Armstrong Economics Blog/Politics Re-Posted Feb 27, 2021 by Martin Armstrong

Joe Biden appears to be the first president to skip doing a State of the Union Address which is typically done by the end of February by tradition. However, it is not uncommon that a president skips the State of the Union Address during the year in which they were inaugurated. Both Washington and John Adams delivered the address but Thomas Jefferson abandoned that practice in 1801, in favor of a written message. It was about 100 years later that the message was delivered by a speech before Congress by President Woodrow Wilson in 1913. That was an important year for it was not just the creation of the Federal Reserve, but also the Income Tax.

Since Franklin D. Roosevelt’s speech in 1934, the annual speech has become a tradition. Before 1934, it used to be more of a year-end speech delivered in December. However, the President would also take office in March rather than January. The 20th Amendment changed the opening time for congress moving the speech to January/February. Pelosi will forever be remembered as the only Speaker of the House to tear up Trump’s State of the Union Address, which was probably the most disrespectful treatment of the office of the president by anyone in history.

The Constitution requires the president to provide an update on the country. It does not specify any precise timing. What normally happens is the House and Senate set the date for the joint session of Congress. What has everyone concerned about is that in fact, Joe Biden said in January that it would be forthcoming. Then White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said on Feb. 16 that Biden’s first appearance before a joint session “was never planned to be in February.” This has led to rumors that he is back in the basement with bouts of dementia since Psaki is clearly trying to revise history. This is only made more plausible when members of the Democratic Party ask for Biden to relinquish his codes to launch nuclear weapons. That in itself raises serious questions about Biden and now no State of the Union after he said he would.

It certainly appears that if there was EVER a need for a State of the Union it is now. The Democrats have so divided the country and the Capitol is still surrounded by Pelosi’s Wall. Of course, we are back to the Swamp and it is already clear that Jen Psaki is just a spin-artist. When it came to Cuomo, she simply said: “The president has been consistent in his position.” She added: “When a person comes forward, they deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. Their voice should be heard and not silenced.”

Posted originally on the conservative tree house on February 26, 2021 by Sundance

Judge Timothy J Thomason has ruled the Maricopa, Arizona, board of elections must turn over 2.1 million ballots to the republican state senate so they can be reviewed for any election issues. [direct pdf of ruling here]

ARIZONA – The five-member Board of Supervisors argued that the ballots were secret, that the Legislature had no right to access them and that the subpoenas issued by Senate President Karen Fann were for an illegitimate purpose, among other arguments.

The Senate’s lawyers contended that the constitution gives the Legislature the role of maintaining the purity of elections and make sure voter integrity is protected, that the subpoenas were legal and a proper use of legislative power.

In his ruling, Thomason agreed with the Senate on all those arguments, saying the subpoenas “are legal and enforceable.”

“There is no question that the Senators have the power to issue legislative subpoenas,” Thomason wrote. “The Subpoenas comply with the statutory requirements for legislative subpoenas. The Senate also has broad constitutional power to oversee elections.

“The Arizona legislature clearly has the power to investigate and examine election reform matters,” the ruling says. “The Subpoenas also do not violate separation of powers principles. Production of the subpoenaed materials would not violate confidentiality laws.” (read more)

The Arizona Senate released the following statement:

Posted originally on the conservative tree house on February 26, 2021 by Sundance

An announcement today from the U.S. District of Connecticut John Durham is a little perplexing.  According to the announcement USAO John Durham is resigning from office effective February 28.   However, there is no information about his prior appointment as special counsel to review the DOJ and FBI conduct in the Trump investigation.

Here’s the announcement:

After serving as the United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut for more than three years, and as a federal prosecutor in Connecticut for more than 38 years, John H. Durham today announced his resignation from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, effective at midnight on February 28.

“My career has been as fulfilling as I could ever have imagined when I graduated from law school way back in 1975,” said U.S. Attorney Durham.  “Much of that fulfillment has come from all the people with whom I’ve been blessed to share this workplace, and in our partner law enforcement agencies.  My love and respect for this Office and the vitally important work done here have never diminished.  It has been a tremendous honor to serve as U.S. Attorney, and as a career prosecutor before that, and I will sorely miss it.”

Prior to his appointment as an interim U.S. Attorney in November 2017 and subsequently as the presidentially appointed U.S. Attorney in February 2018, Mr. Durham served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in various positions in the District of Connecticut for 35 years, prosecuting complex organized crime, violent crime, public corruption and financial fraud matters.  From 1978 to 1982, he served as an Assistant State’s Attorney in the New Haven State’s Attorney’s Office, and from 1977 to 1978, he served as a Deputy Assistant State’s Attorney in the Office of the Chief State’s Attorney.

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Leonard C Boyle will serve as Acting U.S. Attorney upon Mr. Durham’s departure.

“The Office will be in the extraordinarily capable hands of Len and our superb supervisory team who, together, guarantee that the proper administration of justice will continue uninterrupted in our District.”

Mr. Boyle has served as First Assistant U.S. Attorney since June 2018, when he returned to the U.S. Attorney’s Office after serving as Deputy Chief State’s Attorney in Connecticut for approximately nine years.  He previously served in the U.S. Attorney’s Office from 1986 to 1998, and from 1999 to 2004.

Mr. Boyle is the 53rd U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut, an office that was established in 1789.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office is charged with enforcing federal criminal laws in Connecticut and representing the federal government in civil litigation.  The Office is composed of approximately 68 Assistant U.S. Attorneys and approximately 54 staff members at offices in New Haven, Hartford and Bridgeport.  (LINK)

Former U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr appointed John Durham as a special counsel on October 19, 2020, and did not tell anyone until after the November election. [LINK]

On December 1, 2020, the Attorney General notified congress in a letter:

However, here’s the issue… under DOJ regulations [28 cfr 600]  a special counsel must come from “outside government“; so did John Durham resign his position prior to the appointment, or has Bill Barr just given the appearance of a special counsel appointment while knowing the legal validity of it will collapse upon challenge?

§ 600.3 Qualifications of the Special Counsel.

“(a) An individual named as Special Counsel shall be a lawyer with a reputation for integrity and impartial decisionmaking, and with appropriate experience to ensure both that the investigation will be conducted ably, expeditiously and thoroughly, and that investigative and prosecutorial decisions will be supported by an informed understanding of the criminal law and Department of Justice policies. The Special Counsel shall be selected from outside the United States Government. Special Counsels shall agree that their responsibilities as Special Counsel shall take first precedence in their professional lives, and that it may be necessary to devote their full time to the investigation, depending on its complexity and the stage of the investigation.” (link)

Obviously Bill Barr is not stupid, he would know the regulations he cites would require the special counsel to come from “outside the U.S. government”, so what gives?

Did Durham resign to fulfill the statutory requirements of the special counsel?  Was everything prior to now just the review and investigative phase, and now that decisions must be made Durham needs to be “outside the United States Government”?

Or is this all just an optical pantomime and the entire Durham investigation is concluded with nothing coming from it?

The appointment:

Re-Posted from GrrrGraphics.com FEB 25, 2021 AT 9:38 AM

Biden puts kids in cages, but not in schools

Biden repeatedly attacked Trump for putting children of illegal aliens into ‘cages’ near the southern border—all in the name of national security. Kamala pushed this further by saying Trump was putting ‘babies’ in cages and how horrific it was. The always hyperbolic Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ramped it up further and stated that immigrants in camps on the southern border were being “brutalized with dehumanizing conditions and dying!” She then went on to call them concentration camps.

The Democrats’ attacks implied Trump was a racist who had no regard for the lives of innocent children. And babies. How dare he separate them from parents?

What Biden and the Democrats didn’t mention that it was Obama who built those cages. Now the Biden regime is actually defending putting kids in cages after they reopened. Only now they are softening the language and calling them ‘facilities.’

Ocasio-Cortez is still angry, but not nearly as vitriolic about the camps as she was when Trump was in charge. She stopped short of labeling Biden a racist, but she released a very fierce and furiously worded statement: “This is not OK.” Wow. That no doubt got Dementia Joe’s full attention!

They hypocrisy of Biden, the Democrats, and especially AOC is on full display.

—GrrrTeam

Armstrong Economics Blog/Politics Re-Posted Feb 26, 2021 by Martin Armstrong

COMMENT: Marty, you haven’t mentioned Cuomo. Any particular reason?

GJ

ANSWER: No. It is just another example of how everything has simply collapsed. If he were a Republican and his secretary accused him of sexual harassment, he would have been charged and hauled into court. Because he is a Democrat, he gets to walk on water. Finally, other groups are calling for an investigation of the allegation of sexual harassment, but not until the nursing home crisis has surfaced.

Cuomo has refused to accept any responsibility for the sexual harassment or the nursing home crisis. His handling of the nursing home deaths is outrageous. CNN calls for the resignation of Republicans, but NEVER a Democrat. His brother Chris Cuomo, called for the resignation of a Republican but was silent on his own brother. Governor Cuomo even threatened Democrat Ron Kim for calling for his resignation over the nursing home scandal saying: “You will be destroyed.” Cuomo has claimed this is all just politics and he is not guilty of anything. Cuomo is just a nasty guy, How people in New York even vote for this guy is amazing. What does that say about New York?

Cuomo’s own aid said nursing homes are never prosecuted in New York. Now the FBI has been forced to claim they are investigating Cuomo, but you can bet that the Biden Administration will exonerate him. We are in a downward spiral where everything that the United States once stood for is no more. You have De Blasio in New York steering the vaccinations to Manhattan in direct contradiction of his equality for all. Then you have Biden signing disaster relief in Texas only for Democratic strongholds.

What we are witnessing is the decline and fall of the United States. The corruption in mainstream media and politics has undermined everything upon which the United States was founded. Even the rule of law no longer exists. The Judiciary Act of 1925 handing discretion to the Supreme Court undermined everything.

The decisions of Chief Justice Roberts will go down in history alongside those of Justice Taney who wrote the Dred Scot decision and set in motion the American Civil War. His duplicity will be remembered throughout history for how can you swear an oath to uphold the constitution and then add when I feel like it. His refusal to take the Pennsylvania case allows officials to change the rules in an election at any time unconstitutionally even when it goes against what the legislature passed.  He has undermined the entire election process in the United States from here on out. There is simply no guaranteed fair election even possible. His anti-Trump bias has been reflected in his decisions and his preference to maintain the Swamp has been unbelievable. Legally, the Pennsylvania vote should have been vacated. A special election should have been called to retake the vote to preserve the integrity of our elections. But he feared Trump might win – OMG! He would not stand for that!