The Messing Link

I saw a Trump supporter comment that it would be great if people would just stop fighting the President. The following is my response to this suggestion.

Can Tom Reed Legally Block His Constituents On Facebook?

My Congressman, Tom Reed, has two Facebook accounts. The first is his “Politician” Facebook page.  The second is his official government Facebook page.  Tom Reed (or an assistant) blocked me from posting on his “Politician” page well over a year ago and all my comments on that page have been deleted.  I am not sure exactly why he blocked me.  It might be because I have posted a comment or two that he didn’t like about the Iran nuclear deal.  I imagine he didn’t appreciate my column in the Ithaca Journal last year that criticized his bashing of the deal.

Or it might be because he made a post saying something that was bashing President Obama (I forget what it was, probably something about ObamaCare) and then said something like “Everyone who agrees with me, like this post.” I responded by saying, "I wish Facebook had an Unlike button".

Donald Trump's condemnation of the Nazi terrorists in Charlottesville was as strong as his condemnation of Vladimir Putin for interfering with our election and for expelling hundreds from the American embassy in Moscow. In other words, it was so weak it was almost nonexistent.

Here was his condemnation on Twitter

I am not a lawyer. Nor do I play one on TV.  But I follow Harvard Law professor Laurence Tribe on Twitter and I have read the papers he cited that challenge the assertion that a president can pardon himself. After reading those papers I am convinced that any pardon Donald Trump grants to himself will also fail. I further contend--and this will be controversial--that any pardon he grants to anyone who has helped him become President through an illegal conspiracy will fail.

Jill Stein may have cost Hillary Clinton the election.  Ben Schreckinger at Politico explains.

In Michigan, Stein garnered more than 51,000 votes, while Clinton lost by fewer than 11,000. In Wisconsin, Trump’s margin was 23,000 votes while Stein attracted 31,000. And in Pennsylvania she attracted 50,000 votes, while Trump won by 44,000.

The case that Stein played spoiler isn’t nearly as strong as it was for Ralph Nader in 2000, when Bush won Florida by 500 votes while Nader racked up close to 100,000 votes there. And Stein points to national exit polling that shows the majority of her voters would have stayed home rather than vote for Clinton, while others would have sooner voted for Trump.

Dear Congressman Reed,

I am greatly dismayed by President Trump's firing of FBI Director James Comey.  This reminds me of Nixon's Saturday Night Massacre.  This has the APPEARANCE of Trump trying to cover up treasonous collusion with the Russians to steal the elections.  Maybe Trump and his gang are totally innocent, but that is not how it appears.

23 Representatives--all Republicans--voted to keep Donald Trump's taxes secret.  Of these 23 Representatives who voted to help Trump with his cover-up, 22 voted to allow YOUR ISP to sell YOUR browsing history.  At the very least, those who voted to keep

1. How can Republicans who supported 33 Benghazi hearings costing over $7 million call themselves patriots if they oppose even 1 investigation by an independent special prosecutor into whether the Trump campaign colluded with the Russians and whether the Russians control the White House? (Hat tip to Peter Daou for this question)

Opposing Russian aggression was obviously important to Congressman Tom Reed during his campaign against John Plumb.  Take a look at the following Facebook posts. (Clicking on the images will bring you to the original posts).

Donald Trump has given mixed signals as to how far he will go to kill efforts to fight climate change. Trump has a well documented history of calling climate change a hoax invented by the Chinese.

The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 6, 2012