But wait – it gets better, because Mr. Brennan also said that President Trump did not attempt to enlist the help of any official in the intelligence community to kill the investigation of Michael Flynn, his first National Security Advisor. Well, that shoots down another of the charges that the Democrats have been propelling for the last few months.
BY JOHN SHAFFER John Brennan, former CIA Director, has testified before Congress. He said many things that ought to, once and for all, end the pernicious myth that “The Russians hacked the election,” “interfered” in the election or “colluded” with the Trump campaign. Mr. Brennan was asked point-blank if he was aware of collusion, coordination or conspiracy between the Russians and the Trump campaign. Now, after promoting that theme since the defeat of Hillary Clinton in November, one would think that Mr. Brennan would provide evidence or would make a declaratory statement. He did not. Instead he said that he had learned about contacts that he says should be investigated more fully. Now, that is not an unreasonable statement – but it sure flies in the face of Mr. Brennan’s earlier charges and statements. By the way – he did not admit to have seen evidence of “direct links” with the Trump campaign and Russia. Mr. Brennan says that he saw “interaction” – whatever that means – adding, “I don’t have sufficient information to make a determination whether or not there was cooperation or complicity or collusion.” This leads to the obvious question: If you have seen no direct evidence, why have you been pushing the story so much? Of course, he also said that those "contacts" "may have been innocent or benign."
But wait – it gets better, because Mr. Brennan also said that President Trump did not attempt to enlist the help of any official in the intelligence community to kill the investigation of Michael Flynn, his first National Security Advisor. Well, that shoots down another of the charges that the Democrats have been propelling for the last few months. By John Shaffer One of the biggest happenings of the past week has been President Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey. It is a little delicious that a catch phrase ('You're Fired!") made famous by the President during a previous career as a reality-TV show host would be the cause of so much turmoil. The last time a President fired an FBI Director was 1993 when President Clinton fired William Sessions. The Republic did not crumble in 1993, and it won’t over the Comey firing either. That doesn’t mean the Comey firing was handled well – and it hasn’t proven to be very “popular,” especially with Democrats – although many of them were all but crying for his scalp just about up to the time he actually was fired. How many people believe that Mr. Comey would have lasted 117 days into a Hillary Clinton administration? Of course, President Trump has a tendency to buy trouble (one is one pretty solid ground to say that almost all of President Trump’s “problems” vis-à-vis the political establishment, the news media, Congress, and his friends and his opponents alike, are at their foundation self-inflicted) and this instance is no exception. He has created outrage less for the things he has done than by the way he has done them and what he has said while doing them. He is impulsive and rash, and still has not learned that Republicans cannot count on much support from the mainstream media, academia, the political establishment, or the entertainment world. Mistakes or missteps from Democrats may be downplayed or ignored by those folks, but if from President Trump, they are taken as proof of irrationality or incompetence. Who knows, maybe they are – but President Obama could get away with equally incompetent or irrational behaviors because he had a deep well of support from those folks listed above; and they also tend to give support to Hillary Clinton that makes their support of President Obama look weak by comparison. President Trump should have figured that out a long time ago, and the sooner he learns to watch what he says and how he explains things, the better off he will be. It's pretty safe to bet that the media will do their best to extinguish the embers of a scandal in a Democratic administration but will fan them into flame in a Republican administration.
By John Shaffer We have some big "thank yous" for "above and beyond" work last week. Normally our paper is printed by the kind folks at the press plant of The Daily Review each Wednesday morning, and we bring it back to Canton where it is labeled, taken to the Post Offices in Canton and Troy, mailed and delivered and on the newsstands by 3 pm. Thanks to a major power outage that stretched out for several days, on last Wednesday that routine was not possible. Brian Schlosser, production manager at the Daily, found a press in Oswego, New York, which did our job. Our paper arrived back in Monroeton at 10 pm that night. We picked them up then, labeled and sorted and took them to the Canton and Troy post offices before 7 am on Thursday. All of the mail customers between Ralston and Gillett, including Granville, received their papers in the Thursday mail, without missing a beat. Thanks to our own staff, Brian and The Daily Review and the Oswego employees, and the Postal employees for doing a marvelous job under difficult circumstances.
By John Shaffer The US House of Representatives has now passed legislation to "repeal and replace" Obamacare. This almost certainly will not be the final product, for the Senate will present its own version, and then the two versions will be reconciled through conference, and something, maybe very different than the House bill, will be passed and signed into law. The bill was passed with no Democrat votes (and about 20 Republicans also voted against it), just as the original Obamacare law was passed without a Republican voting for it. The House that passed Obamacare contained 257 Democrats. The voting public was not pleased, turned 64 of those seats over to Republicans, giving them the majority in the House, which they have maintained ever since. And yet, the same observers who watched the electoral consequences of passing Obamacare are essentially predicting the same result for repealing it - suggesting that the GOP will lose its majority. Well, perhaps, but it strikes us as odd that the same voters who punished the party that passed Obamacare would now punish the party that "un-passed" it.
Of course, dishonest claims about the House legislation may have something to do with it - such as the contention that the House bill does away with "pre-existing" conditions, thus denying treatment to Jimmy Kimmel's baby, and nearly everyone else it would seem. As George Gershwin wrote, "It Ain't Necessarily So." In fact, it isn't "so" at all - not even a little bit. Here are the facts: If parents have health insurance, their child is covered under their plan, even if that child is gravely ill. This was true before Obamacare as well as with it, and will be true after it, too. What’s more, American hospitals must provide emergency treatment to everyone who requires it and comes to a hospital. It does not matter if the patient is insured or not, if they have money or not, or if they have a “pre-existing condition” or not. By John Shaffer “One hundred days” has been somewhat of a standard for incoming presidential administrations since the heady days of the New Deal, when the Roosevelt Administration passed a flurry of legislation and implemented a series of regulations aimed at combating the Great Depression. Among the major steps were a bank holiday, taking America off the Gold Standard, and regulations to take control of the economy, banking and agriculture. No administration since then has compiled as extensive a record – but none since then had a Great Depression to confront, either. For better or worse, FDR’s 100 Days remade the government’s approach to the economy and greatly expanded the power of Washington at the expense of the private sector and state and local government. We should not judge any presidency by only its first 100 days. The Trump Administration’s “100 Days” faced a unique set of challenges, and many of its first steps aimed at undoing actions of the previous administration. The Trump administration misfired in its attempt to “repeal and replace” Obamacare, and, lacking the one-sided majorities in Congress that FDR enjoyed has been unable to pass a similar wave of legislation. Remember, presidential terms last four years, not 100 days, so we should be careful not to judge this or any administration solely by its ability to pass major legislation within 100 days.
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