Comments@THEGUSSREPORT--With the Mueller report now released, nobody named Trump facing charges, and no Russia-related prosecutions, the Democrats are in panic mode, seeking the fully un-redacted version of the report.
They may need to ultimately go to the U.S. Supreme Court, a dead-end for their Congressional committees desperate to find something illegal to pin on the President.
The Democratic National Committee is in serious trouble, as the Left-ward movement now owns the party, sets its agenda and influences virtually every action and consideration. Its heart and soul is solidly in the hands of POTUS candidate Senator Bernie Sanders and freshman House member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC). As this column wrote two years ago, the DNC should have apologized to Sanders for rigging its last primary against him. Sanders’ loyal following hasn’t and will never forgive or forget that.
To Impeach or Not Impeach: AOC is calling for an impeachment of President Donald Trump, not understanding that absent an underlying crime, there is nothing for which to impeach him. It goes nowhere without the approval of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who for months has lowered expectations of an impeachment, ludicrously saying, “he’s just not worth it,” which is Washington-speak for “we have nothing else on the guy.”
Besides, impeachment is DOA if it reaches the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate, where a trial would be held. To quote the actually impeached Bill Clinton, “there is no there there.” Of the declared presidential candidates, only Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, whose floundering campaign is desperate to differentiate itself from the rest of the field, has called for an impeachment. Good luck with that.
Kamala the Delusional: California Senator and POTUS candidate Kamala Harris seems not only desperate but delusional. The lawmaker – who has passed exactly zero laws in the Senate – recently Tweeted that she supports the Green New Deal.
Oh yeah? Then how come when the Senate actually voted on the GND, it got zero votes in favor of it, losing 0-57? With 100 votes in the Senate, the Democrats were too cowardly to cast theirs in favor of its trillion-dollar lunacy, but fearful of voting against anything put forward by social media guru AOC. They all voted “present.”
Hey, there’s courage for you!
So, Kamala Harris supports the Green New Deal?
Oh. No. She. Didn’t.
Harris has Tweeted other curious things, including her favoring the federal legalizing of marijuana, which opens the door to asking how many people of color she put in prison for low-level drug offenses during her days as a prosecutor.
Harris and her fellow candidates not named Bernie Sanders or the soon-to-announce Joe Biden may have indigestion from eating the dust of this political season’s bright new star, Mayor of South Bend, Indiana, Pete Buttigieg, aka “Mayor Pete,” who calls things as he sees them, but without this era’s pervasive hostility. Now that is a differentiator. (BTW - his last name is pronounced “Buddha-Judge.”)
Democrats: Whiter than Ever? Dems have long claimed theirs is a “big tent” party, focused on youth, people of color, women and LGBTQs, yet its 2020 nominee is almost certain to be either of two older-than-Trump white, male, heterosexual millionaires.
One, Sanders, is a non-Democrat, avowed Socialist millionaire, thanks to the capitalist system, who hasn’t written a check to the government for additional taxes that he says all millionaires and billionaires should pay. The other, former Veep Joe Biden is best known of late for apologizing for creepily touching women (again, very Trumpian!) and children he doesn’t know. You can expect Biden’s plagiaristic past and earlier campaign fails to soon resurface.
Is LA the Phoniest Non-Sanctuary City? LA politicians have long chirped and squealed how LA is a sanctuary city, though whether it formally ever declared itself one is as vague as LA Mayor Eric Garcetti’s downtime.
So I asked Garcetti and LA City Councilmembers like Gil Cedillo, Nury Martinez, Monica Rodriguez, Mike Bonin and Paul Koretz, among others, whether they reached out to D.C. to bring more sanctuary seekers to LA. Or have any of them invited even a single sanctuary family to stay with them in their homes while they await their federal hearings.
Crickets.
Their positions have been nothing more than posturing. LA has the worst homelessness in the country and these inept politicians can’t house or help our own and lack the guts to admit that they have no answers or room for more people in need of help coming here from elsewhere. They froze as Trump called their bluff and threatened to send a few hundred thousand sanctuary seekers to places like LA.
These Southern California politicians continue selling out middle class and lower income African Americans, whose communities gentrify, causing more homelessness and suffering. Voters may eventually decide that LA County Supervisor Mark-Ridley Thomas and LA City Council’s Herb Wesson might not be the best people to keep electing to local office. Without a single elected black female voice in either of their governments, does the LA Times Editorial Board have the guts to call for that?
And lastly, the LA Times recently published a piece about local gadflies firing more expletives during LA County Supervisor meetings. Shocker, right? How amusing it is to imagine its seasoned reporters literally reviewing hundreds of old meetings and tallying F-bombs? That’s journalism at its finest, folks.
What the Times didn’t explain is the cause of the increased hostility; Sheila Kuehl no longer Chairs those meetings. She, as a former law professor, genuinely embraced a free-speech forum that meant less vulgarity, if not hostility. With Janice Hahn now as Chair, her anti-free speech history has the gadflies’ rough language unnerving her, so that button gets pushed, and the gadflies revel in it.
That’s precisely what happens at LA City Council meetings, where hostility increases in direct response to Herb Wesson’s continually restricting public participation. The Times’ own chart shows exactly that, but its contributing reporters failed to identify the correlation, or how when Wesson ejects the gadflies, they simply walk across Grand Park to needle the Supes.
The bottom line: when uptight politicians overplay their hand, the F-bomb genie (and worse) escapes the bottle forever.
Have a great week.
(Daniel Guss, MBA, is a member of the Los Angeles Press Club, and has contributed to CityWatch, KFI AM-640, Huffington Post, Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Daily News, Los Angeles Magazine, Movieline Magazine, Emmy Magazine, Los Angeles Business Journal and elsewhere. Follow him on Twitter @TheGussReport. Join his mailing list or offer verifiable tips and story ideas at [email protected]. His opinions are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of CityWatch.) Prepped for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.
