NO MAN IS ABOVE THE LAW

Should Donald Trump Be Pardoned?

Many Americans believe there are two systems of justice in our country. One is for the rich and privileged and the other for the poor and less fortunate. According to a research project titled, Changing Public Attitudes toward the Criminal Justice System, conducted by Peter D. Hart Research Associates, public opinion on crime and criminal justice has fundamentally shifted over the past few years. Today, the public favors dealing with the roots of crime over strict sentencing by a two-to-one margin, 65 percent to 32 percent.

Donald Trump has claimed, “I’ve done more for the African American community than any president, well, maybe with the exception of Abraham Lincoln.” REALLY? Under the final weeks of his watch we will see more death row inmates executed, most of them Black men who were incarcerated at incredibly young ages. Moving to another angle, more people of color than white people have been killed due to Trump’s mishandling of the COVID-19 crisis. Counter to all his talk of prison reform, it’s clear that Trump is not helping minorities, he’s killing them.

This story comes from the New York Times, “Manhattan D.A. Intensifies Investigation of Trump: Prosecutors have recently interviewed employees of President Trump’s lender and insurance brokerage, in the latest indication that he still faces the potential threat of criminal charges once he leaves office.” There is a good reason the Donald never wanted you or anyone else to see his federal income taxes. According to his former and convicted personal lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, Donald Trump illegally claimed lower property values to pay less taxes and insurance premiums, while stating greater net worth to attain better loans from institutions like Deutsche Bank and insurance brokerage, Aon. Should Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr. have a case against Trump, there is a potential threat of criminal charges that would be beyond the reach of federal pardons.

Something we must remember is that Mr. Vance has never gotten financial records, including tax returns, from Trump or his Organization. A case to obtain them is presently in front of the Supreme Court. With so many important lawsuits still pending, including the Texas suit to overturn the certified election results in four states and the fate of Obamacare, this tax return issue seems rather unimportant. If Chief Justice Roberts is wise, he will wait on any rulings until after the Electoral College vote on Monday. Should any of the state electors be unfaithful to their voters, look out, a ton of suits will land on the Supreme Court’s desk. Thanks, Donald.

Trump says he did nothing improper and has called any suspicion about him a politically motivated “witch hunt,” which is his go-to reaction for any whiff of crime or impropriety. Donald John Trump is simply never wrong. He’s the personification of perfection and it is always others who are out to get him. He and his organization have been involved in more than 3.500 lawsuits over the years.

Concerning Trump’s denial of the election results, here’s a thought provoking opinion piece by Michael Gerhardt that appeared in today’s Philadelphia Inquirer, “Do Trump’s actions amount to treason? This is certainly lawlessness, a cavalier rejection of the rule of law. Some call what Trump is doing in refusing to recognize his defeat nothing less than treason. Under our Constitution, treason ‘shall consist’ of ‘levying War against the’ United States, ‘or in adhering to their Enemies.’”

The only remedy for charging, convicting and carrying out the removal of a president is impeachment, but didn’t we already do that?

Gerhardt does show us a path to resolving Trump’s fake win mess, “…Biden might try to secure a judicial ruling requiring Trump to recognize Biden as president-elect. Then what if Trump does not agree to abide by that decision, and what if Trump has help in bringing about the alternate reality — his winning — that he churlishly insists is fact?” Well, I hate to say it, but with a limp Congress and no Supreme Court precedents this could be an excruciating journey through sludge.

Then there’s the question of whether the United States needs to spend millions of dollars on challenging the intent of the presidential pardons that will surely come. Charles Fried makes this point in the Boston Globe, “But there is a vital check: The president may be judged to have used his power tyrannically or corruptly, and he must face the constitutional consequences. The president cannot accept bribes and then pardon the payor with impunity; he cannot, with impunity, direct officers to use facilities owned by him personally and to pay for that use with public funds; he cannot shoot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue, as he [Trump] himself has said, with impunity. All such acts are the very essence of the abuse of power, the corrupt use of power, and it is precisely for that that the power of impeachment was ordained.” Okay, but what recourse does a legal system have of holding him accountable after he leaves office?

Famous mobster Al Capone, was never convicted for the deaths of 33 people who, according to the Chicago Daily Tribune, died because of boss Capone’s actions. However, he was convicted on many counts of income tax evasion. The Supreme Court was involved in this case, and Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. rejected the argument that the Fifth Amendment protected criminals from reporting illegal income. Could this be Trump’s major legal peril? Is this why he works so hard to conceal his tax returns? Does he know he’s guilty of wrongdoing? Time will tell.

Sure, Trump will pardon his kids. In legal terms, that means they are guilty of a crime or crimes he knows they committed. The notion that it’s just a friendly get-out-jail card is ridiculous. Even if his paranoia and pathological disorders make him believe in ghosts and everyone out to get him, a presidential pardon is a legal maneuver that will stand forever.

I’ve thought a lot about this. The cleanest and almost-guaranteed way for Donald Trump to avoid being pulled into court after leaving office would be for him to resign the presidency and have new President Mike Pence pardon him for all the illegal things he did during his term in office. I have a feeling, though, that Trump’s ego would not allow him to see this through. He would rather attempt a self-pardon, and then wage war with the federal attorneys, the DOJ and the Supreme Court, but he won’t win that one because it would mean the Judiciary Branch has ruled a president is above the law. If Spiro Agnew and Richard Nixon had been convicted and incarcerated all those years ago, things would now be much different and easier. Despite that, one clear fact remains. Trump must never be pardoned.

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RUSSIA & CHINA ILLUSION

Trump likes Putin, Now Distrusts Xi

I can’t help wondering if Donald Trump is acting out fantasies planted in his head by two Eastern European bloc wives. Seriously, the Donald’s first wife, Ivana, was from Czechoslovakia. Up until 1990, that country was under Communist rule and regarded as a satellite state of the Soviet Union. Ivana was born in 1949 so she knows Red.

Trump’s current wife, Melania, was born in Slovenia, one of the six federal republics that constituted the country of Yugoslavia, which was under Soviet control until 1990. Melania was born in 1970, so she knows the strong arm of Moscow.

Maybe Trump thinks that gold is power, and the big guy always gets the woman, based on lore of the James Bond movies back in the sixties. Think Pussy Galore in the flick GOLDFINGER. That film was based on the Ian Fleming novel of the same name. It featured Auric Goldfinger, a 42-year-old guy from Riga, Latvia, who emigrated to Britain in 1937 at the age of 20. Latvia was forcibly incorporated into the Soviet Union at the beginning of World War II and remained a Soviet controlled nation for the next 45 years. Fiction, yes, but the imagery supports Trump’s views of women, movies and power.

Michael Cohen, Trumps’ previous personal attorney, was once asked whether there was a motivation for Trump to play extra nice with Putin. Cohen responded that Trump wanted to build a big tower (Freudian erection) across the street from the Kremlin and he reveled in his natural, yet unhealthy, attraction to strong men. Maybe little Donnie is missing Fred, his tyrannical father. Maybe he views life through the eyes of the women who married him. Marla Maples was not an eastern European woman, but she and Trump were together less than six years.

Trump supposedly views President Xi Jinping of China as an equal and keeps saying how much they get along. Really? How can a man repeatedly regurgitate his perceived inequalities in the “rotten” Chinese trade deal Richard Nixon made, while bouncing around town saying how much he respects Xi? Isn’t it also ironic that the two nations we are talking about bestow the title of President on their leaders?

Russia created the concept of a president so they could look like a democracy, but they are not. Putin is one lifetime away from Czar. Why would a country that is, according to our own CIA, trying to denigrate Joe Biden and interfere with our elections get a pass from Trump? Putin would prefer Donald John Trump as president because he perceives him as a useful idiot. He plans to help get him elected and work the Donald to leave NATO, end all the sanctions and look the other way as he invades Latvia, Belarus and Ukraine. Putin wants to reassemble the old USSR. Donald adverts his gaze, of course, because he can’t admit there are “outside forces” controlling his win.

Now China, the big panda bear with claws, wants to get back into the money game and open trade with the USA so, yes, they are pro-Biden. They aren’t active with propaganda on social media to the extent Russia is, but they also have more to lose if they get caught. In a fit of rage, Trump might shut down all trade with China. Doing so would hurt the whole world, and everyone knows that except Trump.

Trump blames China for the coronavirus coming to America because, as he keeps telling us, “They could have stopped it.” Okay, but then why can’t he stop it here? We all know what wasn’t done by this administration to battle the pandemic on our soil. No matter how many lies Trump tells you, he’s not equipped to understand the real problems of America, let alone the world. Like Goldfinger, Trump foolishly believes that if he controls the gold supply, he controls everything. In his puny mind he thinks the stock market is the economy when it’s just a casino that feeds on the economy. Here’s a great place for all of us to remember here how well Trump did with casinos. And might I also remind our younger readers that Goldfinger, the character, was sucked out of a private jet at 40,000 feet.

While most of US media focuses on the dysfunctional, hypocritical, Senatorial maneuvering to elect the next Supreme Court judge, no one is focused on the bigger picture, the upcoming elections. Democrats winning back the Senate, or Republicans protecting their majority, is the true battle at hand. If the Senate goes Democratic, look out Republicans! In such a scenario, Trump’s reelection would almost guarantee that he would be re-impeached and removed from office. Of course, any Supreme Court justice acting against the Constitution could also be impeached. Even better, a Democratic Senate might increase the number of Supreme Court Justices to eleven, which would balance the court for the next three decades. If the Democrats become the majority in both the House and the Senate, Trump, Pence and all the other president’s men can be thoroughly investigated, and heads will likely roll.

Please don’t count your chickens just yet. Much can happen in a month. Never pluck a bird until you are holding it in your hands. Also, know that cleaning up Washington and reworking our post-Trump democracy will take at least a decade. Trump’s damage to the economy, the environment, healthcare and the trust in our government’s institutions has been devastating. Remember that Trump didn’t permit the release of the JFK assassination files. Why? What is in there? Full trust will come only with complete transparency. Can we handle the truth or would knowledge of the absolute truth only make matters worse?

Putin, Xi and Trump will all eventually die and then each nation will have a new boss. Donald Trump is not a good president; in my opinion he’s the worst. How many Americans must die of COVID-19 before Trump lowers his self-appraisal from A+ to D-? How many more will die? If the death toll rises, and Trump sticks to his A+ grade, it will be time for all of us to ask why he gets to grade himself. He has failed out of class, as if he had any class to begin with. It’s time for us to march him off our campus, forever.

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THE RELEVANCE OF MICHAEL COHEN

Trump’s Discarded Minions Turn Against Him

There used to be a halo around the heads of most of our Presidents. Newspapers didn’t mention George Washington’s bad teeth. They ignored Woodrow Wilson’s incapacitation during the last year of his final term. Some newspapers might have photographed Eleanor Roosevelt with her mouth open, but they never ran a shot of FDR in his wheelchair. They knew Kennedy was having affairs with Marilyn Monroe and others but gave the guy some space. By the time we got to Bill Clinton, the media went wild reporting Monica Lewinski’s exact words.

We almost expect our presidents to lie about their private lives, but when a leader misleads the American public on domestic policies, public safety and important dealings with other countries, that’s bad, really bad. If this makes you think about Donald Trump, let me drop this in your cup. Lies from his loyalists have only made matters worse.

One could argue the that if John Bolton and Michael Cohen had gone to Capitol Hill and testified truthfully about Trump, he’d be, to quote The Eagles, already gone. But that “coulda, shoulda, woulda” mindset doesn’t solve the current problem. Cohen knew that Trump broke the law. He’s a lawyer and was doing the dirty work. Bolton knew that Trump had committed unethical and possibly illegal acts in his dealings with other countries, but John remained silent. I can hear the justification, “Well, I didn’t want to say anything because the Democrats are also wrong.” Cohen believed that he could get a pardon. He openly admits that when the feds said they were going to indict his wife, he started to help the prosecutors. He’s just another lying, chicken shit, opportunistic fool.

America has a strange way of reconciling justice. Aaron Burr shot Alexander Hamilton in a duel which ultimately proved fatal to Hamilton, yet Burr was never convicted of murder. Instead of New York, the duel took place in New Jersey, where killing someone in a duel was less of a crime. In a small measure of justice, there’s a Broadway play about Hamilton, but not one about Burr. Vice President Aaron Burr went behind President Jefferson’s back to buy land in Louisiana and start his own negotiations with Great Britain. The government charged him with treason, but Burr was found not guilty. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall presided over the trial and ruled there was no evidence and not one credible piece of testimony strong enough to convict Burr. The star witness for the prosecution admitted that he had doctored a letter implicating Burr. Why does this feel familiar?

Each of Trump’s former appointees fits into one of two buckets. Michael Cohen, Anthony Scaramucci and Omarosa Manigault knew and worked with Trump for years and have seen the light. The other box contains many sycophants who worship Trump, and are nothing but members of a death cult.

The people who have come to their sense, know the dark recesses of this man’s mind. Michael knows the Donald cheated on his taxes, charities and applications for loans. The racism, Cohen adds, is just icing on a shit pie. Scaramucci is a money man and he knows more about economics and trade than Trump ever could. Anthony didn’t get a million-dollar hope chest from his father and I trust him. He knows Trump is a liar and fraud, but he wanted to bask in the power. He thought he could save the country by being in the White House. He actually did help, and we can thank Scaramucci for getting rid of Steve Bannon and Reince Priebus, two useless ideologs.

Omarosa worked with Trump on his TV show and says that Donald John Trump changed from the person she worked with back then. She knows that his ambition, once seen as a good thing, has eaten him up. To use the words of Lord Acton, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Ms. Manigault focuses on Trump’s style and his lack of care for others. Okay, but it was her decision to join the administration and it’s unclear what her job was in the White House. Perhaps it was believed she would provide outreach to the African American community, but mostly she sat in the background at meetings.

Michael Cohen’s book will probably produce a giant yawn from not only the public but also from those who cover and analyze this presidency. Most of what Cohen has written are things we already know. From Cohen’s testimony, we know Trump lied about the worth of his holdings to get a better insurance deal, while he gave the IRS different sets of numbers to pay less tax. We know Trump makes racist statements behind closed doors. Remember, he’s never denied saying that certain African and Caribbean counties are “shithole countries.” Certainly, Trump’s high regard for Russia is not based solely on Trump’s “boy love” of Putin’s power and wealth. I’m willing to wager that money and business deals are factors in that equation.

Michael Cohen, Robert Mueller and the Southern District of New York have not seen Donald Trump’s taxes. What the fuck, people? Watergate’s “deep throat” told Woodward and Bernstein to “follow the money,” so why in the hell are we listening to Michael Cohen? When someone accused of a crime keeps telling you he cannot provide a single piece of evidence that would either acquit him or convict him, it’s probably the later he’s worried about.

Of one thing I’m certain, if retired Generals John Kelly and Jim Mattis held a press conference and verified what Trump allegedly said about our fallen war heroes, they could change the course of history. Why do these men remain loyal to Trump? Could it be that their military madness compels them to be loyal to the concept of the presidency and, thus, seem loyal to America? It’s sad that they feel no loyalty to the American people by revealing Trump’s feelings and essence before a critical election. Or maybe they’re holding back so they will have information to nest in the future books they will write about this space in time.

Over 1200 books have been written about Trump since he took office. I wrote one of them, and it called for Trump’s impeachment after only 200 days in office. I guess that makes me a “never ever Trumper.” Regardless, Trump will remain president for at least, another four months and I do not look forward to what “lame duck” Donald will do in his last hours in the Oval Office. I am sure he will sell pardons and change laws as fast as he can. The incoming president will be challenged by all the things he will have to unravel.

Michael Cohen is not relevant and won’t change any minds. His time has passed and in the end America will make a choice. That choosing should not be based on the damage of one man’s lies over another man’s lies but, as they say, it should be made based on love for the soul of America. Yes, it might sound like a cliché, but if we let Donald J. Trump have four more years, he will become a total dictator. But then if you regularly read this blog you already know how I feel. I have never wobbled or wavered from my convictions.

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PETTY LITTLE BOY

Trump Shows His Major Weakness, Again

Donald J. Trump is clearly the worst president in my lifetime, pushing Richard Nixon out of that insidious position. Once again, his winning any game he is playing is more important then what is good for the country. He creates an environment where he must then boldly act to solve the very problem he created.

Trump lambasted China with tariffs which deeply affected our soy bean farmers in the Midwest. Then, he asked the US taxpayers to help our farmers out of a problem of his own creation. Trump’s actions made the prices of soy beans decrease by 50%, thereby crushing the very people who voted for him. Why wasn’t this better thought out?

He demanded money for a border wall, got $20 billion, then walked away from a grand plan to bond the wall funding with concrete immigration reform. Next, he decided to stonewall Congress and own a shutdown that seriously hurts people. Trump is asking too much of the people who support him. Government agencies, like the IRS, are calling people back to work without pay. What kind of leader is this? How is a worker unessential one day then indispensable the next?

Pelosi’s State of the Union delay letter vs. Trump’s No Fly letter is just one example of the stupid things the Goofballs in Washington do all the time. They must be bored with running the country. Trump can’t make things better, he only makes them worse.

And now we get this report from BuzzFeed that President Donald Trump personally directed his longtime former attorney Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about the Moscow Trump Tower project. How many times will we hear the words, “bombshell report” before members of Congress get off their over-fed asses and do something about Trump?

Let’s first reopen the discussion about whether a “sitting President” can be indicted. There is a simple answer here, one that is far above the Department of Justice and the Executive Branch; it’s the very fiber of American Constitutional law. If we truly live in a land of laws, where no man or woman is above the law, then why would a memo that Robert Bork wrote in 2000 keep us from administering justice at the highest level of government? The law must apply to all, and it’s time to test this concept.

Impeachment is the process of cleansing a bad player from one of our three branches of government. It’s not a road well-traveled, but it has been used in the past. The cases against Presidents Andrew Johnson and William Clinton were strong political acts, and they are the only examples of how impeachment has worked in the past. In each case, impeachment proceedings failed to extricate the person from office, but we do have a remedy for a bad actor in the White House. These cases demonstrate that care must be taken to build a foundation of facts and count votes in the Senate before beginning the journey. Nixon would have been convicted, but his party leaders responsibly talked him out of the embarrassment of the ordeal.

By instructing his attorney to lie to Congress, Donald J. Trump has broken the pledge he made during his inaugural swearing-in. “I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” It’s the latest example of Trump’s greatest weakness; he lies and will do anything needed to mollify his ego. His judgment is impaired. If the cabinet and Vice President were worthy of their power, they would evoke the 25^th Amendment. Of course, that will never happen because Mike Pence is a man of little loyalty to truth. He is a weakling trudging the earth, pulling the might yoke of Christianity, which he places above the Constitution.

Let’s be clear. The Trump Tower project was very important to Trump and his organization, now run by his older sons. Some experts believe the Trump Tower in Moscow would have netted Trump more than $300 million. To be clear, the elements of any crime include: one has engaged in conduct in circumstances forbidden by the criminal law and while doing so, had a defined state of mind in relation to the prohibited conduct, knew that deed was wrong, proceeded with the conduct in order to create a favorable result for the individual. If he ordered Michael Cohen to lie to Congress to protect the deal, or hide his non-disclosure, Donald Trump is guilty.

But the final straw that will break the camel’s back will come from Robert Mueller’s report, not the press.

As we get closer to a national realization that Trump is bad for America and his words and actions conflict with American interests. Congress must act. If later we find out that Trump had a plan to help Russia, then we would all be complicit in the destruction of important American values. This man is not making America great again; he is slowly tearing our country apart.

We are America. We are better than this. We don’t need Trump. We need an honest, strong and moral leader. THIS JUST IN….

Representative Nancy Pelosi comments on Donald Trump’s cancelling of the Congressional Delegation trip to war zones:

“In the middle of the night, the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service provided an updated threat assessment detailing that the President announcing this sensitive travel had significantly increased danger to the delegation and to the troops, security, and other officials supporting the trip. This morning, we learned that the Administration had leaked the commercial travel plans as well. In light of the grave threats caused by the President’s action, the delegation has decided to postpone the trip so as not to further endanger our troops and security personnel, or the other travelers on the flights.”

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SEX, LIES & AUDIO TAPES

The End of Times Coming for Trump

When will responsible people in power wake up and start to realize that America is more important than party politics and Trump’s ego? Within the last 24-hours we have learned that Trump’s ex-lawyer, Michael Cohen, was instructed to make hush payments to women who allege affairs with Donald Trump before he ran for president.

One of these payments was corroborated by AMI, the owner of the National Inquirer, for the sole purpose of helping Donald Trump with the 2016 presidential election. And now we have a Russian national, Maria Butina, pleading guilty to charges of espionage with attempts to infiltrate conservative leaders in Congress and the National Rifle Association. The NRA bought more than $10 million in political advertisements for Trump. The missing piece of information is whether Russian banks gave money to the NRA before the election. But STOP and listen America. Butina believed she could infiltrate our political process by getting cozy with the NRA. She should be called to testify before Congress.

And our Great Orange Leader cannot keep his trap shut. Exhibit #1: a string of tweets from 12-12-2018 by Donald J. Trump which included this lie, “I never directed Michael Cohen to break the law.” With nine words, President Donald Trump has sullied the office of the president and embarrassed the United States on the world stage.

First, Michael Cohen was an employee of the Trump Organization and his actions were in concert with the CEO, CFO and President of that company. Someone in the organization approved the payments. Michael Cohen recorded his discussion about the payment with Donald Trump. That recording has been aired by the media. Trump is heard suggesting that Cohen pay cash, obviously thinking CASH would be less traceable. Isn’t that the way organized crime handles deals?

Trump claimed that he was just acting on the “advice of his lawyer” and makes some claim of Cohen’s liability to him. What? Cohen plead guilty and got three years in jail. He is paying for his mistake. Will Trump ever?

The president saying that, “I did nothing wrong with respect to campaign finance laws…” sounds quite a bit like, “I am not a crook,” the fateful words of another presidential law breaker. This sweet denial of guilt on the part of our President of the United States makes one want to open a deep discussion about how to indict a sitting president. One thing is perfect clear, the man has lost it.

We learned that Trump was in the room when the deal with David Pecker of AMI was concocted, and the publisher believes he was doing this “dirty deed” to help TRUMP win the election. Today (12-14-2018), Michael Cohen took to ABC TV to sing. When does this end? How will this end? Winter is coming.

Thankfully, there’s a surfacing reality that more and more people are admitting, at least to themselves, that Donald Trump is a liar. What took them so long?

Media pundits reference Trump’s large support by Republicans and his base, but even they are starting to say, “Yeah, he lies, but he’s doing a good job.” Do we really want someone leading America who lies? Is a liar better than someone who tells the truth? Maybe one day we will all wake up and realize this all was just a bad nightmare and get back to a normal America. I can’t wait.

The First 200 Days Of Trump – ONLY ONE MILLION LEFT

The Jonas Bronck Series

BOOK ONE (IF GOD COULD TALK) A Cable TV talk show host is approached by a friend who offers a guest for his show who has never been on TV before. The Diary of a TV Journalist is the story about the host of the show and his executive producer vetting the guest and attempting to determine what would happnen If God Could Talk…

BOOK TWO (IF GOD COULD CRY) One of the most eye-opening stories about terrorism. The famous cable TV talk show host, Jonas Bronck, leaves New York on a quest for 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?

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LEGAL SMOKING GUN

Trump’s Attorney Double Flips

The reason for Donald Trump’s playing overly nice with Russia was just another deal. He so desired a Trump Tower in Moscow that he overtly showed his hand during his campaign. Once he took a Pro-Putin position, the Donald never changed his actions and words, even after he was nominated. Trump seemed to many conservative scholars and foreign relations experts as less than Republican. Some also think that Trump is doing long-term damage with his bias. When Trump compliments Vladimir Putin and Russia, it’s not some diplomatic ploy, it’s just a longing to make money in Moscow.

Today (11-29-2018) in New York Federal court, Michael Cohen admitted that he lied to Congress about the timeline on pitching Trump’s projects in Russia. Now, Trump’s former attorney will co-operate with the Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Cohen will be able to fill in the facts and expose the lies that Trump has been telling before and after he became President.

None of this will be surprising to anyone who has been reading this blog over the last two years. The 45^th President is a man who lies constantly and will do anything behind closed doors to enrich himself or gratify his bodily desires. Besides being unfit president, Trump is an amoral human being. Once again, the devil has tempted and is in control of the deeply evangelicals. When do their eyes open?

Trump claimed that he’s not guilty of anything because the Trump Tower was NOT built in Moscow. He also admitted that he did have a deal in the pipeline for Moscow, even after he said he had NO business in Russia. Trump’s denial seemed rather defensive and contrived. He even said, “I wasn’t trying to hide anything.” That sounded a bit like, “I am not a crook.”

All the President’s men and women will be paraded out to condemn Michael Cohen as a traitor to the cause and a liar. Once again, we will hear denials. Did you notice how often Trump uses the phrase, “He denied it.” It’s getting to the point where when we hear those words, we automatically think the person Trump is defending, did the deed.

He has stated belief in the denials of Roger Ailes, Harvey Weinstein, Rob Porter, Roy Moore, Vladimir Putin, and the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia. He only believes what he has already concluded, rather than even consider any other options. He cannot muster the courage to take the findings of scientists about Climate Change seriously. On the issue of how Climate Change could affect our well-being, he said, “I don’t belief it.”

Michael Cohen might be playing for a better life outside of prison, but clearly, if he can document much of what he is revealing to the court and Special Counsel, this can only spell the death of this presidency. Donald Trump may have concluded his written answers to the questions from Russian interference investigation, but now Trump must be called to testify. Anything less than a recorded deposition of the President is shoddy criminal prosecution. The Michael Cohen pleading today is the beginning of a year of conflicts, hearings and court battles. WHY?

We have never impeached a President. Nixon was about to be impeached when Barry Goldwater urged him to resign to save the institution of the presidency. The power of Nixon’s own party was against him. When will the Republicans on the hill, who have that same power, finally wake up and realize that it’s time to think about their own seats? There will be at least 33 Senators up for reelection in 2020.

The House of Representatives has already flipped to Democrat. The Senate will be next. Michael Cohen has flipped and flipped again. How long until others in Trump’s inner circle come to their senses and flip for America.

#UnIndictedCoConspirator

Trump Loyalty vs. Real Loyalty

Not only did Donald Trump have a bad day yesterday (8-21-2018), but America had a terrible day as we learned of corruption at the top. We are now faced with the task of repairing the republic.

On these pages we have previously pondered the possibility that someone like Donald Trump might take actions leading to a Constitutional crisis. Well we may have one soon.

There is a notion and policy in the Justice Department that a sitting president cannot be indicted. We aren’t sure if this was what the framers of the Constitution had in mind, but both Republican and Democratic lawyers have used it as a guideline over the years. What some will point out is not what is said, but rather what is written in this case.

In Section 4: Impeachment: 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. The President, Vice-President, Cabinet Secretaries, and other executive officers, as well as judges, may be impeached by the House of Representatives and tried in the Senate.

Any official convicted by the Senate would be immediately removed from office. The Senate could also choose to bar the removed official from holding any federal office in the future. No other punishments may be inflicted, pursuant to the impeachment proceeding, but the convicted party remains liable to trial and punishment in the courts for civil and criminal charges. If Donald Trump was not the President right now, he would have been named a coconspirator in the crimes of Michael Cohen.

So, the notion is that, while in office, these people shall be judged by Congress and could be impeached. Once out of office, the courts can have at them. A president can be charged, according to the Constitution, if they commit treason, take bribes or commit other “high Crimes and Misdemeanors.” The capitalizations are from the founders.

Garrett Epps in The Atlantic magazine in 2018 wrote a great article called, The Only Way to Find Out If the President Can Be Indicted: Scholars disagree on existing precedents—and the question won’t be settled until evidence leads a prosecutor to try it. In that article, he points out “that the Constitution suggest that the president is subject to laws like any citizen, but never discusses prosecution in office.”

In 1973, the then-Solicitor General Robert Bork, wrote an opinion that a Vice President should not have the same protections against prosecution while in office that a president would have, but that was just an opinion, not law. Also, the article reminds us that a 1998 opinion, written by a lawyer in Kenneth Starr’s Office of the Independent Counsel investigating President Bill Clinton, clearly stated that a sitting president could be indicted. Of course, he was trying to lock up Clinton for lying under oath about affairs.

Yesterday in court, we had President Donald J. Trump being accused in the pleading and allocution of Michael Cohen that candidate and client, Donald Trump “directed him” to commit election fraud. Cohen testified under oath and said that he knew it was against the law. That would mean that citizen Donald Trump is an Unindicted Coconspirator in a felony. This is a federal crime.

Epps’ article points out, [Bork’s] memo considers the Constitution’s text and finds no answer. It says, correctly, that there is no “airtight separation of powers, but rather … a system of checks and balances, or blending the three powers.”

And there is this famous line from then Vice President Gerald Ford, “Impeachment is whatever the Senate says it is.” Remember that Nixon was told to resign from office by his party leaders, long before Congress got to the destructive action of impeachment. Barry Goldwater and other Republicans at the time knew that if a trial took place Nixon would have been the first president to be removed from office.

Even more troubling, if a president has committed “high Crimes and Misdemeanors” and ends up on the outside, the new president could easily pardon him. It happened with Gerald Ford pardoning Richard Nixon. Pence would likely do the same thing with Trump. Why? It’s been said that it would look bad if a former leader of the free world wasn’t free. Huh? We don’t want to look bad? When did the judicial system ever worry about how we look?

Donald Trump wanted to disrupt Washington and the whole of government. All he has done is waste a lot of time on things that don’t matter. He may have pulled the U.S.A. out of a bunch of treaties and agreements, but he hasn’t made better deals. Trump has gotten everyone’s attention in the world on trade, but with no short or long term guarantees that he has done more good, than damage. Trump has moved the Republican party to the far-white-right, but few are complaining in the G.O.P. Were they racists and isolationists all along? Do they care more about re-election than they do about America?

People must decide if they will be loyal to Trump or loyal to our country. Do we uphold the laws of the land, or do we choose to look the other way? It’s time for us to indict a sitting president and see where that goes. If the Supreme Court reasons that the founders and the Constitution say that impeachment is the only way to deal with a crime committed by a president, then let’s impeach the bastard. But if the Congress and the Supreme Court say that a sitting President is above the law, then it’s time to change the laws. Trump is a self-serving anarchistic pea brain with absolutely no redeeming qualities.

The more we learn the worse it gets. Let’s unite this country now and throw Trump out of office.

The First 200 Days Of Trump – ONLY ONE MILLION LEFT

The Jonas Bronck Series

Books available on Amazon:

TRADER OR TRAITOR

Trump’s Iceberg is Melting

As the blistering heat of one thousand blowtorches makes its way across America, leaving fires and floods in its wake, we hear nothing about these demonic occurrences from the commander and chief of America. As mother nature plays out her nasty dark side, there is the smell of revenge and the odor of partisanship wafting out of the orifice of power in the nation’s capital.

Somewhere in a small Midwest town, a farmer sits on top of this year’s soybean crop and wonders why he cannot count on China to pay a healthy profit for his yield. He now questions what seemed to be such a certain bet placed on a businessman from New York. Could it really be true that he was wooed by big talk which eventually took the shape of a retaliatory trade war that would bring him to his knees?

And now we get the news that Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney, is saying that candidate Trump knew in advance about the June 2016 meeting in Trump Tower in which Russians were expected to offer his campaign dirt on Hillary Clinton. This, comes from CNN, a source our Great Orange Leader condemns as “Fake News.” Are people perhaps feeling more confident to leak damaging information and data to that one network because CNN has become the apparent nemesis of the Donald? Is it coincidence that this is the same network his Justice Department appears to be punishing by stopping it from being part of an AT&T merger, even after a judge has found in favor of the deal?

All this talk of deal making and deal doing may be lost on the millions of people who voted for Donald Trump and are now seeing his rabid nationalism affect their daily bread. The world has left Trump and his ass-kissing experts in a heaping, stinking pile of America First for their well-established and connected globalism. All the clothing that Donald and Ivanka peddled in America was, in fact, made in other countries. In business they are globalists while in politics they are xenophobes. Ask the dozens of people who lost their jobs to yet another failing enterprise this family has shuttered. The Trumps walk away with all the money leaving others to pay for it.

Americans are strong-willed and sometimes blind, but once you take money out of their family budget to pay for “long-term” solutions, they get nervous. They see only next week’s grocery bill. The audacity of asking the citizens to be patient while you play your games with world powers is imprudent at best, and downright dastardly at worst.

The echo chamber on all the late-night comedy shows and news networks, except Fox News, reverberates that we have a liar for a president, ha! ha! ha! But the joke must be on us. We do see that Trump is being forced to fix what he broke, right? The meeting the other day with the President of the E.U. was nothing short of remarkable.

Within seven days, the President of the United States insulted the members of NATO, said that Europe was a “foe” and accused them of raping America. Now, he stands with Europe to work on repairing the damage his frothy little round mouth created. What a waste of 280 characters on Twitter, let alone the world’s largest economy.

When the final chapter on Donald Trump is written it will not be the story of a decisive leader who made America great. It will be a sad tale about a damaged man having not a grain of talent for real leadership, but a true gift of entertaining closed-minded people. The word “Statesman” will never be uttered in the whole book on Trump. A book, it looks like the Special Counsel is about to throw at him.

You see, in the land of the brave and the home of the free no man is above the law. And those conservative congresspeople who are attempting to wage war against the Justice Department are engaging in nothing short of obstruction of justice. By introducing a resolution calling for the impeachment of Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, they are attempting to stop the special counsel investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Or worse, they may be trying to seize evidence in the case to give to Trump. That would make them parties to high crimes and misdemeanors. Do we smell impeachment in the air?

If I was arguing a case against the 45^th President, I would create a matrix of guilt. Using the recordings from Michael Cohen, Trump’s tweets, meetings and timelines, along with the public statements that Donald Trump has made, I would show a definitive amalgamation of obstruction of justice, treason, jury tampering, witness intimidation and, oh yeah, violation of the Logan Act and the Emoluments Clause. This just in from NPR, “Federal District Judge Peter Messitte denied the Department of Justice’s request to dismiss a case brought by the attorneys general of Maryland and the District of Columbia. The Emoluments Clause bars any president from personally profiting from his dealings with foreign governments — or even U.S. state governments.”

Dumbfounded Donald could be made turn over his income tax returns as part of this case and the whole world will see the money trail. Will it lead to Putin and Russia or is Trump just a two-bit whore hustler who buys off porn stars while avoiding payment of his fair share of taxes, like most rich guys? He thinks he’s a wunderkind trader, but it appears that he’s nothing more than a narcissistic traitor. Mueller will turn up the heat and we know that something has got to explode. We have a lying, conniving criminal in the White House and it will be interesting to see who steps up in Congress to call for impeachment.

Michael Cohen is no choirboy, but he surely looks like he’s President Trump’s “John Dean,” with the truth in his hoister and recordings in his pockets. We gonna have ourselves another “Watergate.” Trump was right on that one.

The First 200 Days Of Trump – ONLY ONE MILLION LEFT

The Jonas Bronck Series

Books available on Amazon:

CORPORATE CORUPTION

Trump Says the Stupidest Things

Many politicians create catch-phrases and slogans that seem like good ideas at the time but, in retrospect, are more like a giant slab of pie in their faces. We all remember, “Read my lips,” which was supposed to be a pledge not to raise taxes. Some have used them in defensive posture, “I am not a crook” or the now famous, “I did not have sexual relations with that woman.” They all seem funny now in the light of day.

I guess Trump’s big talking point, “Drain the swamp,” was just another piece of raw meat thrown to the mob. His fired-up base could repeat it endlessly, while the rest of us saw that a more accurate phrase would be, “Here comes the new boss, just like the old boss.” The draining of the swamp was merely a bullshit campaign slogan. As one Trump voter said in West Virginia recently, “He’s just another politician.”

We are learning now that Donald J. Trump and his “personal lawyer” were involved in a business-as-usual, pay-for-play scheme with several large corporations. Not only did Michael Cohen’s LLC shell company pay a porn star for her silence, it became his in-box for millions of dollars. Before and right after Trump’s election, Cohen was using his proximity to the Donald to sell access to people who wanted to influence the new administration.

Corporate payments to do commerce in certain countries is simply thought to be the cost of doing business. In my experience, $40,000 in India could speed up the start time and circumvent the red-tape of creating a new company there. In China, a payment to a local official can get you into the country when you are a multi-national. The rate card varies.

AT&T, which according to CNBC, gave Cohen “up to $600,000 for ‘insights into understanding the new administration.’ At the time it engaged Cohen, AT&T was seeking tax and regulatory relief, as well as a favorable outlook on its proposed merger with Time Warner.” Ironically, Trump tweeted against the merger. Was that just a coverup of the bribe?

Drug maker Novartis delivered $1.2 million to the Cohen slush fund, saying they wanted health care expertise. Just for the record, Michael Cohen has no experience in this field. And a firm attempting to land a multibillion dollar contract from the Pentagon for military training jets, Korea Aerospace paid Michael Cohen $150,000 for his “accounting expertise.” Seems like his accounting sloppiness has landed him in a huge mess.

Unbelievably, our legal system permits these kinds of left-handed bribes. If a company is a registered lobbyist, they can legally contact, pitch and attempt to affect legislation on Capitol Hill. But Michael Cohen is not a legally registered lobbyist. He used his alleged personal lawyer “fixer” status to bring in the cash. This is perhaps a Federal Election Commission violation. After all, Trump did file for reelection right after the inauguration.

Trump was already a shady character before he was elected. He never played fair in business. For someone who is always decrying things as “unfair,” like the little child not understanding what is right or wrong, the Donald’s ability to use the bankruptcy laws stops just short of defrauding investors out of money. They paid and he left the scene of the crime with all his money intact. What is fair about that?

Michael Cohen is a bottom feeder, but one must put some blame on these douche bag corporate scoundrels for getting sucked into such ridiculous shakedowns. Why would AT&T think that paying this broke-dick lawyer would help them navigate a tricky merger? If I was an AT&T investor, I would be at the next stockholder meeting demanding to be heard. The question is simple. Why would AT&T engage in this kind of activity?

This whole caper should not come as a surprise. Trump is a corporate whore who worships only the holy dollar. Everything he does is designed to help his cronies and capitalists on Wall Street. All the claims that Bernie Sanders and Trump himself made about Hillary Clinton are the total embodiment of who Trump is. Remember, they both said that Hillary and the Clinton foundation were in the pocket of Wall Street and large corporations. Under Trump, the corporations got the big tax cuts, not the average person here in America. The deregulations and disregard for monetary safeguards are aimed at big business, not the health and welfare of the middle class and the long-term stability of our economy.

What we have learned is that Washington continues to run on corruption. Trump claims he will lower drug prices, but he is not in control of the game. Big pharm multinationals like Novartis are in the driver’s seat. Our insurance companies do secret deals with pharmacies and providers so that their drugs are dispensed first at the price they demand. Money paid to Michael Cohen was intended to make sure Trump didn’t mess up their schemes and the business-as-usual attitude of bilking billions from sick people would continue.

And finally, if Trump’s whole deal is “America First,” why would Cohen take money from Korea Aerospace when they are up for a billion-dollar contract with the Pentagon? Why would the president’s personal attorney help a company from Korea? Why shouldn’t that contract go to an American firm? Through his actions, Michael Cohen has urinated on both “America First” and “Drain the Swamp.” Trump is already distancing himself from Cohen and, in the end, will probably pardon him. Nothing to see here folks; just go back to sleep and ignore all this chicanery.

Trump lies many times a day. He may create a war in the Middle East or he may get lucky and denuclearize the Korean peninsula, but no matter what happens he will NEVER help the middle class. He doesn’t care about the little guy. He just wants them to shout and mimic his tag lines. Trump is a clown in orange makeup, embarrassing the United States of America with his act.

Donald J. Trump and all his millionaire and billionaire friends will get rich and the corporate corruption will continue. Sad but true. The only aspect of American life that is more soulless than corporations is the government. Trump is just another politician.

The First 200 Days Of Trump – ONLY ONE MILLION LEFT

New Book about Terrorism

One of the most eye-opening stories about terrorism. 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?

Now available on Amazon.

NO COUNTRY IS A MAN

Is Trump Really Just a Dictator with a Long Tie?

What are we missing here? The fear of Obama brought together millions of gun buyers, who bought weapons. In case you don’t remember, that paranoia about our first African-American President coming to get your guns never happened.

The word spread quickly through the evangelical communities of our great land that the only party that would protect their religious rights has an elephant mascot. That myth drove their involvement in shaping the political landscape by making a move to the far right. There should be a separation of church and state, but evangelicals don’t believe this Jeffersonian creed.

The other group of people who voted and made Trump the 45^th President of the United States of America has been frustrated for decades because of a lack of protection for their jobs and livelihood here at home. We get this and, yes, we probably need to repair this problem in the boardrooms of America.

We now have a leader who truly believes that he, and he alone, can fix all the problems which have ever been created by the past administrations. According to our Great Orange Leader, everything that has ever happened in another era was wrong and helped “destroy” America. Thus, the need for this one man to “make America great again.”

The positive, long-term results of some of Trump’s accomplishments are overshadowed by his obsessive need to attack and tweet. His narcissistic personality sets the media agenda and gets in the way of his smattering of leadership achievements. While most people focus on the firestorms and eruptions from this self-centered demigod, he has brought about major policy changes that will affect America in deeply negative ways.

Let’s talk about the elephant in the room: immigration. America has always had a strange relationship with the rest of the world. The first fact is that many people love America around the world. They watch our movies and TV shows and they want to come here. They visit for vacation and sometimes they just stay. Our border to the south is a minor player in what the administration calls illegal immigration and drug problems. There are millions of people who have come to America on airliners from other countries. Trump uses the building of a wall on the Mexican border as a visual to demonstrate his desires. Let’s not forget that the American drug epidemic starts not at the Mexican border but in our local pharmacies with bad doctors over-prescribing.

The big headline in the Washington Post this morning (5-9-2018) said, “U.S. embassy cables warned against expelling 300,000 immigrants. Trump officials did it anyway.” The burden that will be placed on the home countries of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) people in the USA could be a diplomatic nightmare. Once again, Trump is using these executive orders to “clean up the neighborhood” without any understanding about how these moves could destabilize certain countries. War costs more than diplomacy and aid. That is what the Marshall Plan was all about.

Our Attorney General announced that families coming through Mexico because of the violence and unrest in their Central American countries will be divided and children will be taken away from their mothers and fathers. We seem to have lost our morality.

Trump is promoting an isolationist foreign policy. This President, without an end game plan, terminated DACA, walked away from the TPP (an agreement to reel in trade with China) pulled out of the Paris Climate Accord (an agreement to really clean up the world we live in) and now has ended the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the agreement between Iran and the United States, United Kingdom, Russia, France, China, Germany and the European Union. This was a campaign promise that Trump made and kept, without any long-range strategy other than his little round mouth saying he wants a better deal. Trump even used old data presented by the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, as proof that Iran is in violation of the agreement. This was the Donald’s “WMD” moment.

Trump has gotten rid of more people in the first year of his administration than any other president. He has slowly weeded out common sense thinkers and replaced them with people who agree with him. The real question is whether his actions make America safer or is the world more likely to blow up into proxy and real wars? Sanctions returned to Iran will only weaken European and Asian nations relationships. If you drink the Trump Kool-Aid, you probably believe his huffing and puffing rhetoric will keep our house safe. However, history shows that most of what the U.S. has done in the Middle East has failed.

Speaking on the Daily Show, historian Jon Meacham was rather positive about the power of the Constitution and how even a dipshit like Trump will be controlled sufficiently by time and the rule of law. I am a skeptic, believing Trump will move forward with renewed vigor after getting the three detainees released from North Korea and seeing slight improvements in his approval scores due to an upcoming meeting with Kim Jung-Un.

And what is the meaning of Russian oligarchs and mega-companies depositing large sums of money into the Michael Cohen-Trump slush fund LLC right after the election? It signifies that Trump was either using his lawyer to collect “pay-for-play” fees from companies wanting something, or Michael Cohen was using his proximity to Trump to create a business. The fact that the same account paid hush money to a porn star was Cohen’s big mistake. If a quid-pro-quo can be proven, those payments are bribes.

We must keep our eyes on the prize here. The reward will be a strong democracy not tainted by the aggressive actions of an unchecked President. Trump will probably not be impeached without strong evidence that he was involved in a conspiracy with Russia, but the people must check his bullshit and lies with clear minds when they go to the ballot box. The government that runs the greatest country in the world is in the hands of an amateur who thinks he can do anything. We must not let him ruin what centuries have built.

With all the possible successes of a strong economy and movement in the world toward a more peaceful climate, maybe we can get back to protecting the actual planet. Or am I dreaming?

The First 200 Days Of Trump – ONLY ONE MILLION LEFT

New Book about Terrorism

Now available on Amazon.