Ha ha ha... nice one, Sam. :-) Reminds me of how I got Facebook way back in the '90s – when I fell asleep while studying.
On a more serious note, what do you think the LP ought to be saying about James Comey's testimony, Joshua (or others)? What the pro-freedom angle is doesn't seem immediately obvious to me, as the situation is fluid and politically complex and there are bad actors on both sides. Is it that Trump has lied about the content of his discussion with Comey and tried to get the FBI director to stop his agency's investigation of General Michael Flynn? I think those things are probably true. Like his predecessors, Trump deserves to be impeached for various actions including his unconstitutional anti-immigration measures, but is this the best way for that to happen?
I think the president firing the FBI director before the conclusion of his informal 10-year term in office was constitutionally legal, and to my mind a positive precedent. As I heard one commentator observing today, having an "independent" FBI director isn't necessarily so great – J. Edgar Hoover was a very independent FBI director. I'd rather see any investigations pointing toward the Oval Office conducted by truly independent prosecutors not appointed by the occupant of the White House, not by somebody like the head of the FBI or the attorney general, who serves at the president's pleasure. Interestingly, Trump's relationship with attorney general Jeff Sessions has reportedly been frosty since March, when Sessions – who is no friend of freedom either – without first notifying Trump, recused himself from any investigation of collusion with "the Russians" (read: the Putin regime).
I've also heard reporting to the effect that members of Congress are afraid to go up against the intelligence agencies, because they've got stuff on everybody. That would be a particularly scary and unacceptable situation. And supposedly all 17 of those intelligence agencies were in agreement that "the Russians" were trying to tamper with the U.S. election. What is their evidence, one wonders, and if there's such unanimity among them (somewhat troubling in itself), why hasn't it been produced?
Then there is this damning recently declassified report on the agencies' unconstitutional spying during the Obama administration – http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/2253658-declassified-top-secret-report-details-spying-on-americans/ . Its contents seem perhaps more worthy of LP comment than the media firestorm over the Comey testimony and related matters – although if we do comment, I hope the point will be made that the spying is almost certainly continuing under Trump, as he has not taken any steps to stop it or to hold anyone accountable for it that I'm aware of, and has exhibited a frightening tendency to praise authoritarian leaders, from Putin to the Philippines' Rodrigo Duterte, whose draconian anti-drug crusade has caused thousands of murders, but according to Trump is doing a "great job".
Love & Liberty,
((( starchild )))
At-Large Representative, Libertarian National Committee
RealReform@earthlink.net
(415) 625-FREE
@StarchildSF
-----Original Message-----
From: Sam Goldstein
Sent: Jun 8, 2017 7:58 AM
To: lnc-business@hq.lp.org
Subject: Re: [Lnc-business] If you need commentary
I hear live tweeting from my open windows in the Spring. Otherwise, not much.
Sam