Today was the day everyone had been
waiting for in the Trump/Russia “collusion” investigation.
Democrats believed this would be the point when they finally gained
real hard evidence that would justify them pursuing articles of
impeachment. Republicans on the other hand, were certain that James
Comey's testimony would finally put an end to the speculation of any
wrongdoing on the part of Trump and his campaign.
1. We are all right; always
In the end, what did each side gain
from the Testimony? We all got exactly what we wanted! We got a whole
lot of nothing, which we could twist and reason and interpret to mean
that our side was 100% correct and that the other side should just
shut up, “because whether they like it or not, they are wrong.”
We got just enough information to both back up our side and to
discredit everyone else.
Truthfully, we all have selective
hearing when it comes to politics. We all have the candidates or
issues that are important to us, and we will make excuses for them
until our dying breath if necessary, as long as we believe we are
right.
2. Russia hacked us
Democrats today heard exactly what they
were hoping for. They heard that Comey has “no doubt” Russia
attempted to interfere with our elections by hacking into the DNC.
What they will glaze over however, is that Russia and many other
countries (including the United States) are constantly trying to hack
into computer systems of both allies and foes in order to gain an
upper hand in international politics. Whatever attempted intrusion
there might have been, was nothing more than what is always going on
at any given time.
And what exactly was gained by this
supposed hack? Comey made it clear today that the FBI was never given
an opportunity to examine the actual hardware that was supposedly
hacked into at the DNC. Instead, they were left to just take the data
given to them by the IT firm contracted by the Democrats (the same
firm that used the Bleach Bit program to destroy Hillary Clinton's
emails). So this part of the investigation was clearly limited to
only evidence that was spoon fed to them by the “victims” of the
hack.
 |
| Photo Credit: harlandspinksphoto / Flickr |
3. Russia did not change the
outcome of the election
The other key point Comey made known
today was that he was certain no actual votes had been changed by the
alleged hack. This should be pretty obvious, since the voting
machines are not connected to the internet. The only way for the
votes to potentially have been altered would be in person, one
machine at a time, either in the form of changing the votes that had
been cast, or by adding software at the time the machine was
manufactured, which would control how those votes were recorded.
I would argue that any illegal votes
which took place, most likely happened by way of voter fraud; a long
time favorite of Democrats. It is highly unlikely if this voter fraud
took place, that it would have increased the number of votes for the
Republican candidate. Much more likely, is that certain key precincts
would show an inordinate percentage of votes for the one candidate
over the other. This would most likely lead to that candidate having
a much higher number of votes, but not necessarily winning the
electoral college, since it would be almost impossible to organize
this mass voter fraud all across the country.
4. Trump sometimes acts impulsively
Democrats were not the only losers
today. Comey's rendition of his conversations with Trump surrounding
the Mike Flynn investigation, was a bit damning. No, Trump didn't
tell Comey to drop the investigation. But he was under the impression
that by Trump telling him that he hoped he could let the Flynn
investigation go, he was candidly ordering him to make sure it
happened.
Comey's description of the multiple
conversations he had with Trump regarding his future as FBI Director,
in my opinion, was one of the most damaging aspects of his testimony.
I already stated in my article “Trump Fires Comey (Spoiler Alert:Democrats Are Outraged)” that I don't believe firing Comey was the right decision at the time
that it happened.
I don't think it would be that far of a
stretch to assume that Comey might be out of a job after playing such
a vital part in the election. I think regardless of who won, he
should have started sending out his resume. But the firing should
have been handled immediately upon Trump entering office. Otherwise,
it should have waited until the conclusion of the Russia
investigation. Even though I would think almost anyone familiar with
our justice system would know that firing the FBI Director would not
suddenly end an investigation they were leading, it just looks bad.
More importantly, it gives the Democrats one more piece of ammunition
to use against Trump.
5. Comey relies on his feelings –
a lot
The unfortunate thing for everyone
today, is that the majority of any potentially damning testimony
delivered by Comey today, was based on his feelings, rather than
facts. Democrats might think they have enough now to impeach Trump
for abuse of power in the firing of Comey. But the cold hard truth is
that even if Trump WAS doing this, he didn't say the words necessary
to meet the legal definition. Funny thing about the law; facts matter
– your feelings do not. And in criminal proceedings, the burden of
proof is “beyond a shadow of doubt”.
Over all, I believe the person most
implicated in the testimony today was former Attorney General,
Loretta Lynch. Comey made it very clear that he believed there was a
conflict of interest when she met with former President, Bill Clinton
in the plane on the tarmac during the investigation into his wife's
emails. She also asked Comey to change the terminology he used and
refer to it as a “matter” rather than an “investigation.”
Clearly this revised terminology would lead anyone who heard it to
believe it was much less serious than before.
6. Nothing is going to change
My conclusion from the testimony today
is that it didn't make one bit of difference. We are still stuck in
the same position as before. Everyone believes they are right, and
they can't believe that anyone could see the situation differently.
So what will change? Not a damn thing. Everyone is going to keep
being angry.
Republicans are going to continue being
frustrated that Trump isn't being allowed to do what they elected him
to do. Democrats will continue protesting and burning down cities,
and shouting “not my president”, while calling for impeachment.
And they just might get that impeachment they all want so
desperately. But as of this moment, I have seen no evidence of
anything that would justify it (not that evidence really matters
anymore).
<><><>
Can we please, for the love of god,
quit basing everything on feelings and start focusing on actual
evidence and facts? That's all I ask!
No comments:
Post a Comment