'Toontime: Double Whammy

More: If you read anything on line today, Monday, read this: https://history.house.gov/Institution/Impeachment/Impeachment-List/ Richard Nixon is not on the list because he resigned before a vote on a bill of impeachment was held on the floor of the House (the Judiciary Committee had voted to pass on three articles of impeachment, then the Supreme Court forced the turnover of the 'smoking gun', secret White House tapes). There is no doubt the vote would have been in favor of a referral to the Senate, since Democrats, then as now, controlled the House of Representatives. The important point is that no other president has ever been accused of jeopardizing national security to obtain advantage over a political rival by soliciting the aid of a foreign government in an election.  Nixon's abuse of power was solely domestic. As US Person has stated before, Trump's "Russia Connection" is worse than Watergate.

{29.09.19}You know Il Douche is afraid of impeachment now, after his attempted shake-down of Ukraine for personal gain is exposed.  He ludicrously tried to accuse Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) of "TREASON" and "lying to Congress" for accurately summarizing his conversation with President Volodymyr Zelensky. Il Douche is certainly NOT a lawyer; and he has no understanding of not using his office for personal advantage BECAUSE HE DID IT AGAIN WITH AUSTRALIA! No other modern president has refused to completely divest themselves of control of their businesses. That is the case because he intended to use the prerogatives and publicity attached to the office to promote the Trump Organization from the beginning of his bizarre political odyssey; unfortunately for the Republic, the rubes fell for it.

credit: R.J. Matson
Wackydoodle sez: Now that's slow walkin!

{28.09.2019}Now that a whistle blower has provided the "smoking gun", the impeachers in the House should not ignore the abundant record evidence of Il Douche's crimes and misdemeanors already provided by Robert Mueller.  The telephone call to Ukraine's president to "do us a favor" merely corroborates Il Douche's willingness to criminally corrupt the US election process through foreign influence which dates back to the Russian offer of assistance to his 2016 campaign.  His consistently corrupt state of mind was also admirably exposed in an interview with George Stephanopolis wherein he stated he would be willing to receive political dirt from a foreign country, and that he never called the FBI in his life.

Chairman Jerry Nadler stressed in a private meeting with his Judiciary Committee, which has the constitutional authority to recommend impeachment articles to the full House, that the House should not sideline other potentially impeachable offenses, including those outlined in the Mueller report and allegations that Trump is violating the foreign and domestic emoluments clauses of the Constitution.  US Person has one question for Ms. Nancy: where is the freakin' resolution of the House convening an official Impeachment Inquiry?  You have the votes now!  Do you expect a federal judge reviewing a Judiciary committee subpoena or habeas writ to take your word for it?

The process is now moving at comparative 'ludicrous' speed, after being stalled over the summer by the House leadership with new subpoenas issued to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and evidentiary preservation orders issued to the White House.  Testimony from officials mentioned in the corruption complaint is scheduled next week before the House Foreign Relations Committee.  One of those, Special Envoy for the Ukraine, Kurt Volker, resigned his post on Friday.  New players have also been snared in the growing net of exposed corruption:  Attorney General William Barr, consiglierie Rudy 'Ghouly' Guliani, and unnamed sources in the White House who provided information to the CIA whistle blower*.

Chairman Schiff, who now has the lead investigative role in the House, will keep his Intelligence Committee working over the two week recess.  Significantly, three investigating committee chairs wrote the State Department that, “The subpoenaed documents shall be part of the impeachment inquiry and shared among the committees. Your failure or refusal to comply with the subpoena shall constitute evidence of obstruction of the House’s impeachment inquiry." The whistle blower complaint is better than an eighteen minute gap. It is next to self-incrimination by Il Douche. His message to Zelensky was crystal: cough up dirt on Joe Biden, or no anti-tank missiles to fight the Russians crossing your eastern boarder.

credit: Adam Zyglis 
BC Idonwanna sez: Speaker have strong back!

*Not only did Il Douche illegally try to extort an in-kind campaign contribution from the Ukrainian president in the form of an Ukrainian investigation of Joe Biden, but his underlings in the Very White House abused the national security apparatus to cover-up his criminality and abuse of power. If House investigators are successful in dislodging Trump's verbatim transcripts from beyond-top-secret storage on the stand alone server maintained exclusively by the NSC, US Person predicts here that they will find equally illegal deal making with Russian President Vladimir Putin based upon Don Veto Trumpillini's life long pattern of corrupt behavior and mobster mentality. In a blatant demonstration of just how damning this evidence is, Il Douche, in true mobster style, attempted to intimidate White House personnel who may have given information to the CIA whistle blower.

Yurok Tribe Declares Klamath River a Legal Person

If corporations can be legal persons under the law, why not natural features like rivers, mountains and forests?  The Yurok Tribe did just that this summer.  In a first of the kind action, the tribe declared the Klamath River a legal person with standing in its tribal courts.  The resolution, which  "Establishes the Rights of the Klamath River to exist, flourish, and naturally evolve; to have a clean and healthy environment free from pollutants; to have a stable climate free from human-caused climate change impacts; and to be free from contamination by genetically engineered organisms,” passed by the tribe's council came after a particularly difficult year for the over-appropriated Klamath.  Low water flows for the past few years have caused disease in salmon and cancelled fishing seasons.  The Yurok is the largest native tribe in California, and they join a growing movement to protect the environment from more devastation by granting legal standing to natural resources, giving native people another legal mechanism to protect their river.

Last year the Ojibwe Tribe adopted "the right of Manoomin" to protect their precocious wild rice--Mannoomin--and the fresh water sources it needs to survive in Minnesota.  Another common law country, New Zealand, adopted the Rights of the Whanganui River, which give it standing in courts.  A spokesperson for the tribe said the resolution not only gives legal standing to the Klamath, but reflects the values the tribe. Cherokee Nation lawyer, Geneva Thompson, who worked on the resolution said, “The idea is that the laws of a nation are an expression of the nation’s values.”  Tribes under the US legal system are separate sovereigns who can legislate their own laws and enter into treaties with the United States.

credit: KCET

2002 when about 34,000 salmon died in the Klamath, was a turning point for the Yurok, who began to take steps to protect the salmon.  Legal fights over water rights and fishing erupt regularly as the salmon population continues to decrease and disease blights the river.  This year, thanks to global warming, the snowpack was only 46% of normal; Oregon declared another drought in the Klamath Basin.  The drought is causing an "operational nightmare" for agriculturalists, which directly compete with salmon for adequate water flows. Yurok's tribal counsel Amy Cordalis, says the issues remain the same despite some successes in protecting water and salmon: an over allocated river and dams that diminish water quality.  What has changed is the tribe's approach.  Representing itself in lawsuits, it is reclaiming governance of the river.

In April 2017 a federal district court judge ruled that endangered salmon in the river were entitled to priority over appropriating irrigators.  When disease rates exceed permissible limits, water was diverted into the river to maintain flow. Yurok Tribe et al. vs. U.S. Bureau of Reclamation et al is currently on appeal to the Ninth Circuit.  The victory in court represents a resurgence of the Yurock culture.  For many years it was submersed in institutionalized racism and limited self governance.  The Yurok had lost most of its reservation to white settlers.  The reservation was established in 1855 after a treaty with the US was signed in 1851, but as early as 1874 settlers were arguing it had been abandoned, and they had the right to homestead there.  In 1878 Congress passed the General Allotment Act, dividing up the reservation into small lots for each tribe member.  Surplus lots were granted to non-natives, and more lots bought from natives in a divide and conquer strategy.

credit: J. Yazzie

Despite the 1973 landmark Bolt case, which reaffirmed natives' right to  manage their own fisheries, the state of California claimed the power to regulate native fisheries for conservation purposes pursuant to a 1977 Supreme Court decision.  A year later the state closed native gill netting on the river.  Surreptitious fishing at night by natives began.  It has been an almost continuous struggle to obtain sufficient flows for salmon in the Kalamath.  There have been important wins along the way, such as the 9th Circuit case in 2017 that ordered flushing flows to rehabilitate the Trinity tributary, which had lost 80 percent of its salmon habitat due to the irrigation project on the river.  The judges found the amount of evidence showing the salmons' need for water to be "staggering".  In 2009 Pacific Corp., facing environmental lawsuits and expensive dam retrofitting for salmon passage, began negotiations with a coalition of natives, conservationists and regulators to remove dams on the Klamath.  The negotiations resulted in an agreement to remove four of the eight dams blocking salmon habitat pending federal approval.  If  the agreement is allowed to go ahead, it will be the largest dam removal project in the United States.

There have been three failed attempts to reach a long term agreement of how to use the Klamath's waters.  The last agreement between irrigators and natives failed because Congress did not implement it with legislation.  It was consumated primarily because of a golfing buddy relationship between the tribe's director and the head of the Klamath Water Users Association.  Tribal water rights are among the oldest in the basin, going back to treaty days.  However, non-native ties to the land are strong too.  In 1902 both Oregon and California ceded land to the federal government which opened it to settlement, promising homesteaders water rights.   Repeated droughts have caused the shut off of farmers' life blood--irrigation water. Each year the tribe holds a salmon festival [photo], but lately there has been very little salmon in the festival.  The tribe has canceled fishing for two years in a row.  Oregon irrigators filed an appeal of the case allowing increased water flows for fish in 2017. Ultimately the  Supreme Court will have to decide the fate of salmon and salmon fishers on the Klamath. Whether the river's new personhood will help it regain health remains to be determined.

"Just the facts, Ma'm"

More: The New York Times has published the full whistle blower complaint on-line here. The identity of the whistle blower has not been revealed but media sources say he is a senior CIA analyst with functional responsibility for Eastern Europe and was once detailed to serve at the White House.

The sh*t has definitely hit the fan (52 USC ℥30121), and even the stock market cannot save the Malignant One. Thank you, George Stephanopolis.

Update: It took another shoe, but thank you, Nancy for finally admitting the imposter in the Very White House is lawless, a clear and present danger to the Republic. Or is US Person just mentally ill?

{23.09.19}That's what über cop, Joe Friday (Jack Webb) told witnesses on the iconic TV crime drama of the 50's, Dragnet.  With that nod, NYT opinion columnist, David Leonhardt has given us forty (40) facts to hurl at the Malignant One holed up in the Very White House. He may indeed be the most corrupt president in US history. The question is: why did 'Mericans elect a failed inherited real estate mogul and 'reality' TV personality with a documented history of questionable business practices and bankruptcies? Perhaps for the same reasons the Germans elected a ego-maniacal failed artist turned paper hanger and house painter. At least Schicklgruber served with distinction in his nation's army. We got bone spurs! Here are the facts (some of which may be classified simply as distasteful personal failings, not impeachable offenses) so far:

He has pressured a foreign leader to interfere in the 2020 American presidential election after he urged Russia to intervene in the 2016 presidential election.
He divulged classified information to foreign officials.
He publicly undermined American intelligence agents while standing next to a hostile foreign autocrat.
He hired a national security adviser who he knew had secretly worked as a foreign lobbyist.
He encourages foreign leaders to enrich him and his family by staying at his hotels.
He panders to murderous dictators.
He has alienated America’s closest allies.
He lied to the American people about his company’s business dealings in Russia.
He tells new lies virtually every week — about the economy, voter fraud, even the weather.
He spends hours on end watching television and days on end staying at resorts.
He often declines to read briefing books or perform other basic functions of a president’s job.
He has aides, as well as members of his own party in Congress, who mock him behind his back as unfit for office.
He has repeatedly denigrated a deceased United States senator who was a war hero.
He insulted a Gold Star family — the survivors of American troops killed in action.
He described a former first lady, not long after she died, as “nasty.”
He described white supremacists as “some very fine people.”
He told four women of color, all citizens and members of Congress, to “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime-infested places from which they came.”
He launched his political career by falsely claiming that the first black president was not really American.
He launched his presidential campaign by describing Mexicans as “rapists.”
He has described women, variously, as “a dog,” “a pig” and “horseface,” as well as “bleeding badly from a facelift” and having “blood coming out of her wherever.”
He has been accused of sexual assault or misconduct by multiple women.
He enthusiastically campaigned for a Senate candidate who was accused of molesting multiple teenage girls.
He waved around his arms, while giving a speech, to ridicule a physically disabled person; he mocked a 16 year old Swedish climate activist at the UN.

He has encouraged his supporters to commit violence against his political opponents.

He has called for his opponents and critics to be investigated and jailed.

He uses a phrase popular with dictators — “the enemy of the people” — to describe journalists.

He attempts to undermine any independent source of information that he does not like, including judges, scientists, journalists, election officials, the F.B.I., the C.I.A., the Congressional Budget Office and the National Weather Service.

He has tried to harass the chairman of the Federal Reserve into lowering interest rates.

He said that a judge could not be objective because of his Mexican heritage.

He obstructed justice by trying to influence an investigation into his presidential campaign.

He violated federal law by directing his lawyer to pay $280,000 in hush money to cover up two apparent extramarital affairs.

He made his fortune partly through wide-scale financial fraud.

He has refused to release his tax returns and claims he is immune to any investigation.

He falsely accused his predecessor of wiretapping him.

He claimed that federal law-enforcement agents and prosecutors regularly fabricated evidence, thereby damaging the credibility of criminal investigations across the country.

He has ordered children to be physically separated from their parents.

He has suggested that America is no different from or better than Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

He has called America a “hellhole.”

He is the president of the United States, and he is a threat to virtually everything that the United States should stand for.

Thank you for reminding us, David, about why we must remove Il Douche from the most powerful office in the land!

COTW: A House Divided

These charts demonstrate the widening gap between 'Mericans over some very basic issues.  Half a century ago there was more of a middle consensus, but that has disappeared over time. The electorate is now more polarized, with no consensus on fundamental national priorities:

credit:Pew Research

Significantly, people who identify as Democrats or "leaning Democrat" are three times more likely to view climate change as a crisis caused by human activity, and they are much more likely to support regulating economic activity to protect the planet. (77%-36%) Partisan animosity, which has been well exploited by Il Douche, is on the rise too.  81% of partisans view the other side unfavorably.

Three Mile Island Closes

The infamous Three Mile Island nuclear power plant, which suffered a partial meltdown in 1979 was officially closed on Friday, a historic milestone in the checkered history of nuclear power in the United States.  The owner cited lack of subsidies for its power as a reason for the closure. The plant lost money for the past five years and the state of Pennsylvania  balked at further subsidies. Only one reactor of the facility was still in operation.  The plant's owner, Excelon Corp., said clean up of the site will take an estimated $1.2 billion.  All of the facility's nuclear material will not be removed until 2078.  High decommissioning costs are one reason nuclear power finds it increasingly difficult to compete against cheaper, cleaner alternative energy and natural gas.  The nation's fleet of 96 operating reactors are all nearing the end of their planned operating lives; their average age is 38.

Although no one died from the nuclear fallout of the meltdown, the incident led directly to stricter federal regulation of nuclear power facilities.  The number of new plant constructions has declined to zero since then. The last two nuclear plants built in the US are Watts Bar, begun in 1973, and River Bend, begun in 1977. More than a decade elapsed before these plants began producing power, once claimed to be "too cheap to meter".

Regime Opens Entire Arctic Refuge to Oil Drilling

A final plan that the government admits will result in extinction of more species, opens the entire coast plain of the Arctic Wildlife Refuge to exploitation by the oil industry. The proposal is the most extreme of three plans presented by the BLM.  In its final environmental impact statement, the Interior Department noted that in combination with global warming, to which drilling one of the last great wildernesses on Earth will certainly contribute, birds that nest in the refuge are “already are experiencing decreasing populations, and many could suffer catastrophic consequences from the effects of global climate change in one or more of their seasonal continental or even global habitats...These effects combined with development-related impacts across the ranges of many bird species may result in extinction during the 85-year scope of this analysis.”  Over 200 bird species rely on the refuge for survival.  

Drilling operations will require the pumping of huge amounts of water from the plain's limited water sources, destroying habitat for waterbirds.  Birds are not the only species that will perish.  Federally protected polar bears den in the refuge.  The noisy intrusion of oil infrastructure will disrupt their reproduction, and more bears will be killed in conflict with humans. The massive caribou herds that migrate to the refuge in summer will also suffer vehicle collisions, and lack of forage.  In sum, development of the pristine wilderness poses an existential threat to the entire coastal plain ecosystem.

This aggressive and extreme action by the regime shows, "how far this administration is willing to go to extract oil and gas, even in what should be a protected area,” says the Alaska Audubon's policy director.  The oil industry and its political handmaidens have been attempting to open the refuge to development for fifty years.  They have been turned back by conservationists several times in high profile political showdowns.  A bill finally made it through Congress in 1995, but it was vetoed by Bill Clinton.  Ever since the Exxon Valdez disaster in 1989, the public has supported protecting the wilderness.  A 2017 survey by Yale University shows 70% of respondents oppose drilling in the refuge.

The latest assault by the Nature rapists is seen as an rush effort to breach the sanctuary during the tenure of Il Douche because the existence of approved oil leases will make it more difficult to reverse course in a subsequent administration.  The draft environmental impact statement was submitted only eight months after the review began.  In its haste, the Interior Department omitted relevant information and altered the findings of its own scientists to downplay adverse impacts.  There has been no seismic testing in the refuge to find specific pockets of oil that can be exploited.

Because Alaskans get a hefty annual royalty from oil extraction, many support opening the reserve, but the native Gwich’in people have staunchly opposed exploitation.  They hold the immense Porcupine caribou heard as sacred, and subsist on hunting it.  Native leaders have condemned the decision to rape the reserve as a demonstration, "that this administration and the Alaska delegation will disregard our way of life, our food, and our relationship with the land, the caribou, and future generations to pander to industry greed.”  Congressional Budget Office estimates that lease sales would generate only half of the $1.8 trillion in revenues claimed by the regime. Next door at Prudhoe Bay,
only 18,000 acres have technically been developed, but the overall amount of land that has been disturbed and developed is more like 217,000 acres.  The same industrial sprawl or greater is inevitable on the Arctic plain if left unprotected.

Although a deadlocked Congress has passed legislation to protect the refuge from the latest attack, the bills will not pass the Senate where oil industry legislators like Lisa Murkowski, (R-AK), who chairs the Natural Resources Committee, are in control.  Conservationists will once again have to resort to litigation to save the last remaining American wilderness. God help them before the eco-fascists turn the Arctic Refuge into another industrial wasteland like the Mississippi Delta.

'Toontime: It Was the Worst of Times...

credit: Steve Sack, Star Tribune

Someone has suggested that humanity suffers from an intellectual incapacity to grasp the fate that awaits it.  If we as a species have to wait on evolution, we will certainly run out of runway.  Perhaps the only threat to national security that equals global warming is the Malignant One in office.

credit: Matt Davies, Newsday
BC Idonwanna: Take fire away from Orange man!

You can watch Rudi 'Ghoully' confess to another 'high crime and misdemeanor' here. That makes seven by US Person's count. According to the New York Times, Il Douche repeatedly pressed the Ukrainian president to talk to his personal lawyer who was urging the Ukrainian government to investigate Joe Biden and his son, Hunter.  The regime had placed a hold on military aid to Ukraine for weeks. There is rampant speculation that the hold was connected to Il Douche's desire to see Joe Biden smeared with a corruption investigation. In any event, his transactions with foreign leaders prompted an unprecedented whistle blower complaint from a member of the 'deep state' on August 12th.  It is now obvious that the US intelligence community considers the freestyle improvisation of the 'Chosen One' to be a security risk.  Stay tuned for more.   His tacit quid pro quo issued to Ukranie is gross corruption for which impeachment is the intended the remedy provided by the founders.

The acting Director of National Intelligence upon advice from a highly politicized Justice Department is refusing to hand over the whistleblower's complaint (probably submitted by fired deputy intelligence chief Sue Gordon) to Congress despite a statutory mandate to do so. If Congress wants to redeem its shattered credibility as a co-equal branch of government, it must impeach Il Douche or he will continue to bully and manipulate a political system that was built to protect a white minority.  As one commentator put it, "our political system is broken".  US Person could not agree more.