Personal Commentary ~
One undeniable truth came out of the State of the Union last night -- Trump is GOP... Further, as noted below, "The invisible man at front of the march is Paul Ryan."
Focused Read in 2-3 minutes
"Paul Ryan Is the Silent
Partner in Trump’s War on the Rule of Law
In early January, FBI
director Christopher Wray and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein
met with House Speaker Paul Ryan and asked him to rein in his attack
dog, Devin Nunes, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.
Nunes, who also attended the meeting, had supposedly “recused”
himself from the Trump-Russia investigation, but in fact was running
an increasingly vicious counter-investigation against the Department
of Justice in an attempt to defend the administration. Wray and
Rosenstein worried that Nunes’s subpoenas were threatening to
expose sensitive law-enforcement documents.
But, CNN reported on
January 4, “it became clear that Ryan wasn’t moved and the
officials wouldn’t have his support if they proceeded to resist
Nunes’ remaining highly classified requests.”
Since then, Nunes’s
campaign against federal law enforcement has escalated.
… A side effect of
Nunes’s campaign to discredit Trump’s investigators is to
threaten to burn down the credibility and effectiveness of federal
law enforcement.
Here is the point that is largely absent from this
drama:
This is all happening because Paul Ryan wants it to happen.
Ryan’s role in the Trump
administration’s ongoing destruction of governing norms has been
largely invisible, but it is vital.
Ryan, of course, made his
national reputation as a wonk-hero...That reputation
has been tarnished by a number of intervening events, including the
supposed deficit hawk’s shepherding of a massive deficit-increasing
tax cut, but Ryan has managed to retain some of his original aura.
Perhaps most important, even though he holds wide-ranging powers in
his role as House Speaker, he is still treated like a fiscal policy
specialist.
He is therefore able to ignore Trump’s misdeeds, even
when those that implicate him directly and require his active
cooperation.
I found eight Ryan press
conferences or one-on-one interviews since CNN reported on his
meeting to support Nunes over the FBI and the DOJ.
... During all these interviews, reporters generally asked Ryan over and over again about taxes, the budget, the possibility of a government shutdown, and immigration policy. Some of the questions were very probing.
The only question pertaining to Trump’s scandals
came at the January 11 press conference.
A reporter asked Ryan if
he believed the president should cooperate with Robert Mueller if he
wanted an interview. Ryan dispatched it very quickly: “I’ll defer
to the White House on all those questions. This pertains to them, not
this branch.”
That has been Ryan’s
stance all along. All the icky stuff Trump does, the corruption and
disdain for the rule of law, is Trump’s business.
Ryan’s
defenders have accepted this and woven it into the broader rationale
for conservative acceptance of Trump’s presidency.
What are they
supposed to do — oppose conservative policy that they agree with?
And now, Trump and his
allies are circulating absurd lies about the Department of Justice in
order to enable the administration to avoid any accountability to the
rule of law.
The heart of this campaign is the chamber Ryan controls.
It is not only or even primarily Devin Nunes,
The Wall Street
Journal editorial page, and Fox & Friends that are
marching into the fever swamps.
The invisible man at front of the
march is Paul Ryan. … “
You can read more here
Focused Thought in 30 seconds
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Focused Action in 30 seconds
You can share Leader Pelosi's Tweet here
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→ Direct sources for Democrats:
* ( Personal favored and most informative follows are shared here with the understanding that readers will always apply their own critical thinking to any information provided anywhere by anyone. #StrongerTogether does not share sources of information lightly but -- no one is perfect! -- so always #DistrustAndVerify I am using a star rating that is strictly based on my situational experience with the work of the media personality specifically in relation to issues of interest to me. )
The Democratic Party Website
Also
C-SPAN (a good place for speeches & hearings direct source (s))
→ Fact checking organizations courtesy of the Society of Professional Journalists
in alphabetical order...
→ Some of my favorite, most informative
follows on Twitter include:
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ US Intelligence | Author | Navy Senior Chief | NBC/MSNBC
⭐⭐⭐ Federal Government Operations | Vanity Fair | Newsweek | MSNBC Contributor | Author
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Voting Rights/Voter Suppression | Author | Mother Jones
→ Some of the most credible media -- at the moment:
📰📰📰 Mother Jones
📰📰📰 The Washington Post
📰📰📰 The New York Times
💻💻💻 News And Guts on Facebook
→ Some of the most credible Talking Heads -- at the moment -- and their Twitter handles:
📺📺📺📺 Rachel Maddow on MSNBC
📺📺📺 The Beat With Ari on MSNBC
( ⬆⬆⬆ Wallace, a Republican (an inactive Republican I believe she calls herself, is new to the job but for right now she has clearly put country over party and
her work on Trump GOP has been credible, IMO... )
...for Networking for Democrats today!
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(Linked) "...is our 2016 platform...a declaration of how we plan to move America forward. Democrats believe that cooperation is better than conflict, unity is better than division, empowerment is better than resentment, and bridges are better than walls.
It’s a simple but powerful idea: We are stronger together."
( #its2018now )
In honor of women leading the American Resistance ~
Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton (and just one of the ways they partnered to get the work done) are this month's Focused Inspiration:
" ... Susan, a Quaker, came from a background where girls were valued and educated just as Quaker boys were, but Susan began to see the real world when she became a teacher and was routinely paid about one-quarter of the salary she would have received if she had been a man.
Elizabeth was from a well-to-do family where boys were favored. Elizabeth married and began having children ... At that time, women had little opportunity to control whether or not they became pregnant, and it frequently happened that just as Elizabeth was about to attend a new round of meetings or take on a new push for voting rights, she would find herself pregnant and more or less homebound again. Despite this, Elizabeth attended everything she could and when she was needed at home, she served their team effort by writing speeches that Susan could use at conventions or on the road. ... "
" ... Susan, a Quaker, came from a background where girls were valued and educated just as Quaker boys were, but Susan began to see the real world when she became a teacher and was routinely paid about one-quarter of the salary she would have received if she had been a man.
Elizabeth was from a well-to-do family where boys were favored. Elizabeth married and began having children ... At that time, women had little opportunity to control whether or not they became pregnant, and it frequently happened that just as Elizabeth was about to attend a new round of meetings or take on a new push for voting rights, she would find herself pregnant and more or less homebound again. Despite this, Elizabeth attended everything she could and when she was needed at home, she served their team effort by writing speeches that Susan could use at conventions or on the road. ... "
You can read more about this power friendship here
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Curated by Gail Mountain, with occasional personal commentary, Network For #StrongerTogether ! is not affiliated with The Democratic Party in any capacity. This is an independent blog and the hope is you will, at a glance, learn more about the Party and you will, with a click or two, also take action on its behalf as it is provided!
( You can also find me on Twitter @GKMTNtwits )
*
See the League of Women Voters website:
Vote411 here
Thank you for focusing!
g., aka Focused Democrat
✊ Resisting "Fake News"
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