Obama/Hillary Lies, Ransoms, the DC Political Shark Tank, New Polls and Donald Trump

Talking about lies is every day stuff while the Obama administration has the Washington microphone. Their lies are poisonous to the American body politic, and they are symptomatic of the shark tank that is politics. ~~~~~~ On Sunday, Republican Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton told CBS' Face the Nation that the Obama administration's airlifting to Iran a $400 million cash payment is like "the subversive actions of a 'drug cartel' : "I think it's really shocking to most Americans that the United States government was acting like a drug cartel...stacking cash on a pallet and wrapping it in cellophane and flying it in an unmarked aircraft to give to the world's worst state-sponsored terrorism." Cotton charged that the Obama administration "has consistently stonewalled Congress and the American people. We didn't know that it was paid for with bills that could be easily laundered and used for terrorism....We didn't know that the Department of Justice opposed it," he said in remarks posted by TheHill before Face the Nation aired. The cash airlift arrived the same day four American prisoners were released, and GOP critics have blasted it as a ransom payment, but President Barack Obama denies the money was ransom. Cotton says that "It doesn't really matter though what President Obama says...It matters what the Iranians think and it matters what dictators, terrorists and gangsters all around the world think, and they clearly think that this was a ransom payment." Alan Derschowitz, Harvard law professor and liberal activist said : "We shouldn't be doing things like this." ~~~~~~ Despite all President Obama's assurances that the $400 million paid to Iran was not a ransom for American prisoners, the Wall Street Journal said Wednesday that a report leaked to it by sources details a "tightly scripted exchange specifically timed" with the plane carrying the cash and another carrying three freed Americans. Here is the WSJ account : "US officials wouldn't let Iranians take control of the money until a Swiss Air Force plane carrying three freed Americans departed from Teheran on January 17," officials told the WSJ. "Once that happened, an Iranian cargo plane was allowed to bring the cash back from a Geneva airport that day, according to the accounts." John Carlin, the head of the Justice Department's national security division, objected to the January 17 payment to Iran and warned it would be seen as ransom money, according to reports, even though the Obama administration claimed the payment was the first installment of a $1.7 billion settlement from a failed arms deal in 1979. US officials claimed the transfer of cash and prisoners took place "through two separate diplomatic channels," the WSJ reported Wednesday, but its article suggests otherwise. "Once the Americans were 'wheels up' [in Teheran] on the morning of January 17, Iranian officials in Geneva were allowed to take custody of the $400 million in currency, according to officials briefed on the exchange," the WSJ rote. Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus says of the exchange : "It's time for the Obama White House to drop the charade and admit it paid a $400 million ransom to the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism. President Obama has foolishly put a price on the head of every American abroad and it should be no surprise that Iran has since detained more US citizens. Hillary Clinton's support for this dangerous blunder shows once again she does not have the judgment to be President." Republican leaders are planning hearings on the $400 million transfer once Congress reconvenes in September. ~~~~~~ With this latest politically expedient lie by Barack Obama as background, consider the New York Times August 14 article about Paul Manafort : "on side street off Independence Square in Kiev is an office used for years by Donald J. Trump’s campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, when he consulted for Ukraine’s ruling political party. His furniture and personal items were still there as recently as May....[Ukrainian] government investigators examining secret records have found his name, as well as companies he sought business with, as they try to untangle a corrupt network they say was used to loot Ukrainian assets and influence elections during the administration of Mr. Manafort’s main client, former President Viktor F. Yanukovych." The NYT says : "Handwritten ledgers show $12.7 million in undisclosed cash payments designated for Mr. Manafort from Mr. Yanukovych’s pro-Russian political party from 2007 to 2012, according to Ukraine’s newly formed National Anti-Corruption Bureau. Investigators assert that the disbursements were part of an illegal off-the-books system whose recipients also included election officials. In addition, criminal prosecutors are investigating a group of offshore shell companies that helped members of Mr. Yanukovych’s inner circle finance their lavish lifestyles, including a palatial presidential residence with a private zoo, golf course and tennis court....these companies engaged in an $18 million deal to sell Ukrainian cable television assets to a partnership put together by Mr. Manafort and a Russian oligarch, Oleg Deripaska, a close ally of President Vladimir V. Putin." Paul Manafort's lawyer, Richard A. Hibey, says his client did not receive “any such cash payments.” But, Ukrainian anti-corruption officials say the payments earmarked for Mr. Manafort, previously unreported, are a focus of their investigation, though they have yet to determine if he actually received the cash. While Mr. Manafort is not a target in the separate inquiry of offshore activities, prosecutors say he must have realized the implications of his financial dealings. Hibey also questioned the suggestion Mr. Manafort might have countenanced corruption or been involved with people who took part in illegal activities : “These are suspicions, and probably heavily politically tinged ones. It is difficult to respect any kind of allegation of the sort being made here to smear someone when there is no proof and we deny there ever could be such proof.” ~~~~~~ The NYT concludes that the Ukraine allegations : "underscore the risky nature of the international consulting that has been a staple of Mr. Manafort’s business since the 1980s, when he went to work for the Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos. Before joining Mr. Trump’s campaign this spring, Manafort’s most prominent recent client was Mr. Yanukovych, who -- like Mr. Marcos -- was deposed in a popular uprising." In any event, Paul Manafort’s activities shine new light on how he mixed politics and business out of public view and benefited from powerful interests -- does that remind us of Hillary and Bill? In the political shark tank that is Washington, Manafort broke the unspoken commandment : "Ye shall not be caught." Donald Trump’s campaign took the only possible action when it demoted Manafort. ~~~~~~ But, replacing Manafort with Steve Bannon, the CEO of the conservative online news outlet Breitbart, is being read as yet another Trump rejection of the GOP establishment -- of course it is -- because Breitbart is synonymous with attacks on the GOP leadership, including going after Speaker Paul Ryan. Breitbart has also suggested that Senator Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is insufficiently tough when it comes to standing up to Democrats. While establishment Republicans are aghast at the Bannon choice, he has backers in Congress. Tea Party backed Representative Dave Brat, the unknown economic professor who upset then-Majority Leader Eric Cantor in a 2014 GOP primary race, recently told TheHill : “Steve Bannon certainly will be great at reflecting the populist issues that have shaken the political world for the past couple years. He has his finger on the pulse of the American people and so I am sure he will make these issues … front and center in this campaign, including the war on ISIS, immigration-related issues, crony trade deals, and using all the levers of American power to ensure that we put the American people first.” Michael Steele, a former Republican National Committee chairman, probably got the facts and tone just about right . Steele said the personnel changes show that Trump is : “going to play this hard all the way through. There was a lot of wishful thinking, including from me, that he will make a turn, a pivot. Well, there should be no further expectations for him to do anything like that." The changes, Steele said, reflect a belief on Trump’s part that : “This campaign is going to succeed or fail on what got us here. It’s really kinda looking into the rearview mirror at the establishment, saying: There you are. You’re either going to get into the car with him or you’re not.” ~~~~~~ One issue that Trump seems to be putting not in the rear view mirror but on the road ahead is US Intelligence. Real Clear Politics highlighted an August 18 National Review article titled, "Where's Letter from Dem Security Officials Opposing Hillary?" by Victor Davis Hanson, historian at the Hoover Institution and Stanford University. In his article, Hanson attacked the recklessness of a group of 50 conservative foreign-policy elites and veteran national-security officials of prior Republican administrations who recently wrote an open letter denouncing Donald Trump. Hanson wrote : "They cited especially his lack of character and moral authority -- and his 'little understanding of America’s national interests.' Particularly bothersome, they wrote, is Trump’s inability “to separate truth from falsehood....Trump’s one-year campaign of blustery rhetoric suggests he could be as reckless in deed in the White House as he has been in word on the campaign trail." ~~ Then Hanson asks the critical political question and answers it in a hypothetical letter from Hillary supporters : " Is there a like group of past Democratic wise men and women who can commensurately “police their own” and so warn us about Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton? Unlike Trump, Clinton already has an actual political record as a former US Senator and Secretary of State. If there were such a group, the heart of their letter might read something like the following : We the undersigned who have served in prior Democratic administrations will not vote for Hillary Clinton. She has endangered US national security by using an unsecured and unlawful personal e-mail server....transmitted classified information over it, some of which was most likely accessed by foreign interests....deliberately undermined government intelligence-handling protocols and ignored Freedom of Information Act requests. FBI director James Comey...stated before Congress that Mrs. Clinton was untruthful in her various public explanations about her reckless behavior. We are discovering from her unsecured and once-deleted correspondence more evidence of negligence and unethical behavior -- from crossover business between State Department operatives and the Clinton Foundation to quid pro quo favors and discussions about a US informant who was later executed by the Iranian government. Unfortunately, Mrs. Clinton cannot distinguish truth from falsehood in areas that transcend the e-mail scandal....falsely attesting that the Benghazi tragedy was a result of popular anger against a filmmaker....hired for her campaign the recently resigned and disgraced former head of the DNC, Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz. Clinton’s role in the decision to bomb Libya ensured a subsequent failed state and terrorist haven there. Her laxity left the consulate in Benghazi without protection from terrorist violence that led to American deaths. Backing the Moslem Brotherhood in Egypt nearly destroyed a traditional ally. The Iranian government has stepped up its support of terrorism, its hostage-taking, and its promises to destroy Israel -- after the Iran accord Clinton claims to have helped initiate. On her watch, all US troops were precipitously withdrawn from Iraq...ensuring the rise of ISIS and the implosion of nearby Syria. Allies in the Gulf and Israel have been ostracized as often as hostile governments in Iran, Turkey, and Cuba have been courted. Her signature “reset” policy emboldened Vladimir Putin’s Russia, helped to restart a Cold War, and led to the end of an independent Crimea and unified Ukraine. China’s unchecked expansionism has spread to new artificial island bases in the South China Sea. Uncertain of continued US support, Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea grow terrified in the face of renewed Chinese and North Korean aggression. As Secretary of State, Clinton spearheaded the Obama administration’s effort to relegate jihadist violence to a euphemistic category of “violent extremism.” Hillary Clinton for political advantage has flipped positions on the Keystone XL pipeline, major international trade agreements, illegal immigration, and a border fence. Hillary and Bill Clinton have become multimillionaires through speaking and consulting, often on the tacit understanding that their past and present public service could benefit unscrupulous corporate and foreign interests willing to pay them exorbitant fees....In our view, further continuance of a long record of proven failure is even more worrisome than reckless rhetoric about future policy." ~~~~~~ Hanson's brilliant hypothetical letter was followed by his conclusion : "No such letter will ever be published. Why? Hillary Clinton is a fixture of the foreign policy establishment and thus is considered exempt from being judged empirically on her serial deceit and her disastrous foreign-policy record. In the world of elite Washington, crude bluster from an uncouth outsider like Trump is deemed more hazardous than the prevarication, dishonesty, and incompetence of a familiar insider." ~~~~~~ Reading the Hanson article several times can go a long way to help understand why -- just before he is set to receive his first classified intelligence briefing -- Donald Trump said he does not trust information coming out of US intelligence agencies and indicated he would cease relying on the bulk of the intelligence community’s massive workforce. During an interview on “Fox and Friends” Wednesday, Trump was asked whether he “trust[s] intelligence.” Trump answered : “Not so much from the people that have been doing it for our country. I mean, look what’s happened over the last 10 years....It’s been catastrophic. Very easy to use them, but I won't use them, because they’ve made such bad decisions,” he said, pointing back as far as the WMD issue before the 2003 G. W. Bush invasion of Iraq. Trump's comments come after a House Republican report last week confirmed that intelligence produced through the military’s Central Command -- CENTCOM -- had been edited or suppressed in order to provide an unrealistically positive image of the fight against ISIS. The report conclusions seriously undermine the Obama administration’s claims about the anti-ISIS push and help explain the trouble it has had driving the extremist group out of its bases in Syria and Iraq. Trump was planning to take to the Wednesday briefing with him former Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, who for a time led the Defense Intelligence Agency in the Obama administration. Trump told Fox News : “He’s a terrific guy, a terrific general: tough, smart, feels like I do about illegal immigration, in particular.” New Jersey Governor Chris Christie was also reportedly scheduled to join Trump. ~~~~~~ Dear readers, this laundry list of lies and errors by Obama and Hillary Clinton is the main reason Donald Trump is likely to be elected President in November. If you doubt this, consider the latest August 15-16 Rasmussen poll. After all the recent mudslinging from Progressive media and the Hillary campaign, Hillary Clinton leads Donald Trump by only two points, 41% to 39% -- factoring in the margin of error, it is a dead heat. Rasmussen adds that this is the second straight week that Clinton's support has fallen from an identical 44% just after the Democratic National Convention, with the former Secretary of State holding a 43% to 40% edge over Trump last week. Clinton continues to earn more support among voters in her party -- 77¨% -- than Trump does with 69%. But support is down from last week in both parties, according to Rasmussen. In other findings, Clinton holds a 43% to 39% lead over Trump among women -- much less than mainstream media tell us. The race is closer among men with 40% supporting Clinton and 39% backing Trump. But, it seems that the more their lies are pointed out and feed negative reactions, the more Obama and Hillary feel compelled to go on lying. It is a symptom of the political shark tank in Washington, where Barack and Hillary are insiders whose incompetence, deceit and lies in no way separate them from the rest of the DC pack. Paul Manafort may or may not be quilty of any crime or grievous misbehavior. We could dig into Obama 2008 campaign manager David Axelrod's international consulting activities and ask questions about their propriety. The answers would be almost irrelevant because the political gun-for-hire pro's who circle around federal candidates and officeholders -- buzzards above their prey -- are known to most Washington elite, who understand what baggage -- unsavory, as well as useful -- they bring with them. But, Donald Trump comes from a business background where lies are rare and a handshake still means something. Trump is right to be wary. He has been burned by almost every hand he has shaken in Washington. His being misled or deceived by Paul Manafort may be, at last, the wake-up call he needs. Trump must operate from the principle that establishment Washington has everything to lose if he is elected. They are using every conniving political tool in their kit to defeat him. Washington loves to attack business for failing to create jobs while it drains their coffers with high taxes on their activities that make new job creation difficult, but ease the way for Washington porkbarrel and special interest voter group coddling. The DC elite do not want a savvy businessman like Donald Trump screwing up their cushy existence. So, they support Hillary, a pal who understands and favors their corrupt system. Trump needs to give Chris Christie and Newt Gingrich carte blanche to tell him who to trust and how to avoid being slaughtered like the lamb he is in Washington. Trump must trust their judgment in this area. One thing they ought to tell Trump is that the US intelligence community is not incompetent; its political leaders are. And, in return for being Trump's eyes and ears in Washington political mattters, Christie and Gingrich need to let Trump call the shots on message and media methods. There, he is the expert. It is with that expertize that he was nominated and it will be with that expertize alone that he will be elected. We cannot clean up Washington if we allow the 'cleaning man' to be contaminated and killed by the 'germs' lurking on Capitol Hill and "K" Street.