Adam Schiff Responds to Trump's Senate Sycophants

I often share my disappointment with the limp Democratic Party and how easily they wither in the face of GOP's ruthless macho bullying.  Still, once in awhile I get impressed and realize there is some hope left.  Now if only these few courageous politicians can start getting more of We The People to better support them by actively getting behind these individuals and letting our representatives know we expect them to follow through on their efforts.  

Act as if our democracy depends on it, because it does!  A healthy democracy requires an informed and engaged electorate!

Yeah, yeah, an imperfect democracy is better than this ME FIRST theocracy the oligarch owned GOP is pushing our country towards.

https://www.house.gov/representatives

https://www.senate.gov/senators/contact/

House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff fired back at Republicans on his committee, including disgraced former chair Devin Nunes, calling for his resignation during a hearing about Russia interference in the 2016 election. Lawrence: "You're going to want to see every word of the controlled, targeted, and building anger of the honorable Adam Schiff.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qKd9fDLku8
MSNBC | Published on Mar 28, 2019

2:42   Honorable Adam Schiff Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee:    

       “My colleagues may think it's okay that the Russians offered dirt on a Democratic candidate for president as part of what was described as the Russian government's effort to help the Trump campaign.  You might think that's okay.  (transcript continues)

La Plata County Community Development Services update - March 2019

This blog was originally started because I wanted to help expose the malicious tactics of a few ruthless individuals were engaging in during their contrived war of dirty tricks against our local Board of County Commissioners and the Land Use Planning process.  They were intent on stirring up trouble rather than resolving issues.

In any event, that was then and this is now.  Today I received the following in an email and figure I might at well document it here.  Let folks know that our local government is functioning.  Perhaps not as good as it could, but improvement would require greater public awareness and involvement in the process, boring and mundane though it might be.

Megan Graham  |  Public Affairs Officer  |  megan.graham@co.laplata.co.us  |  www.co.laplata.co.us

La Plata County Community Development Services update

March 2019

Subscribe to Planning Department updates

Greetings from the La Plata County Planning Department! Below you will find a news update on the projects, plans and processes afoot in our department, at the Planning Commission, and at the Board of County Commissioners. Thank you for your interest in La Plata County!

Click below to go directly to a topic:

• District Plan Updates: Animas Valley, Florida Mesa, Fort Lewis Mesa, Bayfield kickoff meeting
• Land Use Code revision process overview
• Land Use Code policy topic update: Areas of state interest ("1041 powers"); zoning
• Planning Commission meetings
• Board of County Commissioner meetings
• Joint Planning Commission meetings

District Plan Updates

The Planning Commission is working with community residents to update the county's area/district plans, which build off of the goals, objectives, and policies that were developed in the Comprehensive Plan that the Planning Commission adopted in April 2017.

There are 12 district (area) plans that have been revised as recently as 2012, while some have never been developed. In order to ensure that the growth management goals for each area/district are current, the Planning Commission has begun a district-by-district update of the plans, with county planning staff convening citizens from each district to weigh in on their area/district plans.

The Planning Commission discusses district plan updates at its meeting on the first Thursday of each month from 6-8 p.m. in the Board Room of the County Administration Building, 1101 E. 2nd Ave. in Durango. On March 7, the Planning Commission will discuss the District Plan update process, and specifically:

1. Clarifying district plan update processes & functions
2. Florida Mesa District Plan update
3. Animas Valley Land Use Plan update
4. Fort Lewis Mesa District Plan update

Specter of Trump Fascism.

Seems to me this was a pretty decent summary of today's situation.

I got nothing to add.

Specter of Fascism: Cohen Says Trump Won’t Leave Peacefully in 2020

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eY7fEDpgO9o

The Real News Network

Published on Feb 27, 2019

Hearings reveal deepening systemic corruption, further degeneration of GOP, progressive members standout in questioning - Jacqueline Lukman, Henry Giroux and Carmen Russell-Sluchansky join Paul Jay 

Visit https://therealnews.com for more stories and help support our work by donating at https://therealnews.com/donate.

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Elijah Cummings' stunning closing remarks at Cohen hearing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72gy-LZ4UN0

CNN  |  Published on Feb 27, 2019

Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) concluded the House Oversight Committee's questioning of President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer Michael Cohen by delivering a call to "keep democracy in tact" and a return to normalcy in the political arena.

How Shakespeare Explains Trump - Stephen Greenblatt

I missed this when it first came out, ran across it the other day and it so perfectly summarizes our treacherous political situation and the man at the helm with his enablers and sycophants.  Want to understand the underlying reality of today's craziness here's a good place to start. Thus, I can't resist adding it to my little collection.

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Shakespeare Explains the 2016 Election

By Stephen Greenblatt  |  October 8, 2016

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/09/opinion/sunday/shakespeare-explains-the-2016-election.html

In the early 1590s, Shakespeare sat down to write a play that addressed a problem: How could a great country wind up being governed by a sociopath? 

The problem was not England’s, where a woman of exceptional intelligence and stamina had been on the throne for more than 30 years, but it had long preoccupied thoughtful people. Why, the Bible brooded, was the kingdom of Judah governed by a succession of disastrous kings? How could the greatest empire in the world, ancient Roman historians asked themselves, have fallen into the hands of a Caligula? 

For his theatrical test case, Shakespeare chose an example closer to home: the brief, unhappy reign in 15th-century England of King Richard III. Richard, as Shakespeare conceived him, was inwardly tormented by insecurity and rage, the consequences of a miserable, unloved childhood and a twisted spine that made people recoil at the sight of him. Haunted by self-loathing and a sense of his own ugliness — he is repeatedly likened to a boar or rooting hog — he found refuge in a feeling of entitlement, blustering overconfidence, misogyny and a merciless penchant for bullying. 

From this psychopathology, the play suggests, emerged the character’s weird, obsessive determination to reach a goal that looked impossibly far off, a position for which he had no reasonable expectation, no proper qualification and absolutely no aptitude. ...

Keep reading at:  https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/09/opinion/sunday/shakespeare-explains-the-2016-election.html

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You may be wondering, who is Stephen Greenblatt PhD and what does he know?  Here are some informative links:

The John Cogan University Professor of the Humanities

https://english.fas.harvard.edu/people/stephen-greenblatt

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Stephen-Greenblatt

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Greenblatt

http://stephengreenblatt.com

Trump, America's Nightmare, Jan 24/25, 2019

I'll admit for me Roger Stone has been a monster since I learned about his dirty tricks and pride in hurting his enemies back in the Tricky Dick Nixon days.   It's about time his deeds catch up with him.  Although the damage to America's democracy this sociopath helped engineer, we'll never recover from.  Damage done and precious irreplaceable years squandered, I weep for my nation.

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Melber Explains Why Mueller's Indictment Of Roger Stone Matters 

The Beat With Ari Melber | MSNBC

MSNBC | Published on Jan 25, 2019
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChBbzQjxEb4

Donald Trump’s longest-serving political advisor, Roger Stone, has been indicted by Special Counsel Mueller for Obstruction, witness tampering and lying about efforts to obtain Hillary Clinton’s stolen emails. Ari Melber examines how this is the first indictment of a Trump associate directly involving the Clinton emails stolen by Russia.

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She gains more of my respect all the time.  
Does a good job of laying out the details, connecting dots, asking good questions. 
Page two.

Jared Kushner Security Clearance Rejection Overruled By Trump Appointee 

 Rachel Maddow | MSNBC

MSNBC | Published on Jan 24, 2019

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3A_pSLLXRDw

Rachel Maddow shares breaking news from NBC News that being rejected for security clearance by two separate career security officials, Jared Kushner and at least 30 others had their rejections overruled by a Trump-appointed supervisor. Bradley Moss, a national security attorney specializing in security clearance law, lends his expertise to the story.

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President Trump Lender Of Choice, Deutsche Bank, Faces Intense New Scrutiny 

 Rachel Maddow | MSNBC

MSNBC | Published on Jan 24, 2019

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UV9ydlNxuY

Rachel Maddow reports on the past uncommon generosity of Deutsche Bank toward Donald Trump, and the many investigations into money laundering, particularly with illicit Russian money, through Deutsche Bank.

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Rep. Schiff on MSNBC: Mueller's Indictment of Roger Stone Incredibly Significant

AdamSchiff | Published on Jan 25, 2019

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s63l1q-FaIs

On Friday, January 25, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) joined Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC to discuss the indictment handed down by Special Counsel Robert Mueller against Roger Stone for testifying falsely before the House Intelligence Committee, and the significance that a senior Trump campaign official was directed to get more information from Stone about Wikileaks.

Dan Rather explains how Trump can get his Wall.

It speaks for itself and its worth sharing with your pals on the faith-shackled side.

For more from Dan:

https://www.newsandguts.com

FOX helps Trump, Trump helps Putin, America gets the shaft.

A CNN interview with Carl Bernstein discussing Saturday’s Washington Post article by Greg Miller about the extraordinary lengths Trump goes to, to conceal details of numerous private conversations with Russian President Vladi­mir Putin.  The conversation drifted onto FOX News not reporting on these latest revelations, nor about the growing impacts of Trump’s government shut down for that matter.  At 5:47 Brian Stelter asks a question that I understood as: 

‘Is the public ill-served if FOX doesn’t make it clear how important this Russian story is?’

Seems to me the question ignores the known history of FOX and what Mr. Ailes has achieved over there.  In typing out a comment I couldn’t resist tossing in, I did some research to refamiliarize myself with the FOX network’s history.  One thing led to another and since I like sharing the fruits of my efforts, I’ve created another bibliography, this one regarding FOX network and what amounts to one hell of a brainwashing operation.  I start with the video, then my comment, followed by a fascinating, if depressing, collection of stories that help explain how FOX played the power game.

Carl Bernstein: Trump helped Putin destabilize US

Brian Stelter  |  CNN  |  Published on Jan 13, 2019

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tG-vT4lP5ks

Veteran journalist Carl Bernstein discusses a report by the Washington Post that says President Donald Trump tried to hide his conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin from senior officials in his own administration. #CNN #News

Comments | 5:40 CC wrote: Well, FOX, Murdochs, Ailes have been trying to manipulate and brainwash Americans and our politics since their inception.  "Bias in Cable News: Persuasion and Polarization" Martin, Yurukoglu 4/5/17  https://web.stanford.edu/~ayurukog/cable_news.pdf   

With the help of some oligarchs, tea party and such - the great American deception.   It's been playing out under liberal noses, now the water's simmering froggy.  https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/how-roger-ailes-built-the-fox-news-fear-factory-244652/ - 

So tragic, specially since we (specially liberals) keep talking past each other (specially folks who've disconnected themselves from physical reality, and folks who think they're "God's" warriors and who believe Trump is their messiah.  It's foolish to think it's okay just to write them off.) 

Incidentally, https://confrontingsciencecontrarians.blogspot.com/2018/12/confronting-faith-based-delusions.html

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(fyi.  https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/01/09/fox-news-keeps-ignoring-effects-second-longest-government-shutdown-history

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-has-concealed-details-of-his-face-to-face-encounters-with-putin-from-senior-officials-in-administration/2019/01/12/65f6686c-1434-11e9-b6ad-9cfd62dbb0a8_story.html)

Seems to me the oligarchs of the world are thinking they can dispense with governments.  FOX owes no allegiance to America.   Their history makes clear their own profits and power is all that matters to them.  But enough from me, here’s an informative reading list: