LAYERS OF LIES

Trump’s Eroding Credibility

Donald Trump is on his way to the UK for a NATO Summit, but he will not be able to get away from what is happening back home: Impeachment. Trump suggested that the impeachment hearings starting this week in the House Judiciary Committee were purposely planned to disrupt his trip. His complaints about his delusional ideas fail to make sense because his lies get in the way. He simply cannot get a fact or figure right. Even when a real statistic could help him, he fails to quote the right number. It’s mystifying why he’s running the United States when he obviously couldn’t run a Chick-fil-A a franchise.

Trump’s layers of lies are now becoming talking points for the sycophants in Congress who think that going against the Donald will result in the loss of their jobs. They are being manipulated by polls and political research that just may put them in danger in the long run. The displays of ignorance by Senator Lindsey Graham and Congressman John Kennedy demonstrate that they will lie in public just to save their asses. Both are up for reelection in 2020.

The fact is that Trump will never admit that Russia interfered with our elections for two important reasons. One, saying that Russian operatives were successful at creating negative attitudes about Hillary Clinton and lowering the Democratic turnout in 2016 would make him an illegitimate president. This inferiority shines through in just about everything he says and does. And the second reason Trump ignores the Russian “hoax” but promotes the Ukraine “hoax” is because he wants to please President Putin. But wait, wouldn’t that claim also undermine Trump’s credibility?

From now on when people ask me why I don’t like Donald Trump, I’m going to say, “Because he’s a liar.” That simply isn’t a debatable issue with any reasonably aware person, but the Trumpettes and cult members don’t believe Trump lies. They parrot all his lies without blinking. I don’t need to get all crazy and high verbal with those who can’t connect the dots, but I wonder why they haven’t been bilked out of all their money. Gullible people are usually targets of criminals.

Trump has lied about so many things. When Kurds (our allies) were slaughtered by Turkey because Trump pulled out of Syria, our President retransmitted Turkish talking points to the world. He was played by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and helped Russia with his actions. Turkey will be buying all their armaments from Russia, not the US, and they are a member of NATO. What? The reason Erdoğan wanted the US out of northern Syria was to facilitate a land grab. Trump never saw it coming and his art of the deal failed to help US armament manufacturing companies.

Trump has been played by Putin, several times. Trump believes that Ukraine was the villain in the 2016 election, not Russia. Putin wants Trump to stay in office for another four years so he can lead him into actions that help Russia. Putin loves Donald Trump’s big, fat ass. What happened to America First?

Trump lives in false narratives that are reinforced by Fox News and the constant mind control of people around him. Outside forces can change normal US policy in both domestic and foreign affairs. Fox News was the court of opinion that overturned a Navy Seal’s war crime conviction. The worst part of this is Donald J. Trump has no idea he is being manipulated by people who flatter him with praise. They are the evil doers and, in a way, the “deep state” of Donald’s world.

Look at what happened with Kim Jung-Un. All the dictator had to do was write “nice letters” to our President to get the US to lay back and let North Korea develop weapons of mass destruction. If the result of the Trump Doctrine is only the catch phrase, “As you know, I have a really good relationship with [insert ruthless dictator’s name here],” then what success can Trump claim? Trump is in total denial about how he is viewed by world leaders. Kim wants the sanctions taken away before he will lie to Trump again in another sham negotiation. That is what happens when two liars make a deal.

While our President is representing America at the NATO Summit, we are still without a true statesman in the White House. Trump has never attempted to understand the American people and his approval rating is the same month after month. Less than half of the country thinks he is doing a good job as President. His credibility is on life-support because he has burned so many bridges with his lies and deceit. According to a new CNN poll, 50% of the country would like to pull the plug on the Trump presidency. To be exact, between March and November 2019, the number of those who favor impeachment has moved from 36% to 50%. The claims that the impeachment process is only a bipartisan hoax holds no water. In fact, it’s just another lie.

Trump needs a trade deal with China soon, but President Xi knows he is dealing with a liar. China understands that tariffs are just another cost of business that will cause higher prices for Americans but won’t affect the way they progress in the world. Remember, China sells to the world, not just the US.

China’s manufacturer numbers are up while the US numbers are down. Trump promised that manufacturing would increase and give us 5% increase in the GDP. In fact, we are locked at 2% and will stay there until Trump does something globally positive. His biggest and most destructive viewpoint is that somehow the world’s markets didn’t merge into a large productive monster that helps America rather than hurting us. He has nursed false suppositions on economics into fact, when he’s dead wrong.

In the end, Trump’s layers of lies will be forgotten, but the holy mess left behind after he leaves office will require a lot of repair work. We will spend years fixing our trade relationships and our global political standing. If your whole basis for communication is constructing lies that help only your ego, you’ll never be taken seriously. Trump is a clown, a TV clown with no soul, no mental agility and no real mandate, and that is horrible for America.

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BLAGOJEVICH & TRUMP

Birds of a Feather Flock Together

Laws are normally black and white and clear. If a person is found guilty of breaking a law, they should receive the prescribed sentence. There are a lot of people behind bars who were convicted on circumstantial evidence, which is a kind of proof that points indirectly toward someone’s guilt but does not conclusively prove it. If we were to spend a lot of time debating whether evidence is circumstantial or conclusive, we might have no one in jail.

Let’s talk about a former governor named Rod Blagojevich who was impeached by the Illinois General Assembly and removed from office by the Illinois Senate in January of 2009. After two trials, the corrupt governor was found guilty of 17 charges, which included wire fraud, attempted extortion and conspiracy to solicit bribes. Blagojevich was sentenced to 14 years in prison and he is still in jail. What did this man do?

Blago, his nickname, was charged with conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and one count of soliciting bribes. The case involved sweeping pay to play and influence peddling allegations, including the solicitation of personal benefit in exchange for an appointment to the US Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama after being elected US President. Federal authorities, who had been investigating illegal fundraising activity, quickly learned that Blagojevich was self-dealing when it came to the selection to replace Obama. The bribe was never made; the Quid Pro Quo was suggested but not executed. Regardless, Blagojevich went to jail.

After Blagojevich was thrown out of office and before he went to prison, Donald Trump, who was then the host of Celebrity Apprentice, invited Rod to appear in a season of the show. Our president’s attraction to corrupt and despotic individuals is far beyond anyone’s comprehension. Maybe he considers these people to be unfairly attacked and convicted? Which brings us to Trump’s martyr complex.

Trump sees going against courts and military tribunals as his right. He believes he has a right to proclaim a person’s innocence, even when the facts, truth and laws say otherwise. The lawless and anti-judiciary actions of this president are a problem, and if he isn’t stopped he just might pardon everyone he likes. He has already floated the idea of commuting Blagojevich’s sentence. WHY? And this just in from AP: “Defense Secretary Mark Esper has fired the Navy’s top official, ending a stunning clash between President Donald Trump and top military leadership over the fate of a SEAL accused of war crimes in Iraq.” Why does the President feel he must interfere in any judicial procedure?

Republicans are being seen on millions of TV screens saying that what the Donald did with Ukraine’s president was perfectly perfect. No crime here, nothing to see, just move along. They profess their love for “their president” far beyond any respect for law and policies of the United States. They care only about being re-elected, and sadly, they can be judged only by the people who vote for them. If that electorate doesn’t care about the law, then why should they? What am I saying?

If a Democratic governor gets 14 years in prison for a bribe to sell Obama’s Illinois Senate seat, what is the penalty for a president who tries to bribe a foreign head of state to get dirt on his political opponent? Surely, the President of the United States should be held to some standard of law and principle, right?

Partisan bullshit is the reason why people don’t respect Congress. Remember, their approval rating is in the 17% zone, much lower than the approval grades of the current President. According to FiveThirtyEight.com, almost 54% of the country disapproves of the job Donald J. Trump is doing. That’s not very good.

I hate to break the news to the other 46%, but the minute Trump is out of office he could be arrested for the very things his supporters profess he didn’t do. The Southern District of New York has some very compelling evidence that could propel handcuffs onto the former President’s wrists. I’m not sure why a president cannot be indicted while in office. We know that a DOJ memo is the reason people think that’s true, but why not codify that memo or something more into law? Why? Because no one wants “their” president to be arrested.

If impeachment doesn’t remove Donald Trump from office, we can hope that the recent evidence against him will move some of the independents. As Trump’s re-election becomes less likely, there will be some distancing from the corrupt orange pumpkin but that won’t remove him from office. The Senate will never convict him; debating impeachment is foolish. It would be best to find a great new candidate right now!

Donald Trump cheats at everything he does. His friends have experienced his fraud on the golf course, and now the world knows he conducts this country’s foreign and domestic policies from a pay-to-play game book. Will other countries step forward and offer Trump money or dirt on his political rivals? Only time will tell, but his lack of transparency will probably net more lawsuits, litigation and inquiries. He must be watched now more carefully than ever.

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THE TRUMP PRESIDENCY

A Single Point of Failure

The Impeachment Hearings are slowly leading us to the real weakness in this administration, its leader. After taking office, Donald J. Trump had an opportunity to bring the country together, as usually happens when we get a new president. All that positive collateral of the office of the presidency was set aside in this man’s inaugural speech. The one line that still echoes in my mind is, “This American carnage stops right here and stops right now!” He lost me and half the country that day.

As I write this, we find ourselves 2 years, 304 days, 18 hours, 42 minutes into his presidency and things have only gotten worse, not better. Yes, the stock market is through the roof, but then, why shouldn’t it be? Large corporations are no longer paying taxes, and when they do, it’s such a small number. The infrastructure of the US government has been placed on the backs of the middle class. How did we let this happen? We should also mention the carnage that Trump’s dysfunction might leave behind when the jerk finally leaves office. That could lead to another economic crash much worse than the last. The movers and shakers of other world leading economies don’t believe they can trust Trump. Trade deals will be difficult.

Unless you have been living under a rock, you surely have been pounded by the gavel to gavel coverage the media is giving the Impeachment Hearings conducted by the House Intelligence Committee. And why is the media covering them so intensely? Well, when the president of the United States calls the media the “enemy of the people,” it gives them something to prove. I’m not saying the mainstream media are out to get him, but Fox News is certainly out to help him. You can pass your own judgement on whether ratings are more important than truth, but then, what is truth with Trump?

This haranguing elephant of a man has been running around the country screaming that there was no “quid pro quo” at every camera before him. He spends more time telling the world that he hasn’t done anything instead of actually doing something, his job. And now, the man who purchased his ambassadorship for one million dollars said, under oath that there was a quid pro quo and that “everyone was in the loop.” It’s the old, if I’m going down everyone else is going down with me.

From a political perspective, Trump has garnered more press than he could have ever dreamed of but most of it’s bad. What is being exposed here is a chief executive who spends most of his waking hours batting the flies that are swarming around his fetid, dying administration. Seriously, more than 100 former administration workers have left their posts and headed for the high ground of book deals and pundit positions on the very media Trump hates. What dastardly deed did this man do to deserve this? The answer is simple, he became a president who was in over his head from the very beginning.

I don’t have a lot of patience for martyrs and complainers. This self-proclaimed victimhood of the Donald is beneath the office of President. And while I’m judging the actions and words of this man, I want to rub a bit of salt into the wound. Obama didn’t complain; he just kept doing his job. Donald Trump is not a victim. His campaign was fueled by lies, fear and xenophobia with a dash of racism, but it got him elected. He put a mirror up to America and most of the people looked away. Those who believe they are right also claim victimhood, but they shouldn’t. America has always been, and hopefully always will be, great, but Trump is not helping.

The more evidence that is squeezed out of the diplomats, civil servants and government workers, the more we see that Trump runs everything and that his lies are catching up with him. He is the single point of failure for the administration, and we are starting to see the veneer of our respected presidency crack under the pressure of the truth.

When Gordon Sondland stood before Congress and declared that there was indeed a quid pro quo, something for something, Donald Trump called members of the Republican party and told them this was good for him. In an outrageous display of “newspeak” that George Orwell predicted, our president is telling everyone who will listen that black is white.

And for all you sycophants in the Republican party who are arguing that Donald Trump did nothing wrong, you are missing one of the most important aspects of your fake president, his blatant lying and deception. When he learned that he was being investigated by Congress on the Ukrainian aid package and he knew that the group of those people he charged with his orders were challenging his decision to bribe, or extort, he used the words, “No quid pro quo.” With that act, he showed awareness of guilt. He has merely replaced “no collusion” with a new catch phrase. He was planting evidence at the scene of the crime and bought into his own fantasy. Why would he say that? Why would Donald Trump use a legal term to un-describe what was happening?

Donald Trump doesn’t work hard enough on the important aspects of leadership. He has no ability to delegate and then manage within reasonable boundaries. He thinks everyone is stupid and only he knows best. His lack of talent will eventually undo his presidency. He’s just not suited to be president.

The problem with a leader who micromanages and tries to control everything in an organization is that when things go wrong, everyone gets hurt. Donald Trump’s mythical status is melting away, like the evil witch at the end of the movie. The orange soup that will be left on the steps of America will be cleaned up by those very maligned servants and workers in the government who know duty is more important than one man’s ego.

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THREADING THE NEEDLE

Is There Really a Deep State?

We are learning much about our government with the wall-to-wall coverage of the impeachment hearings in Washington, and both sides are making us wonder why there are two sides in this matter. Why wouldn’t regular law and order prevail in this passion play of power and perception? Technicalities and treason are under the microscope in the effort to impeach Trump.

Let’s begin with some simple facts. The federal government currently employs about two million full-time employees. There are 113,114 people who work for the Justice Department, and that includes 9,500 attorneys. The Department of State has 75,547 employees, including 13,855 Foreign Service Officers and 49,734 locally employed staff who primarily serve overseas. In addition, 10,171 employees form part of the predominantly domestic civil service. It’s estimated that 21,575 work for the CIA, although that figure is not as knowable as the other stats of the government. They work to keep it a secret.

This next fact will probably blow your mind. “Deep state” is a rather new term, only 30 years old. According to the journalist Robert Worth, “the expression deep state had originated in Turkey in the 1990s, where the military colluded with drug traffickers and hit men to wage a dirty war against Kurdish insurgents” The term “deep state” is likely a translation from the Turkish derin devlet, which means “state within the state.” Can you believe that Donald Trump, who thinks there is a deep state working against him, is the same man who greenlit Turkey’s invasion of Syria to fight the Kurds for land. If you think this sounds like Tom Clancy novel, well you’re not alone.

During his testimony at the impeachment inquiry, Special Envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker claimed he didn’t see an investigation into the Ukrainian energy company Burisma being equivalent to scrutiny of Joe Biden. Volker said. “What I was trying to do in working with the Ukrainians was to thread a needle.” Here we can begin to dissect the notion of a deep state.

Volker works for the State Department and Mike Pompeo. In an unusual arrangement, Volker’s real job is the executive director of the McCain Institute for International Leadership, and his position with the government was an unpaid position. WHAT? The McCain Institute is part of Arizona State University and has nothing to do with the US Government, it’s simply a think-tank on diplomacy and public policy. I’m sure Volker has security clearance to do his job, but how does this work?

There are many questions about the role Rudy Giuliani played in this Ukraine caper and if his involvement in the US foreign policy broke any laws. Also, there are now questions about what is legal, what is illegal and what are the gray regions. Republicans’ desire to out a “whistleblower,” who has legal protection, proves that the fine print of law can sometimes be manipulated to overshadow the big print

The President of the United States has been continually trying to pull the wool over our eyes. This started before his election. There is a state within the state and Donald Trump is the gang leader of this deep state. Our president has colluded with others, both in and out of the government, to bend laws, rules and policies so he could exercise his pursuit of personal gain. He believes the treasury is his bank account, like the Trump Foundation was. He’s just another corrupt, fat-cat politician and grifter.

This president is no different than Richard Nixon, who used the IRS, FBI and CIA to go after his enemies. Donald Trump ignores laws, believing he is above them. Nixon and Trump share an unhealthy disdain for the press and anyone who disagrees with them. Nixon is long gone, but his fate bears a lesson for Trump. Toward the end of his presidency, Richard Nixon turned to drinking at night to help himself get through the pressure of impeachment. Trump doesn’t drink, so he turns to his real addiction, Twitter. It is obvious that our 45^th President mistakenly believes he can change the world by tweeting. What a shallow, irresponsible human. Sadly, he’s our president.

A magnetifying glass can make threading a needle easier by bringing little things into sharp focus. As we get closer and closer to the facts, it’s easy to see an “end justifies the means” mentality in many of the people who surround Trump. The deep state are those operatives — men like William Barr, Mick Mulvaney and Rudy Giuliani who, at the command of the ringleader, will do anything to advance the deep state of Trump. Outside of the government, his cult followers fuel his insane view of the world. Inside the government, the state within the state threatens democracy as we know it. How can we recover fast enough to repair this democracy? Impeachment is not an evil act of desperation, it’s normal order for a President who is out of order.

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UNDER THE INFLUENCE

Is Impeachment Bad for Democracy?

There are many different opinions on what the founding fathers intended when they crafted the part of the Constitution that covers impeachment as a means to remove a president from office. The language is direct: The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.

It is not a surprise that those conducting the impeachment inquiry are finally using the word “bribery” when accusing the president. For readers of the blog, you might remember that I urged the use of this term in this article.

Like a drunk coming out of a bar, half the public is under the influence of a cult fueled drug known in simpler times as “nationalism.” Ever the victim, Trump seeks to cast his own terrible state as the terrible state of a nation in a terrible state. If that sounds like Trump-speak, point made. The Donald tends to paint the impeachment aspect of our Constitution as some illegal, illegitimate action. Really?

While Trump professes his innocence, he’s blocking every meaningful witness in his administration from testifying. Clearly, Trump is doing everything he can to be the least transparent president in history. It’s a sad time when the court must determine whether people must appear before Congress. Why is Trump disrespecting the Constitution and its sacred words? Another cliché being tossed about is that all presidents attempt to stall and block Congress when they feel there is an overreach. While that is true, an impeachment is a sanctioned action and the only means to remove a President. It’s not against the law, it is the law.

The House of Representatives has the sole power to impeach a president. That isn’t the final word on whether a president is removed. Think of the House as a grand jury that brings charges to higher body, the Senate does the rest of the work. The ground rules: The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments. When sitting for that Purpose, they shall be on Oath or Affirmation. When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside: And no Person shall be convicted without the Concurrence of two-thirds of the Members present.

The Senate is the only court that can remove a president, but then comes the decision to disqualify the person from holding an office in the future. And once a President is removed from office, he or she is then liable and subject to indictment, trial, judgment and punishment. With many of the open indictments on Trump, he could be subject to arrest the minute he is removed from office. This is a very serious time for Donald J. Trump.

The problem with impeachment is that it could be used by an over-zealous political party in power. Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton knew that this aspect of the Constitution could be abused, but in the more than 240 years of American history it has rarely been used. The idea that the president would be a bad actor was only a slight concern for the founders, but it was feared enough for them to provide a remedy in this new democracy. Parliamentary governments can call votes of confidence at any time, which eliminates the need for impeachment. Some of those countries have royalty, who at their command can remove a sitting prime minister or president. The United States is not a monarchy.

The answer to the question is simple. Impeachment isn’t bad for democracy; impeachment is part of it. If we had faith that the people would always elect a respectable and wholesome statesman or woman to the post, we could eliminate impeachment, by why would we ever take such a chance? This is not a Republican or Democrat principle; it’s an American point of law — a law the President and Vice President, under oath, promised to protect and defend.

All that Trump is experiencing is the result of his lack of experience, inability to manage the larger aspect of his campaign, and a horrid collection of people who speak for him. He creates a communication void by repetitive use of slogans, rather than delivering cohesive thoughts and plans. It’s like half the country believed the pitch man with the monkey at the circus and were convinced to give all their money to the monkey. Some people think Trump is just goofing around and telling jokes, while the clear minded citizens are repulsed by this monkey masturbating in public.

Trump is a bad guy with no moral grounding, no empathy for real people and no capacity to handle the complexities of the office. George W. Bush might not have been a Rhoades Scholar, like Bill Clinton, but he was wired into the bureaucratic reality of Washington and the government. He lined up mostly good people and without a bad VP, Dick Cheney, he could have been a very good President. Barack Obama’s intelligence was never in question and is the real source of Trump’s insecurities. Without a conviction in the Senate, Trump will have to be voted out in the fall of 2020. It might be better if it happens that way, but our elected representatives would be neglecting their duty if they didn’t formally question this faulty executive. Trump is abusing his power and is a danger to the democracy. To make matters worse, the whole world is laughing at this embarrassment of a president.

One good aspect of the impeachment inquiry is that many Americans will learn more about how our government works. The public are seeing truthful people who work hard to keep America safe. Trump can be an isolationist all he wants, but that doesn’t stop America’s need to have people in embassies around the world and to conduct diplomacy that advances our interests.

Trump’s shakedown of South Korea for money to keep our troops there to help protect them against North Korea begs the question, whose side is President Trump on? He believes dictators and rough guys like Putin, Kim and Erdoğan, more than our own State Department and CIA. Who is this guy, this thug president? The clock is ticking.

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THE TRUMP PRESIDENCY

Malformed, Myopic & Malignant

If I were the president of a company and more than 49% of my employees wanted me gone from my job, I would leave a sonic boom as I blasted out the door after resigning. However, the public is a bit fickle when it comes to presidents, and sometimes they look better long after they left office. Jimmy Carter might have been a mediocre one-term president, but he’s an amazing human being.

Let’s consider this famous movie line, “If you build it, they will come.” In case you forgot, that was the tagline for Field of Dreams, a movie about a man’s desire to reconnect with his father and the past to somehow make it right. Yes, it’s a baseball movie, but it’s really a story about how the past generation should always give the next generation something good to take with them.

Forming a government is a parliamentary phrase. Presidents build administrations. We all know that Donald Trump, up to the time he became President, had only a donor’s viewpoint of politics. Judging by the recipients of Trump’s donations over the years, it’s clear that his contributions were more like bribes and less like gestures of loyalty to politicians’ dogmas. From state’s attorney generals to dogcatchers, he gave them money to get things done. That’s who he is and how he works.

When putting together his own team, he was led more by the way things looked rather than vetting people. In some cases, he didn’t even talk with the person he hired. What was that all about? The end results were disastrous.

People he hired solely because they were “generals,” even after the Donald said he knew more than all the generals, didn’t work out. Think about H.R. McMaster, John Kelly, James Mattis and Michael Flynn. They are all generals and they are all gone. I have said many times that Trump hired Mattis just because he liked saying the man’s nickname, “Mad Dog Mattis.”

Trump constantly told us that rich successful businesspeople would help him govern. He ended up with a bunch of self-serving people who saw Trump as a goofball or, as Rex Tillerson called him, “a fucking moron.” Whatever they thought they were bringing to the goal of making America great was neutered by Trump’s inability to absorb important details or learn proper procedures from them.

Trump’s frustration with how things worked lured him into recruiting people outside of the government like Michael Cohen, Corey Lewandowski and Rudy Giuliani. He wanted them to do his dirty deeds beyond the chain of command, rules of government and Congressional oversight.

From the beginning, Trump placed terrible people in his cabinet. Bringing in Rick Perry to run the Department of Energy, while he campaigned to eliminate it, was a stupid move. Perry didn’t even know his department controlled the nuclear arsenal. Then there’s Betsy de Vos, who knows nothing about public or private schools. A judge just fined her $100,000 personally because she was too dim to understand what she did wrong.

The lack of vision, planning and problem solving with this group of wannabe’s and family members is appalling. Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner are useless, vapid trophy posers. Jared didn’t fix the Middle East and Ivanka totally blasted that equal rights thing right past her father’s cock block of maternity pay and time off. Why are they still there?

Trump went through two press secretaries until he surrendered by elevating his wife’s press person, Stephanie Grisham. She ended press briefings so the press couldn’t challenge the administration or ask questions about its policies. This news blackout is contra to Trump’s need for camera time, so he holds impromptu and unprepared press briefings himself, screaming over the whine of a helicopter on the south lawn. Shoddy, at best.

Some people with serious credentials and experience have been pulled into Trump’s inner circle of harshness and lack of empathy. When you see the angry, defensive, anti-press actions of Peter Navarro, Kellyanne Conway, Mike Pompeo and Mick Mulvaney, understand that they are simply echoing their boss’s personality.

Cancers of deception, ignorance and stonewalling have infected all the troops that remain in the White House. Those who disagree with this president get sent packing or left to write books on their own accord. It has been reported that John Bolton received a $2 million advance on a book deal to tell all. This is the main reason he is not testifying; it would queer the book deal.

We are at the stage four level of this presidency. Yes, there is an election coming in less than a year, but what we have seen so far should teach America a great lesson. Maybe the major benefit of all this impeachment crap is a lesson about how NOT to be a president. In the end, it’s all Trump’s fault. He never graduated to governance and stayed too long in politician mode. His sick need to win at any cost has replaced the kind of sound judgement required for leadership.

The worst part of the Trump presidency will be a lingering anger and distrust of facts. When Trump goes, and he will one way or the other, there are those who will be frustrated and will continually claim how unfair Donald was treated. That cult will have to find another leader, but they will always be pissed off at something they cannot understand. That is what is most sad.

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IMPEACHMENT HEARINGS

How to Watch the Show

In olden days, kingdoms and countries held public executions to show the citizenry who was in charge. Today in the United States, we hold public hearings. The first suggestion I have is for all of us is to focus on the word HEARING when watching the testimony this week.

My first impeachment hearing was Watergate, which took place in early in 1973. Richard Nixon had just been reelected and only 19% of America thought the man should have been impeached. If you are old enough to remember, you’ll recall that the hearing made household names of Sam Ervin, Howard Baker, Fred Thompson and John Dean. To be clear, this was a Senate Committee hearing into Watergate, the scandal that involved a break-in of the Democratic Headquarters in the Watergate apartment and business complex in Washington, DC. The House never brought charges of impeachment, but there was a partisan uprising that forced Nixon to resign. I’m fairly sure that will not happen this time.

I also watched the Clinton Impeachment hearings, which lead to impeachment charges. Clinton was impeached by the House of Representatives on December 19, 1998 on grounds of perjury to a grand jury (by a 228–206 vote) and obstruction of justice (by a 221–212 vote). Bill Clinton was acquitted in the Senate trial by the slightest of margins. On the perjury charge, 10 Republicans voted against, while in the obstruction charge, it was 50-50. Arlen Spector of Pennsylvania voted “not proven,” which Chief Justice Rehnquist decided was a vote against. So, you see, these things can get complicated.

The hearings we will see this week are the first steps in a long process, which the Democrats in the House are trying to speed up to keep the nation’s attention on the alleged misdeeds of Donald J. Trump. They also don’t want this to interfere with campaigning for the next election.

You will hear Republican members of the committee attempt to discredit the witnesses and possibly intimidate them on live TV. That is my opinion, but the central focus in this case is simple. Did President Trump use his office and power to extort a foreign country to discredit his political rival?

Under federal law, the offense of extortion typically requires the use of interstate communications to make a threat (using a phone or mail across state lines). Threats to federal or foreign representatives in order to obtain an official benefit may also be prosecuted as extortion under federal law. The law is very clear and what President Trump did is a prosecutable offense, but his supporters will say that this happens all the time and that Trump should be held to the same standard we used to determine the intent of past administrations. Okay, so two wrongs make a right?

Here’s a puzzling question. Why did Trump release the transcript? Why did he self-incriminate? Some people say that the Donald truly believes he did nothing wrong and that he released the partial transcript to show everyone the innocence of his conversation.

Trump keeps saying it was a “perfect call.” A good drinking game for those watching the hearings tomorrow might be taking a swig each time a Republican uses the word “perfect.” If that call was so damn “perfect” then why was it so ineffective? Trump did not get the public announcement of a Ukrainian probe and the extortion of not releasing the foreign aid was foiled by the press. You know, the “enemy of the people.” When word got out that our president was shaking down Ukraine, he released the funds on, of all dates, 9-11. If that’s perfect, I have some swamp land here in Florida to sell you.

So, the Republican party line is this. Nothing bad happened, therefore this is a non-event and not an impeachable offense. Even those who will openly admit that the call was questionable and inappropriate, will swear on a stack of Holy Bibles that nothing was wrong with Trump asking but not getting.

This impeachment rile reminds me of Albert Camus’ book The Stranger, in which the main character, Meursault, is on trial for killing an Arab. His trial quickly shifts away from the murder itself to Meursault’s attitudes and beliefs. The fact that he’s an atheist and didn’t cry at his own mother’s funeral play a greater role in his conviction than the murder. Within his life and presidency, Donald Trump has done many things that are more than offensive and detrimental to our country. Even seasoned politicians secretly admit that Trump is not a very good president, but in impeachment you must stick to the charges and attempt to prove them.

When watching the hearings, keep in mind that each side has a game plan and they will attempt to discredit and defend. Here’s my key question. Why are elected officials in the minority defending this president? Why won’t they cross examine the witnesses and attempt to find a deeper truth? I guess they feel a greater loyalty to their party and the man in the White House than the good of the country. But we already knew that. The major effort of each side will be making sure these hearings do not hurt their political brand. We will not see a kangaroo court, a “witch hunt” or even a camouflaged “hoax.” No, we will witness a GOOFBALL COURT, where in the end no opinions will change but the news networks will have plenty to talk about for a week.

Despite my suppositions and musings, you should watch the hearings because you never know what might happen. On Friday, July 13, 1973 (yes, Friday the 13^th) Alexander Butterfield was asked whether there was a taping system in the Oval Office. Things quickly got interesting. Butterfield revealed to the public on TV that all Oval Office conversations were recorded. Once the committee knew that tapes existed, Nixon’s defenses and defenders dissolved in the bright lights. You never know what might happen and what people could say under the pressure of testimony. This could be fun to watch!

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A PERFECT CALL…

Perfect for Impeachment

We are seeing a clear pattern. Denying wrongdoing sends a message to any thinking person, “look at what is being denied.” There you will discover the infraction.

I was highly suspicious when the President of the United States said that his phone call shaking down a leader of another country for dirt on his political opponents was a “perfect call.” Let’s be clear. The involvement of any foreign country in our elections is not only highly unethical, it’s against the law. It is the very reason why Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation took place.

Bullshitters usually exaggerate and turn to hyperbole when they are caught in a lie. The easiest form of defense is to attack those who disclose a wrongdoing. We are far from “witch hunts” and “hoaxes,” as Donald Trump would like people to believe. This is a full blown coverup, and with each day we learn the president himself orchestrated this corrupt use of his office.

From his testimony, we learned that the National Security Council’s top Ukraine expert, Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, tried to make changes to the White House’s rough transcript of the July phone call between President Donald Trump and Ukraine’s President. Those changes never got into the summary and partial transcript. Making sure a transcript is accurate is one of Vindman’s responsibilities.

At some point during the call, Trump told Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky there were tapes of Biden. This part of the conversation was replaced with an ellipsis in the released transcript. The White House statement that the ellipsis did not represent missing words or phrases was a lie. Parts of the call where eliminated from the transcript before the text was moved to a special server. This is a cover up.

Many of the President’s tweets include ellipses. Could Trump have edited the partial transcript before it went out to the public? Maybe he keeps saying it was a “perfect call” because he sees it as a perfect crime. This is the same guy who used a sharpie to distort a weather map to cover his mistake about where a storm was headed. It’s clear that he drew the line. Everyone knows a sharpie is his writing and signing tool of choice. The evidence of his hand in the lie is obvious.

The Donald’s lies can easily be seen with the naked eye and he continually exposes himself with his words, actions and approaches. He’s nothing but a two-bit, sloppy street thug and bully without the knowledge, intelligence or moral core needed to lead America. He says the same things over and over, expecting people to believe him even when facts clearly show the opposite. All the smart people in Congress, both Republicans and Democrats, know that Trump is just a half-baked entertainer and con man. They see him as a fool while they attempt to exploit him for their party or own personal power. Those who backed Nixon to the end lost face, but they never lost their jobs. They just stopped talking about what they said before the impeachment.

Trump sounds like his unmanageable and malignant brain has been stuffed with endless lies by an evil hypnotist who has programmed him to endlessly repeat them. In a court of law, some of Trump’s comments about those testifying would be evidence of witness tampering and intimidation. Those behaviors are part of OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE and should be dealt with by Congress.

When Trump says he is the “most transparent President ever,” he is clearly lying. The weirdly bizarre thing about Trump is that he can’t use truth to his advantage. The press conference on the killing of Baghdadi had so many stupid, made up statements that it felt like a training video demonstrating how to spot a pathological liar and a person suffering from narcissistic personality disorder.

Trump trades in fear and hate, believing that secrets have magical powers to make him win. A thing is perfect when it is as good as it can possibly be. There is no way that the phone call with the Ukrainian President was perfect and the incomplete and the altered transcript plainly shows that. If Donald Trump doesn’t know the difference between something being “perfect” and something that is doing him harm, he is perfectly unqualified to be president.

Let me end with my deepest feelings about Trump. He’s a bad human being. He should not be president. America deserves a President who doesn’t lie. And when grown men and women keep saying how unfair things are, they should take their own advice and pull themselves up from their bootstraps and grow a pair.

A Thriller About ISIS and Baghdadi

The famous cable TV talk show host, Jonas Bronck, leaves New York on his quest to find truth. He finds himself in the middle of terror and personal torment in the name of journalism. He once again asks, If God Could Cry, would he be crying for us, or with us?

Get your copy here.

LINCHPINS & LYNCHINGS

Trump Offends to Please

Sometimes I meet a person who seems a little out of touch, most often due to a lack of understanding or knowledge of history. This frustrates me because if we fail to agree on facts there’s no way to have a serious discussion.

One of the conspiracy notions that I find most offensive is this bizarre belief that the World War II holocaust didn’t happen. My father was there. He saw the horror and I saw his pictures of the camps. The linchpins of most conspiracy groups simply ignore facts and spout insane reasons for their theories, and they continue to distort history.

According to the Tuskegee Institute, 4,743 people were lynched between 1882 and 1968 in the United States, including 3,446 African Americans and 1,297 whites. More than 73 percent of lynchings in the post-Civil War period occurred in the Southern states.The idea of comparing anything to lynching is an unwarranted, highly offensive act. When President Trump feels that his back is against the wall, he strikes back with a comment meant to take the attention off a problem and put himself back on the front page. He’s a headline-seeking thug, not a moral president and leader.

Comparing what is happening in the impeachment process to a “lynching” demonstrates that Trump has an amazing talent to offend those who have or will suffer in their lives. Can Trump be so out of touch that he doesn’t consider the impact of a Tweet on one group of voters and citizens? Why would African Americans ever take him seriously, much less vote for him?

Equally horrible was Lindsey Graham’s defense of the offence. He told reporters on Capitol Hill that the investigation into Trump is “a lynching in every sense.” Graham added, “I think it’s pretty well accurate—this is a shame, this is a joke. This is a lynching in every sense. This is un-American.” I had to tweet back to Senator Graham that impeachment is in the US Constitution, but lynching is not. Graham described impeachment as un-American, yet he directly participated in Bill Clinton’s impeachment. That was my motivation when I called Lindsey a “POLITICAL WHORE!” Lindsey Graham is so patronizing and hypocritical that it’s unbelievable South Carolina keeps reelecting him.

Some people ask why Trump seems to talk like a white supremacist, but they can find the answer in these three words, “Because he is.” Patriots of this country are trying to understand why the Donald would have pulled troops from Northern Syria and left our allies, the Kurds, to be slaughtered. When Trump lashes out at minorities, immigrants and anyone who disagrees with him, he shows his severe mental impairment. He’s involved in a major coverup and not fit to be President.

It’s high time we see his tax returns. We need to understand his wealth, whether he has paid taxes, whether he is financially beholding to foreign banks or countries and whether he committed crimes with money. How could any court say his finances should be private? He’s the President of the United States And we need to know these things… now.

The lynching of black Americans wasn’t solely about hangings. Many atrocities were committed during those heinous murders. There was no judge and jury; these slaughters were carried out by malicious mobs justifying their actions on the belief they were superior and had a right to kill anyone they hated, thus the term “hate crime.”

No one wants to mutilate and string Trump up on a tree. They just want to restore some law and order to our government. Donald J. Trump is not a good person and he’s a terrible President. Some may want him “locked up” after all is said and done, but just getting him the fuck out of the White House would be the best thing that ever happened to America.

Trump doesn’t know history. He calls every investigation into him a “witch hunt.” He obviously doesn’t comprehend that the cliché has a true meaning. Fourteen women and five men were executed by hanging during the Salem Witch Hunt trials. When he verbalizes that he feels like he is undergoing a “lynching” with all the impeachment talk, he should remember that thousands of people were lynched in this country. This blathering buffoon has no empathy for people or respect for American history.

Perhaps Congress will wake up and do their duty. Without impeachment, Donald Trump will simply continue to waste time, money and lives to bolster his fragile ego. What a waste and disgrace.

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LAWYERS, GUNS & MONEY 2

Trump’s Inability to Lead

Back in May of 2017, I used this same title on a blog post (See Here). And like a lightning bolt hitting the exact same spot, we find ourselves back at the beginning of this horrendous administration. During that 2017 event, administration lawyers attempted to cover-up the news that former General Michael Flynn could be compromised by his lies and activities.

In Warren Zevon’s classic song, Lawyers, Guns and Money, one line sticks out, “Send lawyers, guns, and money, the shit has hit the fan!” And for Trump, “it” seems to keep hitting the twirling reality of Washington. In many cases, the President picks the stuff up and throws it upon himself, like an orange orangutan.

Lawyers are important people. We have one in our family and they defend and work within the system to make sure injustices don’t fall on any human standing on our soil or acting on behalf of this country. What we see in this latest Trump fiasco is a failure to follow the principles of the legal profession. Rudy Giuliani is a lawyer who used guns and money to shake down the Ukrainian government.

Follow this logic. Giuliani is a lawyer. We assume, because he was a prosecutor in New York, that he is a member of the New York bar. His license to practice law will remain intact as long as he follows the rules and policies of that body. We do not know if Donald Trump has a contract with Rudy or if he’s paid him a retainer. Let’s assume Rudy is at least a little smart and not working for free. He has declared himself the President’s personal lawyer. By law, that means he may work on Trump’s personal business and affairs. As has been stated by the State Department, Mr. Giuliani does not speak for the US Government, meaning that he is not an agent of the United States and probably does not have security clearance. Giuliani is acting on behalf of Donald Trump, personally.

This brings us to other kinds of attorneys. There are counsellors to the White House who are part of the government. They decided to move politically damaging meeting notes from one server to another one. They acted on the justification that they were protecting the President. They broke a law while working for Trump and, without a whistleblower complaint, they might have gotten away with it. Trump is the boss of the White House and he has admitted that lawyers attempted to hide the text of that call from others. It was not a top-secret document and was eventually released by the Donald, himself. This is much like the bygone Watergate era, when White House insiders admitted that the president recorded all of his Oval Office calls.

Lawyers sometime get rendered speechless by a client’s unknowing confession to a crime. By talking so much on TV, I suggest that Rudy Giuliani has caused more harm to Donald J. Trump than to Joe Biden and his son, Hunter. Giuliani’s lack of discipline has overturned more breadcrumbs than a drunken deli worker. The actions Rudy took for Trump on the Ukraine affair were done as a personal lawyer; thus, those actions are designed to help his client personally. The request for the Ukraine president to open an investigation was made to help Trump’s reelection campaign.

It’s official business when lawyers in certified roles, with security clearances and titles within the government, do the business of the administration. The government and the bar associations can discipline attorneys who break the law, disregard policies or run afoul of ethics departments and their inspectors. Rudy may not have broken any laws with his badgering of the new President of Ukraine, but he certainly exposed Donald Trump as a ruthless, lawless piece of shit. Bring on the fan!

So far, we have seen two kinds of lawyers in this story but we cannot end this report without mentioning a third kind of lawyer, one who should have known better. He’s Attorney General of the United States of America William Barr. The Justice Department knew of these memos and was aware that a national security lawyer urged the White House to move the readout of the call with Ukraine to a super-secret computer. What did William Barr know and when did he know it? Did William Barr have anything to do with the “nothing to see here” ruling on the whistleblower matter with Ukraine? Was Barr involved with the White House to help cover up the coverup? And, more importantly, do we, the taxpayers, get a discount on a double impeachment?

One of the other lines from the Zevon classic is, “An innocent bystander, somehow I got stuck between a rock and a hard place…” And yes, the “innocent bystander” in this narrative is the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky. He’s just trying to fortify his country against the angry Russia bear breathing in his eastern border face. This ally is indeed caught between a rock and a hard place. What Mr. Zelensky really needs are lawyers, guns and money. And Donald Trump needs to shut up and start to help people who are strategically important to our security. You know, America First!

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