Collusion: The Criminalization of Policy Disputes

Unable to establish conspiracy, Trump’s opposition settled on collusion. It is a usefully slippery word. Collusion just means concerted activity — it can be sinister or benign. It can refer to a conspiracy or to any arrangement people have together, including those that may be sleazy but non-criminal.

Andrew C. McCarthy

The word covers every contact between anyone connected to Trump and anyone connected to Russia, with no need to show that a crime was committed.

"What a weasel word “collusion” is.
"In Washington, Senator Richard Burr (R., N.C.), chairman of the Intelligence Committee, has now seen fit to pronounce that, after two years of investigation, the panel has found no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian regime. Meanwhile, in a nearby courtroom, Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s senior staffer, Andrew Weissmann, told a federal judge that an August 2016 meeting between the then-chairman of the Trump campaign and a suspected Russian intelligence officer “goes . . . very much to the heart of what the special counsel is investigating” — which sure sounds like Mueller’s collusion hunt is alive and well.
"What gives?
"Readers of these columns know that the “collusion” label has been a pet peeve of your humble correspondent since the media-Democratic “Putin hacked the election” narrative followed hard on the declaration of Donald Trump’s victory in the wee hours of Wednesday morning, November 9, 2016." . . .

"Collusion" You mean like this?

Single-Payer: The Gateway to Socialist Paradise

Dark Angel Politics  “ 'Free health care for all is not only a no brainer but immoral to dismiss.”  That was in the email I got from my successful, highly-educated daughter in 2010, just before every Democrat in Congress voted to implement Obamacare , also known as the ironically-named “Affordable Care Act”.   

"They also simultaneously voted to exempt themselves from the “benefits” of Obamacare, and instead bravely shouldered the burdens of maintaining their own privately-run luxury healthcare program. 

"Now it appears that almost all Democrats in Congress, at least among their leadership, favor implementing a “single-payer” (i.e., government owned and operated) healthcare system.  For you, of course, not for them.

"Do you seriously believe that Bernie Sanders, Nancy Pelosi, Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Elizabeth Warren, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez or any of the other Dem single-payer advocates have any intention of giving up their Cadillac private healthcare to go on single-payer themselves?

"As in George Orwell’s Animal Farm, some animals are more equal than others.  One set of laws are for those who are ruled, and another for the rulers." . . .

"French writer Albert Camus recognized, “the welfare of humanity is always the alibi of tyrants.' ” . . .

'Health Care' for All — Affordability for None  . . . "However, the Left fights not for Anglo-American concepts of individual liberty.  Rather, it seeks, with the cultlike passion of all anti-democratic movements, hard Left or far Right, liberation.  Liberation from tradition, personal responsibility, and most of all liberation of government -- especially its ruling clique -- from checks and balances, from rights reserved to the people and other fundamentals of American constitutionalism.

"Such governments convert citizens into subjects.  They do so by promising voters more, more necessities and more desires.  This works because, as French writer Albert Camus recognized, “the welfare of humanity is always the alibi of tyrants.' ” . . .

With Amazon NYC 'second HQ' deal canceled, Ocasio-Cortez now officially is a huge problem for Dems

Thomas Lifson  "Move over, Speaker Pelosi, and make room for New York governor Andrew Cuomo and New York City mayor Bill de Blasio as Democrats waking up to the disaster the rise of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is inflicting on the Democratic Party.  She is no longer just a potential threat to their schemes and operating principles; she has taken a wrecking ball to them.  Trust me: they desperately want to be rid of her, but, due to her media presence and popularity with the young and ignorant, cannot visibly stick the shiv in her back.  So Nancy Pelosi's ability to "cut your head off and you won't even know you're bleeding" (as her own daughter put it) will come in handy.

"The Amazon tax breaks, calculated to be worth $3 billion over a period of many years, were going to bring 25,000 high-paying jobs to Ocasio-Cortez's district in Queens and generate many times that sum in increased tax receipts, according to Cuomo and de Blasio, who exulted over the deal.  But offering any kind of benefit to a big corporation founded and headed by the richest man in the world is anathema to the radical left." . . .

That "Green New Deal" and it's backers

Senator Ed 'Green New Deal' Markey's record  . . . "One comment ought to illustrate the demeanor of Senator Markey, the Obama DOJ, and the Green New Dealers.

In rebutting the defense argument, Justice Department lawyer Leo Tsao told the jury that Rainey knew during his interviews with the FBI and EPA agents that he had sent unrealistic numbers to Congress and the Coast Guard, "and he knew he had to defend them," Tsao said.  "That's criminal intent."

This is what we have come to expect from Democrats, criminalization of dissent.  Rainey knew he had to defend himself!  That makes him a criminal!

Reporter to Ocasio-Cortez As She Celebrates: Um, Wouldn't Amazon Have Created Thousands of Jobs?  . . . "The district is now going to lose thousands of jobs that would have come there," a reporter quietly noted in the middle of Ocasio-Cortez's celebratory dance.

"Well one of those things is, A) we were subsidizing those jobs," she said. "The city was paying for those jobs so frankly if we were willing to give Amazon so if we were willing to give away $3 billion for this deal, we could invest those $3 billion in our district ourselves if we wanted to. We could hire out more teachers, we can fix our subways, we can put a lot of people to work for that money if we wanted to." . . .

The Moonbeam Express gets derailed

Rich Terrell

California’s bullet train was (and is) the Green New Deal in miniature. . . . "California’s new governor, the prim and grim Gavin Newsom, announced that the project would be taken off its $650-million-a-month life-support apparatus and euthanized. The end of the project leaves Californians with no way to travel between Los Angeles and San Francisco except a 90-minute, $149 flight.

"(Or driving.)

"For perspective, if you went to Starbucks 35 times for a venti latte, you’d spend more money — and more time — than you would on round-trip air travel between Los Angeles and San Francisco. This is the “problem” that California has tried to solve with a $77 billion boondoggle.

"At the time of its demise, the bullet train was years behind schedule, had spent more than seven times its originally allocated budget, and, of course, carried no passengers.

"Governor Newsom — and this is the truly hilarious part — apparently intends to finish up the little bit of the project that already has been started, meaning that there will be a high-speed bullet train connecting Bakersfield with Merced, 100 miles away. This will come at a cost that is simply astonishing." . . .

With the Rise of Democrat Identity Politics, More Jew-Haters Will Continue Seeping Through the Cracks

With the Rise of Democrat Identity Politics, More Jew-Haters Will Continue Seeping Through the Cracks   . . . Once you get people standing up and saying “My ticket into the room is that I am Muslim,” or “that I am Native American,” or “that I am this” or “that,” you do not end division but simply encourage a new social divide, a new “Us” versus “Them,” where each Identity Player feels empowered to exile others from outside the Intersectional Divide. Suddenly, Whites have to defend themselves. Men have to justify their existence, as Crazy Mazie Hirono tells “men to shut up.” Catholics have to defend their right to believe and practice their faith, and to join the Knights of Columbus. And, as all too often happens, the “canary in the coal mine” is the Jew. Just as coal miners would bring a canary inside so that, if the canary suddenly were to die, they could see that oxygen is running perilously low because deadly gas is leaking and imperiling them all, so a society’s first certain sign of impending danger is when “They” (whoever “They” may be) start coming after “the Jews” with impunity." . . .

Ilhan Omar Will Fly To LA For Fundraiser With … Terror-Tied CAIR 
"Newly elected Rep. Ilhan Omar will jet off to Los Angeles next month to keynote a fundraiser for the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), a terror-tied organization that was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the largest terrorist financing case in U.S. history."

After Venezuela exchange, the case grows for throwing Ilhan Omar off the House Foreign Affairs Committee  . . . "The Daily Beast's Ron Radosh had a superb summary of just why that's a problem:

Omar’s comportment at the hearing, as well as her obvious belief that the United States is an imperialist and reactionary nation that by its very nature abuses human rights, should alone be reason enough to have her removed before she can do real damage.

"The case is growing for throwing this unfit person off that committee. There's even a rapidly growing public petition calling for it. She doesn't belong there, and as Radosh notes, the more she opens her mouth, the more she damages the Democrats. She should be thrown off and given her some Play-Doh with which to work her issues out. Not even Democrats can afford this kind of idiocy."

Listen to this line of questioning to see how Omar's questions were written for her by someone else. She has trouble pronouncing names and words, making it evident that she is a tool being used by others.

Ilhan Omar already alienating even anti-Trump journalists by Thomas Lifson
. . . "The resulting cascade of angry tweets vilifying him for daring to criticize her is not making Stelter into a friend either.

"If a Trump-hater loses CNN…."

Nancy Pelosi Defends Ilhan Omar with Lie About ‘Jew-S-A’ at Trump Rallies  . . . "Then-campaign manager Kellyanne Conway told CNN’s Jake Tapper: “His conduct is completely unacceptable and does not reflect our campaign or our candidate. … That man’s conduct was deplorable. And had I been there, I would have asked security to remove him immediately. Clearly, he doesn’t speak for the campaign or the candidate.  … And I think what he had to say was disgusting.' ”. . .

Anti-Semite Rep. Ilhan Omar’s Attempt To Re-Litigate The Cold War Is Absurd . . . Let’s talk about Elliott Abrams, shall we? After President Trump’s envoy to Venezuela had a testy, if inane, confrontation with Rep. Ilhan Omar while testifying in Congress, twenty-something journalists seems to have suddenly decided they are experts enough on 1980s Cold War politics in Central America to pick up Omar’s ludicrous line of questioning and run with it. Or at least they are as much of experts as necessary to detract attention from people wondering why Omar isn’t being asked why she’s supporting dictator Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela." . . .

Ilhan Omar: fear her voters and the Democrats who placed her on this critical committee

Earl of Taint

Don’t Accept Omar’s Phony Alibis for Hate  "Her attack on AIPAC* is linked to BDS, not to her learning curve about the history of anti-Semitism"
. . . "As she did when called out for a tweet in which she said Israel was “hypnotizing the world,” Omar issued a contrite-sounding apology for her assertion that members of Congress are bribed by AIPAC into supporting Israel. As in the previous instance, she said she had no idea that her words were classic anti-Semitic tropes that have been used to demonize Jews.
"In an era in which President Donald Trump has turned a brazen unwillingness to apologize for falsehoods, slurs, or inappropriate remarks into a political art form, Omar was able to come across as sensitive and genuine. That allowed even some of her sternest critics within a Democratic party that had reluctantly been forced to condemn her latest jibe at supporters of Israel an easy way out of the controversy.
"Omar’s apology came only after House speaker Nancy Pelosi and the rest of the Democratic leadership had demanded that she give one. But her contrite retreat enabled Democrats to turn the issue around and accuse Republicans of hypocrisy, since Trump (they alleged) has also said insensitive things about Jews without apology. They also claimed that one of Omar’s antagonists — House minority leader Kevin McCarthy — had been guilty of issuing an anti-Semitic tweet of his own without being held accountable." . . .

*Cooperation between the two countries is advantageous for both nations. As America's bipartisan pro-Israel lobby, AIPAC urges all members of Congress to support Israel through foreign aid, government partnerships, joint anti-terrorism efforts and the promotion of a negotiated two-state solution—a Jewish state of Israel and a demilitarized Palestinian state.

The Honor of Elliott Abrams

National Review Editors   "Three weeks ago, Elliott Abrams returned to government. This was very good news for U.S. foreign policy. He is the State Department’s special representative for Venezuela. And his presence on the public stage has reignited passions about the Reagan administration’s record in Latin America.

"Abrams was the assistant secretary of state for Latin America in Reagan’s second term. During the first, he had been assistant secretary for international organizations, and then for human rights. (Abrams joined the administration when he was in his early 30s.)

"Like many others he was caught up in the Iran-Contra affair, and he pleaded guilty to withholding information from Congress. (Two misdemeanor counts.) He was pardoned by the first President Bush. There is a story to be told about all this, which we will not get into here.  . . .

. . . Abrams told it in a book, Undue Process: A Story of How Political Differences Are Turned into Crimes.
"The second President Bush made Abrams part of his national-security team, first in the area of democracy and human rights. Then he gave Abrams a Middle East portfolio. Later, Abrams wrote a memoir, Tested by Zion: The Bush Administration and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. In recent years, he has been a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

"In short, Elliott Abrams is one of the wisest, most experienced foreign-policy heads in this country. He is also a steadfast advocate of freedom, democracy, and human rights, or American values, if you like." . . .

McCabe's Law

NBC certainly is, and so may you:  You may be disappointed by the Mueller report
Still, the media hangs on to its hope:

Memos explaining decisions not to prosecute can be long or short, and there is nothing in the rules to prevent Mueller from writing a 500-page narrative laying out the behavior of the Trump team with regard to Russia in excruciating detail.

NY Times:McCabe Says Justice Dept. Officials Had Discussions About Pushing Trump Out   . . . “ 'I was very concerned that I was able to put the Russia case on absolutely solid ground, in an indelible fashion,” Mr. McCabe said. “That were I removed quickly, or reassigned or fired, that the case could not be closed or vanish in the night without a trace.' ” 
. . . [Lindsey] "Graham said he was willing to try to subpoena Mr. McCabe if necessary to compel him to appear, though it is unlikely he could get the necessary Democratic signoff."

Andrew McCabe: "Every Day Is a New Low in Trump's White House " . . . As the meeting began, my secretary relayed a message that the White House was calling. The president himself was on the line. I had spoken with him the night before, in the Oval Office, when he told me he had fired James Comey. 
"A call like this was highly unusual. Presidents do not, typically, call FBI directors. There should be no direct contact between the president and the director, except for national-security purposes. The reason is simple. Investigations and prosecutions need to be pursued without a hint of suspicion that someone who wields power has put a thumb on the scale." . . .

Smart Move – Andrew McCabe Launches Proactive, Planned, Lawfare Media Blitz…

"Team McCabe always knew the biggest legal threat to their corrupt position would be if they lost control of the mechanisms within the DOJ and FBI.  The launch of a media blitz, surrounding a book and constructed defense narrative, positions them to claim that any legal action against them now comes from a retaliatory Trump administration and DOJ institution (Barr) carrying out the objectives of the President.
"The best way to position themselves legally was/is to go on the attack and then use their attack as a shield from any accountability. This is what we are seeing today." . . .

"For almost two years the corrupt career elements within the DOJ and FBI have been hiding the trail of evidence that would expose the McCabe plan to usurp the 2016 election.
"They have redacted evidence including the Lisa Page and Peter Strzok text messages; withheld information from congress; stalled and defied requests for documents they used in the construction of their plans; and generally positioned themselves to run out the clock." . . .
Graham Demands McCabe Testify to Explain DOJ’s ‘Bias against Trump’  . . . “ 'After Mr. McCabe’s 60 Minutes interview, it is imperative that he, and others, come before the Senate Judiciary Committee to fully explain how and why a FISA warrant was issued against Carter Page and answer questions about what appears to be, now more than ever, bias against President Trump,” Graham said in a statement issued Thursday." . . .

Did Andrew McCabe Just Admit To Plotting A ‘Coup’ Against Trump On ’60 Minutes’?

"Via Twitchy:

"Well, there goes Thursday . . .

Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, who has a new book coming out, sat down with what CBS is calling a “BOMBSHELL” interview with “60 Minutes” where he dropped this bombshell confirming that “There were meetings at the Justice Department at which it was discussed whether the vice president and a majority of the cabinet could be brought together to remove the president of the United States under the 25th Amendment”:

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