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With the full House of Representatives expected to vote on impeachment Wednesday, it seems appropriate to point outagainhow if Democrats public sentiments about impeachment were sincere, and not purely partisan, theyd have impeached Obama for the very same things many, many, many times.

In addition to abuse of power, Democrats have charged President Trump with obstruction of Congress over the refusal of the White House to simply allow individuals to testify. The Trump White House, like his predecessors, is very much aware of the separation of powers, and hasn't given Democrats open season to call any witness they want to be grilled for hours without some pushback. This is technically how the system is supposed to work. Congress can subpoena witnesses and documents from the executive branch, but the executive branch can fight those in the courts. Democrats, not wanting to prolong impeachment and risk severe public blowback, have essentially argued that such refusals to comply with the first request merit obstruction of Congress.

So, lets take a look at just a few examples of their golden boy Obama doing the exact same thing, and then we can ask ourselves Why didnt Congress impeach Obama over this? If the same standard theyre applying to Trump today were applied to Obama, the latter would have been kicked to the curb.

In 2009, two party-crashers got past the Secret Service during a state dinner, and managed to meet and shake hands with Barack Obama. How does such a breach in security happen? Congress wanted to know and opened up an investigation. For some reason, though, the White House wasnt equally interested in investigating the breach, and when White House Social Secretary Desire Rogers was asked to testify before Congress, the White House refused to let her, citing separation of powers as the reason. There wasnt anything partisan about this investigation. In fact, Democrats were the ones running it. The refusal to comply with the investigation was bizarre, and legal scholars found the separation of powers excuse in this particular case to be rather dubious.

What was the Obama White House really trying to hide? Who knows? But, despite obstructing Congress, the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives didnt launch an impeachment inquiry.

Elana Kagan served as solicitor general for the Obama administration before being nominated and confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court. During her time as solicitor general, she was heavily involved in crafting a legal defense for Obamacare. This was significant as issues involving Obamacare were coming before the Supreme Court and federal law dictates that Supreme Court justices must recuse themselves when their impartiality might reasonably be questioned, such as with Elana Kagan and Obamacare.

Under 28 U.S.C. 455(b)(3), a Supreme Court justice has a legal duty to recuse him- or herself from a proceeding if they have served in governmental employment and in such capacity participated as counsel, adviser or material witness concerning the proceeding or expressed an opinion concerning the merits of the particular case in controversy.

Of course, with a closely divided Supreme Court, Obama couldnt afford to have Kagan recuse herself from Obamacare-related cases. So, when the House Judiciary Committee requested documents and interviews to get a clear understanding of her role relating to Obamacare while she was solicitor general, the Obama/Holder Justice Department refused to comply.

Kagan ultimately never recused herself from Obamacare-related cases. Imagine if the tables were turned.

In 2014, Democratic operatives were concerned that the Obama White House wasnt doing enough to help in the forthcoming midterms. So, Obama launched the White House Office of Political Strategy and Outreach to do more for their candidates. Of course, this raised legitimate concerns that Obama had just created a White House office specifically for political activity.

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee launched an investigation in order to make sure the White House was complying with civil services laws that were designed to prevent executive branch employees from engaging in political activity. They subpoenaed David Simas, the director of the Office of Political Strategy and Outreach, but the Obama White House refused to allow him testify, and actually claimed Simas was immune from congressional compulsion to testify on matters relating to his official duties and thus would not appear before the committee.

The Iran Nuclear Deal was so bad Obama didnt even try to get Senate ratification for it, and much of the negotiations were done without Congress being informed. When congressional Republicans wanted to get answers after Ben Rhodes (the failed novelist turned Obama speechwriter turned top foreign policy adviser to Obama) let it spill to the New York Times that the administration relied on a false narrative to sell the Iran deal to the public, the White House wouldnt let him testify, using the separation of powers excuse. Specifically, the appearance of a senior presidential adviser before Congress threatens the independence and autonomy of the president, as well as his ability to receive candid advice and counsel in the discharge of his constitutional duties, explained White House counsel Neil Eggleston. This was after the White House previously claimed they wouldnt hide behind executive privilege.

The investigation of the botched Fast & Furious investigation is perhaps the most significant example of the Obama administration using executive privilege to justify their refusal to cooperate with a congressional investigation. Attorney General Eric Holder, Obama's wingman, refused to provide subpoenaed documents to the House Oversight and Reform Committee. The blatant attempts by the administration to resist cooperating with the investigation ultimately led to a historic vote to hold Attorney General Holder in criminal contempt.

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Matt Margolis is the author of Trumping Obama: How President Trump Saved Us From Barack Obama's Legacy and the bestselling book The Worst President in History: The Legacy of Barack Obama. You can follow Matt on Twitter @MattMargolis

Excerpt from:
Five Times Golden Boy Obama Obstructed Congress and Democrats Didnt Impeach | News and Politics - PJ Media

Representative Bradley Byrne (R-AL) wants to point out the double standard President Donald Trump is facing with impeachment to his Democrat congressional colleagues and the public.

On Tuesday during deliberations of how the House of Representatives should proceed with impeachment before the bodys Rules Committee, Byrne put forth an amendment stating that former President Barack Obama and former Attorney General Eric Holder should have been impeached for the Obama administrations response to congressional into the Fast and Furious gun-running scandal.

In an interview with Huntsville, AL radios WVNN, Byrne, who is also running for the U.S. Senate seat up in Alabama in 2020, laid out his approach and his justification for the amendment.

One of the articles is on abuse of Congress, which is something Ive never heard of before, he said on Tuesdays The Jeff Poor Show. But it is based on Donald Trumps not just willy-nilly and allowing people that work for him to show up for some of these hearings and also not just produce documents willy-nilly. What I do is I take most of that out, and I put in its place a relation of the facts of this Fast and Furious investigation when President Obama was president. We sent a bunch of guns down into Mexico, and some of those guns came back into this country and were used to kill some of our law enforcement agents.

The Obama administration tried to hide it, Byrne continued. They tried to keep documents from Congress. And Congress actually voted to hold them in contempt Eric Holder, the attorney general, and the President. All of these Democrats that are so high and mighty about impeaching President Trump actually voted against holding Eric Holder and President Obama in contempt. Now they are speaking out of both sides of their mouth. The purpose of my mind amendment is to show hypocrisy.

Byrne explained the primary purpose of the amendment was not just to point out hypocrisy to his Democrat colleagues, but for the public as well.

Maybe we shouldnt have held them in contempt maybe we should have voted to impeach them, now that they have got a new standard for impeachment, Byrne added. Part of the message Im sending them today is, Wait a minute, guys. Youre not always going to have a president you dont like in office. You may have a president you do like in office. We may take your precedent and use it against a president that you like. Were cheapening impeachment. Thats my point here. I hope they get his message, and more importantly, I hope the public receives this message.

Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor

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Byrne Offers Amendment to Trump Impeachment Rules: Obama, Holder Should Have Been Impeached - Breitbart

T.J. Warren scored 23 points on 10-for-16 shooting to help the Indiana Pacers cruise to a 119-105 victory over the Sacramento Kings on Friday night in Indianapolis.

Dec 20, 2019; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Indiana Pacers guard Victor Oladipo (4) and Sacramento Kings guard Yogi Ferrell (3) share a laugh during warm ups before the game at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. Mandatory Credit: Trevor Ruszkowski-USA TODAY Sports

Myles Turner added 17 points as Indiana won its fifth straight game and for the 13th time in 16 games. Domantas Sabonis contributed 15 points, nine rebounds and six assists, T.J. McConnell recorded 15 points on 7-for-8 shooting and added eight assists while Malcolm Brogdon and Doug McDermott had 13 points apiece.

Richaun Holmes scored 20 points on 9-for-10 shooting and collected nine rebounds for the Kings. Marvin Bagley III added 17 points, and rookie Justin James matched his season high of 14 points.

The Kings Nemanja Bjelica scored 13 points in the first quarter and was scoreless the rest of the way. Buddy Hield had just seven points on 3-for-15 shooting, including 1 of 9 from 3-point range.

Cory Joseph had 10 points for Sacramento, which shot 45.1 percent from the floor and went 10 of 32 from behind the arc. The Kings have lost three of their past four games.

Aaron Holiday added 11 points for Indiana, which shot 52.3 percent from the field, including 14 of 31 from 3-point range.

The Kings trailed by 11 points at halftime before Indiana opened the third quarter with an 11-4 run to increase its lead to 79-61.

Bagley knocked down a 3-pointer to bring Sacramento within 81-66 with 6:22 left before the Pacers scored the next seven points. Holiday capped the spurt with a 3-pointer to give Indiana a 22-point lead with 4:26 left in the quarter.

The Pacers again led by 22 after McConnells layup with 1:49 left. But the Kings responded with the final nine points of the quarter with James draining a 3-pointer with 12.7 seconds left and also hitting a buzzer-beating shot from just inside the midcourt line to bring Sacramento within 92-79 entering the fourth quarter.

McDermott and Justin Holiday made each made 3-pointers 32 seconds apart early in the final stanza to give Indiana a 104-86 advantage.

Warren knocked down a corner 3-pointer to make it a 23-point lead with 5:18 to play to help put away Sacramento.

Indiana shot 64.3 percent from the field in the first half to take a 68-57 lead into the break.

Field Level Media

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Pacers control Kings, extend win streak to 5 - Reuters

A partially filled flood detention pond under construction at the Woodridge Village construction site.

As it always does, Christmas is coming to Kingwood. But this year, for some residents whove been flooded, it wont be the same.

When Nancy Veras home in Kingwoods Elm Grove subdivision flooded for the first time in May, the family carefully saved all their holiday decorations. But those boxes didnt survive when Tropical Storm Imelda hit in September, just four months later.

I dont have any Christmas decorations. I lost everything, Vera said. Thats one of my big heartbreaks.

Vera said she was at work during the first flood.

And Im seeing that Kingwood is flooding. My area is flooding. And Im like, that doesnt make sense. We dont flood, Vera said.

But they did flood two feet of muddy water damaged her home. Vera said they used to be surrounded by woods until a year ago, when a developer, Perry Homes, cleared the trees to make room for Woodridge Village, a 260-acre residential development under construction next door to her house. Veras home is right on the county line she lives in Harris County, while the development is in Montgomery County.

She and other Elm Grove residents decided to sue. They argue theyre flooding because the developers violated state law by causing more runoff, while the developers say this years storms were simply more intense. The lawsuit raises questions about how the expanding Houston area is grappling with new development in a changing climate.

A Montgomery County official told Houston Public Media the flooding was caused by the rainfall intensity, not the new development. Vera disagreed.

Hes an idiot, Vera said. Because there were trees there, and for 30 years we never flooded.

In May, she and her husband decided not to rebuild their house right away. Thats because, a few days after that first flood, it rained again.

I stayed home and I saw the retention pond fill up, with less than an inch or two of rain. And I said, well that doesnt make sense. How are we not going to flood again, if its barely any rain at all? So we said were going to wait and see, Vera said.

Houston City Councilmember Dave Martin, whose district includes Elm Grove, said something needs to be done quickly to address the problem.

When you have a two-inch rainfall that youre scared to death about, Martin said, whats going to happen over these next months and years?

The lawsuit

In May, neighbors in Elm Grove banded together to sue the companies responsible for the development, including Perry Homes subsidiary Figure Four Partners Ltd., PSWA, Inc. and Rebel Contractors, Inc. They allege the project violated the Texas Water Code. In court documents, they said were going to flood again which turned out to be true, just a few months later.

Jim Blackburn, a law professor with Rice University, has seen cases like this for decades, where residents blame new development for creating flooding.

We dont really have time to fool with simple issues like getting runoff right from new developments, Blackburn said. Thats a problem that simply should not occur. We know enough to keep that from happening, and if it takes litigation to stop it, so be it. We have strong laws we should use them.

With suburbs continuing to expand all around the edges of Harris County, and climate change producing more intense storms more often, the legal arguments in this case matter to many neighborhoods, not just Elm Grove.

Perhaps the more unusual thing is that in this case it appears that the problem has been discovered in a more timely manner, Blackburn said. But theres a long history in Texas of suing over what one neighbor does to another neighbor with regard to flooding.

The storms

The Elm Grove case hinges partly on one big question was the rainfall in May actually worse than in Hurricane Harvey, when the homes didnt flood?

In the defendants motion to dismiss the lawsuit, the attorneys said rainfall in Elm Grove on May 7 was unprecedented: Early reports show rain fell at a rate of up to 6 inches per hour, with a total of 16 inches within a 24-hour period. This massive rainfall was of historical significance; the rate of rainfall in and around the Elm Grove area over such a short time period surpassed even that of Hurricane Harvey.

Space City Weather meteorologist Eric Berger said, based on data from the Harris County Flood Control District, rainfall in the area on May 7 was very intense, but does not necessarily match that claim.

That is not in the Harris County data, but they may have some more localized information theyre using from some other source, Berger said. Some of the closest [rain gauges] did show rainfall rates above three inches per hour, which suggests that near Elm Grove or just upstream of Elm Grove it certainly could have been higher.

According to the Harris County Flood Control District, the Kingwood area received a four-day total of around 30 inches during Harvey in 2017. In this years storms, the Kingwood area received 6-7 inches total during the May 7 rain event, and a four-day total of around 17 inches during Tropical Storm Imelda in September.

It would be really interesting to know the source of the data behind the claims for total rainfall and rainfall intensity that the defendants are basing their defense on, Berger said. And I think that will be pretty important to deciding the outcome of the case. There could have been localized storm totals not reflected in the government observation sites.

In response, a Perry Homes spokesperson said, That portion of Montgomery County has few, if any, publicly reported rain gauges as far as we know. Because the rainfall information in this portion of Montgomery County is sparse, Figure Four retained a nationally recognized expert to determine accurate rainfall amounts for the 2019 flood events.

Whats next

After the flooding during Tropical Storm Imelda, Martin was outraged. The city of Houston filed cease and desist orders, which Martin hoped would keep that land undeveloped. Martin reached out to Kathy Perry Britton, the CEO of Perry Homes, to talk about incentives to turn the land back into green space.

I wanted to sit down and have coffee with her to discuss some of the things that I think would work well, and they didnt think that was a necessary step, Martin said. Lets have a conversation and see if we can protect the neighborhood, maybe do something unique Perry Homes could be proud of, instead of building a development theyre not going to be proud of, and that the neighbors arent going to want.

Beth Guide, the Elm Grove Homeowners Association Director, said she would like to see the development stopped, too.

Im hoping that human decency wins out in the end and they walk away, Guide said.

A spokesperson with Perry Homes said Montgomery County signed off on the Woodridge Village drainage plan after an engineering firm found that the development wouldnt negatively impact nearby homes. That plan includes detention basins to hold water, which are under construction now.

Houston Councilmember Martin said hes concerned about the region, not just Elm Grove.

What we really need to do, Martin said, is look at our policies and do we continue to build in the floodplains? To put peoples homes and lives at risk?

As for Nancy Vera, shes working on putting her home back together.

I dont know what Im hoping for, Nancy Vera said. Its hard to say. Im just taking one day at a time. Im going through the motions. Because what else are you supposed to do?

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Were Going To Flood Again: This Houston Neighborhood Got Hit Twice In 2019 - Houston Public Media

CAST YOUR MIND back to the beginning of 2010: Ireland was mired in the banking crisis, Instagram had not been founded yet and Alex Ferguson still bestrode the Premier League.

From climate concerns to the influence of social networks, the computing power in our pockets and wearable tech, a lot has changed in the past decade

We asked some of Irelands top business people to look back ten years and pick out what they think has been the most influential innovation, idea or tech shift since 2010 and how has it affected the business world.

Norman Crowley, founder and chief executive of Crowley Carbon and Electrifi:

One can look at it through the lens of the smartphone revolution or the lens of the social media revolution or the wider lens of what will impact humanity most.

When you look at it through the lens of the future of humanity then you would have to say that the most influential technologies are batteries and solar panels.

For the first time in the history of the modern world, we do not have to burn fossil fuels to sustain our modern lifestyle. In light of the threat of climate change, this is truly a game-changer.

Patricia Scanlon, founder and chief executive of SoapBox Labs:

The advancement of deep learning-based machine learning is probably the most impactful innovation of the last decade.

Such advancements have led to high accuracy, real-world applications of machine learning in every area of business from customer service and finance to communications and product development and in every area of our personal lives from how kids learn to read to how we deliver caring services to the elderly, and everything in between.

Iain McDougall, country manager for UK and Ireland at Stripe:

We shouldnt take for granted the enormous computing power that resides in the pockets ofover two billion people around the world. Ten years ago it wasnt there.

The combination ofsmartphones and cloud computing has radically altered nearly every area of society, from howdemocracy works to how families keep in touch. This change has reached deep intothe business world.

A startup today can access a global audience of potential customers fromday one and faces dramatically reduced costs in getting to that point. Large legacy businessoperations have become a hindrance rather than a help, upending the order of multipleindustries.

Sonia Deasy, founder and managing director of Pestle & Mortar:

Since its inception in 2010, Instagram has changed how we experience and share our stories with the world.

It changed how businesses think about marketing. You can get in front of the right audience very easily but when you get there, you have to be absolutely authentic, human and consistent.

Bertrand Van Overschelde, head of Qualtrics in Ireland:

At the start of 2010 things were a littlequieter- then came 4G, Snapchat, Instagram, the iPad, Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Slack. A wholeswathe of new ways for consumers and employees to share their viewpoint and stay connected.

As a result, customers and employees have become more demanding of the brands they work for and buy from. The brands that have continued to thrive or emerge as disruptors are the ones that have realised that experiences drive loyalty, not price or product.

Triona Mullane, founder and chief executive of Madme Technologies

A major change since 2010 has been the use of technology to develop platforms that have massively disrupted traditional industries across many sectors. Technology has enabled new peer-to-peer based services like Airbnb, Uber, Lyft, Venmo, Deliveroo and many more.

In many cases they have supported businesses by making products more accessible to consumers, such as Deliveroo. In other cases they have massively disrupted and replaced existing service offerings such the impact of Uber on the local taxi industries and the use of Venmo to completely disrupt traditional payment and banking models.

The other side of this whole shift is the importance of consumer feedback and ratings. These models, and the parties within them, depend enormously on positive feedback and positive ratings to thrive.

Across the business world, gathering feedback from customers, understanding customer sentiment and the potential to influence others have been major changes in business focus. The focus is on customer experience because it is now well accepted that positive experience leads to loyalty and referrals and ultimately business success.

Sam Dennigan, founder and chief executive of Strong Roots:

There have been significant innovations in production and distribution. Were committed to sustainability at Strong Roots and are excited about the improvement of compostable, recyclable packaging. We have seen great strides to achieve that over the past decade.

Source: David Sexton

Cillian Kieran, chief executive and co-founder of Ethyca:

The single greatest technology shift of the decade still has to be social media. Facebook came before 2010, but if we examine the last decade at a macro-social, politicaland economic level, it took until the 2010s for the impact of social media to be felt on theRichter scale.

When that impact was felt, what we saw was a sort of backlash against a Utopianvision of the internet that existed in 2010. Weve gone from believing social media will unite usto realising that its architecture and reward systems lead to polarisation.

Its undeniableweve created a golem without understanding the consequences, and the leadership at thesebusinesses are equally at sea in how to remedy the problem. Is this a fun answer forinnovation? No? Ok, how about we just say blockchain and be done with it.

Carl Dempsey, vice president of solution engineering at Salesforce:

The Fourth Industrial Revolution has brought about an incredible wave of innovation and technology. One theme that has generated a lot of buzz in recent years is artificial intelligence, AI.

The excitement is justified; over the last decade, AI has rapidly become part of the fabric of our daily lives as it has moved out of academia and research labs (where perhaps it was a solution looking for a problem) and into the real world, and we are seeing this accelerate in the last number of years.

Today its impact can be seen everywhere from banks analysing countless data points in seconds to detect fraud to call centres where they are deploying chatbots to improve customer interactions. At the broadest level, unleashing the power of AI is allowing the human workforce to be more productive.

Michael Doody, group chief technology officer at Netwatch Group:

The shift to mobility and ubiquitous personal internet access has created huge opportunities for businesses but also challenges in terms of serving relevant up to date content to customers and also treating their personal information securely.

A decade ago it may have been normal for a business such as a restaurant to not to have more than a basic single page web site, but now consumers expect that businesses have an active up to date web or Facebook presence, accurate multilingual menus that are viewable from a phone, good reviews on social rating sites and allow the creation of a reservation online with automated reminders closer to the selected date.

The number of channels that a business has to effectively operate in to fully engage with customers has increased substantially in the last decade, but if done in a way that adds perceived value, it can offer huge potential upside.

Richard Haxby, managing director of MathWorks Ireland:

Over the last decade, wearables have changed the way we view health and fitness with trackers, revolutionised music and gaming with smart headphones and (augmented) reality glasses, and started changing assembly lines and factory floors with glasses that integrate computers to speed hands-free work.

This has created multiple paradigm shifts from blurring the lines between industry (medical), technology (fitness tracker) and consumer (smartwatch), to creating a whole new segment that merges fashion, clothing and technology.

PJ Byrne, chief executive of Flexi-Fi Europe:

Undoubtedly, the smartphone takes top prize. The fact we can do so much on our mobile devices is something that could never have been imagined twenty years ago.

Des Travers, chief executive of DPD Ireland:

The most influential shift in technology in the past decade would have to be the focus on user-friendly applications in the business world. Customers want to self-serve, so the development of technology that allows them to do this has been really important.

For DPD, sending messages with a one-hour delivery window, and then allowing the recipient to opt for an alternative delivery date or location via a link, gives control back to the parcel recipient and makes our job much more efficient.

Were all time poor we want as much convenience as is available and we want to control the use of our time. Equally, these options improve first time delivery rates which has a positive impact on the environment by reducing the amount of travel time per delivery.

Ciaran Mulligan, managing director of Blue Insurance:

Online banking and the way we now buy products or services has changed dramatically and for the better. It has now become very easy to shop online, watch movies or listen to music with a few clicks of a button through many different devices.

This has led to the consumer expecting a more quick and easy service in everything that they do so companies need to be forward-thinking and ensure they are not working with antiquated systems or complicated processes.

Get our Daily Briefing with the mornings most important headlines for innovative Irish businesses.

More here:
Then and now: How Ireland and the business world have changed from 2010 to 2020 - Fora.ie