Investigations by Republicans, Democrats not equal
Lyme Disease doc `The Quiet Epidemic’ to be screened at Wood on Sunday
By Ken Tingley
Seething politicians have taken over our government with the media breathlessly following every accusation.
Most of us are sick of it.
If our elected representatives spent half as much time solving community problems as they do issuing subpoenas, we’d all probably be better off. Yes, I’m talking about you Elise Stefanik, although she did tweet on Thursday, “I will continue to lead the fight to #savechololatemilk.”
I’m relieved.
Divided government has led to an increase in congressional investigations. It is a rarity when the FBI director is not testifying before some committee in Congress in this game of “Gotcha!”
Yeah, both sides do it, but there is a false equivalent here. Republicans are blowing smoke while Democrats are finding fire.
The January 6 Committee investigation was an important review of the attack on the Capitol. The report was even published in book form.
The evidence is compelling. The 2020 election was not rigged. President Trump and his staff knew the election was not rigged. Republicans within the administration provided testimony for the framework of an attempt to delegitimization the election so Trump could stay in power.
The executive summary of the January 6 report should be mandatory reading. If you haven’t read it, you should. It led to recommendations to the Justice Department that Trump had committed crimes. Another special prosecutor will decide.
What I have often heard in response is: “What about Hunter Biden’s laptop?”
While the president’s son is also being investigated, the reporting we have heard indicates his problems stem from tax evasion and white collar crime that does not implicate the president.
The Republicans have answered the Jan. 6 Committee with the “Select Committee on the Weaponization of the Government” on which Rep. Stefanik not only sits, but tweeted this: “The FBI must stop stonewalling @housegop’s efforts to uncover the truth about credible allegations that Joe Biden took bribes while Vice President.”
That is a serious allegation from our congresswoman. She must have proof, right?
The Republicans made no secret this was payback for the two impeachments, the Mueller investigation and the Jan. 6 investigation. There has been no mention of how the Benghazi inquiry might have been weaponized government against Hillary Clinton.
So after four months investigating President Biden and his family’s finances, the Weaponization Committee submitted a preliminary report this week.
This was “The Ahaha!” moment.
Financial documents showed details that relatives of the president were paid up to $10 million from foreign sources between 2015-2017.
The Republicans called it “influence peddling.”
They also conceded they have not found any evidence that President Biden did anything illegal while in office in connection with the business deals, despite Stefanik’s earlier allegations.
So what is Rep. Stefanik talking about when she says there was “an illegal, unlawful, and unAmerican abuse of power” that she is more committed to finding than ever.
She should explain.
Meanwhile, former president Trump was indicted in New York last month for hush money payments to a porn star.
He was found liable for a sexual assault in the 1990s.
President Biden was once accused of smelling the hair of women.
There is a pattern.
Republican accusations sound bad, but Republican actions have been indictable.
When it was discovered Hillary Clinton used a private email server while Secretary of State, it was portrayed as something akin to espionage.
The FBI concluded there was no criminal case, but said Clinton had been “extremely careless” in handling classified information.
There’s plenty of evidence - and a special prosecutor investigation continuing - about former President Trump being pretty careless with classified information, too. There is some concern he still has significant classified material.
When the FBI received tips that Russia was colluding with the Trump campaign during the 2016 campaign, it opened an investigation that later landed in the lap of special prosecutor Robert Mueller. He later concluded that Russia did try to get Trump elected but there was no overt cooperation from the Trump campaign. But he also found evidence that Trump had obstructed justice.
Clinton was careless with a server. Trump likely obstructed justice.
To even the score, Trump’s Attorney General William Barr appointed John Durham as a special prosecutor to investigate the FBI’s investigation of President Trump.
Essentially, that’s what the “Select Committee on the Weaponization of Government” is doing. It’s investigating the investigators.
Durham filed his final report this weekend and was highly critical of the FBI. The report criticized senior FBI personnel “for a serious lack of analytical rigor toward information they received, especially information from politically affiliated persons and entities.”
Rep. Stefanik released this statement on Tuesday about the collusion investigation:
“The entire false smear was manufactured and paid for by political opponents of Donald Trump and perpetrated by the Left's salivating mainstream media stenographers. Crossfire Hurricane was nothing more than an illegal, unlawful, and unAmerican abuse of power. I am more committed than ever to ensuring that those involved are held accountable and face criminal prosecution."
This was another “Gotcha!” moment. At least, it was supposed to be.
The Durham report was supposed to prove there was a conspiracy within the federal government and law enforcement to use the Russian investigation to hurt the former president politically.
That’s what Rep. Stefanik obviously believes.
Yet, the Durham investigation did not find anything illegal.
It found no conspiracy against Trump.
He charged no top FBI or intelligence officials with a crime.
He even acknowledged that Hillary Clinton didn’t do anything criminal in her presidential campaign either.
In the end, Durham’s four-year investigation - which was longer than Mueller’s investigation - produced just two criminal cases and both ended in acquittal.
Rep. Stefanik will soon be tweeting: What about Hunter Biden’s laptop?
What we should be asking is: What are you doing to help your own constituents?
Book signing
The Surrey Field Homeowners Association will be holding its annual garage sale in Queensbury on Saturday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
I will be signing books - and selling stuff - at 74 Surrey Field from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. “The Last American Newspaper” and “The Last American Editor” will both be available.
I suspect this will be one of my last book signings of the summer.
It’s a great garage sale. You should check it out.
`Quiet Epidemic’ is back
The Lyme Action Network is sponsoring a screening of the Lyme Disease documentary “The Quiet Epidemic” at the Charles R. Wood Theater in Glens Falls Sunday at 2 p.m.
The documentary, written and directed by local film makers Lindsey Keys and Winslow Crane-Murdoch, was voted the best documentary at the Adirondack Film Festival last fall.
After the movie there will be a discussion with Keys, Crane-Murdoch and three of the film’s subjects - Dr. Richard Horowitz, Dr. Kenneth Liegner and journalist Mary Beth Pfeiffer.
The panel will be moderated by patient advocate and professor of microbiology Holly Ahern.
If you have Lyme Disease, know someone with Lyme Disease or are just concerned about the danger Lyme Disease presents locally, you should check out this event. Admission is $15.
Overdoses
It was great to see the national news story that overdose deaths have plateaued nationally. There was no mention of New York’s statistics, but the Sheriff’s departments in both Warren County and Washington County have an “Overdose dashboard” that shows the most recent statistics. The carnage continues.
Music trails field
Will Doolittle recently wrote about Chris Music’s confusing messaging during his campaign for a seat on the South Glens Falls Board of Education. It was unclear what he was trying to say was exactly wrong with the school district.
After reading his Facebook posts, I also found his platform a bit vague. He responded that those who follow him knew what he was talking about.
Music received the fewest votes among the South Glens Falls candidates.
I find our Congresswoman pretty exhausting, honestly. And she doesn't believe for a minute what she says about the Durham Report unless she is ignorant, which she is not. Which kind of means she thinks we are, if we believe her, which is a little insulting.
I'm liking Senator Gillibrand more and more. Elise just foams at the mouth and Schumer seems to be busy being important. But I get these great newsletters from Gillibrand about issues she is working on - and moving the needle on- stuff I actually care about: Health care for seniors, paid family leave for parents (We NYers have that, but the rest of the country deserves it too).
The whole Durham thing was kind of mystifying. The way Barr set him up for this on his way out the door in 12/2020- after Trump lost the election-should have been a clue, I guess. But Durham was supposed to be a straightshooter, like Mueller before him. You know, follow the law where ever it takes you kind of thing. Mueller delivered on that- refused to say the President engaged in any obstruction, and also refused to exhonerate him, laying out the many troubling issues and handing it off to Congress to investigate. Durham, on the other hand, went crazy in the opposite way, spending two years trying to make a case that did not exist and then writing hundreds of pages of nothing. His legal team quit on him. months ago. After, Durham finally exhausted every possible conspiracy riddled avenue and wrapped it up, the AG release the report with no comments of any kind. There is no there there. Unscrupulous politicians like Elise will try and make hay with it for a day or two, and cynically fuel distrust and discontent, and then we never hear about it again.
I find myself wishing that Republicans would just elects some adults to run the country instead of 7 th graders. It’s just exhausting!