Opportunity, Knocking

We see these things every day on Facebook: "Sign this petition to force Congress to impeach Trump!" Petition, petition, petition. Different wording, same message.

People, please!

I already hate all the things that Facebook wants me to do every time I turn on the computer (you know what I'm talking about). Why on earth would I take time to do something as futile as signing a petition to the Republicans in Congress?

Do you honestly believe those people are going to slap Trump when they can't even repeal Obamacare?

Granted, there have been and will continue to be the occasional party kamikazes, like Corker and Flake, on suicide missions to save the Republic, not to mention the Republican Party. And expect more resignations by senior Republican members of Congress, opting not to run even in safe districts, like Jeb Hensarling in the Texas Fifth. Not an old guy. Why is he dropping out?

But prosecution/legislative action against malfeasance or obstruction in the Trump administration? Not gonna happen.

We have one more year of this hilarious nightmare. Then the people get to strike back. Until that is over, Congressional Republicans are going to grab the gunwales and sit tight until almost exactly one year from today, when comes a major mid-term general election. They're going to have to be kicked in the gut before they do anything about their disaster that keeps on giving. Serve them the election they deserve, and they'll do something about Trump. However many of them are left by then.

Attendance and enthusiasm are both up at Democratic events since January 20, starting the very next day -- January 21 -- with the Women's March on Washington. People are donating money and responding to phone calls to volunteer to work, and are already working, with more people than ever talking about filing to run for public office. The front-burner skillet is heating up.

Meanwhile, Trump is easily one of the most unpopular figures in American life, let alone the presidency. He works at alienating independent and swing voters. He flails around like a shadow-boxer. Remember his campaign. It was all him, and his superior brain didn't think he needed an infrastructure supporting him of experts and advisors, so when he suddenly needed "foreign policy experts" to look legit, he picks a bunch of people with no experience and no smarts and he gets Carter Page and George Papadopoulos and Sam Clovis, who nevertheless work very hard to do what the boss wants.

IMO, the Democratic Party is our only hope as a bulwark against crazy, and anything to do in Washington, D.C., that includes the name Hillary Clinton is crap. Some things we just need to let go of.

Religion and Politics

Reasons exist aplenty to oppose the Republican House's newly introduced tax plan, "The Middle Class Here's Your Crumb Rich People, You're Gonna Need a Bigger Yacht Act" of 2017.

Among several other things, it will repeal the Johnson Amendment, which has kept big churches from turning themselves into Super-PACs since 1954.

If this thing passes, mega-churches and charitable organizations will be able to redirect charitable contributions into political attack ads ("Baby-Killer!" "Sodomite!" "Democrat!"). And what a wonderful, Christ-like world it will be, too.

So get ready, fellow pilgrims. If this thing passes, we're starting our own church. Turns out, "It's Surprisingly Easy To Start Your Own Church." We already have at least one ordained minister and will have more. (Getting ordained is also a breeze.)

We're naming the church for someone who truly lifts our spirit, our new puppy, Jake. So it's gonna be The First Church of Jakelation. Congregants will be called "Jake-o-bites" (thank you, EA), and there will be vows and liturgy and maybe even Roman candles. Our first scripture will  be, "Give Us Money and We Will Change the World!" Amen, Sister!

If this country is to become the new playground for high-dollar fundamentalism and glory-seeking egos, we'll play.

Kim Strach Overrules Bill Aceto

Yesterday Kim Strach, Executive Director of the NC State Board of Elections, overruled Watauga County Board of Elections Chair Bill Aceto, deciding that the election day polling place next Tuesday for the Boone 2 precinct would be in the Appalachian State Student Union, the most logical place for it.

The Legends nightclub in the old (very old) A&P building flooded badly a week ago Sunday and cannot be used any longer as a polling site. Bill Aceto refused to move Boone 2 precinct into the Student Union and into the same room where Early Voting has been going on for several days.

Bill Aceto suffers from the ASU Student Voting Derangement Syndrome. Aceto even proposed erecting a tent on the Legends parking lot for voting next Tuesday. Anything to keep from going to the Student Union.

But Kim Strach wasn't having it. She exercised her emergency powers and ordered that the Student Union be used instead of a tent in a parking lot.

Lost Soul? Concerned Conservatives Worry About Trump

Bob Inglis

“Donald Trump is reshaping the heart of the GOP into something that is very dark and very diseased. My nightmare scenario is a Republican Party that loses its soul. It’s one thing to lose an election. It’s another to lose your soul.”

--Bob Inglis, former Republican Congressman, S.C.

Former Congressman Bob Inglis is part of a growing movement of conservative Republicans who view "Trumpism" with more than just alarm. The group's leaders include Evan McMullin, who ran in 2016 as the “Never Trump” presidential candidate, and Bill Kristol, co-founder of the Weekly Standard, and conservative columnists Mona Charen and Max Boot.

They have issued a statement calling on House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell "to make clear, both publicly and privately, that they support the Mueller investigation and regard any interference with that investigation, including dismissal of the special counsel or preemptive pardons of investigation targets, as completely unacceptable."

They have become especially concerned that months of attacks on Mueller’s integrity in the Rupert Murdoch-owned Fox News, Wall Street Journal, and New York Post might goad or inspire Trump to fire Mueller and thus spark a constitutional crisis.

“The infotainment side of the conservative media [Fox News], they’ve been completely Trumpified for some time,” Mona Charen said. “The Wall Street Journal was another story. That was surprising to me. I didn’t regard them as part of the Trump right. When they wrote an editorial suggesting that Mueller resign, I felt that needed a response.”

And respond they did, taking the high moral ground against Trump: "It is morally imperative that the Republican Party and the conservative movement stand as bulwarks of the rule of law, not enablers of its erosion and violation. Now is the time for choosing."

Blessed Are Those Who Keep Their Mouths Shut About Trump

Jonathan Martin

Last night on the Liberty University campus in Lynchburg, Va., evangelical leader Jonathan Martin was planning to hold a prayer meeting with some students who believe that Jesus Christ is a better role model than Donald J. Trump.

Instead of leading a prayer meeting, Rev. Martin got marched off campus by armed college police who told him that if he ever returned, he'd be arrested.

Martin has been critical of school president Jerry Falwell Jr. for his idolatry of Trump. He's been critical of Trump for his unchristian behavior and opinions. He's been critical of Steve Bannon as the king of lies and the creator of “the darkest contours of Trumpism.”

“What does it mean for a college administration to be this afraid of free speech? What precisely do they fear?” Martin wrote on Instagram. ”[Jerry Falwell] openly encourages his students to carry guns, but fears public prayer from Christians who openly embrace nonviolence.”

“This confirms everything I’ve heard about the authoritarianism of Falwell, who, like the president for whom he serves as a full-time apologist, does not easily tolerate robust dissent,” Martin wrote.

Martin is a Southerner living now in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He has a B.A. from Gardner Webb University in North Carolina, an M.A. from the Pentecostal Theological Seminary, and a ThM from Duke. He's what the kids at Liberty University might call "a righteous dude," unlike the president of that place. (JonathanMartin.com)

Federal Judge Tells Trump, "You Can't Deny These Troops the Right To Die For Their Country"

Judge Kollar-Kotelly

Federal District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly has blocked Trump's ban on transgender troops. If you're keeping a box score, this is yet another of Trump's unconstitutional orders knocked down by federal judges, including the order limiting travel from Muslim countries and his attempt to punish so-called "sanctuary" cities.

The judge's "strongly worded" opinion pointed out that Trump's new policies likely violated the equal protection clause of the Constitution: “a number of factors — including the sheer breadth of the exclusion ordered by the directives, the unusual circumstances surrounding the President’s announcement of them [he tweeted it out in July, surprising the military], the fact that the reasons given for them do not appear to be supported by any facts, and the recent rejection of those reasons by the military itself — strongly suggest that Plaintiffs’ Fifth Amendment claim is meritorious.”

The plaintiffs? Yes, a group of five transgender women serving in the Coast Guard, Army, and Air Force brought the lawsuit. According to Dave Phillips, "Many of the women had served for years as men and had been deployed to war zones before coming out to commanders when the [transgender] ban was lifted in 2016 [by President Obama]. One is a few years from retirement, according to court documents. Another told her commander she wanted to keep serving, but would resign if the military moved to forcibly discharge her."

Judge Kollar-Kotelly, incidentally, was first appointed to the bench by President Ronald Reagan.

Four Eggers Helped Ashe Co. Sheriff Terry Buchanan Build That Stone Wall

Stacy C. "Four" Eggers

We reported here on October 24 that Ashe County Sheriff Terry Buchanan had been suspended from office and is under indictment for obstruction of justice (et cetera) and that Watauga County attorney Stacy C. "Four" Eggers is in the middle of it as Buchanan's lawyer.

Just how much in the middle is revealed in District Attorney Tom Horner's petition outlining the case against Buchanan (thanks for the link, JS). Four Eggers appears in this petition in a significant way (and you can see for yourself by following that link).

May 12, 2017: Four Eggers announces to the Ashe County IT department that he's been hired by Sheriff Buchanan "to help fulfill" the Public Records Request (PRR) from WBTV and its investigative team led by Nick Ochsner.

(In the meantime, Buchanan carelessly gives his personal cell phone number to the Ashe IT department, then claims it is his wife's cell phone number, and then launches a campaign of public intimidation against county employees trying to fulfill the WBTV PRR. The intimidation actually works.)

June 16, 2017: Upon receipt of partial compliance of its PRR, WBTV wants to know when it will get any production from Sheriff Buchanan's work cell phone (not knowing at that point that Buchanan was also using his personal cell).

June 19, 2017: Ashe County public records custodian Ann Clark responds to WBTV that she's under investigation by the Sheriff's department for trying to fulfill WBTV's PRR.

June 22, 2017: Nick Ochsner sends second PRR directly to Sheriff Buchanan, including in the request any "written communication regarding the Ashe County Sheriff's Office and the Eggers Law Firm."

June 23, 2017: In response, Four Eggers sends "partial production" of PRR to Ochsner. According to District Attorney Horner, "Eggers claimed it to be 'all responsive text messages and email in the possession of Sheriff Buchanan.' Eggers attached the two Public Records Requests, a brief email exchange between Buchanan and [Ashe County] Board [of Commissioners] Chairman William Sands, text messages between Buchanan's work cell phone and [Ashe County] Commissioner Jeff Rose's cell phone, and an invoice from the Eggers Law Firm. The production contained no text messages from Buchanan's personal cell phone. Nevertheless, based on this production, Ochsner learned that Rose had used another phone for public purposes. Like Buchanan, Rose was not providing information requested by the PRR, and the June 23 production by Eggers was the first time that Ochsner learned about Roses's personal cell phone and its use for public purposes." [emphasis added]

June 29, 2017: WBTV points out that Eggers had inadvertently spilled some intriguing beans on June 23rd about Rose's use of a personal cell phone for county business.

June 30 2017: "Eggers sent a response letter to [WBTV's lawyer] on behalf of Buchanan .... The letter contained a log of messages sent and received by Buchanan's work cell phone to Rose's personal cell phone. The provided information contained no content other than the date, time, and phone number information. Eggers represented [that] the message content was redacted due to a personal exemption. Again, Eggers stated that there were no responsive text messages or emails that he was able to locate and that he believed that the data produced on June 23 and June 30 satisfied the PRR for Buchanan. However, the letter contained an attachment of emails between Buchanan and the Eggers Law Firm. Included in the attached emails was an email sent by Buchanan to Eggers on May 31, 2017, where Buchanan requested Eggers to call him on Buchanan's personal cell phone to discuss an issue at the Ashe County Detention Center. Based on this email, Ochsner discovered that Buchanan was using his personal cell phone for official business."

Oops. That awkward moment when you discover that your own lawyer just blew your cover.

June 30, 2017: Ochsner immediately emailed Eggers demanding production of Buchanan's personal cell phone texts.

July 7, 2017: "Eggers responded [to Ochsner] by saying that he had 'overlooked' the request for text message content from Buchanan's personal cell phone. Eggers stated that he had spoken to Buchanan and based on this discussion, 'Buchanan's only text messages about work conducted on his personal phone were with me ... There are no other work related text messages on Sheriff Buchanan's phone."

August 31, 2017: Eggers tells WBTV that he is requesting records for Buchanan's personal cell phone to see if any additional work-related text messages existed despite already certifying to WBTV that everything had been produced.

Sheriff Buchanan, expressing his
contempt for the public records
request from WBTV, on
April 17, 2017, before the Ashe
Co. Commish. Photo Jesse Campbell,
Jefferson Post

October 11, 2017: Eggers tells WBTV some six months after Ochsner's first PRR that he -- Eggers -- has just obtained releases from Buchanan and his wife to acquire Carolina West Wireless records from Buchanan's personal cell phone. Eggers says he has been given "metadata" only -- just the date, time, and recipient of messages -- and that the metadata "contained no communication with the County Commissioners on the county cell phone numbers other than text messages between Buchanan and Rose on Rose's work cell phone number. Eggers then gives an excuse for why the communications between Buchanan and Rose may not be subject to the North Carolina public records laws, despite not having the actual content to the messages in his possession for review. Again, Eggers states, 'I believe that Sheriff Buchanan has complied with the requirements of the public records laws, as he provided all responsive documents within his possession. I'm sorry to get your hopes up that more documents may be forthcoming...."

October 12, 2017: WBTV reminds Eggers of the letter of the law regarding PRRs, that relevant texts on personal devices cannot be legally withheld.

October 12, 2017: Eggers responds, reopening the door a crack about maybe possibly obtaining the actual text messages from Buchanan's personal cell.

October 20, 2017: The "legal compliance analyst" representing Carolina West emails WBTV and Four Eggers that he has released to Four Eggers "the requested text content" from Buchanan's personal cell phone. Those texts never get proffered to WBTV in compliance with the PRR.

October 23, 2017: Nick Ochsner swears an affidavit that to date he has received no compliance to his repeated PRRs from Sheriff Buchanan.

October 23, 2017: The District Attorney seeks and achieves the suspension of Sheriff Buchanan from office along with a six-count indictment against Buchanan for misdemeanors and felonies while in office.

Those personal cell phone text messages are still being withheld, unless the District Attorney has them by now.

Must Be Raining at the Golf Course

Fourth weekend in a row, Trump's at his Virginia resort, but golf's apparently out today -- damn you, National Weather Service! -- so he's inside nursing his grievances and maybe a nice cuppa Ovaltine laced with gall. At least the taxpayers are saving money on rented golf carts for his entourage.

So what's he tweeting? This right here, for just one, which actually contains an uncharacteristic confession on his part:

While not at all presidential I must point out that the Sloppy Michael Moore Show on Broadway was a TOTAL BOMB and was forced to close. Sad!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 28, 2017

Where does he get this stuff? Here's the truth (also the motive): Michael Moore, ("Roger and Me," "Bowling for Columbine," "Fahenheit 9/11," etc.), has stepped forward as a sharp Trump critic ("Michael Moore in Trumpland"). His one-man Broadway play, “The Terms of My Surrender,” which bashes Trump good 'n' plenty, was contracted to run as a 12-week limited engagement, and it completed its run, grossing $4.2 million, making it "the highest-grossing non-musical" among plays that opened in the summer, according to Playbill.

Not exactly "a bomb" of any kind, including "a TOTAL BOMB."

Where does he get this shit? Does he just make it up because the universe owes him the revenge, or does he hear something vague from someone that gets BLOWN UP in that "very good brain, a very smart brain" of his into a fantasy scenario in which he's always the winner?

He just grabs some random topic and shits on it (or him, or her). "Sloppy Michael Moore." That's the red meat the fans adore. The juicy red meat. And a needed diversion for Trump himself, probably. He's got to be in suppressed volcano mode today, because of this certain other really bad breaking news: Someone's been indicted by Mueller and will be taken into custody soon.

About 10 a.m. this morning Trump began to pick the scab of Russia and hilariously try to turn the whole collusion thing on Hillary. It's an amazing performance, with a recitation of Hillary's Greatest Hits -- the "Uranium to Russia deal," the 33,000 missing emails, "the Comey fix." He even claims he's never seen such "ANGER & UNITY" among Republicans who are universally demanding a Congressional investigation into the supposed $12 million that Hillary supposedly paid for "the FAKE dossier" (not making any of this up! He actually mentions the Steele dossier).

MEMO to DJT: It's not who paid ever how much for the dossier. It's whether the dossier is true.

I see why head-shrinks might detect a mental tendency in the putative Leader of the Western World, let alone the Man Who Will Make America Great Again, that might be concerning on alternate days, or when the golf is rained out.

From Russia, With Hillary

Jon Favreau‏Verified account @jonfavs

Jon Favreau Retweeted Kyle Griffin

1. Fund dossier 2. Say nothing 3. Let Russia steal your emails 4. Lose election 5. Scheme complete!

Jon Favreau added

Jon Favreau is the founder of @CrookedMedia and co-host of @PodSaveAmerica.