GUN VIOLENCE IN AMERICA: FOR WHO THE BELL TOLLS NEXT.

Just five people shy of Sandy Hook elementary school mass shooting incident that claimed 26 lives, the Uvalde Texas Robb elementary school mass shooting at 21 victims, now ranks among the highest grossing gun carnage in America. It is sad that such frequent blood spilling has tragically become part of our culture as a society. May the souls of the killed now rest.

25th AMENDMENT: ITS NOW ALL CRICKET.

Madam Speaker Nancy Pelosi once questioned former President Donald John Trump's fitness to remain in office due to what she claimed was his declining mental capacity. Does anyone know what Madam Speaker presently thinks about the incontrovertible case which America is now saddled with? Just curious!

WHO WILL REBUILD UKRAINE?

The West should convert frozen Russian assets, both state's and oligarchs' owned, into a full seizure and set them aside for the future rebuilding of Ukraine. Like the Marshal Plan, call it the Putin Plan.

A HERO IS BORN.

I am staying put. I will not run away and abandon my people. The fight is here in Ukraine. What I need are weapons and ammunitions, not a ride out of town like former Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani - President Volodymyr Zelensky.

IT IS WHAT IT IS.

"There is too much hate in America because there is too much anger in America." - Trevor Noah.

WORD!

A life without challenges is not a life lived at all. A life lived is a life that has problems, confronts problems, solves problems and then learns from problems. - Tunde Fashola.

NOW, YOU KNOW.

When fishing for love, bait with your heart and not your brain, because you cannot rationalize love. - Mark Twain.

JUST THE FACT.

In our country, you can shoot and kill a nigger, but you better not hurt a gay person’s feelings - Dave Chappelle

DO YOU?.

“What you believe in can only be defined by what you’re willing to risk for it." - Stuart Scheller.

HEDGE YOUR CRISIS.

Never get in bed with a woman whose problems are worse than yours. - Chicago PD.

PROBLEM SOLVED.

'The best way to keep peace is to be ready to destroy evil. If you Pearl Harbor me, I Nagasaki you.' - Ted Nugent.

OUR SHARED HUMANITY.

Empathy is at the heart of who we are as human beings. - Cardinal Matthew Kukah.

WORDS ON MARBLE.

"Birth is agony. Life is hard. Death is cruel." - Japanese pithy.

REPENT OR PERISH - POPE.

Homosexuality is a sin. It is not ordained by God, therefore same sex marriage cannot be blessed by the church - Pope Francis.

CANCEL CULTURE IS CORROSIVE.


FOR SAKE OF COUNTRY.


MAGA LIVES ON: NO RETREAT, NO SURRENDER!

TWITTER IS BORING WITHOUT HIS TWEETS. #RestorePresidentTrump'sTwitterHandle.


WORD.

"If you cannot speak the truth when it matters, then nothing else you says matters.” - Tucker Carlson.

#MeToo MOVEMENT: A BAD NEWS GONE CRAZY.

"To all the women who testified, we may have different truth, but I have a great remorse for all of you. I have great remorse for all of the men and women going through this crisis right now in our country. You know, the movement started basically with me, and I think what happened, you know, I was the first example, and now there are thousands of men who are being accused and a regeneration of things that I think none of us understood. I’m not going to say these aren’t great people. I had wonderful times with these people. I’m just genuinely confused. Men are confused about this issue. We are going through this #MeToo movement crisis right now in this country." - Harvey Weinstein.


RON DELLUMS: UNAPOLOGETICALLY RADICAL.

"If it’s radical to oppose the insanity and cruelty of the Vietnam War, if it’s radical to oppose racism and sexism and all other forms of oppression, if it’s radical to want to alleviate poverty, hunger, disease, homelessness, and other forms of human misery, then I’m proud to be called a radical.” - Ron Vernie Dellums.


WHAT REALLY MATTERS IN LIFE - STEVE JOBS

“I reached the pinnacle of success in the business world. In others’ eyes, my life is an epitome of success. However, aside from work, I have little joy. Non-stop pursuing of wealth will only turn a person into a twisted being, just like me. God gave us the senses to let us feel the love in everyone’s heart, not the illusions brought about by wealth. Memories precipitated by love is the only true riches which will follow you, accompany you, giving you strength and light to go on. The most expensive bed in the world is the sick bed. You can employ someone to drive the car for you, make money for you but you cannot have someone to bear sickness for you. Material things lost can be found. But there is one thing that can never be found when it is lost – Life. Treasure Love for your family, love for your spouse, love for your friends. Treat yourself well. Cherish others.” - SJ

EVIL CANNOT BE TRULY DESTROYED.

"The threat of evil is ever present. We can contain it as long as we stay vigilant, but it can never truly be destroyed. - Lorraine Warren (Annabelle, the movie)


ONLY THE POOR WISH THEY HAD STUFF?

“I’m not that interested in material things. As long as I find a good bed that I can sleep in, that’s enough.” - Nicolas Berggruem, the homeless billionaire.

Tuesday, May 7, 2019

OUTRAGE INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX: MUELLER'S CASE IS CLOSED - MCCONNELL.

"It's now been more than six weeks since special counsel Bob Mueller, the former FBI director, concluded his investigation into Russia's interference in our 2016 election and delivered his findings to the Justice Department. It's been two weeks since Attorney General William Barr made the 450-page report public. This investigation went on for two years. It's finally over. 

Many Americans were waiting to see how their elected officials would respond. With an exhaustive investigation complete, would the country finally unify to confront the real challenges before us? Would we finally be able to move on from partisan paralysis and breathless conspiracy theorizing, or would we remain consumed by unhinged partisanship and keep dividing ourselves to the point that Putin and his agents need only stand on the sidelines and watch us as their job is actually done for them? 

Regrettably, the answer is pretty obvious. So that's what I want to discuss this morning. Russia's interference in American elections, the work of the special counsel and the attorney general, and how we can finally end this Groundhog Day spectacle, stop endlessly re-litigating a two and a half-year-old election result and move forward for the American people. Now, Madam President, it bears remember what this investigation was actually supposed to be about: Russian interference in 2016. For many of the president's opponent opponents had quickly morphed into something else. The last hope that maybe they'd never have to come to terms with the American people's choice of a president. 

In some corners, special counsel Mueller came to be regarded as a kind of secular saint, destined to rescue the country from the inconvenient truth that the American people actually elected Donald Trump. For two years many of the president's opponents seemed to be hoping the worst conspiracy theories were actually true. They seemed to be hoping for a national crisis for the sake of their own politics. Now look, I will say it was at least heartening, heartening to see many of my Democratic colleagues and the media abruptly awaken to the dangers of Russian aggression. An awakening to the dangers of Russian aggression. Remember not long ago Democrats mocked, mocked Republicans like John McCain and Mitt Romney for warning about the dangers posed by Putin's Russia. 

Remember President Obama's quip back in 2012 when then-governor Romney emphasized his concerns with Russia. Here's what President Obama said when Mitt Romney emphasized his concerns with Russia back in 2012. Direct quote: "The 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back." That was President Obama in 2012. 

Well, look, I think many of us now see that President Obama's approach to Russia could have used some more of the 1980s, more Ronald Reagan, and less Jimmy Carter. We would have been better off if the Obama administration hadn't swept Putin's invasion and occupation of Georgia under the rug or looked away as Russia forced out Western NGOs and cracked down on civil society. If President Obama hadn't let Assad trample his "red line" in Syria or embraced Putin's fake deal on chemical weapons. If the Obama administration had responded firmly to Putin's invasion and occupation of Ukraine in 2014 to the assassination of Boris Nemtsov in 2015 and to Russian intervention in Syria. 

May be stronger leadership would have left the Kremlin less emboldened. Maybe tampering with our democracy wouldn't have seemed so very tempting. Instead, the previous administration sent the Kremlin the signal they could get away with almost anything, almost anything. So is it surprising that we got the brazen interference detailed in special counsel Mueller's report? A concerted effort to divide Americans through social media campaigns, hacking into the e-mail accounts and networks of the Clinton campaign and the Democratic Party. Thanks to the investigation, we know more about these tactics. Thanks to the investigation, 13 Russians, three Russian companies, and 12 more Russian intelligence officers have been indicted. 

These are the people who really did seek to undermine our democracy. Yet curiously many of our Democratic colleagues and most of the news media don't seem to really care about that. New insight into defending America, Russian nationals indicted doesn't seem to interest my colleagues across the aisle. No interest. Just like there's been little interest in the steps this administration has taken to make Russia pay for its interference and strengthen America's hand. Election interference was just one part in Russia's strategy to undercut the United States. And this administration has taken the problem head-on. 

We have a new coherent national security strategy and national defense strategy that actually take the threat seriously. We have new sanctions. We've provided Georgia and Ukraine with weapons to better defend themselves, capabilities the previous administration denied our partners -- now listen to this -- out of fear of provoking Russia. We've worked against pipeline projects like Nord Stream Two that would further expand Putin's influence. We strengthened and reformed NATO so the alliance can present a united front. We improved Russia's compliance with the I.N.F. and walked away from a treaty that Moscow had turned into a sham. And the Trump administration has over Russian objections twice enforced President Obama's red line in Syria after Assad's use of chemical weapons. 

Now with respect to election security, Congress appropriated hundreds of millions of dollars to state governments to shore up their systems. The administration increased information sharing from the Department of Homeland Security in cooperation with the states. And according to press reports, the Department of Defense has expanded its capabilities and authorities to thwart cyber threats to our democracy. No longer will we just hope, hope Moscow respects our sovereignty. We will now defend it. 

These are just a few examples, Madam President, and there's already evidence they're having an effect. We just had the 2018 mid-term elections. Thanks to this administration's leadership, all 50 states and more than 1,400 local election jurisdictions focused on election security like never before. DHS provided resources to localities for better cybersecurity and private social media companies monitored their own platforms for foreign intelligence. Thanks to efforts across the federal government in 2018, we were ready. That clearly is progress. 

The Mueller report will help us. So will the upcoming report from the Select Committee on Intelligence, these threats and challenges are real. Our responsibility to strengthen America is serious and it requires serious work. 

But speaking of serious, seriousness is not what we've seen from the Democratic Party in recent days. Not serious. What we've seen is a meltdown, an absolute meltdown, an inability to accept the bottom line conclusion on Russian interference from the special counsel's report, which said the investigation did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities. That's the conclusion. Two years of exhaustive investigation and nothing to establish the fanciful conspiracy theories that Democratic politicians and TV talking heads had treated like a foregone conclusion. 

They told everyone there had been a conspiracy between Russia and the Trump campaign, yet on this central question, the special counsel's finding is clear: Case closed. Case closed. 

This ought to be good news for everyone, but my Democratic colleagues seem to be publicly working through the five stages of grief. First stage is denial. Remember what happened when the attorney general released his preliminary letter describing the special counsel's bottom line legal conclusion? Denial. 

Immediately, totally baseless speculation that perhaps Attorney General Barr hadn't quoted the report properly. But then, madam president, come stage two. Anger. Anger. Welcome to Washington in recent days. The Democrats are angry, angry that the facts disappointed them. Angry that our legal system will not magically undo the 2016 election for them. And they've opted to channel all their partisan anger on to the attorney general. They seem to be angrier at Bill Barr for doing his job than they are at Vladimir Putin. This is a distinguished public servant whose career stretches back almost 50 years. He's widely respected. Nobody claims he has any prior personal allegiance to this particular president. 

And why are they angry? Why are they angry? Did the attorney general fire the special counsel? Or force him to wind down prematurely? No. Did he sit on the Mueller report? Keep it secret? No. He reported out his bottom line legal conclusions and then released as much as possible for the world to see. Did he use redactions? Did he use redactions to mislead the public? No. Working with the special counsel team, he released as much as possible within standard, standard safeguards. 

So it's hard to see, Madam President, the source of the anger. Maybe our Democrat colleagues are thinking of some strange new kind of cover-up where you take the entire thing you're supposedly covering up and post it on the internet. The claims get more and more utterly absurd. Baseless accusations of perjury, laughable threats of impeachment look, we all know what's going on here. This whole angry barrage the Democrats had prepared to unleash on President Trump, except the facts let them down. 

And so the left has swung all these cannons around and fired them at the attorney general. Not for any legitimate reason. Just because he is a convenient target. So look, Madam President, there is this outrage industrial complex that spans from Capitol press conferences to cable news. 

They are grieving. They are grieving that the national crisis they spent two years wishing for did not materialize. But for the rest of the country, this is good news. Bad news for the outrage industrial complex. But good news for the country. So now they are slandering a distinguished public servant because the real world has disappointed them. Instead of taking a deep breath and coming back to reality, our colleagues across the aisle want to shoot the messenger and keep the perpetual outrage machine right on on going. Even undermining the institution of the attorney general itself in the process. 

So remember, Russia set out to sow discord, to create chaos in American politics, and undermine confidence in our democracy. But on that front, given the less total fixation on delegitimizing the president, the president Americans chose and shooting any messenger who tells them inconvenient truths, I'm afraid the Russians hardly need to lift a finger. Hardly need to lift a finger. Well, madam president, the last stage of grief is acceptance. For the country's sake, I hope my Democratic friends will get there sometime soon." - Mitch McConnell, Senate Majority Leader.

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