President Trump and Russia update

Raise your hand if you’re tired of the “Trump collusion with Russia” issue.  I know, I am, as are millions of other Americans.  Several months of intensive research by every reporter and media outlet worth its salt seeking incriminating evidence has revealed nothing significant.  To paraphrase former President Obama no one has found a “smidgeon” of evidence that Mr. Trump or any members of his campaign “colluded” with Russia to undermine the election process or violated any laws at all.

As usual, the mainstream media has it all wrong.  It has been throwing around the term “collusion” without understanding its meaning or significance.  Collusion, which Black’s Law Dictionary defines, in part, as “a deceitful agreement or compact between two or more persons for the one party to bring an action ….. for some evil purpose as to defraud a third party, ” does not constitute a crime in and of itself.   This is not my opinion, but the consensus opinions of over a dozen legal scholars who contributed to the July 12 article published in Politico Magazine.  (If you doubt me, you could, as Casey Stengel was fond of saying, “look it up.”)

Further investigation, they say, may lead to knowledge of crimes such as conspiracy, violation of federal campaign laws, or aiding or abetting other violations of law, but, as yet, nothing has been turned up to indicate that these or other violations of law occurred.  Several of these contributors opined that for Trump, Jr. merely to have met with the Russian lawyer is not a crime in and of itself.  In fact, it is not at all uncommon for political operatives to meet with persons who might be able to provide unflattering information on their opponents, nor for reporters to meet with potential “sources.”  One could argue that Trump, Jr.’s meeting with the mysterious Russian is no different.

To have participated in a criminal act, he would have had to “work with [the] Russian to commit a crime, to aid… in committing a crime, or to conceal a crime committed by [that] Russian.”  To date, there has been no evidence presented of any of that.  For those of you that may be interested in more details with respect to that meeting I suggest you google Trump, Jr’s recent interview with Sean Hannity.  He goes into much detail explaining how the meeting was set up, why he went, the substance of what was discussed, and other pertinent details.  It is the most thorough analysis I have seen yet.  I suggest you watch it and decide for yourself.

I do not wish to get bogged down in legal minutia here.  That is not the focus of this blog.  Suffice to say if you are a Trump-hater, you will likely continue to see conspiracy, conflict of interest or even treason at every turn; if you are a Trump supporter you may see bad optics, bad judgment or political overreach/vendetta, but that’s it.  Therefore, if you want to learn the truth, be skeptical of unsubstantiated news reports and biased analyses.  Also, I would recommend relying on multiple news sources.

In any event, the situation continues to morph daily, changing the narrative.  Just yesterday, for example, the story broke that the Russian had been admitted into the US without a visa, which is highly unusual, with the approval of the Justice Department.  One might wonder why and for what purpose.  There may be culpability on the part of the Obama administration and/or the DNC.  So, let’s let the investigation into this matter play out fully before rushing to judgment.

CONCLUSION

In military parlance, the Dems and liberal media are continuing to “fight the last war.”  The election is over.  It is official.  It will not be overturned.  Mr. Trump has won.  Based upon what we have seen so far, he is not going to be impeached, and even if he were the GOP would still be in control.  As former President Obama said “elections have consequences.”

Moreover, the Dems outrage over “collusion” is somewhat disingenuous since it has been disclosed that the Obama Administration had substantial evidence of Russia’s attempted hacking and other interference in the 2016 election as early as last August.  Not only did President Obama not do anything about it, he denied it publicly several times.  So, Dems, can the moral outrage.

This whole fascination with a Russian conspiracy is only harming the country by distracting the elected officials from tackling the real issues, such as the economy, healthcare, terrorism, and border security, to name a few.   If Dems want to succeed prospectively, they should abandon their unhealthy, counterproductive obsession with President Trump and focus their energies on the 2018 elections and beyond.  Analyze the real reasons for your loss and work to correct them.  Don’t blame external forces.  Simply put, you had an unpopular, untrustworthy, unlikeable candidate, and your policies were out of touch with most Americans.

The Dems have become the disgruntled party of “no.”  They are losing ground to the GOP.  If you doubt me, look at the state governments.  The GOP has 33 governors and controls both houses of the legislature in 32 states, compared to just 13 for the Dems.  Not good news if you’re a Dem.

I believe their best course of action would be to focus how to improve matters.  If you don’t like the policies of the current administration, develop a better set of policies.  Negotiate with the GOP to find common ground.  Get something done!  If you continue to live in the past you will repeat it!

Finally, move away from the current leadership –  the Clintons, Schumer, Pelosi and Warren.  Their time has passed.  They are only holding you back.  Find the next generation of candidates with new, refreshing ideas that will appeal to a broad scope of voters, not just to the extreme left.  Otherwise, you will be in the same position after the next election, which, by the way, would be fine with me.