Don's Tuesday Column

                  THE WAY I SEE IT   by Don Polson   Red Bluff Daily News   12/11/2018

        CA Republicans recede, Trump wins

Not addressed in the Nov. election: The nearly vanished Republican Party as a viable political force in California. As a member of the Tehama County Central Committee, I take no joy in that fact and look proudly at our northern counties with vibrant Republican activists, solid support for our representatives and nary a squish among them. We are little more than the poor stepchild to the massive Democrat-leaning urban strongholds to the south, a rounding error in most statewide and national elections, with no voting influence in the U.S. Senate or Electoral College.

Within memory, the legislative balance—our minority once formed a bulwark against the Democrat’s supermajority, forcing some moderation—has evaporated, leaving literal one-party rule. No limits in the senate or assembly for the looniest of proposals.

That Democrat dream was achieved: first, with the misnamed “citizens’ reapportionment” body meant to independently draw fair district lines (but in reality, the Dems took over the process behind the scenes); then, with mandatory voter registration via the DMV to immigrant and citizen alike; finally, further bastardizing the sanctity of the ballot, Gov. Jerry Brown signed election law that allowed for third party “harvesting” of absentee ballots from any and all warm bodies capable of signing their mark.

The way it worked was that Democrat activists and outside groups used technology and records to target likely Democrat voters—even so specific as an 18-year old in a Republican household—going back often to “help” said voters make their choices and sign away their ballot delivery. “Harvesting,” together with the self-exporting of Republicans replaced by arrivals from other countries with Democrat leanings, turned places like the once-Republican fortress of Orange county blue with Dem votes.

Analysts, of course, misread that to mean weak Republicans were changing philosophy and allegiances. Ideological abandonment was not a trend there, and will not be a thing in other red states unless they allow the same district-twisting, vote-harvesting and importation of ready-made Democrat voters. Arizona needs two walls: one on the southern border and one on the California state line.

  Last Friday’s “bombshells” from the “Mueller Switch Project” could have been taken to mean that the Special Prosecutor has no bombshells, no “there there” (as even Trump-obsessed Andrew McCabe admitted in an email to his paramour, Lisa Page); a big, fat empty hole on the original charge that Trump “colluded” with the Russians to change the result of the 2016 election. Not one indictment, guilty plea or judgement has involved that charge, not a crime to begin with—no US code citation.

Andrew C. McCarthy meticulously explained the absence of provable conspiracy so far by using his own prosecutorial experience. Law enforcement begins with a citable crime that involved multiple people; Mueller has never cited a statute, the violation of which could produce a criminal warrant from a judge. Then, they would get the arrested participants to admit to their role in the criminal plot; hasn’t happened so far; the “process crimes” of lying, etc.—for all the noise and fury—demonstrate no overarching crime that was conspired over.

McCarthy’s take on the Friday revelations, “Why Trump is likely to be indicted by Manhattan US Attorney,” begins: “The major takeaway from the 40-page sentencing memorandum filed by federal prosecutors Friday for Michael Cohen, President Trumps former personal attorney, is this: The president is very likely to be indicted on a charge of violating federal campaign finance laws.” Set aside the distasteful purpose of the “hush money” payments to The Porn Star and a Playboy model before the election—the process has been a part of “sanitizing” the history of many entering the political fray from private endeavors.

Their lawyers find anyone with embarrassing dirt or experiences, get them to sign agreements for an agreed sum, and if parties abide by their promises, the media and opponents are denied the chance to attack the candidate over what might simply have been an unflattering-but-consensual tryst. A business associate with a complaint, if it didn’t involve criminal activities, takes a hefty sum in exchange for silence to media.

The candidate’s own money, used for payments, does not violate campaign laws in any stretch of the statute. That won’t slow down Mueller’s prosecutors in their zeal to charge Trump with anything that will fill the indictment sheets and let the compliant media lapdogs and subpoena-wielding, shrieking congressional Democrats create a “string ’m up” atmosphere. I saw that the AP quoted Friday’s Mueller release to the effect that Cohen was contacted by Russian representatives/operatives; the AP simply left out the additional Mueller quote that Trump, through Cohen, rebuffed and turned away said Russian contacts. Fake news.

The now-infamous (to the media/Democrat machine) Trump tower meeting with a Russian woman lawyer ostensibly seeking help changing the “Magnitsky Act,” switching to an offer of dirt on Hillary Clinton, which was also rebuffed, ending that meeting. A big nothing burger with zero legal crimes involved; Mueller isn’t even trying to make a crime of the meeting that only involved Trump’s son and others. It’s “Did Trump know about the meeting beforehand and do any stories contradict his stated memory?”

No one should lie to any member of law enforcement, local or federal. However, just as with Michael Flynn, even if you answer truthfully and the agents go on record saying they thought you told the truth, someone higher up the chain can find a contradiction of his choosing and bring the full weight of the government on you to admit to their version of the truth. Dispute that at your and your family’s peril.

McCarthy is certain campaign finance violations will be alleged. Cohen/Trump payments=$280,000; Clinton/DNC didn’t report nearly $20 million for Fusion/GPS/Steele/Russia payments. Obama paid millions in fines for his violations. Fines for the Democrats; jail time and impeachment for the Republicans. If these people didn’t have double standards, they’d have no standards at all. Sick.