury, NOT for erasing an email, and was reportedly disbarred as President Bill Clinton was for perjuring himself.  She finishes with decrying that poor Michael Flynn has racked up “goliath legal bills and forced to sell his home”.  Wahh!  … the wages of being a Treasonist!  Ms. Cohen casts aspersions far and wide, stating these “villains”, the “elites” that have trashed our judicial system, are walking free while these poor Trump cohorts are being villainized  and hounded unmercifully.  It’s all meant to distract us from the real crimes and conspiracies to undermine our country and its democratic institutions … that will be brought to light soon by Special Counsel Mueller.  There are so many parallels between the current corrupt administration and the “law and order” administration of President Richard Nixon.  Approximately 46 persons were indicted and served prison sentences after Nixon was forced to resign in dishonor.  I’m betting double that number will be indicted when all is said and done, and Trump will be impeached and hopefully incarcerated … not for “collusion”, but for conspiracy against the United States … aka Treason, which is the #1 indictment against Paul Manafort.  For those who keep ranting “there’s no evidence of collusion” — the investigators have tons of evidence and are as busy as bees gathering more.   Mike Flynn and several others have already pled guilty, and are turning state’s evidence against their cohorts.  “Oh what tangled webs” … some weave!  Propagandists like Adriana Cohen, Byron York and all those at Fox and Friends are contributing to tearing apart our democracy by demeaning our FBI and sowing doubt in our justice system.  These “elites” of which Ms. Cohen speaks …. those getting away with all manner of crimes … these are LIES!   All those suffering from Hillary Derangement Syndrome, who believe any crazy accusation deplorables invent: Uranium One, child sex-trade, string of dead bodies in her wake … ABSURD and STUPID!  Donald Trump is one of the biggest elites of them all.  WAKE UP!

Every week with Donald is meaner that the week before!  On Easter Sunday, President Trump tweeted, “NO MORE DACA DEALS!” and made more threats regarding NAFTA, trade agreements with Mexico and Canada.   Why is “The Donald” tweet-ranting that hordes of immigrants are pouring into our country from Mexico to “take advantage of DACA” — when that statement is entirely INCORRECT?   Fact: DACA concerns only those immigrants who were 16 years of age or younger, who came to America by 2007  (must be high school graduates, employed or attending college, no significant arrests; many are serving in our military).

Every week there are so many more abhorrent issues we Americans must face!  David Shulkin, VA Secretary, was fired for NOT taking detrimental steps to privatize the VA.   Trump twitter-raging at Amazon CEO for “paying little or not taxes to state & local governments,  and is costing the postal service billions of dollars, putting many thousands of retailers out of business!”  E-commerce added 355,000 jobs 2007 – 2016, but still brick & mortar stores are diminished as technology services increase convenience, greater selection and opportunities for digital shoppers.  Bezos also owns the (Trump-hated) Washington Post; that’s the real reason behind Trump’s attacks on Jeff Bezos.  Wall St. numbers down this week, might be a combination of Face-Book tech stocks, tweets-bashing Amazon, and trade war issues, including China instituting 25 percent import tariffs on our pork, fruit and other products.

Nearly 40 percent of Americans get their news from local stations, many of which are owned or operated by Sinclair Broadcasting, whose compulsory scripted-messages regarding fake-news that all their anchors must follow is so reprehensible!  We need a FREE PRESS talking Truth to Power, not more government-sanctioned, propaganda, “state-run TV” and syndicated columnists!  Bryon York’s “labored” 3/29 column in The Register-Mail, — had only the last 2 paragraphs been printed — would have been more truthful journalism.  The fault of the “NO WALL – budget deal” Trump angrily signed on, was NOT the fault of Democrats, as  York and Trump love to assert; that is only propaganda for the Trump base.  Deal-maker Trump rejected the only passable bipartisan compromise.  Civics Refresher for Dummies — The Republicans can pass anything they can agree on, as they have control of Congress and the White House, which Trump characterized as in “tippy-top shape”.   Considering that many NATO allies have not been invited to the White House, but that recently Vladimir Putin has …. that seems a seriously-flawed decision!   He’s come UNDONE!

Trish Forsyth Voss

I feel compelled to respond to some ideas recently presented in Guest Opinions by Steve & Cokie Roberts, and Marc Thiessen.  Yes, we tend to pigeon-hole those we don’t agree with, making wide suppositions regarding them.  Yes, I  “fear and loath … Donald Trump”.  Yes, I agree whole-heartedly with Hillary Clinton that she “won optimistic, diverse and dynamic” populations, and Trump voters were “looking backward” –at what they thought made America great.  And I agree with Barack Obama’s 2008 comment that, for a large part GOP voters are “bitter, cling to their guns and religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them”.  And No, he didn’t lose the 2012 election for that observation.

On Clinton’s ‘snarky’ comment, during the 2016 campaign that, “Trump supporters filled a basket of deplorables”,  I ask the readers and thinkers out there, “Do any of you know ANY deplorable people?  If we are related to, or know and care about such persons, we don’t like to see them characterized as such, right?  But perhaps we can discern that some of their thinking, qualities or actions are deplorable.  Are any evil-doers, aside from terrorists, deplorable?  Merriam Webster dictionary defines Deplorable as: Lamentable, deserving censure or contempt.  Here I would assert that Rick Santorum, former US Senator of PA, made some ‘contemptible’ remarks recently about the ‘March for Our Lives’ protestors, when he ignorantly tweeted that those young protestors should take “individual responsibility, like taking CPR classes”, instead of expecting others to solve their problems.

We all need to examine our own beliefs and try to root out racist, misogynistic, xenophobic and regressive ideology.  Many grandparents of mixed-race kids have adjusted their beliefs on diversity, as many of us “have evolved on the issue of homosexuality”, or other differences among us because we have widened our understanding based on caring for others.  I like Marc Thiessen more after reading his March 22nd Opinion piece, asserting:  “Democrats do not hate America or God!”

Merriam Webster defines Liberal as: broad-minded, not bound by authoritarianism, orthodoxy or tradition, progressive.   I am a liberal (who would definitely vote for a “Sanders-Warren cabal”, but am also a gun-owner who supports gun-reform, and am a very regular church-goer, but definitely not fundamentalist!    I find apathy very difficult to understand…..that less than 20 percent of eligible voters in IL voted on 3/20?!  The youth will change that by 2020… Blue Tsunami.           This IS a left-leaning country; that is NOT a fantasy!

Trish Forsyth Voss

Cambridge Analytica  (CA), hired by the Trump campaign (Kushner, Manafort and Parscale) hacked into over 50 million Facebook accounts and exploited user’s personal information for the Trump campaign’s nefarious purposes.  Before the “old fogeys”, who can barely even text, start bashing us social-media users for being so gullible, let me remind y’all that “yesterday’s” bombshell was: Russia has “infiltrated the energy, nuclear, commercial, water, aviation and manufacturing sectors in our country (as well as having hacked 7 state’s electoral systems).  Russia supposedly can create significant havoc and possibly even shut down services in our nation.  CA started in 2014 as a voter-profiling company, funded with $15M by Robert Mercer, with “vice-prez” Steve Bannon, spokeswoman Kellyanne Conway — first worked to elect Ted Cruz, then switched to Donald Trump.  Mr. Nix, a Brit, heading up CA, was warned about involvement in U.S. political campaigns, he started up a British affiliate — SCL group; he boasted (we saw under-cover footage) of employing front companies and former spies on behalf of political clients around the world, and even suggested ways to entrap politicians (sending friendly Ukrainian girls to them) in compromising situations.  CA didn’t have the data to make its “product claims” work, so they “harvested” millions of profiles from Facebook to begin their “Psycho-graphics platform”.  The vast system of wide-scale corruption by CA/SCL group is being “investigated in Britain by Parliament and government regulators into allegations that it performed illegal work on the Brexit campaign”.  Meanwhile, Trump congratulated Putin on his re-election to his 4th, six-year term as Russia’s leader, the most popular since Stalin.  Putin recently told his people that “Russia has tested an array of new nuclear weapons that are impossible to intercept”.  Rex Tillerson, Secretary of State was fired; H.R. McMaster, National Security Advisor was fired, replaced by “Hawk Neocon” John Bolton, who “was part of the effort to mislead the US into the disastrous Iraq war, supports military actions against North Korea”, and thinks we need to instigate a regime change in Iran.  John Dowd, one Trump lawyer resigned, replaced by Joseph diGenova  (believer in the Deep State conspiracy).  Ex-CIA Chief, John Brennan said on 3/17/18 to Donald Trump, “When the full extent of your venality, moral turpitude, and political corruption becomes known, you will take your rightful place as a disgraced demagogue in the dustbin of history.  You may scapegoat Andy McCabe, but you will not destroy America — America will triumph over you!

Trish Forsyth Voss