Category: Criminal Justice

Sexual Assault Against Kids Is NOT Exclusive To Loudoun County, VA

October 19, 2021

Student-on-student sexual assault and harassment happens with alarming frequency in school bathrooms, on school playgrounds, and in the backs of school buses.

In an Ohio high school last year, four boys forced a 14-year-old girl into a school storage closet and sexually assaulted her. In an Indiana middle school, six girls charged a classmate with groping their breasts and buttocks; choking, smacking, and slapping them.

Meanwhile, in a California elementary school, boys created a tradition of slapping and grabbing their female classmates’ buttocks, and called it “Slap Ass Fridays.”

It’s unnerving and uncomfortable to talk about, but student-on-student sexual assault and harassment happen with alarming frequency in school bathrooms, on school playgrounds, and in the backs of school buses. It’s happening at every level of education from preK to college.

It happened to Esther Warkov’s daughter, a student in Seattle public schools. She was raped by a high school classmate – a boy who had previously been disciplined for sexual misconduct when he was in middle school – on a multi-day school field trip. The rape occurred in the presence of other students.

“Our schools are in crisis,” says Warkov, who founded the Stop Sexual Assault in Schools (SSAIS) organization which advocates for schools to protect students from harassment and assault and to investigate cases as required by law under Title IX.

While occasions of adult-on-child sexual assaults on school property claim headlines – and rightfully so – the problem of student-on-student sexual attacks is much more common. For every adult-on-child sexual assault, there were seven such assaults by students, according to an Associated Press (AP) analysis of federal crime data.

From 2011 to 2015, about 17,000 sexual assaults were committed by U.S. students, AP found,  although the number is likely much higher because assaults are under-reported or mislabeled as bullying, particularly among young victims. About 5 percent of the victims AP reported on were 5- and 6-year-olds.

The younger the victim, the more devastating the impact, and the greater the vulnerability to repeated assault. It’s a disturbing trend and one that some educators and parents are reluctant to acknowledge, especially when it involves kids so young. It’s easier to label the acts as bullying or hazing than to call them sex crimes – and violations of federal Title IX safety protections – but advocates say the only way to eliminate these offenses is to face them head-on.

Otherwise, young lives will be destroyed, says Warkov. “Not only do the survivors’ emotional and psychological scars endure long after the attack, but their social lives, education, and career dreams are also shattered,” she says. “For some, the trauma is insurmountable; gender-based harassment and sexual assault have driven an increasing number of adolescent students to suicide,” Warkov adds.

The #metoo social media campaign revealed a hidden truth: Sexual harassment and assault is a normalized, commonplace offense that occurs regularly in every facet of U.S. society – in Hollywood, in Silicon Valley, among journalists, comedians, politicians, and professors. Even the current President of the United States famously bragged about sexual harassment and assault, only to later dismiss his comments as “locker room talk.”

When it happens in schools and isn’t addressed, students learn that sexual misconduct is acceptable, even normal. After all, boys will be boys, right? But beliefs and attitudes about healthy relationships and sexuality take root early on in a student’s life and schools must take the initiative to eliminate sexual harassment and assault, educators say, first by acknowledging that these problems exist and then by tackling the problem in curriculum, policy, and the very fabric of school culture and community.

Sexual Bullying

“You’re weak. You’re measly. You’re just a girl.”

These are the messages conveyed – and received – by some students in Jennifer Ryman Meuljic’s third-grade class in the Vancouver School District in Washington. Over time, these ideas translate to feelings of power and powerlessness, which can facilitate victimization by harassers and abusers. But third graders don’t understand any of this. What they do understand, however, is how to respect themselves and their space and how to speak up for themselves if someone gets in their space without their permission.

“We talk a lot about personal bubbles or body space,” she says. “We talk about it when we’re lining up or sitting on the carpet, and we remind students that nobody is allowed into your bubble unless you invite them.”

Meuljic knows that kids like to touch and hug and that’s perfectly fine, as long as it’s welcome on both ends, so she and the other elementary teachers emphasize that everyone has their own personal space that is theirs to protect or share.

“If someone runs up to hug another student or hold their hand, I don’t discourage that, I just say, ‘Did you ask first if that’s OK?’ I teach them to respect and protect their own bubbles and also to respect others’ bubbles by asking if it’s OK to give a hug or sit close by.”

She also tells her students that if someone breaks into their bubble without their permission, they need to tell the person not to do that and to talk to an adult.

“My hope is that they always remember these lessons of protecting and respecting bubbles as they grow up and remember that they are the only ones in control of their bodies,” Meuljic says. “Maybe if we all could instill these ideas from the earliest ages we wouldn’t have so many people ignoring boundaries and exerting their power. I have to believe it will help.”

Loudoun County Virginia

The superintendent of a Virginia school district appeared to admit on October 15 that the district violated state law in failing to properly report alleged sexual assaults, as a state official confirmed that the matter is under review. Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) Superintendent Scott Ziegler made the admission during a brief appearance before reporters, where he read a prepared statement and took no questions.

Ziegler said the district made “errors in our state reporting regarding disciplinary incidents in schools,” stating that it had “inadvertently omitted some information in the past.”

“That is extremely concerning, and we are taking steps to make sure that process is improved. I will say that I have no reason to believe at this time that any missing reports were due to an intent to hide any information from the Virginia Department of Education,” he said, blaming an alleged “lack of oversight” that was in place before he was appointed in June, even though he had served as interim superintendent starting on Jan. 1.

Ziegler appeared to be responding to a report by The Daily Wire that the district failed to record multiple instances of alleged sexual assault, even though it’s required by state law that they do so.

Ziegler said during a June 22 school board meeting that he was unaware of any record of assaults happening in the district’s restrooms, nearly a month after a girl was allegedly raped by a male in a bathroom at Stone Bridge High School. State law states that reports “shall be made” to school and district authorities regarding all assaults on school buses, on school grounds, or at a school-sponsored activity. State law also directs district superintendents to annually report such incidents to the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE). But a public database of reports shows at least one assault that wasn’t reported to state authorities.

A Loudoun County Public Schools spokesperson declined to comment on Ziegler’s Oct. 15 remarks but didn’t dispute the characterization that Ziegler acknowledged state law wasn’t complied with.

Superintendents who fail to comply or secure compliance with the reporting requirements are subject to sanctions.

A VDOE spokesman stated in an email that the agency has reviewed the submissions made by Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) concerning discipline, crime, and violation “and is in communication with LCPS regarding the accuracy of their reports and whether the division is in compliance with state reporting requirements.” The spokesman confirmed that the submissions are required annually and that superintendents are required to certify their accuracy.

“This is a matter that VDOE takes very seriously and is actively investigating discrepancies in the LCPS reports,” he said.

In his statement, Ziegler said he made misleading comments during the June meeting. He said his remarks came after wrongly interpreting a question about incidents in the bathrooms as only involving transgender or “gender-fluid” students.

“I regret that my comments were misleading, and I apologize for the distress that error caused families. I should have asked Board Member Beth Barts clarifying questions to get to the root of her question, rather than assuming what she meant. I will do better in the future,” he said.

Ziegler also apologized for how the district handled two recent alleged assaults.

“Let me say to the families and students involved: My heart aches for you, and I am sorry that we failed to provide the safe, welcoming, and affirming environment that we aspire to provide,” he said.

A spokeswoman for father Scott Smith said in a statement to news outlets that Ziegler’s statement on behalf of LCPS “is the first acknowledgment that we have had that they are in fact responsible for their bad decision-making and policies that resulted in the two sexual assaults that happened in our high schools.”

“Today, Superintendent Ziegler said what we already knew: that the actions of the Loudoun County School Board and Administration ‘failed to provide the safe environment’ for the Smith’s daughter,” an attorney for the family said, before accusing LCPS of prioritizing “misguided policies of political correctness over student safety.”

Ziegler’s statement came as the district’s education leadership is under heightened scrutiny, in part because the board approved a policy that forces LCPS staffers to address students by any pronoun that each individual student chooses and lets students who claim to be another gender use that gender’s facilities. The policy drew a fiery response at the June meeting, which was disbanded after Smith and another parent were arrested.

Smith recently revealed that his daughter was allegedly raped by a male inside a girl’s bathroom in her high school. He has described the male as utilizing the softness toward transgenderism to get inside the facility.

Smith has accused district leadership of covering up the assault.

The Loudon County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that an incident took place in May at Stone Bridge High School, but declined to provide more details, citing an ongoing investigation. It also declined to confirm reports that the same male was behind a sexual assault that took place at a different LCPS high school in October.

A Freedom of Information Act request seeking more details on the incidents and the arrest of Smith was sent to the district.

LCPS said via email that school board members “are typically not given details of disciplinary matters” and weren’t aware of the alleged rape until it was reported by media outlets.

A member of the school board facing a recall petition resigned from the board on Oct. 15, and attorneys for the Smith family recently filed a lawsuit against the district.

Summary

Isn’t Enough enough in this entire school sexual assault chapter of American History? How many children targeted for sexual assault in our schools is the “right” number for adults in public education to be appeased?

This is long-past “the” number. From its inception, it was and is the evilest policy that any school board could ever allow. And that is exactly what is being allowed across the nation!

Americans: “Wake UP!” There is no excuse to not engage in stopping these actions at every level of education — not just public education. Young children are the targets for these and other atrocities in every setting, in every school setting, and every other institution in which they are active.

Forget about that previous instruction about identifying sexual assault that instructed us: “See Something, Say Something.” That is WAY insufficient.

The “new” mantra is this: “See Something, DO SOMETHING!”

There will be NO “TNN Live!” Show on Tuesday, October 19, 2021. We will be back LIVE on Wednesday at our normal time: 9:00 to 11:00 AM Central. You can ALWAYS access each of our shows at “Apple Podcasts” or “Spotify Podcasts.” Minutes after the completion of each days live show, both Apple and Spotify upload each show.
We’ll see you tomorrow morning at 9:00 AM Central SHARP!

 

Unprecedented

January 6, 2021

This story written and published live at 9:54PM Wednesday evening

“Unprecedented:” we hear that term used often. Do we really know what it means? Webster says,” Unprecedented is an act that has never happened before.”

Want an example? “His passing for 600 yards in that NFL game last week is unprecedented.” 

Unprecedented in its truest form references something that happens as the very first of its kind. It applies not only to successes of all kinds, inventions or creations, but it is applicable to the actual acts of people. To that end, I feel it’s appropriate to say, “Experiencing an election of federal candidates in the United States that was rife with corruption is ‘unprecedented.'” So, too, is those in the government who are both responsible for the election corruption AND it allowing to go unpunished is unprecedented.

The November 3, 2020, election and its false results and the acceptance of the results by members of Congress is not only a first in my lifetime but a first in United States history. It appears that the response to this corruption by American patriots is not only going to be serious, thorough, and massive, it is going to be unprecedented.

Firsts

I’ve been married for 45 years to one person. She’s my “first” wife. She’s the only “first wife” I can ever have. For me, marriage to her was “unprecedented.” There can only be one first in everything. Anything after that is just a copy or a second or third or fourth version of the first version of “it.” The very first one of everything — when it happened or when it was created — was unprecedented.

November 3rd of 2020, American saw an unprecedented event. That election was the first U.S. election in which vote manipulation and voter fraud were rampant. We as of yet don’t know just how much fraud it contained. To be honest, we may never know.

Events that occurred on Wednesday in Washington D.C. were unprecedented, based on the circumstances that prompted those at the U.S. Capitol. They were in direct response to the massive volume of documented voter fraud that, until Wednesday, had not been addressed by any elected federal official in any public forum. It happened with the joint session of Congress in which the electoral votes from the November election were to be received, counted and confirmed by Congress. The expected end result of the joint session was to be the confirmation of a Joe Biden election victory to confirm him to be the next President. THAT did not happen. But what DID happen is “unprecedented.”

Wednesday’s Capitol Hill “first” was legislators from both the House and Senate stood in objection to the certification by Congress of those electoral votes.

Chaos erupted on Capitol Hill. Protestors clad in MAGA hats and sweatshirts waving Trump flags and banners peacefully marched in D.C. in the runup to the 12:00 noon Congressional session. As VP Mike Pence gaveled the legislators into session, the crowd moved slowly toward Capitol Hill. Just minutes after the objection to Arizona’s certified slate of electors forced the House and Senate to separate to debate the objections, protestors made their way up the Capitol steps and some entered.

Fear gripped members of Congress as alarms sounded and both Houses were cleared. There was a bomb scare. Representatives scrambled for cover as more protestors found ways into the Capitol. One news channel showed one protestor breaking a window and climbing into an office inside the Capitol.

We are facing the beginning of a never-before-seen transition of the government of the strongest nation on Earth into something radically different. The U.S. that we were born into, raised within its power and safety and freedom, and thrived within its economic opportunities is quickly morphing into ANOTHER new entity: a Plutocracy.

What’s a Plutocracy? It’s a governing entity comprised of a powerful group of people who are a combination of financial and economic elitists who use their accumulated power, influence, and financial resources to “buy” and maintain their power over ALL people within a country.

Truth About Today in D.C.

I just spoke to an insider who just completed 48 years of service in Washington and knows all of the inside-outs, all of the players, all of the power junkies, those who are real, honest, and integrious. Sadly, this person knows who are the treasonous turncoats, too.

The protests today (Wednesday January 6th) and the break-ins of the Capitol with subsequent damage and bomb scares were NOT perpetrated by Trump supporters. The entire operation was carefully planned and coordinated by the group that plans to man positions of power in government going forward. They have the contacts and the infrastructure necessary to manage this government takeover that has been in place for some time. And, of course, they have the money.

Those people dressed up in MAGA attire who were plastered all over the news cameras were NOT, as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said, “Trump supporters.” They were coordinated and paid members of Black Lives Matter and ANTIFA.

I am NOT blathering something that is not factual. I seldom say this, but I KNOW this to be true.

Will it ever be confirmed? I doubt anyone in our government will do so. Why? They are all as I write this frantically trying to compute where they possibly find a position of safety and security in the “entity” that’s going to move forward in total control. There will be interviews and claims made. There will be patriots — real patriots, not actors — who do their very best to publicly talk people into believing the truth of this power shift in government. But their attempts will fall on mostly deaf ears.

I will stop writing this story now. However, I strongly encourage you to join us live this morning (Thursday morning) at 9:00 AM Central on TNN Live. We will be discussing the latest details — those that have been confirmed and any that may have substance but we are awaiting confirmation. We will have live with us several Americans who were there live and witnessed much of what happened. Join the show using this link online: https://www.elasticplayer.xyz/truthnews/ Click on the arrow to begin listening.

We’d like for you to share your thoughts via telephone during our conversation. During the show callers use our toll-free number to speak to us live. That number is 1-866-37-TRUTH. (all numbers it’s 1-866-378-7884) You are not required to give your last name. And this is a live “streaming” online program, not broadcast radio. No one edits or monitors the show that could possibly create problems for callers.

As I write, Congress has reconvened to continue the joint session electoral vote presentation. We will discuss details of this session live in the morning.

No matter what happens going forward, you will always be able to say the events of the last four years culminating with those today on Capitol Hill and what happens going forward were and are “Unprecedented.”

God Bless you.

Dan

dan@TruthNewsNet.org

The Trump-DOJ Hammer is Pounding

September 2, 2020

In recent years, have you felt like members of Congress, along with other members of our government, seems not to get much done? Does it feel to you that there’s something happening at the top of our government that keeps things from being accomplished for the good of Americans, no matter their party affiliation?

If you feel that way, it seems to be justified. Many feel that the powerful members of our government have been purposely holding-back on giving to Americans all the things we need. And when they successfully pass legislation, it only passes when members of the “other side” get something significant in return for their votes. What could be the cause of all this? The answer to that question comes to you in our Summary at the end of this news report. This story was published a couple of months after the inauguration of Donald Trump:

The mainstream media (MSM) has kept silent as President Donald Trump in his first two months of office has overseen the arrests of more than 1,500 pedophiles, almost four times more than the 400 pedophiles arrested under President Obama in all of 2014. Recent arrest reports show that more than 1,500 sexual predators were busted for their involvement in child sex-trafficking rings in the United States since January 20, the day Donald Trump was inaugurated. A joint report by the Department of Justice and FBI reveals that for the entire year 2014, President Obama oversaw only 400 similar arrests. Many people are taking note of these facts and asking why a so-called “objective” MSM is so selective in its reporting policies.

It’s no coincidence that child sex-trafficking rings are under such an attack by the Trump administration. On October 8, 2012, Trump tweeted, “Got to do something about these missing children grabbed by the perverts. Too many incidents — fast trial, the death penalty.”

At a press conference on human trafficking in the White House on February 23, 2017, Trump laid down the law: “I want to make it clear today that my administration will focus on ending the absolutely horrific practice of human trafficking. … A lot of you have been dealing with the federal government and it’s been much more focused over the last four weeks — I can tell you that.”

“It’s not talked about enough,” he continued. “And we’re going to talk about it, and we’re going to bring it out into the open and hopefully we’re going to do a great deal to help prevent some of the horrific — really horrific — crimes that are taking place.”

The MSM refuses to report on President Trump’s war on pedophiles and on child sex-trafficking rings in spite of the recent avalanche of arrests which include the following:

  • Jan. 27: 42 arrested in a human trafficking operation in Tennessee
  • Jan. 29: 474 arrested in California (28 sexually-exploited children were rescued)
  • Jan. 18 to Feb 5: 108 arrested in Illinois sex-trafficking sting
  • Jan. up until Super Bowl Sunday: 178 arrested in Texas sex-trafficking sting
  • Jan: 16 arrested in Michigan for sex trafficking during the Detroit Auto Show
  • Feb: 11 arrested in Virginia child-sex sting
  • Feb. 14: 42 arrested in Florida child pornography-related cases

The supposedly “unbiased” MSM has no qualms about quickly reporting on every sex abuse scandal involving the Catholic Church. The liberal media’s ever-changing morality towards the grave evils of pederasty and pedophilia, however, has caused some journalists to question whether their tears are real or fake.

  • Democratic Illinois State Representative, Keith Farnham, has resigned and was charged with possession of child pornography and has been accused of bragging at an online site about sexually molesting a 6-year-old girl.
  • Democratic spokesperson for the Arkansas Democratic Party, Harold Moody, Jr, was charged with distribution and possession of child pornography.
  • Democratic Radnor Township Board of Commissioners member, Philip Ahr, resigned from his position after being charged with possession of child pornography and abusing children between 2 and 6 years-old.
  • Democratic activist and BLM organizer, Charles Wade, was arrested and charged with human trafficking and underage prostitution.
  • Democratic Texas attorney and activist, Mark Benavides, was charged with having sex with a minor, inducing a child under 18 to have sex and compelling prostitution of at least nine legal clients, and possession of child pornography. He was found guilty on six counts of sex trafficking.
  • Democratic Virginia Delegate, Joe Morrissey, was indicted on charges connected to his relationship with a 17-year-old girl and was charged with supervisory indecent liberties with a minor, electronic solicitation of a minor, possession of child pornography, and distribution of child pornography.
  • Democratic Massachusetts Congressman, Gerry Studds, was censured by the House of Representatives after he admitted to an inappropriate relationship with a 17-year-old page.
  • Democratic Former Mayor of Stillwater, New York, Rick Nelson, pleaded guilty to five counts of possession of child pornography of children less than 16 years of age.
  • Democratic Former Mayor of Clayton, New York, Dale Kenyon, was indicted for sexual acts against a teenager.
  • Democratic Former Mayor of Hubbard, Ohio, Richard Keenan, was given a life sentence in jail for raping a 4-year-old girl.
  • Democratic Former Mayor of Winston, Oregon, Kenneth Barrett, was arrested for setting up a meeting to have sex with a 14-year-old girl who turned out to be a police officer.
  • Democratic Former Mayor of Randolph, Nebraska, Dwayne L. Schutt, was arrested and charged with four counts of felony third-degree sexual assault of a child and one count of intentional child abuse.
  • Democratic Former Mayor of Dawson, Georgia, Christopher Wright, was indicted on charges of aggravated child molestation, aggravated sodomy, rape, child molestation, and statutory rape of an 11-year-old boy and a 12-year-old girl.
  • Democratic Former Mayor of Stockton, California, Anthony Silva, was charged with providing alcohol to young adults during a game of strip poker that included a 16-year-old boy at a camp for underprivileged children run by the mayor.
  • Democratic Former Mayor of Millbrook, New York, Donald Briggs, was arrested and charged with inappropriate sexual contact with a person younger than 17.
  • Democratic party leader for Victoria County, Texas, Stephen Jabbour, plead guilty to possession and receiving over half a million child pornographic images.
  • Democratic activist and fundraiser, Terrence Bean, was arrested on charges of sodomy and sex abuse in a case involving a 15-year-old boy and when the alleged victim declined to testify, and the judge dismissed the case.
  • Democratic Party Chairman for Davidson County, Tennessee, Rodney Mullin, resigned amid child pornography allegations.
  • Democratic activist, Andrew Douglas Reed, pleaded guilty to multiple counts of 2nd-degree sexual exploitation of a minor for producing child pornography.
  • Democratic official from Terre Haute, Indiana, David Roberts was sentenced to federal prison for producing and possessing child pornography, including placing hidden cameras in the bedrooms and bathrooms at a home he shared with two minor female victims.
  • Democratic California Congressman, Tony Cárdenas, is being sued in LA County for allegedly sexually abused a 16-year-old girl.
  • Democratic aide to Senator Barbara Boxer, Jeff Rosato, plead guilty to charges of trading in child pornography.
  • Democratic Alaskan State Representative, Dean Westlake, resigned from his seat after the media published a report alleging he fathered a child with a 16-year-old girl when he was 28.
  • Democratic New Jersey State Assemblyman, Neil Cohen, was convicted of possession and distribution of child pornography.
  • Republican Tim Nolan, chairman of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in Kentucky, pled guilty to child sex trafficking, and on February 11, 2018, he was sentenced to serve 20 years in prison.
  • Republican state Senator Ralph Shortey was indicted on four counts of human trafficking and child pornography. In November 2017, he pleaded guilty to one count of child sex trafficking in exchange for the dropping of the other charges.
  • Republican anti-abortion activist Howard Scott Heldreth is a convicted child rapist in Florida.
  • Republican County Commissioner David Swartz pleaded guilty to molesting two girls under the age of 11 and was sentenced to 8 years in prison.
  • Republican judge Mark Pazuhanich pleaded no contest to fondling a 10-year old girl and was sentenced to 10 years probation.
  • Republican anti-abortion activist Nicholas Morency pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography on his computer and offering a bounty to anybody who murders an abortion doctor.
  • Republican legislator Edison Misla Aldarondo was sentenced to 10 years in prison for raping his daughter between the ages of 9 and 17.
  • Republican Mayor Philip Giordano is serving a 37-year sentence in federal prison for sexually abusing 8- and 10-year old girls.
  • Republican campaign consultant Tom Shortridge was sentenced to three years probation for taking nude photographs of a 15-year old girl.
  • Republican Senator Strom Thurmond, a notable racist, had sex with a 15-year old black girl which produced a child.
  • Republican pastor Mike Hintz, whom George W. Bush commended during the 2004 presidential campaign, surrendered to police after admitting to a sexual affair with a female juvenile.
  • Republican legislator Peter Dibble pleaded no contest to having an inappropriate relationship with a 13-year-old girl.
  • Republican Congressman Donald “Buz” Lukens was found guilty of having sex with a female minor and sentenced to one month in jail.
  • Republican fundraiser Richard A. Delgaudio was found guilty of child porn charges and paying two teenage girls to pose for sexual photos.
  • Republican activist Mark A. Grethen convicted on six counts of sex crimes involving children.
  • Republican activist Randal David Ankeney pleaded guilty to attempted sexual assault on a child.
  • Republican Congressman Dan Crane had sex with a female minor working as a congressional page.
  • Republican activist and Christian Coalition leader Beverly Russell admitted to an incestuous relationship with his stepdaughter.
  • Republican congressman and anti-gay activist Robert Bauman was charged with having sex with a 16-year-old boy he picked up at a gay bar.
  • Republican Committee Chairman Jeffrey Patti was arrested for distributing a video clip of a 5-year-old girl being raped.
  • Republican activist Marty Glickman (a.k.a. “Republican Marty”) was taken into custody by Florida police on four counts of unlawful sexual activity with an underage girl and one count of delivering the drug LSD.
  • Republican legislative aide Howard L. Brooks was charged with molesting a 12-year old boy and possession of child pornography.
  • Republican Senate candidate John Hathaway was accused of having sex with his 12-year old baby sitter and withdrew his candidacy after the allegations were reported in the media.
  • Republican preacher Stephen White, who demanded a return to traditional values, was sentenced to jail after offering $20 to a 14-year-old boy for permission to perform oral sex on him.
  • Republican talk show host Jon Matthews pleaded guilty to exposing his genitals to an 11-year-old girl. Republican anti-gay activist Earl “Butch” Kimmerling was sentenced to 40 years in prison for molesting an 8-year old girl after he attempted to stop a gay couple from adopting her.
  • Republican Party leader Paul Ingram pleaded guilty to six counts of raping his daughters and served 14 years in federal prison.
  • Republican election board official Kevin Coan was sentenced to two years probation for soliciting sex over the internet from a 14-year old girl.
  • Republican politician Andrew Buhr was charged with two counts of first-degree sodomy with a 13-year old boy.
  • Republican politician Keith Westmoreland was arrested on seven felony counts of a lewd and lascivious exhibition to girls under the age of 16 (i.e., exposing himself to children).
  • Republican anti-abortion activist John Allen Burt was charged with sexual misconduct involving a 15-year old girl.
  • Republican County Councilman Keola Childs pleaded guilty to molesting a male child.
  • Republican activist John Butler was charged with criminal sexual assault on a teenage girl. Republican candidate Richard Gardner admitted to molesting his two daughters.
  • Republican Councilman and former Marine Jack W. Gardner was convicted of molesting a 13-year old girl.
  • Republican County Commissioner Merrill Robert Barter pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual contact and assault on a teenage boy.
  • Republican City Councilman Fred C. Smeltzer, Jr. pleaded no contest to raping a 15-year-old girl and served 6-months in prison.
  • Republican activist Parker J. Bena pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography on his home computer and was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison and fined $18,000.
  • Republican parole board officer and former Colorado state representative, Larry Jack Schwarz, was fired after child pornography was found in his possession.
  • Republican strategist and Citadel Military College graduate Robin Vanderwall was convicted in Virginia on five counts of soliciting sex from boys and girls over the internet.
  • Republican city councilman Mark Harris, who is described as a “good military man” and “church goer,” was convicted of repeatedly having sex with an 11-year-old girl and sentenced to 12 years in prison.
  • Republican businessman Jon Grunseth withdrew his candidacy for Minnesota governor after allegations surfaced that he went swimming in the nude with four underage girls, including his daughter.
  • Republican director of the “Young Republican Federation” Nicholas Elizondo molested his 6-year old daughter and was sentenced to six years in prison.
  • Republican benefactor of conservative Christian groups, Richard A. Dasen Sr., was charged with rape for allegedly paying a 15-year old girl for sex. Dasen, 62, who is married with grown children and several grandchildren, has allegedly told police that over the past decade, he paid more than $1 million to have sex with a large number of young women.
  • Democratic donor and billionaire Jeffrey Epstein ran an underage child sex brothel and was convicted of soliciting underage girls for prostitution.
  • Democratic New York Congressman, Anthony Weiner, plead guilty to transferring obscene material to a minor as part of a plea agreement for sexted and sending Twitter DMs to underage girls as young as 15.
  • Democratic donor, activist, and Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein is being criminally prosecuted and civilly sued for years of sexual abuse (that was well known “secret” in Hollywood) including, underage sexual activities with aspiring female actresses.
  • Democratic activist and #metoo proponent, Asia Argento, settled a lawsuit for sexual harassment stemming from sexual activities with an underage actor.
  • Democratic Mayor of Racine, Wisconsin, Gary Becker, was convicted of attempted child seduction, child pornography, and other child sex crimes.
  • Democratic Seattle Mayor Ed Murray resigned after multiple accusations of child sexual abuse were levied against him, including by family members.
  • Democratic activist and aid to NYC Mayor De Blasio, Jacob Schwartz, was arrested on possession of 3,000+ child pornographic images.
  • Democratic activist and actor Russell Simmons was sued based on an allegation of sexual assault where he coerced an underage model for sex.
  • Democratic Governor of Oregon, Neil Goldschmidt, after being caught by a newspaper, publicly admitted to having a past sexual relationship with a 13-year-old girl after the statute of limitations on the rape charges had expired.
  • Democratic Illinois Congressman, Mel Reynolds, resigned from Congress after he was convicted of the statutory rape of a 16-year-old campaign volunteer.
  • Democratic New York Congressman, Fred Richmond, was arrested in Washington D.C. for soliciting sex from a 16-year-old boy.
  • Democratic activist, donor, and director, Roman Polanski, fled the country after pleading guilty to the statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl. Democrats and Hollywood actors still defend him to this day, including Whoopi Goldberg, Martin Scorcese, Woody Allen, David Lynch, Wim Wenders, Pedro Almodovar, Tilda Swinton, and Monica Bellucci.
  • Democratic State Senator from Alaska, George Jacko, was found guilty of sexual harassment of an underage legislative page.
  • Democratic State Representative candidate for Colorado, Andrew Myers, was convicted for possession of child pornography and enticing children.
  • Democratic Illinois Congressman, Gus Savage, was investigated by the Democrat-controlled House Committee on Ethics for attempting to rape an underage female Peace Corps volunteer in Zaire. The Committee concluded that while the events did occur, his apology was sufficient, and took no further action.
  • Democratic activist, donor, and spokesperson for Subway, Jared Fogle, was convicted of distribution and receipt of child pornography and traveling to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a minor.
  • Democratic State Department official, Carl Carey, under Hillary Clinton’s state department, was arrested on ten counts of child porn possession.
  • Democratic Maine Assistant Attorney General, James Cameron, was sentenced to just over 15 years in federal prison for seven counts of child porn possession, receipt, and transmission.
  • Democratic State Department official Daniel Rosen, under Hillary Clinton’s state department, was arrested and charged with allegedly soliciting sex from a minor over the internet.
  • Democratic State Department official, James Cafferty, pleaded guilty to one count of transportation of child pornography.
  • Democratic radio host, Bernie Ward, plead guilty to one count of sending child pornography over the Internet. Democratic deputy attorney general from California, Raymond Liddy, was arrested for possession of child pornography.

Summary

There has been scant media coverage of arrests and subsequent convictions of those who were caught up in child pornography, child sex trafficking, or pedophilia illegalities. But one thing is certain: under this President, there have been massive numbers caught and punished.

As you see above, not all are in politics — there are many in the entertainment and the media world. Sexual perversion has no favorites: it will be part of any person’s life who so chooses.

We at TruthNewsNetwork reported several years ago about our continual monitoring of a huge number of sealed federal indictments that have, for the last four years, been issued (and sealed) in every federal district court in the nation. It’s been a massive number that has never before been seen in American history.

What does a “sealed indictment” mean? It is an indictment that, when un-sealed, will be used by federal authorities to arrest and charge people for wrongdoings of numerous kinds. Those alleged offenders are arrested and charged and then appear to defend themselves. The details of those included in those sealed indictments and their offenses are unknown until after their unsealing and their processing.

The maximum number of sealed indictments being issues by the combined federal courts across the nation has been approximately 3000 in one calendar year. Since the beginning of the Trump Administration, the unsealing process of 182,771 sealed indictments being “Unsealed” has begun. Those listed above are part of the revealing and processing of those guilty of criminal acts against American children.

Yes, this is a long story. But it will be much longer when completed: if it ever is.

Many have and will continue to blame President Trump for numerous ills in our cities, states, and our nation. But one thing that none can truthfully and honestly blame him for is overlooking the welfare of American children — especially those who innocently find themselves involved in horrible events forced on them by some of the sickest humans on Earth.

We’ll continue to watch as those other thousands of sealed indictments are unsealed and processed. I wonder who numbers above those who are now beginning to live the promise in that Scripture: “Be sure your sins will find you out?”

Are You Enjoying the Cartoons We’re Watching Everyday?

August 28, 2020

As a kid, I loved nothing more than Saturday morning hurrying to eat my bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios while watching cartoons. And they were the best in the 60s! Roadrunner, Bugs Bunny, The Green Lantern, and every once in a while I’d watch The Jetsons.

By the time I hit junior high, I stopped the cartoon stuff: too “mature” for those anymore. But as our kids came along I’d find myself peeking at a cartoon or two with them occasionally. There was something special about falling into a place to escape just for an hour or two a week.

Today, it’s no real issue for this adult to take a daily break to watch cartoons. Grab the remote and scan the news with a cup of coffee before going to work. The cartoons are still around. They’ve changed a bit: today they’re called CNN, MSNBC, The Today Show, and Good Morning America. Why? Almost daily they bring Democrat politicians to their sets to discuss the latest and the greatest conspiracy that always has as its central character the comic villain, Donald Trump. “What has that evil man done today?”

There has been a “Trump Conspiracy Epic” weekly since even before his inauguration in 2017. And not a single one has turned out to be true! But that doesn’t stop the “Pelosi Posse” from marching out a new one just when the final episode of the previous one airs.

You can pretty much bank on the Democrats and the Left moving from one conspiracy theory to the next. . . to the next, desperately hoping that somehow that can make a conspiracy theory real. They’ve gone from Russian collusion to Ukrainian Quid Pro Quo to the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) hoax. At some point, one expects them to solemnly intone that in reality, Donald Trump is an alien. If we had a real media interested in truth and accountability, these hoaxes and conspiracy theories would be laughed out of the building by serious, thoughtful people – but they aren’t.

Now Democrats have taken it to the next level, fundraising off their most recent wild conspiracy theory about the U.S. Postal Service. On Monday, House Committee on Oversight and Reform Chair Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) sent a fundraising email during a hearing with the Postmaster General Luis DeJoy with wild claims of “sabotage” and the allegation that President Donald J. Trump is trying to “steal the presidential election.”

Democrats really have no shame.

And they are emboldened by knowing that their liberal allies in the media will never fact check them on these baseless claims.

On Saturday, the House passed Rep. Maloney’s bill to bailout the post office with $25 billion, and to stop reforms being contemplated by the new Postmaster General to turn around an organization that has lost tens of billions of taxpayer dollars due to mismanagement. Democrats held a hearing on the bill on Monday, two days after they passed the bill because they wanted to use Saturday to promote their conspiracy theory just before the start of this week’s Republican National Convention (RNC).

The Maloney fundraising email read: “After being appointed by Trump as a major donor to his campaign, PMG DeJoy has implemented detrimental changes to the quality and services that so many Americans rely on the U.S. Postal Service to provide. It’s all part of Trump’s scheme to sabotage the USPS and steal the presidential election.” The same political party that embraces a theory that all police are part of a racist cabal has now pushed a new theory that the President is manipulating the post office to fix the fall election for Republicans up and down the ticket.

The Wall Street Journal on Saturday hit the nail on the head when they pointed out that the actions of Congress were hampering reforms needed at the USPS. The Journal reported, “new Postmaster General Louis DeJoy testified last week that the post office has enough money to deliver mail-in ballots, and his operation can’t possibly spend $25 billion that quickly in any case.” In other words, the $25 billion bailout was unnecessary.

Maloney’s fundraising email continued: “The need to protect the USPS is more pressing than ever, which is why House Speaker Pelosi called us back early from August recess for an emergency vote this weekend on my Delivering for America Act — the legislation will not only block further efforts to dismantle the Postal Service through drastic changes, but it was also REVERSE the harmful new policies and operations that PMG DeJoy has put in place.” The only thing that the new Postmaster is trying to reverse is the policies that have led to billions in losses.

The Journal pointed out that “the Postal Service has lost $78 billion since 2007” and they have “been taking out underutilized equipment for years.” The removal of old sorters and underused mailboxes has been the policy for years and happened under. . . the Obama Administration.

Postmaster General DeJoy, not Congress, promised to “prioritize ballots over other kinds of first-class mail.” This would seem to remove any argument the Democrats have, yet that didn’t stop Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) who asked during the Oversight hearing that DeJoy’s calendar be subpoenaed with no explanation, creating the false impression that the Postmaster-General has something to hide.

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) took the Democrats to task, correctly stating that “the facts are not anything they are close to what they have been saying the last three weeks.” Democrats, Rep. Jordan said, were “not interested in a bipartisan solution,” but instead wanted to play politics.

Ultimately, the hearing was an embarrassment for Democrats because they were exposed to be promoting another hoax. But don’t expect that to stop them – or for the media to hold them to account. Instead, we can expect more fear-mongering about the U.S. Post Office until Election Day, when voters will hopefully send them into the political wilderness.

The “Hoped-For End”

Think about the lunacy of the demands from the Democrats for two specific things in Pelosi’s latest COVID-19 Stimulus plan: one is a multi-billion dollar bailout of all those wealthy homeowners from her home state of California along with those from New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey who in the 2017 tax cuts saw their multi-million dollar local and state real estate tax deductions evaporate. (That has much to do with Coronavirus, doesn’t it?) The second was the Pelosi demand for the federal government to rip control of ALL elections from the states to be forever controlled solely by the federal government. Her demand for that election control is to be implemented immediately, beginning with November 3rd’s election, and to be one of total mail-in voting!

Pelosi’s plan is massive yet includes tedious details with comprehensive steps to put in place the necessary infrastructure for it’s operation. Her ”roadmap”contains recommendations of hundreds of experts from each of the 50 states to craft this program using years of experience to side-step potential roadblocks. The states were elated to hear that their task to handle elections will finally be eliminated.

Of course, no such plan exists. Yet the Pelosi demands for mail-in voting conducted by the federal government for this and every upcoming election DOES EXIST!

This is just an example of one more Democrat Party conspiracy theory: “President Trump is doing everything within his power to stop voters who fear for their lives from COVID-19 so much they will not leave their homes to go vote! He is suppressing voters’ rights!”

Summary

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and others in her party will NOT stop with the Trump conspiracies even if he wins the election in November. Why do they do this? Why will they continue? The answer is simple: there is apparently a bundle of wrongdoing during the eight-years of the Obama Administration on the part of many who still serve in government. Attorney General William Barr and Federal Attorney John Durham have nearly completed a massive investigation into this wrongdoing of which much appears to be criminal in nature.

If these conspiracies into Donald Trump would be sufficient for the American voters to turn their back on this President, not a single detail of any findings of criminality by those that are certainly implicated will ever be brought forward for the purpose of giving Americans the truth. Instead, a President Biden will immediately replace Barr and Durham, those in the Department of Justice who have so diligently worked on these investigations, and all case details will be sealed forever, never to be seen by the American people.

Call it a conspiracy theory. But with the first criminal indictment and the subsequent guilty plea of an Obama Department of Justice attorney for altering court documents during the fake Russia Collusion investigation, it is obvious there are far more indictments of many more Obama minions about to happen.

“Evil in the Obama Administration?” Remember that President Obama famously bragged, saying “There’s never been ONE indictment in my administration.” He was wrong: there has now been one. How many more are there to come? To me, the number is not significant. What IS significant is that we finally have a president who has surrounded himself in his DOJ NOT with sycophants who exist merely to benignly approve everything that happens on his watch, but to assure Americans that the Rule of Law is once again the backbone of the United States presidency. And to quote former President Obama: “No one is above the Law,” not even him.

 

Is Minneapolis Peace Possible?

May 29, 2020

“When civility leads to death, revolting is the only logical reaction,” the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback tweeted. “The cries for peace will rain down, and when they do, they will land on deaf ears, because your violence has brought this resistance. We have the right to fight back! Rest in Power George Floyd.”

Former San Francisco 49er QB Colin Kaepernick delivered that message to all those who were part of the aftermath of the killing of a man in Minneapolis in a tragic encounter with four policemen. Video of the event clearly shows that the police grossly mishandled the confrontation with George Floyd, an African American. The video is absolute proof of excessive force in the encounter and George’s subsequent death. And Floyd was subdued, under control, and making no attempt to escape or harm police when he died.

Already three nights of violence have decimated downtown Minneapolis with stores looted and destroyed, several buildings burned to the ground and millions of dollars of destruction at the hands of demonstrators.

There is no doubt this man we killed in brutal fashion and killed needlessly. That issue should be a stand-alone. For outsiders such as Kaepernick to make such inflammatory comments as he did with no personal attachments, knowledge of, or any personal involvement serves absolutely no reasonable purpose in this travesty. In fact, Kaepernick’s statement will probably act like pouring gasoline on an already massive fire.

Those rioters and protestors use as justification for their pilfering from and destroying of stores the fact that systemic racism among the ranks of white policemen are the direct causes of Floyd’s death. You know what? That’s probably true. But who do these rioters punish for the unnecessary death of Floyd? Does their destruction of private property, the random theft from the store inventories they raided, and burning down an automotive parts store do anything to impact the injustice committed against Floyd.

Neither does the inflammatory threats of the former NFL Quarterback.

No doubt we in the U.S. have a rampant racist problem that is obviously embedded in our criminal justice system at every level. I’m certain it has been addressed in law enforcement in numerous places and at numerous times. But obviously, it has NOT been eradicated and seems to be thriving in Minneapolis. It MUST be addressed aggressively and done so quickly. The African American community does NOT trust white policemen – and justifiably so.

Added crime in no way can erase the crime of Floyd’s apparent murder. And rioting accomplishes nothing. Those actions only worsen the divide between justice and fairness. They certainly do nothing to stem criminal activity by either side: rioters AND the police. Actions like these playing out daily in Minnesota only make the possibilities of fixing this problem and removing those who insist to perpetually feed the fires of brutality and racism on increase the already near impossibility in which we live today. So what can be done?

Leadership – American leadership representing ALL Americans MUST come to the table, dropping all pretense and anger before sitting down. That’s a tough task to organize! I’m not certain it is even possible. But one thing I DO know: even IF reconciliation is possible, it will never occur around that table with guns drawn both verbally and literally. Violence has never begat peace in any situation. And it will not today.

“If” those in the minority community and those in law enforcement sincerely want to craft and implement a permanent racial peace, having such a summit is an absolute necessity. I’m not saying it will ever work. But no one will know unless honest attempts are made.

You know what? I don’t think those at that table should come from law enforcement nor racial activists, black or white. They need to represent rank-and-file Americans of color and white Americans who already love and daily interact with each other in the same world. Those Americans seem to be the ones most desirous of actual reconciliation and seem to want nothing but real peace. Accomplishing that requires no political or racial agenda.

Can that peace process be brokered? “Can” is possible “IF” enough people believe it is possible and will drop the anger and blame and victim-status to talk to and with each other in honesty and can do that without just talking “AT” each other.

Will that peace process be brokered? I’m not a soothsayer nor a prophet. But I will say honestly for it to happen will require a supernatural miracle. In our history, we’ve had a few of those. We certainly can have another. And we certainly need another.

One more thing MUST be part of an attempt for peace in Minneapolis: white cops nor a former NFL Quarterback need to be part of that conversation. Those people foregoing their political and racial perspectives will be at least part of the necessary miracle for such as an act like this to happen.

Missed in this tragedy of the death of George Floyd and the aftermath in Minneapolis are the feelings of his family members. I want you to watch and listen to the responses of questions from his two cousins. Contrast their words with those of one of the nation’s most recognizable Civil Rights attorneys:

There’s a stark contrast between the countenances and words of these two cousins and this attorney.

That alone is the heretofore insurmountable challenge of racial reconciliation in our nation. That’s going to take a miracle.

A “God” Miracle.

The Story of Archie

May 26, 2020

Racial biases in the criminal justice system have started to decline, according to new research by the bipartisan Council on Criminal Justice, but that is no reason to celebrate. Mostly black and brown faces still fill the country’s jails and prisons, and people of color make up most of the parole and probation rolls. The work is not done until the gap is eliminated and the unfair targeting of people of color has ended.

Still, the strides the report outlined shouldn’t be ignored. The imprisonment rate for black men decreased for all crime categories except public order offenses, such as disorderly conduct and public drunkenness, according to the report, which analyzed data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics spanning 2000 to 2016. African Americans were incarcerated at a rate 8.3 times higher than white people in 2000, and for Hispanic people the rate was 2.6 times higher. By 2016 those ratios dropped to 5.1 to 1 and 1.6 to 1, respectively, according to the study.

While that represents progress, African Americans are still five times more likely to be imprisoned than white people and Hispanics nearly twice as likely, and both imbalances are wholly unacceptable. The culture of locking up people of color, whether because of unconscious biases our outright discrimination, is still alive and well. Just recently, The New York Times reported that police officers said they were told by a commander to go after blacks and Latinos for minor offenses like jumping turnstiles. Leave Asians and whites alone, they were instructed.

If there is a bright spot to the numbers, it’s that they offer encouragement to those who have kept issues like mass incarceration, mandatory minimums, and unfair sentencing in the spotlight. It adds even more credence to the good work of groups like the Innocence Project that have worked, sometimes on shoestring budgets, to free those who have been wrongly convicted based on trumped-up charges, coerced confessions, and bad witness testimony. All of this activism has helped keep up the pressure to end biases by showing the tragic result such disparities in sentencing and imprisonment have. It’s well-documented that people with prison records have a hard time getting jobs and that incarceration breaks up families. We need more resources directed at these issues, and these groups need to keep plowing ahead to keep the biases in law enforcement at the forefront.

Researchers with the Council on Criminal Justice say they will use the data collected to come up with policies that can help further erode the disparities in the system. They concede that outcomes vary by race and type of crime, making it hard to point to a single cause for the disparities. The largest drop in racial disparity occurred for drug offenses, which also correlated with a drop in the disparity of those who were jailed. We need to know more about why those drops occurred and whether similar principles should be applied in other areas.

Researchers also should conduct an analysis by state and region to see if the problem is more pronounced in certain parts of the country. Do factors such as past criminal history impact whether or not someone ends up in jail again? In other words, is the prison pipeline cycle perpetuating itself? Also, how do police departments change a culture in which police officers scrutinize people of color more intensely than white residents? Racial bias, bail reform, and the over-policing of low-income neighborhoods are all areas ripe for reform.

Before we look at Criminal Justice reform, Meet Archie Williams:

Of all the Presidents who a large majority of Americans thought could possibly get a criminal justice reform bill — one of ANY kind passed — Donald Trump would have been the last name mentioned. But he’s the one that did it: The First Step Act.

The First Step Act, which replaced a federal “three strikes” rule that imposed a life sentence for three or more convictions – with a 25-year sentence, is benefiting thousands of incarcerated Black men, according to a new report. More than 1,000 individuals incarcerated in federal prisons were granted sentence reductions in the four months since the First Step Act was signed into law, according to the United States Sentencing Commission (USSC).

Their sentences were reduced by a mean of 73 months or 29.4 percent, as a result of the resentencing provisions allowed under the Act which, in addition to shortening mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug offenses, applied resentencing to be applied retroactively to individuals convicted of crack cocaine offenses before 2010 – when the federal government reduced disparities between crack and powder cocaine offenses.

Over a quarter of the 1,051 resentencing motions were granted by federal courts in Florida, South Carolina, and Virginia.

Over 91 percent of the individuals whose sentences were shortened were African American and 98 percent were male, the USSC said.

The average age of those granted resentencing motions was 45 – and the average age at the time of the original sentence was 32.

Summary

Is there still racism in America’s criminal justice system? Absolutely. Is it better with The First Step Act? Probably so. I say “Probably,” because there are many who feel it really IS just a first step and that much more needs to be done.

But isn’t there something to be said for getting a start that in just months achieved the startling results that it has? Isn’t it startling that the United States first African American president was unable to get it done and it took the rebel from Queens to muster sufficient votes in the House and Senate so he could sign it into law?

As our story on Saturday said, “Racism has no color.” But there’s no doubt that in criminal justice, the African American community has been profusely disadvantaged in dramatic fashion.

I don’t care if you’re a mother of several black children, or an African American high school football coach or even if you’re a Caucasian billionaire Wall Street banker, you’d be blind if you didn’t see systemic racism that has plagued our nation for years. The First Step Act is just the first step.

No, this is not a call to allow law-breakers to not pay for their crimes. It’s a call for justice for all: nothing more and nothing less. It’s a call for law enforcement agency members and those in robes that pass sentences and every other man, woman and child to recognize there’s no right for minorities and another for whites when it comes to laws. “Equal Justice Under the Law” means just that.

The First Step needs to be just that: the First Step. There are many more steps necessary. Let’s see who will step up to lead the charge for the Second Step.

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Somebody’s In BIG Trouble!

May 14, 2020

Won’t it be wonderful one day when we can pick up a newspaper, go to our favorite news website, listen to our #1 radio talk show or watch nighttime TV news and just believe everything they tell us and give us in print is REALLY true? Do you think that will ever happen? To be honest, I think before that happens the Statue of Liberty will dive into the Hudson and swim up the East River to have lunch in Brooklyn at the River Cafe!

It is really sad that our media presentation has come to this. I am not going to talk about specific examples, who said this or that, who wrote this, who edited this or that story to prefer someone: if I did that, it would take all day. You’d undoubtedly tire — or you’d just turn me off. 

Say, maybe that’s something we might want to consider ourselves: turn THEM off. Would your world actually end if you tried that? I have before and I’m thinking about doing it again.

Yeah, I know: I’m the publisher of TruthNewsNetwork. I can’t just turn off the news. How else could I bring you all the things we share with you daily. But that doesn’t mean I cannot resent the fact that neither you nor I have any confidence that what we see, read, watch or listen to is news. And that is sad.

Take for example, what is burning up the news coverage yesterday and will be again today: the unmasking of Lt. General Michael Flynn by members of the Obama Administration. I don’t remember an instance before in which such a travesty against a private American citizen was implemented for whatever reason (we still don’t know) by members of a presidential administration. To say this occurrence being discovered and confirmed is one thing. But to read the details of the requests for the unmasking of Flynn’s name is mindboggling. To make matters worse, the Left has been frothing at the mouth all day yesterday, demanding that Americans just “let it go.” If I heard these two things once, I’ve heard them one hundred times. Their excuse for the Flynn unmasking is two-fold: “The unmasking of Americans’ names who were conversing with foreign nationals is commonplace. It happens all the time.” But this one takes the cake: “Michael Flynn pled guilty to lying to federal officials. He pled guilty!” As if his extorted guilty plea justifies the Flynn unmasking before the meeting even took place at which he committed the act for which he was charged.

The insanity of the unmasking is one thing. What is even more unthinkable is who requested and received Flynn’s name from the NSA. Let’s take a look so you can know what we’re talking about:

I hope you can read these names. (I know, the list is tough to read. If you cannot on your device, wait until you can get to your computer.) For the sake of the point of today’s story, let’s discuss just a few:

U.S. Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power  She requested the unmasking of Flynn’s identity regarding phone calls from the dates 11/3/2016 through 1/17/2017. In the first place, what business does a U.S. ambassador to the United Nations have knowing to whom the incoming National Security Advisor is speaking regarding matters between the incoming President and leaders of foreign nations? She’s not the ambassador to Britain, or France, or Russia, or China. The answer: she had NO business and no authority to do so. Note: each of her calls happened after the election when Obama was on his way out of the White House.

Director for National Intelligence James Clapper It comes as no surprise that Clapper would be desperate to know to whom Flynn was speaking and about what. After all, he like these others were probably headed for the exit. His unmasking requests were also on dates between the election and the inauguration. Do you think there may have been some CYA?

Director of the CIA John Brennan Mr. Brennan has made it no secret that he despises this president. Of all those shown above, he was the likely candidate for this to me. He has been caught in committing felonies by lying under oath numerous times when acting in his official capacity. It is expected by many that he will certainly be revealed as the target of an indictment from the Durham criminal investigation that is reportedly wrapping up.

Director of the FBI James Comey Remember, Flynn served as Director of the ODNI under Obama with Comey has FBI Director. Knowing what we now know about Comey, do you think those two may have had a run-in of some kind during their overlapping years in the Obama Administration? Comey, too, will probably see the inside of a courtroom with his compadre Brennan when results of the Durham investigation are final.

Former Vice President Joe Biden Is there any reason for an explanation for Biden’s requests? What in the world did HE need to know about Michael Flynn’s phone calls? Biden was leaving office!

The important things to note here are these:

  • Notice the date of each request. Each happened after the 2016 election and before the inauguration.
  • None of those mentioned above had any reason to request the unmasking of Flynn, even though 16 were authorized to do so. Why? None of them were going to make the transition to the new administration!

There’s one other salient point: the purpose given by every liberal and interpreted by every leftist media reporter for the unmasking was “because of the illegal collusion taking place by Trump’s incoming National Security Advisor and Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak. But, do you know what’s curious about all of this? The first contact Flynn had with Kislyak was December 29. Every one of this unmasking requests came days and weeks before the call ever took place!

So why would there be this many people who can get personal information about American citizens? Former FBI Director James Comey in testimony before the House explained why. Listen to what he says and do everything you can not to throw up:

Summary

Just how high in the Obama Administration did this all go? We know, based on the classified documents released last week, that Mr. Obama told acting Attorney General Sally Yates in that Oval Office meeting on January 5, 2017, that he “knew all about the stuff going on regarding Michael Flynn.” Biden, Clapper, and Brennan were in that Oval Office meeting as well.

But what was the universal concern by so many in the Obama Administration to find out during the transition to the Trump Administration details of conversations Flynn was having with foreign leaders? Could it be that there is or are things they do not want the American people to know about? Do they have anything to hide? Could the President have done something for which people throughout the top tier of his Administration would join forces with other Obama adherents to seek out information to try and keep Lt. General Flynn from sharing it with the incoming President?

Did you know, Obama was obligated to share known details with Trump of the specifics of any wrongdoing by Flynn while acting in the Obama Administration as Director of the National Intelligence office? And he didn’t!

How are Americans supposed to reconcile all this? Indeed it will not happen because of the demands of the Leftist media who all day Wednesday screamed at their media counterparts that “everybody does it!” It was SO obvious that they were desperate to assure their party’s base that even though it looked terrible, absolutely nothing went wrong in this case.

Do you know what the only thing that matters in hindsight is? Someone from that list of Americans — the only ones who knew that Flynn was speaking to foreign government leaders, specifically Kislyak — were those on that list. One of them is the person who leaked to the Washington Post and the New York Times the entire Flynn story, concentrating, of course, on the “Russia connection.” Whoever is the guilty party committed felony acts in giving that classified information to those newspapers. Whichever one of those did the dirty deed faces up to ten years in jail for doing so.

Today, Thursday is another day. Wouldn’t it be nice to just walk with the dog to pick up your newspaper, head to your back porch with a steaming cup of coffee and read the news without feeling the need to question everything you read?

Do you think we’ll ever see that again? I sure hope so.

And to whoever was the guilty person to make those two phone calls, get ready: in this situation with so many spotlights shining brightly into it, you certainly will have lots of time to read the newspaper — probably yesterday’s edition — sitting in your cell still thinking about a steaming cup of hot coffee.

They’re not going to bring you one!

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Equal Justice Under the Law: Two Sets That are NOT Equal

February 21, 2020

This story comes as a direct result of the story and podcast published yesterday, February 20, 2020, that was centered around the bold actions of three U.S. Senators along with former Secretary of State John Kerry. Those three plus Kerry took it upon themselves to go to a meeting in Europe to meet privately with the Foreign Minister of Iran to discuss matters in regards to relations between Iran and the United States.

That seems benign on its face. After all, Sen. Menendez (D-NJ), Sen. Van Hollen (D-DE) and Sen. Murphy (D-CT) currently serve in the “senior” chamber of Congress, the U.S. Senate. And Congress has oversight of the Executive Branch of government, which includes foreign relations.

We introduced our partners to the Logan Act — a law passed by Congress to protect the U.S. from politicians and others who decide on their own to interact with officials of other countries on governmental matters between the U.S. and those countries. Congress felt people in doing so would make a dangerous impact on U.S. foreign policy matters with those countries and could be egregiously damaged by those other than government officials who are expressly authorized to conduct such meetings. 

Not only did these three Senators and Kerry make this trip and meet with Iran’s foreign minister without permission of the State Department, but they also did so without the knowledge of anyone in the Administration.

In a FOX News interview, Kerry responded to charges of his violation of the Logan Act by first laughing and then saying, “I haven’t violated any law. I never negotiated with ANYONE.”

The Logan Act never lists “negotiating” as a violation of the law. It states that meeting with those foreign leaders “regarding matters having to do with anything between the U.S. and that other country” is a violation.

When our TNN partners were told of those actions in light of the Logan Act, over 100,000 expressed their anger and dismay! Email after email expressed horror and disgust for Van Hollen, Murphy, Menendez doing so. And there was almost hatred from many for John Kerry’s involvement. He’s not even in the government!

Those emails each very clearly stated that this is happening because there is no fear of prosecution for those crimes. Why is that? Americans feel there is a two-tiered Justice System in the U.S. today: one for regular Americans and one for the political elite that contains separate rules, regulations, and laws that apply only to those elites. And, obviously, those elites are held to a much easier and forgiving justice than are we.

Equal Justice Under the Law: Really!

The U.S. is comprised mostly of lawful, red-blooded Americans who love the red, white, and blue, often get choked up singing the “Star Bangled Banner,” and get a tear in their eye when hearing taps played while the caskets of soldiers are taken off a plane returning home after dying for their nation overseas.

Most Americans are proud to be Americans. And most Americans feel blessed to live in the greatest country on the planet. Most Americans feel one of the reasons for this country’s greatness is the structure of and fairness in the American Justice System. It guarantees us all “Equal Justice under the Law.” Laws are laws, and lawbreakers are considered innocent unless and until they are adjudicated to be guilty by a jury of their peers in a courtroom.

Those are the characteristics of our country that, for a couple of centuries, we just assumed are in place and always will be to protect us all. But that assurance is wavering.

Many Americans see things play out that dispute that eternal guarantee of equal justice. What fuels those disputes is illustrated best by what many have concluded is corruption in our government. Nowhere else is that corruption better represented than a justice system that appears to no longer be a system of justice that is fair and equal for all.

Two sets of rules under the law are called “duplicity:” contradictory doubleness of thought, speech, or action. Federal laws are written and presented to be implemented equally for everyone. Their enforcement sadly is no longer equal.

Equal Justice?

♦♦ In 2018, Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz issued a criminal referral to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in D.C. related to fired FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.

Horowitz issued a scathing report of McCabe’s conduct at the FBI, alleging that he authorized a leak to the media to “advance his personal interests” and then misled internal investigators and fired FBI Director James Comey about the matter.

Lying to federal investigators is a federal crime, and the report was seen by some analysts as a roadmap for federal charges against McCabe. Surely McCabe would be prosecuted. However, in February of 2020, almost two years later, the Department of Justice gave notice they will NOT prosecute McCabe for the criminal wrongdoing revealed in Inspector Horowitz’s referral.

♦♦ Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn was charged with lying to FBI agents on January 24, 2017. The substance of Flynn’s statements made to FBI agents: he denied asking a Russian Ambassador to come to the United States and denied asking that Ambassador to request Russia to delay making their vote in the U.N. Security Council on a specific issue. Flynn plead guilty on both charges as part of a plea deal. However, Flynn’s lawyer has stated Flynn is asking to withdraw his guilty plea. The resolution is pending.

♦♦ Trump Associate Roger Stone was charged with seven counts. The seven counts against Stone include one count of obstruction of an official proceeding, five counts of false statements — including lying to Congress — and one count of witness tampering in special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign during the 2016 presidential election. Stone was sentenced to 34 months in jail. A decision on a possible new trial is pending.

♦♦ George Papadopoulos, a Trump campaign adviser, was charged and subsequently plead guilty to lying to the FBI as part of the Mueller investigation into Trump campaign wrongdoing. Papadopoulos plead guilty and served six weeks in jail.

There were others who were charged, several of which have plead to charges against them. However, none but those above were charged with anything that involved Donald Trump or his campaign. Paul Manaforte and his associate Rick Gates were charged and convicted for a host of actions taken before the Trump Campaign even began and involved nothing to do with the election or Mr. Trump.

Americans expect those — ALL those — who break the laws of the U.S. should face prosecution for their illegal actions. (That includes those who enter the nation illegally as illegal immigrants.) Those same Americans are aghast that any of those who break laws are allowed to skate with no accountability and are never charged for their crimes.

The reality of a “Deep State” with extremely intrusive political power is confirmed over and over as many politically connected Americans actually commit illegal actions for which they are never prosecuted. Each is an example of a two-tiered justice system: one that’s good for politically connected people and a second-tier applicable only for the rest of Americans — those who are NOT connected to VIP’s.

The actions of the Robert Mueller team proved that system exists. Recent actions confirm its existence but confirm that this “New” justice system is deeper and far wider than was first thought.

DOJ “Anti-Trump” Operatives Who Colluded to “Dump Trump”

Who will ever forget these:

  • Former FBI Director James Comey
  • DNI Director James Clapper
  • CIA Director John Brennan
  • Bruce and Nelli Ohr
  • Lisa Page
  • Peter Strozk
  • Susan Rice
  • The Impeachment Whistleblower
  • Christopher Steele
  • Glen Simpson
  • Hillary Clinton
  • Uma Abedin

Each of these worked in the Department of Justice, FBI, the White House or were involved directly with the Clinton Campaign during the 2016 election cycle regarding how to make certain Donald Trump did NOT win. Each of these have been implicated with “reasonable” evidence of illegal activity far more serious than was the basis used to take-down Michael Flynn, Roger Stone, and George Papadopoulos. Don’t forget: Inspector General Horowitz in his criminal referral to the DOJ of Andrew McCabe included a significant basis for McCabe’s prosecution.

The anger from Americans for all of the above is headed toward all-out rage. This comes exclusively because there is no explanation offered by the DOJ or any other agency for none of these — NONE — being prosecuted when their crimes are front-and-center in the faces of all Americans!

Summary

We’ve tried to be generous to the government regarding no legal actions being taken against those committing these unforgivable acts that often have been illegal. We’ve searched for plausible explanations for the prosecutorial inactions. But, honestly, we keep coming up empty. There’s no believable reason we can find for the lack of equal justice for these wrongdoers as compared to Flynn, Papadopoulos, Stone and even several others.

What’s believable? The only explanation I can find is this:

If you’re a working-class American with no political ties but just do your best in your town or city to raise a family, you’re NOT eligible to receive the same justice as are POLITICOS.

If you’re a federal politician with close ties to career workers at the DOJ, FBI, and intelligence agencies, there’s a good chance you can find a way to obtain a free pass that will exclude you from that “other” justice.

When the dirt began to be released about career bureaucrats who joined together to keep Donald Trump from office and then to remove him, Americans were told by political leaders, “Most of the rank and file workers at the Department of Justice and the FBI are good people who love the Country and authentic justice. The few whose political hatred and animus we’ve seen uncovered are in the minority, and there’s only a handful of them.”

Americans no longer believe that.

I still have the conviction that the DOJ is probably in the midst of ongoing investigations into these and others. We know those have been and are still underway at the hands of Federal Prosecutor John Durham of Connecticut. And Durham announced when they turned from “inquiries” to “criminal investigations.”

Americans don’t have much confidence that anything will come of this. So far, not one of the “black hat” guys has been brought to justice. McCabe is an example of that. Hillary, Comey, Obama, and a host of former Obama Administration members still hold their breaths, praying they’ll too get a pass as did McCabe. The “white hat” guys have all either been busted, run out of town or the country, or are hiding hoping to not show up in someone’s bullseye.

Is that the America in which we want to live? Do we not want and expect everyone to receive justice based on the same criteria as that for those in government and politics? Americans simply want “Equal Justice under the Law“– no special favors, no tricks by law enforcement officers, and simple truth.

We learned long ago that among the American public, “perception is reality.” Today’s American perception of the Justice System is that it has branched into two branches. Until that is disproven through actual examples that are rolled out in the public consistently, distrust for fairness under our justice system exists and will sadly continue to grow.

Americans are not supposed to feel that way. If your name is Kerry, Comey, Clinton, McCabe, Smith or Jones, Lady Justice shown above promised us all she’d be blind.

She’s peeking pretty regularly right now.

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A Lawless President That Ignores “The Rule of Law”

February 13, 2020

Many Americans are shocked to see a president that thumbs his nose at the Judicial branch of our government and just began making laws and executive decisions on his own when court findings disagree with what he thought should happen in a case. The outcry by Americans has only just begun.

Remember the Presidential oath of office: “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

That oath is succinct regarding the requirement for every president to defend the Constitution “to the best of his or her ability.” What’s the purpose of the Constitution? To forever be the legal template for all of the nation to use in crafting and implementing all federal legislation passed and signed into law. No person, either American or foreign, has a right to under any conditions refuse to abide by duly enacted laws. And each must be held accountable for breaking any of these laws. Remember: “No man is above the law.” That includes U.S. Presidents.

So why does Executive Branch lawbreaking happen?

You may have reached the conclusion that this story is NOT about Donald Trump — it’s about former President Barack Obama. It’s amazing how many instances of wrongdoing on the part of the President were given a benign approval by millions in America — including those in Congress and even from the Department of Justice.

I know: there are those that will make tag these comments and this story as one of racist rhetoric by a racist Southerner. Nothing could be further from the truth. As is normal at TruthNewsNetwork, we bring you conclusions based on facts. And you are always provided the facts on which conclusions are made.

How did I feel personally about Mr. Obama? I did not vote for him in 2008 or 2012. My vote never had any tie to his skin color: I didn’t agree with his policies and thought in both elections those supported by his opponents were better for the American people than were his. So I voted based solely on my thoughts driven by his political standings on issues. And I supported him while in office and hoped desperately he would succeed in making things better in our nation.

I heard that philosophy best explained this way:

When I board a commercial jet, I may not like the pilot or co-pilot. I may not like the way the pilot talks just before takeoff on the PA to the passengers. But all that matters is that he IS the pilot for my flight. I would never wish failure for him. I want him to succeed. He succeeds when he successfully lands that plane at my destination. After all, if he doesn’t succeed, it’s not going to be too good for me!

That illustrates my feelings for every president that has served during my lifetime and every member of Congress, my state government, parish (county) and city as well.

All that being said, it troubled me constantly during the Obama eight years to face his obvious disdain for U.S. law. And in many cases, he specifically usurped laws passed by Congress and signed into law by previous presidents in favor of his OWN thoughts and ideas about legal matters.

We today have been bombarded by a Press and by members of Congress who are screaming at the sky about Attorney General William Barr’s position to “readdress” the sentencing of Roger Stone for his illegalities which apparently will imprison him for nine years. Democrats are crying for the head of Attorney General Barr AND, once again, that of President Trump.

Let’s today put that in context. Let’s compare these actions by this Attorney General and President to those of President Obama and his Attorneys General Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch. While doing so, think back to the ways the Media and Democrats acted in the aftermath of each of these things.

“In Your Face”

Black Panthers A federal court in Washington, D.C., held that political appointees appointed by President Obama did interfere with the Department of Justice’s prosecution of the New Black Panther Party. The New Black Panthers case stems from a Election Day 2008 incident where two members of the New Black Panther Party were filmed outside a polling place intimidating voters and poll watchers by brandishing a billy club. Justice Department lawyers investigated the case, filed charges, and when the Panthers failed to respond, a federal court in Philadelphia entered a “default” against all the Panthers defendants. But after Obama was sworn in, the Justice Department reversed course, dismissed charges against three of the defendants, and let the fourth off with a narrowly tailored restraining order.

Fast and Furious  Operation Fast and Furious was an Obama program in which the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) helped put heavy weapons into the hands of murderous drug cartels in Mexico. The whole scandal exploded when a federal agent was murdered with a Fast and Furious gun. As the story threatened to bring down key Obama officials, the spin was put out that it was all part of a supposed “investigation” into “drug cartels.” However, massive amounts of evidence emerged in the subsequent months and years, suggesting that it was actually a criminal operation to blame the Second Amendment for violence, with the supposed targets of the alleged “investigation” already on the FBI payroll. Indeed, top lawmakers and gun-rights activists have said the operation was intended to be exploited by Obama to push gun-control.  It blew up in the administration’s face when federal agents blew the whistle.

Congress, in its investigation, subpoenaed the DOJ for records that detailed that operation. AG Eric Holder himself was involved in withholding thousands of key documents. Holder requested President Obama to exert executive privilege to allow the DOJ to withhold those documents. Obama did so. However, Congress found Holder in Contempt of Congress and referred his doing so to the Washington D.C. federal attorney’s office for prosecution. That federal attorney — an Obama appointee — refused to take up the matter for investigation and prosecution of the Contempt charge. It, therefore, was never brought to the Court for adjudication.

Let’s just make a quick list of some of the other top examples:

  • Attempted to shut down gun stores outside of the law
  • Spent tax dollars to illegally re-settle illegals inside the U.S.
  • Illegally targeted conservative groups via IRS
  • Secretly obtained phone records from Associated Press journalists
  • Carried out military interventionism in Libya without Congressional approval
  • Conducted the unconstitutional, indefinite detention of U.S. citizens without filing any charges
  • Undertook illegal, warrantless wiretapping
  • Ordered Boeing — a private company — to fire 1,000 employees
  • Stole money from retired teachers and police officers during Chrysler bankruptcy
  • Auctioned off ambassadorship to the Netherlands
  • Took money from retired Delphi employees by canceling their pensions unilaterally
  • Illegally gave Obamacare exemptions to unions that supported the passage of Obamacare
  • Authorized installation of hidden cameras on private property without a search warrant
  • Accepted illegal campaign contributions from foreign citizens

“Not only did I not get indicted, nobody in my administration got indicted.” That’s how Mr. Obama justified his continual law-breaking and the authorization of members of the Eric Holder and then Loretta Lynch Department of Justice to skirt the law. The Obama Administration, under his leadership, will likely be labeled by historians as “one of, if not THE, most corrupt administrations in U.S. history.” Americans don’t hear much about that. Instead, here’s what we hear today:

Trump friend Roger Stone caught-up in the Mueller Investigation was convicted of seven felonies in his federal trial. Oddly enough, not a single charge nor conviction had anything to do with President Trump, his campaign, or even the Mueller investigation “original” purpose: “to prove Trump et al. colluded with Russians to impact the 2016 election for the benefit of Candidate Trump.” NO American was ever charged with anything to do with Donald Trump or Russian collusion. Stone, Paul Manaforte, and Michael Cohen and General Michael Flynn were charged with “process crimes;” that is, crimes regarding their testimony in which they allegedly (and were subsequently convicted of or plead to) told lies or interfered with the Mueller investigation. Mueller prosecutors wanted Stone to be sentenced to nine years + for his crimes.

The uproar from Democrats is deafening in the wake of Attorney General William Barr’s move to “reassess” the Stone sentence. Barr, as AG, can do that. And Democrats want his head.

Naturally, the Democrats and their media minions have gone nuts about Barr’s pending actions regarding the Stone sentencing. There are cries from the Left for Barr’s resignation for his testimony before House and Senate committees to be questioned for his reasonings for intervention in Stone’s sentence.

But what is the uproar all about: Donald Trump!

Facts are facts: Federal minimums for non-violent offenders are typically not anywhere near the nine years with which Stone is facing. Manslaughter with a weapon — one year; Burglary with a firearm — one year; Sexual assault with a gun — two years; Assault with a firearm — one year; Carjacking — three years.

Stone’s seven crimes? All had to do with “misrepresenting facts, lying to Congress, lying to Prosecutors, etc. None were serious crimes and none were violent nor involved another person. Remember this: General Michael Flynn was goaded into pleading guilty for lying to FBI investigators during an “unofficial” visit by FBI agents. It was an illegal interrogation of Flynn. He was NOT notified what was their purpose. He was therefore not informed he might need an attorney present. Then when it became apparent what they had was flimsy at best, they blackmailed a confession from Flynn, telling him if he did NOT agree, they would charge his son for not registering as a lobbyist for a foreign country.

Summary

Attorneys General Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch during the Obama Administration flaunted their disrespect for and constant ignoring of federal law, including those broken by their boss in the White House! Where were the Democrats in Congress when that occurred? We heard nothing. There was NO outcry about Obama’s wrongdoing and his often illegal actions. These examples showed there was a two-tiered justice system in America: one for Democrats and their cronies and one for everyone else.

I won’t even bring race into this conversation. But it appears that President Obama seemed to be acting on some racial “get-even” cause by arbitrarily determining which laws could be broken and by whom. And much of those instances listed above and dozens of others “seem” to have racial overtones.

No one can reasonably state there was no racial injustice in America. No one can reasonably assert that African-Americans were and are today not held to a different standard of liability by law enforcement officials. To what measure was the racial injustice then and today is sadly totally subjective. And that allows the cries for retribution for past sins to be forced on Americans today over and over.

If that played any role in any of the actions described here today by President Obama and members of his Department of Justice, it’s a sad revelation of the spite and disrespect Mr. Obama and his administration members had for the Constitution and the rule of law. Any attempt to determine the “why” for those actions would result in only subjective answers: there is no way to reach an inevitable conclusion.

What is the truth in all this? The Stone sentencing, when viewed in the light of the federal criminal sentencing guidelines, is a sign of unfairness and partisan attacks. Can you imagine how Democrats would feel if this happened under President Obama regarding a friend of his today? Democrats in Congress and elsewhere would be screaming through their media outlets for that Attorney General’s head!

Instead, Democrats, today are in a fashion saying to us all: “Ignore the federal minimum sentencing guidelines. Ignore sentencing precedents. Ignore the nature of the proven charges for which Mr. Stone was convicted. Thow the book at him!”

But they’re going even more in-depth with their cries for the heads of Barr and Trump: they are once again showing the nation they will do anything — anything at all — to remove Donald Trump and every official elected or appointed during the Trump presidency.

“Forget about Americans; forget about the election process including the one just months ahead. We’ll inject our opinions into the process while removing those of American voters.”

To me, that sounds like Anarchy!

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The Federal Government Breaking the Law

July 24, 2019

It happens every day: someone in federal government arbitrarily assumes the responsibility and authority to ignore lawbreaking of every kind. Whether that lawbreaking is the selling or using marijuana, (which doing so is a federal offense) crossing American borders without legal authority, passing along classified government information and/or documents to a media organization, or using open source or unsecured computer or other electronic devices for the dissemination of classified information, each is a violation of a federal law. Apparently, these acts and others are committed daily across the U.S. Yet more often than not, these criminal acts are ignored by authorities.

What has happened to the enforcement of Law in the United States? Aren’t we a nation established on the premise that the United States Constitution was and is a template on which government was established and to function — especially regarding the enforcement of ALL laws passed according to the Constitutional process for doing so? Isn’t that process called “The Rule of Law?”

Rule of Law

In its simplest form, the “Rule of Law” means that “no one is above the law.” It is the foundation for the development of peaceful, equitable and prosperous societies. For the rule of law to be effective, there must be equality under the law, transparency of law, an independent judiciary and access to legal remedy. Yet, about 57% of the world’s population lives outside the shelter of the law. That’s five billion people struggling for basic, human rights on a daily basis.

American citizens and all those who come into our country have access to that “Rule of Law,” even those who cross into the United States illegally. That’s something of a paradox, but it’s true: once here every person Constitutionally is granted certain rights and must adhere to U.S. law.

The rule of law is a critical key to a just society and democracy. It dictates that laws of the land be transparent, known to everyone and applicable to all. No one, regardless of title, position or wealth can be held above the law and government decisions must be predictable because they follow known legal principles and encoded rules known as “laws.”

For most of the 19th century, America was far ahead of the rest of the world in its consistent and thorough efforts to adhere to the rule of law and strive toward equal opportunity for its citizens regardless of class, wealth or title. While politicians and individuals acting in self-interest have frequently violated this key principle (seems to be human nature for some), historically the courts were able to correct back to founding principles. If applying the law of the land results in an amazingly unfair or unjust outcome in a particular set of facts, courts are able to restore balance and respect for the rule of law through the principles of equity.

The “Rub” for Most Americans

What’s the complaint from average Americans about the Law? It’s not enforced equally or it’s not enforced at all!

How many specific instances can you name where lawbreakers — primarily at the federal level — are caught “in the act” but pay NO penalty for their crimes? Can you name a few?

  1. James Comey: fired FBI Director. He transferred classified documents to a member of the media for the express purpose of releasing that information to the public — a felony violation of a federal statute. Comey also lied under oath to Congress which is also a criminal violation.
  2. Hillary Clinton: Ms. Clinton broke multiple laws surrounding her use of a private email server while serving as Secretary of State. First, that server was never tested nor certified by State Department IT personnel to operate for the purpose of sending and receiving emails containing classified information. Subsequent to the FBI’s investigation, Clinton sent numerous emails from that server that the FBI concluded were intercepted and forwarded to a foreign server belonging to an unknown person or persons — all illegal. Her illegal acts did not end there. She or others with her directions destroyed cell phones and other electronic devices that had been used for government business instead of turning those over to authorities.
  3. President Obama: while President, Obama communicated via emails with then-Secretary of State Clinton while knowing he was doing so via her illegal and unauthorized server. The President used a made-up Gmail email account he opened with no one knowing about. All communications of any kind by or with a U.S. President are by law considered “classified.” His doing so violated several federal statutes.
  4. Former NSA Adviser Susan Rice: Ms. Rice using her position in the White House authorized the National Security Agency (NSA) to release the names of Trump Associates who were caughtup in communications with foreigners. The NSA legally keeps the names of Americans classified in such circumstances. Rice was discovered giving those names to others. She is the one who (through surveilled telephone conversations) released information regarding General Michael Flynn.

When Americans see and hear the obvious illegal acts committed by those in the highest echelons of U.S. government, it is at least disheartening to know (as an example) ALL four of the above politicians that includes a U.S. president are apparently above the Rule of Law!

A member of the U.S. Navy, Kristian Saucier, 28, of Arlington, Vermont, was convicted of taking photos of classified spaces, instruments and equipment inside the U.S.S. Alexandria, where he was stationed. He sent the photos to show friends where he worked. Those photos were classified. Based on THAT prosecution and his one criminal act, Comey, Clinton, Obama, and Susan Rice should ALL certainly be in prison after being tried and then certain conviction of breaking multiple very serious federal charge and all in federal prison! They would then be receiving (along with Saucier) “Equal Justice Under the Law.”
So why doesn’t this happen? Why are powerful political elites in America give preferential treatment?
  • How does a former U.S. Senator, then Secretary of State and a candidate for President skate by with thumbing her nose at the Rule of Law and accountability for her illegal acts?
  • How does an FBI Director release classified information to the Media and not even be charged for federal law violations?
  • How does a National Security Adviser unilaterally and illegally unmask the name of an American general for the express purpose of digging up dirt on a political candidate?
  • How does a sitting President of the United States over a period of years transfer and receive classified information to his Secretary of State on a non-classified and non-secured email server that transferred every one of his emails to some unknown entity in an unknown foreign country?

How did each do it? In each case there has been NO ACCOUNTABILITY for their acts.

In this short video, notice the fake outrage and demonization by James Comey of Donald Trump, all the while knowing Comey himself had and was breaking numerous laws:

The Rule of Law, Not a Rule of Lawyers

The rule of written law is one of the six pillars of the American republic.

  • One is democracy: We involve the greatest number of people in making government decisions, rather than trust in an elite of “experts.”
  • The second is free markets: We involve the greatest number of people in making economic decisions, rather than trust in central planners.
  • The third is federalism: We put government decisions closer to the people in order to involve a more diverse set of decision-makers who can experiment with different paths for different communities’ needs.
  • The fourth is tradition: We invoke the wisdom of the larger sample of multiple generations by trial and error on matters of common human experience rather than rely on the more limited number of people alive at a particular time.
  • The fifth, which ties together democracy, federalism, and tradition, is deliberation: We have a republic, not a pure democracy, so that government decisions are not the process of hasty panics but are openly debated and resolved with support that is deep, geographically wide, and enduring over a series of elections, so that continuing to enforce today’s laws tomorrow has legitimacy.
  • And sixth, without which the other five are powerless, we have the stable rule of written law so that the democratically enacted decisions reduced to written law by the representatives of the people with due deliberation are honored until overturned by the same process and not easily discarded by a narrow professional elite.

This is not the system designed by Washington, or Jefferson, or Adams, or Hamilton, or Madison, or Franklin, or any of the other Founding Fathers; it’s the system designed by deliberate compromises among all of them, ratified by the people of their day, and changed repeatedly since by the people of the U.S. when the need for changes became apparent. Taken all together, the American system is designed to follow a path down the middle between the self-absorbed elites in Washington and the self-interests of a sometimes dis-enfranchised group of middle-Americans who occasionally act as a populist mob. It is also designed to steer a middle path between the “ancient” rule of the past and the fickle moods of today. The people remain sovereign and can change any law they like — if they act in large enough numbers over a broad enough area across a sustained period of time.

The PEOPLE as represented by the 535 representatives sent to represent each community, district and state have the Constitutional right to change the law in the manner dictated by the U.S. Constitution. But NO ONE has the right to ignore or unilaterally change enforcement of any duly passed law — PERIOD. Least of all are the members of Government.

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