JAY SEKULOW : EVEN MORE DANGER! DANGER! DANGER!

SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 01/31/2020 The 

Associated Press reviewed 10 years of tax returns for the ACLJ and other charities tied to Sekulow, which are released to the public under federal law. 

The records from 2008 to 2017, the most recent year available, show that more than $65 million in charitable funds were paid to Sekulow, his wife, his sons, his brother, his sister-in-law, his nephew and corporations they own. 

Daniel Borochoff, president of the American Institute of Philanthropy, said Sekulow appears to be mixing his defense of Trump with his charitable endeavors. The group has issued a “Donor Alert” about ACLJ on its CharityWatch website.

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DANGER! DANGER! DANGER!

[...] an  NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll  found that about 41% of Americans surveyed do not think the country is prepared to protect the U.S. election system from another attack.

Voters also say their biggest concern is disinformation, followed by voter fraud and voter suppression. Forty-four percent think it's likely that many votes will not actually be counted in 2020.

American Distrust Of The Voting Process Is Widespread, NPR Poll Finds  Jan. 21, 2020

While most voters have confidence in their state and local governments to run a fair election, 43% do not think those officials have done enough to make sure that there's no foreign interference.

Many more blame President Trump. Fifty-six percent say he has done little or nothing to keep the elections safe. A slim majority think the president, who has repeatedly questioned Russian tampering in 2016, actually encourages foreign interference.

This lack of voter confidence has unnerved lower-level election officials as the nation heads into what's expected to be a highly contentious presidential race with high levels of turnout.

"My biggest concern in 2020 is that regardless of outcome, we will be faced with somewhere around the end of the first week in November, this concern by half of the country that they lost the election illegitimately, " says Colorado Election Director Judd Choate.

SOLIPSISM

"His presidency would be powered by solipsism. From the moment Trump swore an oath to defend the Constitution and commit to serve the nation, he governed largely to protect and promote himself."

Excerpted from "A Very Stable Genius"

THE ART OF THE DEAL

Excerpts from an NPR interview with Fred Kaplan, author of "The Bomb: Presidents, Generals, and the Secret History of Nuclear War"  

Please note the frequent ellipses. This is NOT a transcript. I have edited for brevity but have not changed the direction of the interview.

Read these excerpts with 2020 vision.

"In 1962, Kennedy faces a real crisis - The Soviets [were] building nuclear missiles in Cuba [...] So Kennedy and advisers had to figure out what to do and whether the wrong move would trigger a nuclear war. 

[...] Even now the real story is not that well-known. [...] On the third day of the [...] 13-day crisis, Kennedy is kind of mulling. He's saying, Khrushchev seems to have got himself in a trap. Maybe we need to give him a face-saving gesture. Maybe we should trade the missiles that we have in Turkey for his missiles in Cuba. Nobody pays any attention to this.

On the Saturday, on the last day of the crisis, Khrushchev issues a telegram proposing a deal - we'll get rid of our missiles in Cuba; you get rid of your missiles in Turkey. And Kennedy says, well, this seems like a fair trade. And everybody around the table is against this - not just the generals but all the civilians. Bobby Kennedy, Robert McNamara, McGeorge Bundy - all these reasonable people, they're all against it. [...]

Kennedy lets them talk. And he says, well, you know, [...] it seems to me that once [...] we start doing 500 sorties a day against the missile sites and then invade the island, [...] then the Russians would grab Berlin. [...] Well, the argument goes on. Kennedy secretly sends Bobby to make the deal with the Soviet ambassador. 

[...] Not known at the time - that the Russians had already installed nuclear warheads on some of those missiles. It also turned out that the Russians had secretly deployed 40,000 troops to the island of Cuba to stave off a potential American invasion.

So if Kennedy had succumbed to all of his advisers and said, yeah, you're right, we can't take this deal, and gone ahead with the airstrikes, gone ahead with the invasion, the Russians might very well have launched one of those missiles [...] and the small invasion force going into Cuba would have found themselves being repelled by 40,000 Soviet troops. In other words, we would have been in a war with the Soviet Union. 

So, you know, one lesson of this is that who you elect as president really does matter sometimes. [...] The fact that you have a lot of smart advisers doesn't necessarily seal the deal."

IS MICHAEL BLOOMBERG THE ONE?

It is my opinion that to win the presidency in 2020, Democrats will need a strong MODERATE candidate to run against Donald Trump. 

While Joe Biden is the only viable moderate candidate currently on the campaign trail, he has not generated much excitement in the electorate although he does seem to have support in the working classes & black communities. However until now, there has not been a viable REALPOLITIK alternative. I believe that situation changed when Michael Bloomberg entered the 2020 campaign for President of the United States.  

Michael Bloomberg is socially liberal & fiscally practical, which is different than being fiscally conservative. As a graduate of Johns Hopkins University & Harvard Business School he, himself, is well educated & believes in a strong public education system for everyone. To that end, he took controversial measures to improve public education for millions of children in New York City during his time as Mayor. 

As an extremely competitive, tough skinned New Yorker he will stand up to Donald Trump -- another New Yorker -- on the campaign trail & on the debate stage. 

He recognizes and has called Donald Trump a con man & will prove it. Bloomberg can play dirty as necessary but it will be based on facts, not tweets, memes & name calling. He will bring the latest M1 Abrams to the gunfight and will obliterate Donald Trump intellectually at any level, on any issue.

Unlike Donald Trump, Michael Bloomberg is a multi-billionaire who earned his money, does not need and will not take a penny from anyone in any form. He cannot & will not be bought by any lobby & has demonstrated that by improving the lives of millions of New Yorkers as mayor over a period of 12 years. Since then, he has spent millions fighting special interests that have warped social issues affecting our everyday lives.

For 20 years, he was the CEO of a successful & respected business built on facts. It is clear he is a data driven executive who leads on reality, not emotion or politics. In other words, he is not an ideologue. That’s Realpolitik.

As a businessman he believes in tax realignment and has created thousands of jobs beyond the 20,000 employed by his own company while mayor of New York.

He is action oriented, but has proven to be a collaborative, successful leader who does not shy away from argument, is a measured & practical problem solver, is not afraid to apologize & admit error, has taken successful action on the environment, gun violence, student debt & health care. Moreover, he is neither a sociopath nor a psychopath. In other words, he is not nuts.

Bloomberg has said that he would turn the Situation Room into an open space, everyday collaborative work area where he will roll up his sleeves to serve alongside his advisers, appointees &/or cabinet members, to listen to facts & to discuss current issues; all before making decisions. His only use of the Oval Office will be for ceremonial occasions. In my opinion, all this signals a constructive work ethic & a governing style that we desperately need.

You may not agree with my assessments but, in my opinion, Michael Bloomberg is a substantive contender & should be considered for the 46th Presidency of the United States of America beginning January 20th, 2021.

Here is some information on Bloomberg's  political positions.

WAG THE DOG

I have no doubt that Donald J Trump picked Suleimani from a list of possible targets for a very simple reason.

It's called getting the biggest bang for your buck.

It is counter programming. And as long as he can keep it going, one way or another, he will succeed in blunting the national conversation about impeachment while honing a jingoistic campaign for another four years.

Only a broad swath of activist groups -- along with fulsome news coverage -- may be able to change the conversation.

Unfortunately, that will most likely include a lot of national unrest. It would be 1968 again.