Mountain Views News, Combined Edition Saturday, June 1, 2019

13

Mountain Views-News Saturday, June 1, 2019 

WE NEED THE NATIONAL 
POPULAR VOTE TO DECIDE 
WHO’S PRESIDENT

Whether you’re Republican, Democrat or Independent, 
can we agree on one thing? Out of simple fairness, can 
we agree that the presidential candidate who wins the 
national popular vote in November – across all 50 states 
and the District of Columbia – should be guaranteed the 
presidency?

If you answered “yes”, then you stand eye-to-eye with 3,125 legislators from all 
50 states who have endorsed the state-based National Popular Vote Interstate 
Compact that would guarantee the presidency to the candidate who receives the 
most popular votes across all 50 states and DC – and ensure that every vote, in 
every state, will matter in every presidential election.

Wait – doesn’t the current system already do that? Not by a long shot. Five times 
in our nation’s history – most recently in the presidential elections of 2000 and 
2016 – the popular will of the people did not prevail. The presidency was awarded 
to the candidate who lost the national popular vote, but still won the 270 electoral 
votes necessary to become president.

Outliers like these are made possible because 12 so-called “battleground” states 
– states with the propensity to “swing” from one party to another – command 
nearly 100 percent of the candidates’ time, money and attention. The remaining 
38 states are largely ignored because candidates see no point in campaigning in 
places where they are almost certain to win, or virtually certain to lose.

 On the other hand, it stands to reason that if winning the White House with 270 
electoral votes directly depended on winning the national popular vote, presidential 
candidates would be forced to pay attention to every state. Because every 
person’s vote would count equally toward a national popular vote majority.

As momentum continues to build, it is increasingly possible that the 2020 presidential 
election could be the first conducted under the National Popular Vote 
Interstate Compact, where the winner of the most popular votes across all 50 
states and the District of Columbia is guaranteed to win the White House. Fourteen 
states and the District of Columbia have already signed the National Popular 
Vote bill into law, giving the Compact 189 of the 270 electoral votes necessary to 
become effective.

This is how it works: The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact will go into 
effect when passed by states possessing enough electoral votes to elect the president 
– 270 out of 538. In December, when electors meet to cast their ballots for 
president and vice-president following a presidential election, the electoral votes 
of all the compacting states would be awarded in a package to the candidate who 
receives the most popular votes across all 50 states and DC.

And let us also be clear that the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact is 
constitutionally conservative, and maintains the Electoral College.

The Constitution allows states to form compacts for all kinds of reasons. And 
Article 2, Section 1 of the Constitution leaves the choice of how to award electoral 
votes to the states, stipulating: “Each state shall appoint, in such Manner as the 
Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors …”

It is also important to note that the state-level winner-take-all method of awarding 
electoral votes is not part of the Constitution – nor was it debated at the 1787 
Constitutional Convention or mentioned in the Federalist Papers.

Simple fairness dictates that every voter in every state must count equally in 
choosing the President of the United States. That is what the National Popular 
Vote Interstate Compact is all about, and with it, we have a very real opportunity 
to make 2020 the year that every state becomes a “battleground” state.

Silberstein is a member of the board of National Popular Vote and the founder of Innovative 
Interfaces Inc., one of the world’s leading suppliers of computer software for the automation 
of college and city libraries. You can reach Silberstein at info@NationalPopularVote.com. 


STEPHEN SILBERSTEIN

MOUNTAIN 
VIEWS

NEWS

PUBLISHER/ EDITOR

Susan Henderson

PASADENA CITY 
EDITOR

Dean Lee 

PRODUCTION

SALES

Patricia Colonello

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WEBMASTER

John Aveny 

DISTRIBUTION

Lancelot

CONTRIBUTORS

Mary Lou Caldwell

Kevin McGuire

Chris Leclerc

Bob Eklund

Howard Hays

Paul Carpenter

Kim Clymer-Kelley

Christopher Nyerges

Peter Dills 

Rich Johnson

Lori Ann Harris

Rev. James Snyder

Dr. Tina Paul

Katie Hopkins

Deanne Davis

Despina Arouzman

Jeff Brown

Marc Garlett

Keely Toten

Dan Golden

Rebecca Wright

Hail Hamilton

Joan Schmidt

LaQuetta Shamblee


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LEFT TURN/RIGHT TURN

MICHAEL REAGAN

MUELLER’S BIG NOTHING 
BURGER

There was a big media buildup and a lot of 
wild guessing by the pundits on FOX and 
CNN about what Special Counsel Robert 
Mueller was going to say in his public 
statement on Wednesday.

But in the end, after Mueller’s nearly 
10-minute sum-up of his two-year, $40 
million investigation into Russian election 
interference in the 2016 election, we were 
left with no bombshells, no smoking guns, 
no surprise twists - nothing new.

We heard nothing from Mueller we didn’t 
already know, and he took no questions 
from reporters.

But because the language Mueller used 
this week was different from the language 
Attorney General William Barr used when 
he summarized the basic conclusions of 
the Mueller Report Barr in April, Mueller’s 
statement gave a fresh jolt of energy 
and hope to the Deranged Democrats’ 
dream of impeaching the president.

Everyone knows that if Mueller had found 
even a whiff of collusion with the Russians 
or the slightest hint of obstruction 
of justice by President Trump, he would 
have already made that charge - in BIG 
CAPITAL LETTERS - on page one of his 
400-plus-page report.

Mueller didn’t do that in April and he 
didn’t do it Wednesday. 

But that didn’t stop most of the 23 Democrats 
running for president or the Trump 
Hate Media from slobbering all over 
Mueller’s deviously worded and legally 
shifty statement.

The Democrats and CNN’s embarrassingly 
unbalanced panels of Trump-hating 
journalists parsed every other word to 
“prove” that, see, Mueller thought Trump 
really was guilty of obstruction but he just 
couldn’t charge him because he’s a sitting 
president.

Now, thanks to what Mueller said and 
didn’t say, the craziest Democrats in the 
House wanted to start impeaching the 
president yesterday morning. But Speaker 
of the House Nancy Pelosi knows nothing 
new was learned Wednesday that wasn’t 
already in Mueller’s report.

Pelosi may eventually be forced by her 
caucus to proceed with impeachment, but 
she knows that it would probably backfire 
politically on the Democrats in 2020 and 
that it is never going to happen anyway as 
long as Republicans rule the Senate.

Despite the liberal media’s biased overreaction, 
Mueller’s statement was another 
fizzled “blockbuster” in the “Russian Collision” 
fantasy that diehard Trump haters 
still think was real.

The issue Mueller 
raised that should 
matter most to 
Americans now is, 
“What exactly did 
the Russians do to 
screw with our democracy 
in 2016?” 
and “What should 
we be doing to 
prevent them from 
trying to screw 
with our elections next fall?”

None of the Democrats running for president 
said anything about working on legislation 
to prevent Russian hackers from 
meddling in our elections again.

All they and their soulmates in the liberal 
media did was declare Mueller a great 
American patriot and climb on the “Impeach 
Trump Now” bandwagon.

Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin and his old 
KGB comrades in Moscow are still laughing 
their butts off about 2016.

They didn’t spend much on Facebook 
ads. They didn’t hack our election systems 
and change vote totals. And they didn’t 
help Trump steal the White House from 
Hillary.

But their meddling has succeeded in disrupting 
the American political system far 
beyond Putin’s wildest dreams.

And thanks to the sore-loser Democrats 
and the Trump-hating establishment media, 
both of which still refuse to believe 
Trump could have beaten Hillary without 
committing a crime or treason, Russia’s 
interference is still succeeding.

Mueller made a big deal out of Russia’s 
meddling in the 2016 election on Wednesday 
and stressed in his written report how 
deeply involved they were.

But you don’t hear the Democrats in Congress 
and the liberal media talking about 
the importance of stopping the Russians 
from interfering in our elections. 

All we’re hearing is the “I” word 
- impeachment.

In the end, the deranged reaction to Mueller’s 
statement by the Democrats in Congress 
and their soulmates in the media has 
made it clear -- for the hundredth time 
-- that they are much more interested in 
stopping Trump in 2020 than stopping 
the Russians.

Michael Reagan is the son of President Ronald 
Reagan, and the author of “Lessons My Father 
Taught Me: The Strength, Integrity, and Faith of 
Ronald Reagan.” 

ELECTION 
POLITICS 
VS. 
SOLEMN 
OATHS

 Where does 
it say in the 
United States 
Constitution 
that the desire of the Speaker of the House 
to defeat the incumbent president and 
expand her party’s majority, but fearful 
enough that beginning impeachment 
hearings will squander her party’s 
majority justifies ignoring her duty 
to begin the impeachment process to 
remove President Trump from office for 
his many obstruction of justice and abuse 
of power allegations? Allegations that, if 
proved true, could seriously compromise 
the Constitution of the United States? 

 Is it true, that the President of 
the United States is not bound by the 
solemn oath given by the Chief Justice 
of the United States Supreme Court he 
took when he was inaugurated, January 
20, 2017?.: “to support, and defend the 
Constitution of the United States… So 
help me God”.

 Even the young men and women 
serving in our nation’s armed forces, 
putting their its nation’s welfare before 
themselves, in harm’s way, to fulfill the 
oath they freely took, as all Americans 
have, before joining the U.S. Armed 
Forces forces, before being trained to 
fight in all the other wars America has 
fought.

 So, I am very disappointed that President 
Trump chose not to commemorate our 
most solemn national holiday, Memorial 
Day, at home with the rest of the nation 
home by placing the traditional wreath 
of flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown 
Soldier, in remembrance of all Americans 
who have died fighting our nation’s wars. 
Rather, the President chose spend the 
holiday with North Korean’s ruthless 
dictator and megalomaniac, President 
Kim Jong-un. 

 Of all the Americans commemorating 
Memorial Day this year, only Donald 
Trump chose to use this solemn national 
holiday as a “political opportunity” to 
exhibit one of his worst characteristics: 
the Trump signature pejorative political 
“put-down.” 

 Once Air Force One landed in 
Washington Tuesday, did the President 
Trump “spin” the statement blaming 
the North Korean President for calling 
former Vice President Joe Biden of being 
a “low IQ Idiot.” No one was buying his 
laying blame on Kim Jung-un, however. 
It sounded too much like similar 
statements Trump has made about 
others since becoming President. 

 Madam Speaker: Why are you 
stalling to begin impeachment hearings 
on President Trump’s because of his 
words and behavior since he took office. 
Now, even after Special Counsel Robert 
Mueller has spoken about his report, 
correcting the misrepresentation of 
it made two months ago by Attorney 
General William Barr, clearly made to 
protect the President, you still remain 
reluctant to begin impeachment hearings. 

 Madam Speaker, what will it take to 
make you to open impeachment hearings 
more than 20 weeks since Democrats 
retook the House. The Special Counsel’s 
findings of fact have met the meaning, if 
anyone cares to do the research it as I have, 
of “High Crimes and Misdemeanors,” as 
used in Article II, Section 4 of the U.S. 
Constitution. 

 Yet, Madame Speaker, the new 
Democratic majority you now lead has 
not even begun to choose and impanel 
members of a Select House Impeachment 
Committee, schedule witnesses and 
negotiate live televised gavel-to-gavel 
coverage, as was done by the Senate when 
it convened the Senate Select Watergate 
Committee when it convened its hearings 
in 1973. 

 

 Madam Speaker, I do hope you also 
understand the need for live televised 
gavel-to-gavel coverage of the hearings. 
Questioning witnesses live on television 
is the best way to expose the truth about 
Trump’s wrongdoing as president. And 
as a result, the most important reason 
for his impeachment—the numerous 
instances of his abuse of his powers as 
President of the United States.

 Perhaps, gross and irreverent, but it is 
the most expeditious way to uncover the 
truth underlying President Trump’s lies, 
and to get Americans to begin grappling 
with magnitude of the damage he 
leadership his leadership has done to the 
nation and our alliances overseas, as well 
as to expose the stress his administration 
has put on our institutions and values 
watching witnesses testifying at the 
televised Hearings. It will be like stripping 
the Emperor of his clothes and standing 
him naked on television live in front of 
millions of his subjects.

 Unfortunately, most members of this 
generation of Americans, for no fault of 
their own, can’t be expected to read a 448 
page report, especially written in legalese 
by a prosecutor for other prosecutors, 
judges, and defense attorneys. 

HAIL HAMILTON


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Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com