Don's Tuesday Column

          THE WAY I SEE IT   by Don Polson  Red Bluff Daily News   3/21/2017

              Charges: collusion, spying, deceit

As of mid-day Monday, the testimony of FBI Director James Comey now confirms that there isn’t, there wasn’t, and there never has been any “collusion” between then-candidate Donald Trump, his campaign or his staff and “the Russians.” There neither is—nor has there ever been—any evidence to support those charges by the swamp-fevered left, the “howling at the moon” progressives, the treasonous “resistance” activists or the Democrats-with-bylines (news media).

The left’s contentions, beliefs and conspiracy theories—harbored in black ideological hearts—are that the election of Donald J. Trump over their flawed candidate, Hillary Clinton, was illegitimately achieved. It is like a dissipating smoke ring, initially pretty and perfect but now only a memory. The fire that stoked the smoke ring was as real as a fake camp fire made of an orange light bulb and gossamer cloth “flames” flickering in the wind of an electric fan.

Even the narrative that “the Russians” affected the election outcome must now, after 6+ months of analysis and reporting, be set aside, stored with the fading, worthless Hillary campaign signs. What I described above has done nothing to shed illumination on why “she can’t lose” morphed into “what just happened” last November.

The objective debriefing that should have followed the greatest political upset in our lifetimes, next to Reagan’s trouncing of Carter in 1980, has yet to take place. No Democratic leaders, policy gurus, former elected officials or their news media mouthpieces have even attempted to explain the overwhelming political tsunami of 1,000+ elective losses since 2008.

A high school civics student could explain the natural result of a party devoted to 1) ever-more-radical beliefs, 2) ever-greater governmental intrusion, regulation and control, and 3) cultural norms emanating from the entertainment, urban, sex-as-a-social-construct fringe, and socialism-enamored academic ideologues. Citizen “dogs” don’t like their political “dog food.”

There never was any voting machine hacking. There never were any voters, in the states won by Trump, that were going to vote for Hillary Clinton until Wikileaks exposed DNC/Podesta emails, or until the FBI investigation found plenty of criminal activity but dismissed it all due to lack of “intent” to violate laws. Hence, nothing but the flawed, corrupt, off-putting, waiting-for-her-coronation Hillary Clinton is to blame for President Donald Trump. Get over it.

I’ve kept my own counsel since Trump tweeted his bombshell accusation that Obama had his “wires tapped.” My initial reaction was that the Obama administration in all of its agencies, particularly national security and law enforcement, had certifiable capabilities, perhaps even desires, to use the tools of surveillance, spying and leaking against Obama’s—and by extension Hillary’s—foes.

Revelations that the IRS shamelessly, lawlessly used its vast powers to hinder the political rights of Tea Party and conservative groups from 2010 forward, made it clear that supposedly nonpartisan bureaucrats harboring partisan agendas could do much to restrict and foil Obama’s opponents. They were using the power to tax to affect the results of elections.

Absent exposure and punishment, what politically powerful but corrupt officials have done can be done again and not necessarily by the same party or for the same ends. Nixon was foiled, but still impeached, in his stillborn efforts to use the IRS against his opponents. Obama, Lerner, Koskinen et al? Not one iota of sanction has come of it. Let’s hope Trump rises above it.

When considering whether that same Obama administration conducted electronic surveillance of the Trump campaign, it’s fair to say that Obama’s people take orders and directives, written or not, from the top. Such tactics invariably contain euphemistic “plausible deniability” as a way to insulate the president from having “fingerprints” attached to such plans. So, Obama never sent memos to the IRS to target Tea Party groups; he simply said it speeches.

Prior to last fall’s elections, Obama (meaning his people, on his behalf) conducted numerous acts of surveillance, wiretapping, spying, and etc. on both Americans and friendly foreign leaders. Apologies issued forth to Germany’s Merkel and embarrassment ensued over spying on Israeli leaders and American Congressmen. Look up “Obama Spied on Congress, Jewish Leaders Opposed to Iran Deal. Watergate? That was small time” (D. Greenfield, 12/2015)

“President Obama announced two years ago he would curtail eavesdropping on friendly heads of state after the world learned the reach of long-secret U.S. surveillance programs. But behind the scenes, the White House decided to keep certain allies under close watch, current and former U.S. officials said. Topping the list was Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu…The National Security Agency’s targeting of the Israeli leader and officials also swept up the contents of some of their private conversations with U.S. lawmakers and American-Jewish groups (raising fears) that the executive branch would be accused of spying on Congress.” (Fox News, 12/2015)

In “James Rosen on being the target of surveillance under the Obama administration” by John Sexton, the Fox News reporter reiterated his experience: “I have to clarify (I and my parents) were not wiretapped… (but) What happened to me was that the Attorney General, Eric Holder, under Barack Obama as president secretly designated me a criminal co-conspirator and a flight risk and thereby had a federal judge give the government permission to rifle through all my gmails…(On Trump being spied on) It’s entirely possible. It’s the nature of the age we live in.”

Look up “Here’s the List: More Than a Dozen Proven Victims of Obama’s Many Wiretaps” by Jim Hoft. “It is not unfounded (Obama wiretapping Trump) because he has done it before. Here is a list of individuals who were wire tapped by the Obama Administration.” Read it.