GOPUSA reported today the New York Yankees have banned the playing of Kate Smith's "God bless America" over a "history of potential racism". Since news from this source is often slanted, I looked for the story on other sources, and found that it was actually true.

The song was originally written by Irving Berlin in 1918, when he was serving in the army.

With the rise of Hitler, Berlin (who is Jewish) revised the song in 1938, and it was sung by Kate Smith on her radio show. By 1940, it was being criticized by Woody Guthrie, as well as by the KKK. The Klan was protesting the song because it had a Jewish author.

Oddly enough, both FDR and his Republican opponent both used the song in 1940 as their official campaign song. At that time, the song represented cultural and religious tolerance, but that message got lost in the 1960's (see below).

The song was used early in the Civil Rights Movement as well as at labor rallies. During the 1960s, the song was increasingly used by Christian conservatives in the US to signal their opposition to secular liberalism and to silence dissenters who were speaking in favor of communism or in opposition to the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_Bless_America

If you read the story below in the Washington Times, it's clear that she DID sing some racist songs in her time.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/apr/18/kate-smith-god-bless-america-banned-yankees-over-h/

Here's my take on this story:

Most of us are careful to phrase our comments so that they aren't offensive (Trump obviously did not get the memo) , but I think that banning Kate Smith's version of the song is going too far towards political correctness. If you've ever seen a list of banned books, you'll likely conclude that many of them were banned for silly reasons. "Huckleberry Finn" made the banned list almost from the start due to the number of times that Mark Twain used the word "n****r", but that is precisely how most people talked at the time the book was published.

Al Jazeera reported this morning that ANOTHER Trump supporter, John Kless, has threatened several Democratic members of congress. On top of that, he defended the guy who rammed his car into a group of protestors in Charlottesville in August of 2017.

In one of the messages that he sent, Kless said that he would like to throw Omar off the Empire State Building, according to local media.

Kless, who reportedly defended President Donald Trump in the messages and warned the politicians to stop criticizing the president, has been charged with making threatening communications.

Many analysts have pointed to the US president's heated rhetoric as the catalyst for a toxic atmosphere encouraging such behavior - an accusation the White House has rejected.

Last year, the Anti-Defamation League said all perpetrators who carried out at least 50 "extremism-related murders" were linked to the far right.

That total marked the largest number of people killed by the far right since 1995, the watchdog said.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/04/man-arrested-threatening-democratic-politicians-190419234316461.html

A quick scan of his messages (see below) will confirm the fact that he is not the brightest guy in the world.

https://heavy.com/NEWS/2019/04/JOHN-KLESS/

There are some good reasons why we should feel solidarity with the French:

https://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2019/04/we-are-all-french_19.html

If you are really smart, you can also read this article in French:

https://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2019/04/nous-sommes-tous-francais.html

The problem that the Democrats have now is exactly how to proceed. Even though the Democrats won't have the full report (without redactions) until May 1, Elizabeth Warren is saying that impeachment proceedings should start NOW.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/19/politics/elizabeth-warren-donald-trump-impeachment-proceedings/index.html

The Boston Globe has a different view:

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2019/04/19/democrats-have-strong-hand-but-win-they-may-need-fold/oN7kmsnvb6xj8HW8Ys3IvJ/story.html?camp=breakingnews:newsletter

People smarter than me will figure this all out, but perhaps the best advise of all comes from Kenny Rodgers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hx4gdlfamo

Both the Republicans and the Democrats are going to spin their side of the story, but a couple of sentences in this morning's report on NBS news appear to be especially damaging to Trump:

"If we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the president clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state,” Mueller wrote. “Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, however, we are unable to reach that judgment."

And while the political bar for removing Trump is likely insurmountable — it would take 20 Republicans and all 47 Senate Democrats to oust him — the behavior chronicled by Mueller towers over that of the standard set by the House for impeachment of President Bill Clinton on obstruction articles, according to experts.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/mueller-didnt-charge-trump-—-but-his-report-is-a-brutal-indictment/ar-BBW66nY?ocid=spartandhp

It's clear by now that very few of Trump's advisers are "going to fall on the sword" for him due to his pattern of loyalty to no one except himself.

The sentences below, from the article about Richard Nixon, explain why that it is actually fairly likely that Trump will be forced to resign before the end of his term:

On July 27, 29, and 30, 1974, the House judiciary Committee approved three articles of impeachment against Nixon, for obstruction of justice, abuse of power, and contempt of Congress, and reported those articles to the House of Representatives. Two other articles of impeachment were debated but not approved. Before the House could vote on the impeachment resolutions, Nixon made public one of the additional conversations, known as the "Smoking Gun Tape", which made clear his complicity in the cover-up. With his political support completely eroded, Nixon resigned from office on August 9, 1974. It is widely believed that had Nixon not resigned, his impeachment by the House and removal from office by a trial before the United States Senate would have occurred.

Since Trump is guilty of obstruction of justice (he tried at least 10 times, but is aides refused to comply with his orders) , abuse of power (cronyism, emoluments, and nepotism) , and contempt of congress (2 vetoes of congressional action so far) , impeachment seems almost inevitable.

One key difference between now and 1974 is that the Democrats controlled both the House and the Senate in 1974, and today they only control the House. Since the Republicans still control the Senate, and Mitch McConnell is still the leader of the Senate, impeachment will be more of a challenge this year.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impeachment_process_against_Richard_Nixon

Well, THAT didn't take long.

Just hours after the redacted report was released, United States House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler issued a subpoena on Friday for the full, unredacted version of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/04/democrat-nadler-subpoenas-full-unredacted-mueller-report-190419133003572.html

Even with all the redactions, we can still "read between the lines".

Regardless of what you think of Robert Kraft, why was there a video of him getting a blow job even in existence? Were there hidden cameras in the rooms at the spa? If you wanted to extort someone, wouldn't a porn tape (or a "pee pee" tape) be a great way to do it?

Allen Funt got some great shows with "Candid Camera" more than 50 years ago, but those cameras are now being put to more sinister uses.

wwjd:

You are exactly right. According to the Washington Press, Trump tried to influence the investigation illegally a number of times, but his aides refused to carry out his orders because they knew they were illegal.

https://washingtonpress.com/2019/04/18/the-mueller-report-just-blew-major-holes-in-trump-lapdog-bill-barrs-defense-of-trump/

If you have the time and the patience, you can actually read the full (redacted) report here:

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/politics/ct-read-full-text-mueller-report-20190418-htmlstory.html

Ryan Zinke was forced out as head of the Secretary of the Interior for multiple indiscretions, which led to 15 ethics investigations. His replacement, David Bernhardt, was confirmed as the new head of the department last Thursday, and the department's inspector general has ALREADY opened an ethics investigation into his actions.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/17/opinion/david-bernhardt-interior.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage§ion=Editorials

To quote Oregon Senator Ron Wyden, "We now have an interior secretary who has been on the job for one full business day and is already under investigation.”

We all know that a fish rots at the head, but the stench is becoming a little unbearable.