Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/807312
The White House says that Donald Trump won't throw out the first ball at the Wash- ington Nationals' home opener. He suppos- edly has a "scheduling conflict" (translation: he doesn't want to be booed), and I'm sure going AWOL is fine with the fans. Becausethey'dundoubtedly prefer to see the American pastime relaunched by some- one whose re- gime is not sus- pected of engag- ing in criminal foreign espio- nage. Much like Watergate,the current scan- dal is sprout- ing more coiling vines than a kudzu plant. Seriously, who can keep up? Let's at least give it a try: 1. We learned that Paul Manafort, Trump's former campaign manager, has been investigated by bank officials in Cyprus for possibly money- laundering ties to Putin-con- nected, mob-suspected oli- garch Oleg Deripaska. The bank probe targeted 15 bank accounts. After the probe was launched, Manafort closed the accounts. Manafort now says that he "has no specific per- sonal recollection" about clos- ing the accounts. This new story, broken by NBC News, dovetails with last week's revelation, bro- ken by the Associated Press, that Manafort in 2005 signed a $10-million-a-year deal with Deripaska to "influence pol- itics, business dealings and news coverage inside the United States, Europe, and for- mer Soviet republics to benefit Putin's government." AP saw the documents. Trump pro- paganda minister Sean Spicer rushed to distance his boss, in- sisting that Manafort played only "a very limited role for a very limited time" — a fas- cinating description for a campaign manager who ran Trump's Republican conven- tion. 2. Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner is being questioned by Senate intelligence inves- tigators about his newly un- earthed sitdown with a Rus- sian banker who has strong intelligence ties to the Putin regime — at a time, last De- cember, when Kushner was seeking new investors for the Trump family's real es- tate empire. The bank is cur- rently under sanctions order by the Obama team in retalia- tion for Putin's power grab in Crimea. A Trump flak insists that when Kushner met with the banker, Sergey Gorkov, "It really wasn't much of a conver- sation." 3. These ties to Russia, and so many others, are rendered even more suspicious thanks to the story broken last week by CNN: "The FBI has infor- mation that indicates asso- ciates of President Donald Trump communicated with suspected Russian operatives to possibly coordinate the re- lease of information damaging to Hillary Clinton's campaign." 4. Devin Nunes. Wow. The Republican chairman of the House intelligence committee is so in the tank that his next act will be licking Trump's limousine clean as a whis- tle. He couldn't do a better job sabotaging the House probe if he dynamited the hearing room. He makes Inspector Clou- seau look like James Bond. In an apparent bid to buttress Trump's claim that he was wiretapped, or surveilled, or something, Nunes secretly met a "source" at the White House to review some documents, then announced at a press conference that Trump had in- deed been monitored in some fashion, then briefed Trump — without ever sharing what he'd supposedly learned with fellow members of the House panel. David French, an attorney and conservative activist, gives us the best analysis of Nunes' lickspittle behavior. Writ- ing in the conservative Na- tional Review, French says that "the White House appeared to be using Nunes to brief it- self. Rather than state its own case with its own evidence, it used Nunes to make it appear as if [an] external investiga- tion had at least partially vali- dated Trump's tweets ... Nunes unnecessarily poured gaso- line on an already-raging fire ... Nunes isn't [supposed to be] Donald Trump's lawyer. He's not Trump's spokesperson. It's not his job to clean up Trump's Twitter mess." All told, said French, "It's time for Nunes to go." 5. Remember Sally Yates? The acting attorney general who was fired by Trump after she refused to defend his con- stitutionally indefensible travel ban? She was slated to testify yesterday — in part to discuss what she knew about Michael Flynn, the ex-national secu- rity adviser — at a House in- tel hearing. Nunes summarily canceled the hearing. Basically, Trump's legal ea- gles sent her a series of let- ters insisting that her info on Flynn should remain confi- dential. Yates' lawyers fought back, contending that Flynn's Russia ties are publicly known, so therefore she fully intended to testify. That's when Nunes pulled the plug. Nunes also nixed a scheduled closed-door hearing with James Comey, the FBI chief who publicly con- firmed last week that his G- people are probing for crimi- nal espionage. Meanwhile, Sean Spicer said that Trump didn't try to derail Yates' testimony: "To suggest in any way, shape or form that we stood in the way of that is 100 percent false." Actually, they did. It's right there in the letters. I hate to deface this column with Spicerlies, but I did want to give you a taste. Amid all this, let's not forget it was a Trump campaign ad that warned voters a president "cannot lead a nation while crippled by a criminal investi- gation." The ad was about Hillary's emails, but I buy the message. DickPolmanisthenational political columnist at NewsWorks/WHYY in Philadelphia (newsworks. org/polman) and a "Writer in Residence" at the University of Pennsylvania. Email him at dickpolman7@gmail.com. DickPolman Moscow on the Potomac Cartoonist's take While "palace intrigue" roils Washington, other issues strike a little closer to home. A CHP officer survived injury after a shootout that was deadly to one of the criminals. Un- like the blanks fired from the prop guns of the A Team actors, which never hit anyone, real life uses of deadly force occur when bad people flout the law and choose to fire guns at law enforcement. It should be a standard pro- cedure to inform the public of the immigration status of sus- pects when known. The perpe- trators in the CHP shooting on I-5 north of Hooker Creek Road may be here legally but, if state and national statistics hold true, Tehama County is regu- larly subjected to violent and major crime by "illegal aliens" (terms written into federal law). I understand that the politi- cally correct crowd weighs in on the side of hiding such relevant personal descriptors as race or immigration status, but the FBI certainly quantifies and tabu- lates the data for good reason. Age, sex, immigration and race don't determine criminal behav- ior but are certainly important in analyzing social trends and help target preventative and re- habilitative efforts to suscepti- ble demographics. Liberals just don't want alien crime noticed. However, every American is owed the honesty and candor from our public servants and the news media that comes with having public funds (govern- ment) or public trust (news me- dia). I've seen statistics suggest- ing that 20 percent of federal prisoners are illegal aliens; high profile and violent crime com- mitted by that group seems to only mention their illegal status when the research ferrets it out. All should support President Trump's efforts to inform us of such crime. There was a recent rape of a 14-year-old female student at a Maryland high school by 2 ille- gal aliens; the father of 18-year- old suspect Henry Sanchez-Mil- ian, Adolfo Sanchez-Reyes, also illegally came here from Gua- temala. Local authorities were forced to reveal their illegal sta- tus by public pressure and local media. The deceptive hypocrisy opened many eyes. We've been treated, over the years, to hysterical report- ing and protests of sexual as- saults, which are sometimes hoaxes. Who can forget the in- famous phony rape of a strip- per by Duke lacrosse players at a party? Only after being sub- jected to protest mobs, scholas- tic punishment, fraternity sanc- tions, pronouncements of pre- sumed guilt by professors and lengthy, public-shaming prose- cution by an aggressive district attorney—only after the accus- er's story was finally revealed to be fraudulent were the lacrosse team members exonerated. As a falsely-accused Nixon aid, Ray Donavon, asked: "Where do I go to get my reputation back." The infamous "rape-of- Jackie" story in the Rolling Stone likewise turned out to be a hoax, resulting in an em- barrassing retraction by the magazine. We've been regaled with the phony "one out of five women in college will be raped" narrative. Only dogged con- servative reporters discovered that the supposed "sexual as- sault" rate included such non- criminal acts as an uninvited peck on the check or crude pass at a party. When statistics re- vealed that women off-campus were far more likely to be actu- ally raped, the agenda of insert- ing federal control over the pri- vate arrangements of consent- ing students fell apart. Given the reticence of na- tional media to prominently cover the rape of the 14-year- old girl in Maryland by illegal aliens, we now know that news media only consider sexual as- sault newsworthy if it serves a liberal agenda. Crimes by ille- gals don't fit the agenda; pay no heed. Those who express alarm over Immigration and Cus- toms Enforcement actions to apprehend illegal alien crim- inals (such as what occurred in the Gerber area, resulting in lowered school attendance) should be more properly out- raged by the obvious tax and budget costs that follow such immigrants. California voters certainly had enough of paying taxes to support illegal immi- grants when they passed Prop 187, overruled by a judge who deemed his compassionate wis- dom to supersede the will of the voters and taxpayers. Trump's policies will address the injus- tice of illegal border-crossers that use resources in schools, jobs, hospitals and housing. Local Planned Parenthood supporters were in the news for their protest of proposed, actu- ally long-promised, elimination of federal funding for the abor- tion mills that masquerade as "pre-natal" service providers. Donald Trump and most Re- publicans campaigned on cut- ting the taxpayer funding of abortion. Polled Americans sup- port cutting taxpayer funding for abortions. Quote marks are used be- cause someone put together seemingly endless praise for "pre-natal" services from Dem- ocrat politicians and PP defend- ers. The researcher then re- corded the responses of doz- ens of PP employees when asked about "pre-natal" services. The questions were met with blank stares, hemming, hawing, and denials that they did anything other than abortions. A timely article in last Wednesday's Daily News from the AP, "States push to protect birth control," continued the phony narrative of wide-rang- ing pregnancy and "family plan- ning" services. The only birth control Planned Parenthood truly advocates is killing babies in the womb. They could refute that by opening their books, a reason- able request for a taxpayer- funded business, and docu- menting the portion of re- sources devoted to abortion versus other services. Finally, Mr. Minch rid- iculed me for referring to the sale of organs by Planned Par- enthood, a practice that was documented by the Center for Medical Progress in secretly re- corded conversations over lunch and wine with PP leaders. A for- mer employee described be- ing instructed to cut through the face of a live, aborted baby to recover the brain. Read for yourself at donpolson.blogspot. com, under the "Abortion" tag on the right side. I've reposted "Feds Announce Probe Of NIH Involvement in Planned Par- enthood's Baby Organ Traffick- ing Schemes," and "The Latest Planned Parenthood Video: Ut- terly Appalling." Read them. Don Polson has called Red Bluff home since 1988. He can be reached by e-mail at donplsn@ yahoo.com. The way I see it Outrage over illegal aliens, abortion The White House appeared to be using Nunes to brief itself. Rather than state its own case with its own evidence, it used Nunes to make it appear as if [an] external investigation had at least partially validated Trump's tweets. ChipThompson, Editor How to have your say: Letters must be signed and provide the writer's home street address and home phone number. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and no more than two double-spaced pages or 500words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section will be published. 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