90 Miles From Tyranny

Thursday, April 4, 2019

TEXAS TEACHER ASSIGNS ANTI-TRUMP ESSAY AS CLASS HOMEWORK

Seventh grade assignment characterized the president as “racist” and questioned whether he should be impeached.

A middle school teacher in the public Goose Creek Consolidated Independent School District near Houston assigned 12 and 13 year old seventh grade students to read and answer questions on an essay blasting President Donald Trump as “racist,” “insensitive,” and counter to American values as part of a lesson on inferring information from written text.

Even for seventh grade students who are not overly familiar with politics, it is easy to parse the message of the piece which essentially translates as ‘Dump Trump.’ Titled, “Trump Against American Values,” the essay begins, “Throughout Donald Trump’s time in the American spotlight, we have come to see his true colors. From the beginning of his presidency, we have witnessed insensitive remarks toward other racial and cultural groups.”

The assignment goes on to say that “Some of Trump’s policies have gone against what Americans value most, like the freedom of opportunity” and labels the president as “insensitive” for his focus on building a wall on the border with Mexico.

The piece concludes with remarks that could well have been lifted from a campaign commercial for one of Trump’s 2020 Democratic challengers:

“With all of these racist remarks by our president, I think that we as a people need to take a stand and show that we will not accept this kind of leadership in our country.”

Multiple choice questions follow this political diatribe. One asks, "Which of the following conclusions would the author most likely agree with?" The possible answers include, “Donald Trump should not be president” and “America’s future is in grave danger.”

A second question asks the middle schoolers to complete the sentence, "The reader can infer that ..." The available options include, “Mexican Americans are the major group upset with President Trump” and “The United States will impeach Donald Trump.”

The politically charged assignment was made public by Texas state representative Briscoe Cain, a Republican, who was made aware of it by a parent in his district.

Cain minced no words in calling out the school district and teacher (whose name has not been released) in a post on Facebook:

"This individual has violated the sacred trust that every parent has with the State of Texas when they send their child into a public school," Cain stated of the teacher who assigned the anti-Trump essay. "They have lost the privilege of being in a classroom with Texas children, and forfeit the title of teacher. No teacher should attempt to indoctrinate a child to their ideology, no matter who is...

Mueller's Chevauchée: Burn Everyone and Everything Trump Loves

Medieval English kings were not nice people. Edward III (1312–1377), in particular, used his son the Black Prince to wage a form of warfare called chevauchée, which consisted of killing and burning everyone and everything that could be reached by fast-moving raiders.

The object was twofold. One was to destroy an opponent's logistics base and discourage supporters. The other was to bait the opponent into leaving a good defensive position and coming out into the open, where he could be attacked; a noble needed strong nerves and a stony heart to stay behind walls while his subjects were slaughtered and his lands destroyed.

As many have noted during the past week, Robert Mueller and his legal sell-swords must have been aware for nigh onto two years, at least, that the accusation that Trump's campaign colluded with the Russians had no evidentiary support. Nonetheless, per the attorney general's summary letter to Congress, the investigation spent tens of millions of dollars, employed 19 lawyers and 40 other professional staff, issued 2,800 subpoenas, executed 500 search warrants, obtained more than 230 orders for communications records, authorized almost 50 pen registers, made 13 document requests to foreign governments, and interviewed 500 witnesses.

Barr and Mueller seem to regard this recounting as cause for satisfaction, as evidence of great diligence by the Department of Justice. But each of these actions inflicted substantial expense and career damage on those unlucky enough to be caught up in it. Every one of those witnesses should have lawyered up, knowing the ruthlessness of prosecutors on the scent of a big-time case. The game is to find something on a lower-level person and threaten him with heavy penalties unless he gives the prosecutor a more tempting target. If no extortionary material can be found, the witness can be accused of lying to the FBI, with the proof consisting of notes taken by the interviewing FBI agents themselves, since the agency refuses to make recordings. Family members can be threatened.

Most of these witnesses have kept quiet about the experience, content to have escaped. Some are speaking out, such as Michael Caputo, who has written eloquently and repeatedly about the costs imposed on him and others.

Sundance, at Conservative Treehouse, concludes that none of this investigating was really directed at the collusion charge. It was all an effort to entrap Trump himself or at least some of his supporters into actions that could be branded as "obstruction of justice," with that term broadly interpreted to encompass almost any action he took.

When Trump said Michael Flynn was a "good guy," this was spun as "obstruction." When he wanted to release FISA memos, he was warned that this would be "obstruction." Any reaching out to witnesses would have been branded "obstruction." Any statement of sympathy for Paul Manafort or Roger Stone would have been obstruction gold.

In this view, which is persuasive, the collateral damage inflicted on those on the fringes of the investigation was not...

Even if it makes her uncomfortable, violates her personal space or sexually harasses her....

Joe Biden ‘Steered $1.8 Billion’ to Ukraine While His Son Bagged ‘Sweetheart Deal’ from Their Government

Peter Schweizer, president of the Government Accountability Institute and senior editor-at-large at Breitbart News, recalled how Hunter Biden, Joe Biden’s second son, received millions of dollars from Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings while his father directed $1.8 billion in aid money to Ukraine as vice president during the Obama administration.

Schweizer joined Tuesday’s edition of SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Tonight with hosts Rebecca Mansour and Joel Pollak.

Schweizer said, “I think a deeper problem that [Joe Biden] faces is — as has been reported on Breitbart and reported at the Hill, today — which I think is far deeper is the fact that his family, particularly his son, cashed in while he was vice president of the United States.”

John Solomon reported on Hunter Biden’s receiving millions of dollars from Burisma Holdings after being installed on the company’s board during his father’s vice presidential tenure:

U.S. banking records show Hunter Biden’s American-based firm, Rosemont Seneca Partners LLC, received regular transfers into one of its accounts – usually more than $166,000 a month – from Burisma from spring 2014 through fall 2015, during a period when Vice President Biden was the main U.S. official dealing with Ukraine and its tense relations with Russia.”

The general prosecutor’s official file for the Burisma probe – shared with me by senior Ukrainian officials – shows prosecutors identified Hunter Biden, business partner Devon Archer and their firm, Rosemont Seneca, as potential recipients of money.

Shokin told me in written answers to questions that, before he was fired as general prosecutor, he had made “specific plans” for the investigation that “included interrogations and other crime-investigation procedures into all members of the executive board, including Hunter Biden.”

“We’ve talked before about the deals he procured with the government for China,” remembered Schweizer. “The other place [Joe Biden’s] son, Hunter Biden, procured a big deal was in Ukraine. In Ukraine, it involved an energy company called Burisma, which is a very corrupt organization headed by an oligarch named Mykola Zlochevsky who is very close to ViktorYanukovich, the pro-Russian leader.”

Schweizer asked, “There’s all kinds of questions and implications. Is there a Russian component to this, because Burisma is such a corrupt...

Senate Republicans on Wednesday invoked the “nuclear option” to reduce the amount of time required to confirm President Donald Trump’s nominees.

The rules change limits debate on most nominees to two hours instead of 30. White House selections for the Cabinet, Supreme Court and appeals courts would be exempted from the new rules. Every Democrat opposed the move, joined by Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Mike Lee (R-UT).

The Senate changed the rules after a debate that featured personal finger-pointing between the chamber’s party leaders, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Minority leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY). They have battled over judicial filibusters since the administration of President George W. Bush.

McConnell said the battles on presidential nominees date back to Schumer-led filibusters of Bush appeals court picks such as Miguel Estrada, whose nomination stalled after a lobbying campaign by liberal judicial activists.

“He started this whole thing that we’ve been wrestling with since 2003, cooked it up, convinced his colleagues to do it,” McConnell said.

“This systematic obstruction is unfair to our duly elected president and, more importantly, it is disrespectful to the American people who deserve the government they elected,” he added. “We cannot set this new precedent that the Senate minorities will systematically keep an administration understaffed down to the least controversial nominees anytime they wish somebody else had won the election.”

In response, Schumer contended McConnell was Machiavellian, cynical and hypocritical.

Schumer, however, supported this step in a 2013 vote orchestrated by then-Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), that eliminated the filibuster on Cabinet nominees and most judicial appointees. The maneuver allows the majority to change the rules on a...