THE PROBLEM WITH RON DESANTIS

Another bottom feeder polictician – grifter

I am sure Ron and Casey DeSantis are nice people away from the bright lights of politics, but I have many political questions for our governor. I wonder whether he respects the rights of children, if he understands the need for equality among “all the people” and whether he supports the sanctity of immigrants in America.

It would be too easy to spray the criticism that everything DeSantis has done as governor was only to further his national political ambitions. It appears that once he got the Governor job, he was living every moment to get another one… in Washington.

As the grandson of Italian immigrants, one would hope DeSantis had more empathy for the immigrant’s plight, but alas, it’s a case of, “We’re in, close the door behind us.” Florida is made up of immigrants and workers from everywhere. Why the constant condemnation of that class? DeSantis’ stunts and statements would have us believe he doesn’t care about what America stands for. Immigrants are people, not political punching bags.

Harassing large corporations that provide thousands of jobs is bad business, while giving another big donor exclusive rights to Covid shots reveals a payoff in the plan. Why did I have to drive four hundred miles to get my shot? Please stop bragging about how great you did. It was just okay.

We hear so much about respecting the rights of parents, but what about the rights of children? From banning Critical Race Theory, certain books and gender realization, DeSantis is kowtowing to the base, not protecting all the kids. One must ask, who decided that a child’s rights could be ignored, besmirched and ridiculed by the state? Will the governor and his wife attend funerals to comfort the parents mourning their trans or gay teen’s suicide due to constant bullying? Sadly, he will not be involved in the problem he exacerbated.

I’m puzzled by the DeSantis political family who rails against liberal elitism but sends their kids to private schools. I assume they think they are fixing education, but so far, they have created far more conflict, drama and fear than advances.

When the governor in his high-heeled cowboy boots rode his white horse into government, he was just a cheap imitator of Donald Trump. His actions, words and deeds since then have shown a man who truly doesn’t care about anyone else’s viewpoint. Florida doesn’t need a baby Trump; we’ve got the real one.

The facts are clear. Mr. DeSantis had no discussions with the families of LGBTQ kids before he handed Tallahassee his abominable bucket of hate: the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. He also had no consultations with the communities of color that he cut up like chum on the beach to gerrymander his way to power. He just did it without the regard for the voters’ rights in those places. If only Ron was honest about it all.

The lack of respect for equality and the Voting Rights Act are just as bad as his ploughing through the policies in education that were meant as safeguards for equality. Getting rid of much of what the New College of Florida was all about, only to suggest that adding sports teams will bring people back to the institution, feels a lot like “Biff” from Back to the Future being put in charge of education. It’s sad that a graduate of Harvard and Yale would see public education as an evil force. Maybe he doesn’t care about kids.

The idea of a “woke ideology” coming to take your freedoms away is much like Chicken Little screaming, “The sky is falling!” I still have no idea what “woke” means, but it’s clearly Ron’s N-word.

The fundamental problems of Ron DeSantis are his obvious desire to rewrite history, control the future and force all citizens to adopt his way of life. If “freedom” is really your north star, Mr. Governor, then why do you keep telling us what to do, how our doctors will treat us and even who to love. The demeaning discrimination on display so far proves he’s a bad governor and would be a horrible president.

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HOW TO BEAT TRUMP

An Open Letter to the Challengers

Are you in it to win it? Do you think you have an actual chance? You have studied Donald Trump’s every speech, every putdown, every ridiculous conspiracy theory and off-the-cuff remark, yet you come off like an eleventh-grade debate class student, fearful and defensive. He will grab you, crush you, chew you up and split you out.

I hear your bland and stupid statement that the country deserves you and you will make things better, but those who are loyal to the golden calf will only yawn and then change the channel.

Go ahead and meet behind closed doors with your consultants, con-artists and co-conspirators to debate the words you will use when asked certain questions about the fat, orange guy. Tiptoe around him, because if you do otherwise, he will kick your ass.

Your advisors will tell you not to say what you really think, because that will turn off people who don’t believe in the truth. And whatever you do, don’t piss off “the base.” You may think they are the only folks who count because they have gigantic, aggressive online mouths and fingers to tear you a new one, but they’re more like a conglomeration of 14-year-old high school dropouts who have formed a bond based on hate, misinformation and an intense feeling of disenfranchisement. That subset of America has already cast their vote. Ignore them! You can’t win them over and you don’t need them, so stop being so damn timid about them.

So, how can a reasonable person beat Trump to the punch and garner some points in this presidential slugfest? When Marco Rubio ran against Trump in 2016, he based all his comments on a few carefully prepared paragraphs that he recited verbatim. “Little Marco” was up against it, so he decided to pull a “baby Trump” bit by commenting on the size of Donald’s hands. He went low, and Trump just bullied him into submission. If you genuinely want to beat Trump, you must not be afraid to upstage the villain. Yes, the clown carries a spray bottle full of battery acid and it’s your job to face and conquer the beast.

There’s an abundance of history-making Trump insanity — impeached twice and indicted twice, with surely more to come from the overzealous prosecutors in the land. Although this martyr routine appears to be working for the makeup-wearing tough guy, it’s time you find a way to forcefully cut through that.

Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, believes he must go to the right of Trump and promises to be a new kind of Trump who can win and get things done. Being twenty-five points behind, however, proves he’s just another baby Trump. As long as voters can get the real deal, why would DeSantis think he can win by selling his bag of lukewarm fascism to America?

The one thing I remember from my early sports playing days was a rough and tumble coach standing before us and not only challenging our strength but asking us that all-important question, “Boys, do you really want to win?” Today I stand before most of you asking that same question.

The only current challenger who is acting as if he really wants to defeat Donald Trump is Chris Christie. He’s telling the truth and he’s not trying to please Trump voters at all. I’m sure there are experts, statisticians and soothsayers telling him this is the wrong approach but, seriously, what other path to beating Trump exists?

If the rest of you want to beat Trump, you will have to talk louder and more directly in ways that might be uncomfortable. I’m looking at you, Mike Pence. You cannot bring yourself to say that Trump was not a good president even though he cajoled his fans to see you in a bad light and threaten your safety. I get the “turn the other cheek” Biblical stance, but really Mike, if you cannot stand up to Trump how are you going to deal with a real dictator like Vladimir Putin? Your pussyfooting will get you nowhere.

The question of whether a challenger, if elected president, would pardon Trump is revealing. If one says they will pardon him, that is the wrong answer. It means they feel what he did wasn’t wrong or it was wrong, but they want to “heal” the country. There’s only one answer to that pardon question that makes any sense, “NO.” Trump is not above the law, and he should be held accountable. Your ticket to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue does not have PARDON HIM printed on it.

There is probably more dirt to dig up on the Donald, but don’t think you are going to convince his loyal fans he’s bad for them. However, you must criticize him openly, directly and by name. You must point out our critical need for someone we can trust in the White House. Trump’s biggest flaw as a potential president is he’s a liar. He doesn’t know right from wrong or truth from a lie. Get right up to the microphone and say, “This man is clinically ill and cannot be trusted to run the greatest country in the world” Lay it out directly or get the hell out of the way of someone who will. The fundamental goal is branding Trump as a LIAR!

Stop wasting our time with your lack of clarity and deflections. Trump is a bad human being and should not be reelected. If you cannot say that, then you are not really running for president. You don’t want to win. You are just masturbating in public and wasting jet fuel flying around the country playing the fool.

Why are you not going after Trump? Are you going to admit to the coach you really don’t want to win the game? Stop being so damn weak!

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BIRDS OF A FEATHER

Has CNN become Fox News?

Just when you thought it was over it starts again, and many feel that CNN just pooped the bed. But let’s be more civil and analytical, if such is possible in today’s world.

I understand television programming and its various justifications for reasons of ratings and revenue, but CNN broke some rules last night when they put the orange devil on the air for nearly ninety minutes in prime time. According to the American Press Institute, journalism’s first obligation is telling the truth. Good decision making depends on people having reliable, accurate facts placed in meaningful contexts.

The second rule in TV news is never let the interviewee play you. Mike Wallace and Walter Cronkite turned in their graves last night. Why did CNN allow the former President to lie about the 2020 election? Why didn’t they confront him live, in real time, and tell him to his face that he’s still lying and ask him why he needs to constantly do so? Why not make it personal? Trump certainly does.

Any interviewer would have their hands full with Donald Trump, but a noble journalist must elicit truth. Kaitlan Collins asked Donald Trump some great questions, but she didn’t get him to admit anything. She was a facilitator for his lies. No matter how many panels CNN puts on for the rest of the week whining about Trump, some people will continue to believe his mendacities. It’s impossible for a journalist to create a clear vision when their primary source is a pathological liar, so why did CNN put him on?

This “town hall“ did not provide any insight into a lying candidate. It was just another network elevating Trump, giving him more oxygen and free airtime for his continuous deceit. How is this good for America?

Trump is an idiot on foreign relations and the current cultural realities of an ever-growing browner and more diverse America. He stopped absorbing and thinking in 1956.

The Donald couldn’t call Putin a war criminal, but in the very next sentence he described the atrocities of the war in Ukraine, unable to connect the dots that it’s his buddy Vlad who is doing the killing. I would have asked him, right at that moment, “What makes you so afraid of Putin?” Instead, we got more of the same bullshit, deception and tap dancing so fundamental to Donald Trump.

Chris Wallace is on the CNN payroll, but I’m sure Trump would never have agreed to a sit down with him. Instead, the network brought out their morning show tryout who asked penetrating questions but didn’t adequately rebut the responses. The entire affair became lost in the dust of Trump’s repetitive, nonsensical crap. Had he been properly grilled, I’m sure Trump would have walked off the stage, which would have been far more illuminating.

And what was up with that audience? It’s clear they were not properly vetted or managed, which obliterated the newsworthiness of the whole event. Instead of having a hall full of dimwits laughing and clapping at a fat, orange monkey, why not have an audience of journalists with each getting to pose one short, pointed question?

If TV news is to survive, it must have a certain gravity and gravitas based on truth. The CNN debacle showcased our drunken uncle babbling away about matters well beyond his comprehension. He couldn’t even pull off looking prepared, statesmanlike or normal. He just blathered put-downs and platitudes with the overarching theme of how screwed up America is. Why would we give this blowhard four more years to do what he couldn’t do in the four years he was president?

I’m going to briefly step aside here to inject a Tweet of someone who says it better, the former President’s niece, Mary L. Trump, “I’m furious…. CNN is anti-American. In less than an hour, they allowed an authoritarian wannabe to lie constantly while an audience full of his followers applauded. This was not a town hall; it was a rally. Donald bragged about overturning Roe v. Wade. He claimed—unchallenged—that Democrats allow babies to be murdered after they’re born. He bragged about his intention to pardon convicted insurrectionists. He advocated for the United States to default on its debt which would destroy the world economy. And he showed, once again, why a jury of his peers found him liable for sexual assault and defamation. But Donald Trump cannot destroy our country by himself. That requires allies. He already has the Republican party in his pocket. And now, he has CNN on his side. Tonight’s CNN fiasco was a tragedy for American democracy.”

Mary Trump clearly is just as appalled as I and many others are. CNN will have to work awfully hard to restore its credibility with me but, then again, like many my age I am starting to think that it’s all just bullshit. We can’t trust Congress. We can’t trust the Supreme Court and we certainly cannot trust CNN, or Fox, or MSNBC, or any news outlet that hides behind the bright lights of showbiz while leaving honest reporting and penetrating journalism splat on the sidewalk.

Think about all the major news stories that have broken in the last ten years and realize they resulted from the arduous work of journalists at the New York Times, Washington Post, Politico, Pro-Publica and other outlets. The talking heads on TV just read the words. They spend more time on their hair and makeup than pounding out the truth on a keyboard.

It’s embarrassing. Recently I heard one of the talking heads actually say, “Well, I haven’t read the whole document yet, but this could be either real good, or real bad for Donald Trump.” WTF!

Sorry, but if you attempt to be “fair and balanced” with Donald John Trump, you will merely make him President again and that would be the end of journalism and, oh yeah, DEMOCRACY!

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AMERICA’S IMMENSE CHALLENGE

A Return to Making Things Here

There was a recent flurry of press coverage concerning activity at the Micron plant in Manassas, Virginia. US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo met with the company’s chief executive officer, Sanjay Mehrotra. She was joined with two key lawmakers in a debate about funding for electronic semiconductors (chips) manufacturing and American competitiveness. Yes, we are finally going to use taxpayer money to create more jobs in America.

Most of the chips we use in our technologies come from Asia. According to Bloomberg news, “Semiconductor manufacturers have pushed the U.S. to create incentives through grants and tax credits to help spur production in America. Congress is debating legislation to fund semiconductor research and development and may include it in a broader China bill in the coming months.”

President Biden is smartly pushing modern-future technologies rather than trying to prop up the old ways of doing things, you know, like burning coal to produce electricity. Just look at what happened in Texas over the winter. The Hightower Lowdown newsletter pointed out that Governor Greg Abbott has received more than $26 million in campaign contributions from the companies that didn’t prepare for the future and caused a power outage that killed 111 people and cost the state $130 billion in damages. If proper maintenance and management of our energy girds are not a paramount responsibility of our leaders, then what the hell is?

We also need to find water, cleanly process it and then pump it out to our citizens. Right now, we have hundreds of thousands of dangerous lead pipelines in every state. Since Jimmy Carter was president, federal funding for water systems in America has dropped by 77%. The Flint, Michigan water crisis is only the tip of the iceberg. U.S. water systems have been rotting away for more than 50 years. If we cannot produce the most important product in this country — Water — then we are incompetent.

But let’s get back to chips. It’s not that we couldn’t design and manufacture semiconductors in our country, we just found is easier and cheaper to source them from Taiwan. To be clear, it will take years to beef up our plants and produce the volume of chips that our industries demand. The good news is we have the Spruce Pine Mining District, a swath of the valley to the North Toe River in the Blue Ridge Mountains of northwestern North Carolina. Located there is the largest cache of “Spruce Pine” ever found on Earth. It’s the purest natural quartz — a species of pristine sand — and this ultra‑elite deposit of silicon dioxide particles plays a key role in the manufacturing of computer chips. The Spruce Pine area is mined for its mica, kaolin, quartz and feldspar. So, you see, we already have the natural resources. Now all we need is plants, highly skilled workers and money.

Back in the day, we let the steel mills move out of the country and we closed many manufacturing plants because we could import lower priced goods manufactured elsewhere. Having fewer American employees was considered “good business,” because it allowed us to compete more effectively. However, I’m almost ready to say it was anti-American not forcing offshore manufacturers to pay higher import taxes on their goods. Many of those companies paid little or no taxes, and now are we going to offer federal funds to these same companies to make them more productive? The Obama administration tried that with solar panel manufacturers, some of which turned out to be scams and cons.

We need to understand the competitive landscape as it pertains to the U.S. economy, but it’s getting harder to discern exactly what is happening. Take digital currency, for example. It stores billions of dollars which cannot be traced or investigated, and with all the loopholes in our tax laws monetary incentives will continue landing in the bank accounts of donors and political operatives. Despite that, we should at least try to make improvements.

We are the leaders in technologies and software, yet we always bring in players from other countries to help us build our products, and that makes us vulnerable. Even with the best security in place, some of our intellectual property ends up in the minds and hands of other countries. In addition, smart developers in foreign lands have the will and time to reverse engineer our concepts and devices. The best way around this challenge is continually improving and upgrading our products. It’s harder to hit a moving target.

We should no longer be concerned about blue and white collar workers. Think about the WeatherTech company, 100% owned by its founder and CEO David MacNeil. In 1989, Mr. MacNeil said he was dissatisfied with the quality of existing automotive floor mats and started a company out of his home in Clarendon Hills, IL. WeatherTech began by importing the mats directly from England, but that changed with the introduction of digitization and CAD- CAM technologies. Now, all the mats are made in Illinois. Made in the U.S.A.

Can we make smart phones in America? Well, we could, but the path is scattered with the carcasses of many companies that tried to make flatscreen TVs, only to fade away because of costs. Can we make steel in America? Sure, but the investors would probably want to see a unique market. We make cars and trucks here and we probably always will, although with each new robot and automation breakthrough fewer workers are needed.

Tesla manufactures 100% of their cars in this country. The Tesla factory in Fremont, California is one of the world’s most advanced automotive plants, with 5.3 million square feet of manufacturing and office space on 370 acres of land. Currently 10,000 people work in Tesla’s Fremont plant. You may not like Elon Musk, but he’s done more for American manufacturing that anyone. Yeah, an immigrant from Pretoria, South Africa seems to have better vision than many U.S. titans.

A new business has to start out with a marketing plan, but companies like Micron that have been around for more than 40 years understand their markets. Micron made their money by producing computer components such as random-access memory, flash memory, and USB flash drives. They were never a wafer chip producer per se, but they understand the tech. However, if we try to up-covert a company like Micron, or ask Kodak to make chemicals for vaccines, we might have a flaw in our thinking. Maybe it’s time we fund NEW companies that aren’t burdened with debt, legacy equipment or outdated thinking. It always takes longer to convert an older company rather than creating a new one. Ask China. That’s how they do it.

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THE ARCANE TOOL OF IMPEACHMENT

Time to Wake up & Go Back to Sleep

I have found this impeachment process to be silly and unworkable. If the Founding Fathers ever thought they needed to get rid of a President, they would have just challenged the man to a duel and ended his problematic behavior. That is how Aaron Burr canceled Alexander Hamilton. Burr was a known traitor who was never convicted of either trying to steal land in Louisiana from our government or killing Hamilton. Death by dueling was not a crime in New Jersey at the time and no one could ever prove that Burr intended to hurt his country. Now we have the fate of Donald Trump laid upon the table. Sadly, it was predictable.

For all the nit picking done on both sides of Trump’s trial in Washington last week, the true goal, as stated by Mr. Trump’s wonky defense team, was preventing him from ever becoming President again. It’s a good goal, but perhaps a better one would be finding a way to prevent the return of his mob. It’s unreasonable to think that eliminating the Donald from political life will change the minds of his rabid fans. Trump may support their hate, hyper Nationalism, anti-Semitism, Neo-Nazi values, homophobia, xenophobia, misogynistic beliefs and white supremacist dogma, but their actions are all on them.

We can blame Trump for a lot of things, but they’ll all probably be wrapped up into a big, smelly bag of impeachment shit and ignored. He lied more than 30,000 times in five years, so what is the punishment for that? He stood by as his horrible immigration policies ripped families apart at the border, and he gets a pass for that? He gave rich people more money, ignored poor people and blocked growth for middle class Americans. Most importantly, he never took a stand against harmful domestic terrorists, and that led to the Capitol Hill riot. He’s guilty of inciting the insurrection, but that’s okay with Republicans because they would rather acquit the sinner than risk the loss of his base. Just like Trump wanted, they opened their states early and as the COVID killed people they chalked it up to the “cost of doing business.” Hey, the truth hurts.

So, what have we learned? Well, elections matter and saying that an election was fraudulent or rigged when it wasn’t is treasonous behavior. Trump said whatever he wanted, listened to no one else and cannot fall back on the Ronald Reagan excuse of not being aware of what others were doing around him. The Iran-Contra scandal taught us that a President can “forget” what he knows, lie about facts and insolate himself from any blame no matter how bad the crime. Trump can’t use that excuse, however, because we know the bad and harmful ideas were either his or had his strong endorsement. He’s proud of breaking the law, and to this day believes he’s smarter than everyone and untouchable — Teflon Don.

Donald’s niece, Mary L. Trump, said in her fantastic book that Trump will never run for office again. Let’s hope she’s right, because the man’s oversized prostate of an ego might lead him to take the risk. Think about what could happen if he lost another election. Why put our country through the potential of another uprising? Besides that, why would the Republican Party want a loser to lead their party? Trump’s former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley soundly threw her former boss under the bus, “I don’t think he’s going to be in the picture [2024 Election] I don’t think he can. He’s fallen so far.” She’s absolutely right, but how long will it take the Trump sycophants to figure it out? Are they so removed from reality that they can never progress to a common wisdom?

The impeachment article was focused on the insurrection itself and some say the President’s lack of response after the Capitol building was breached cannot be included as part of the charge. The incitement of the riot, however, is surely a crime and should be examined by a civil court at some time. And we must not focus on the riot only. Much else happened over the last four years. Trump executed many actions that slowly but surely tore holes in the fabric of our democracy. To disregard the sum of all the damage done would be a severe disservice to this country. If we all allow Trump’s trail of treason to be forgotten, then we are all to blame as well.

Should you feel depressed that Donald Trump wasn’t held accountable by the Senate, take heart in what the New York Times published on the final day of the trial, “If this was a conspiracy, Trump was the leader,” said Jonathan Zucker, the lawyer for Dominic Pezzola who is a member of the far-right Proud Boys group and charged with obstructing police officers guarding the Capitol. “He [Trump] was the one calling the shots.” If Mr. Trump was, in anyway, part of the conspiracy, he too may have to face federal charges in this matter. In other words, this isn’t done yet.

Donald Trump has no place in the ongoing American story. Any thinking person should realize that he knows more than he and his attorneys admit and he had been planning not to leave office no matter the results of the election. He’s the spoiled kid who screams and rants until his parent’s cave in just to shut the little monster up. Did the Republicans refusal to convict Trump enable future bad behavior from him and his gang? I hope that isn’t true; we’ll have to wait and see.

Is Donald John Trump the victim he likes to portray himself or is he an exploitation trickster? His martyr syndrome seems out of synch with a guy who was gifted a multi-million-dollar fortune when he was ten years old. He’s never had to work a day in his life and, according to Tony Schwartz, his ghost writer on the Art of the Deal, Trump never worked much at all. He just sat at his desk, made phone calls, lunched, played golf and toured projects, but it was all his minions that did the dirty work. That’s pretty much what he did during his time in the White House too.

He hired lawyers like Michael Cohen to pressure people so he would never have to get close to the dirt. He used another large team of lawyers to pound his enemies with litigations. Trump and his organization have been involved in 3,500 lawsuits, being the plaintiffs in 1,900 and the defendants in 1,450 legal actions. They were also on the losing end of 150 bankruptcy cases. On top of all that, Trump was personally named in at least 169 suits in federal court. The Donald is one vindictive son-of-a-bitch and obviously a lawsuit magnet.

We now sit and wait to see what happens next. Will Trump announce his campaign for President for the 2024 Election? Will he buy full page newspaper ads to celebrate his victory and denounce the “deep state” that was always out to get him? Will he continue to claim he won the 2020 Election by a landslide and that it was stolen from him? Will Susan Collins come out and say that Donald Trump has learned his lesson? Sheesh, I hope not.

According to CNBC, “Minutes after voting ‘not guilty’ in Donald Trump’s impeachment trial, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said the former president is clearly to blame for the deadly Capitol riot. There’s no question that Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day.” McConnell endorsed the view that “President Trump is still liable for everything he did while he was in office.” And the minority leader added, “He didn’t get away with anything, yet. We have a criminal justice system in this country. We have civil litigation. And former presidents are not immune from being [held] accountable by either one.”

New charges are probably on the way. The end of the impeachment trial is the beginning of deep investigations that uncover more and greater evidence of this man’s deceit and depravity. I’m almost certain he will be charged, but let’s not be certain that he will go to jail. It’s a sad reality that there are different laws for rich people.

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THE COUP THAT COLLAPSED

Trump Stoked an Insurrection Based on Lies

Everything that Donald Trump has said and done shows he is one pure-ass fake. Some might call what I am about to state here treason, but I will speak my mind without fear of intimidation or party affiliation, unlike those spinless Republican Senators who will not convict the former President of crimes against America.

In a different time and age, Mr. Trump would have been brought into magistrate court, charged with treason and shot on the public green the next morning. I’m not saying we should do this today, but he should know that had he lived in France during the two decades after that country’s revolution, he would have been beheaded. Sedition, treason and insurrection were not crimes one could argue away in court.

Most of America has now seen the freshly released images of the Capitol Hill riot on January 6. If Donald Trump is not to blame, then who is responsible for those crazy people who stormed the Capitol? Is it Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, 4Chan, 8Chan or maybe Charlie Chan? Could it have started with Carlos Danger and Anthony Weiner’s dick pics, or has it simply “been brewing for some time now” as I hear endlessly from the puckered pieholes of pundits and prognosticators reading the grievance tea leaves in Russian restaurants? They are all full of shit, just like Trump and his ludicrous lawyers.

I say they are stupid. Why? Trump lawyer Bruce Castor actually offered these words in the halls of Congress during the impeachment trial, “We are so understanding of the concept that people’s minds can be overpowered with emotion, where logic does not immediately kick in, that we have recognized examples that otherwise would be hearsay and said that, no, when you’re driving down the street, and you look over at your wife, and you say, ‘Hey, you know what, that guy is about to drive through the red light and kill that person,’ your wife can testify to what you said, because, even though it’s technically hearsay, it’s an exception, because it’s the event living through the person.”

Okay, let me wipe some of this horse shit off my shoes before I launch into my own personal rant. What the fuck does any of that mean? I can only assume that he’s trying to plant a seed that the bad things you will hear about are being were told by people who don’t know what they are talking about, so just ignore them. YES, that must be it! Trump’s personal lawyers are saying that there is nothing to see here and we should ignore hearsay even when it comes out of the ex-president’s mouth.

If a person lies to their attorney, and their lawyer then presents that lie as a defense in a court of law, that doesn’t make it any less of a lie. His attorneys are going try to sell the Senators and the American public a premise that Trump was merely using his First Amendment rights while talking to a group of really good people and he bears no responsibility for what they later did on Capitol Hill. Okay, let’s examine that. There are only two conclusions one could draw from that scenario. One, Donald John Trump is such a bad communicator that no one understood what he was saying or, two, the group assembled that day was so stupid they misinterpreted him.

Trump’s more than 11,000-word speech, complete with audience reaction, is right here, Donald Trump JAN 6 2021 Speech should you wish to read it. Without a shadow of doubt, his words were an incitement to insurrection. His detailed, final pitch to sell the big lie about election fraud also featured a compendium of grievances of those who have so mistreated him. Poor baby. In his final act, the martyr stood before his adoring crowd saying it’s time to take back your country, be strong and fight like hell. And let’s not forget that there is nothing good about hell.

Trump used the words “fight” or “fighting” 27 times, but only used the word “peaceful” once. It came near the end of his 75-minute speech, “We have come to demand that Congress do the right thing and only count the electors who have been lawfully slated. I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.” So, there is the “out” that his lawyers will argue for 16 hours at trial. Really? That’s it? The other 11,000 words don’t matter?

To delegitimize the rightfully elected 46^th President of the United States, Donald pulled this one out of his index box of hate and lies, “I just spoke to Mike [Pence]. I said, Mike, that doesn’t take courage. What takes courage is to do nothing. That takes courage, and then we’re stuck with a president who lost the election by a lot, and we have to live with that for four more years.” Yes, Mr. Trump, that is how elections work. You should remember; you won one.

Mike and Karen Pence Rushed Away from Danger

Trump’s berating of his Vice President and confrontation with his inability or desire to break the law could have cost Mike Pence his life, along with those of his daughter and wife. Not only did Trump stir up the mob’s viciousness, he also directed their ire to Mr. Pence. But it didn’t end with his spoken word, Trump made it worse by tweeting to the insurrectionists at 2:24 PM, “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution.” So, the Donald turned up the heat on Pence as the mob was in the Capitol building screaming, “Hang Mike Pence.” Loyalty?

What if the pack had captured and murdered Mike Pence? Would the Republican Senators then be more likely to convict this loser of a president and disqualify him from ever holding Federal office again? That’s a tough question, but it gives me no certainty they would convict. Their vote is always for sale and Donald Trump bought it with lies, fear and intimidation. No man or woman should have that much power.

Donald Trump’s attempted coup failed, just like most of what he tried to do as president. Hundreds of thousands of people died from COVID because of his lack of comprehension, terrible messaging and misguided policies. And five people died because of the insurrection. He should be tried in criminal court, with testimonies of those who were in the room with him as he watched the riot on TV. How did he act then? What did he say? Donald John Trump intended to upturn the results of a valid election, and we must do everything we can to make sure such a thing never happens again. Ten years in jail for the perpetrator just might be a good deterrent for future presidents.

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WOKE WOLVES OF WALL STREET

The Stock Market – Easily Manipulated

P.J. O’Rourke is a funny and creative writer. His fabulous book titled None of My Business attempts to explain how money and the stock market work. To be honest, the book didn’t teach me anything new but it’s humorous and enlightening.

Stock market trading profoundly changed when “regular” Joes and Janes were given access to computers, powerful financial analytical software and the internet. I started dabbling back in the late 80s with the dream of making a bunch of money. After signing up with Charles Schwab, getting their software installed on my Compaq computer and connecting to their server, I was good to go. I worked the software like a video game, buying the stock of businesses I understood such as broadcast and software service companies and realized some gains along the way.

Six months in, I met with my financial guy, old what’s his name at Schwab, and had to face the substantial number of transaction fees I racked up. At that time, each trade cost me $30. My guy asked why I was trading so much and I replied, “It’s fun.”

Something happened yesterday that should make us all a bit nervous, especially those with money in the market. On the same day that Apple reported that all of their product lines were up to the tune of $100 billion in sales, a quake coming from the online chat service named Reddit rocked the investment establishment.

Reddit was founded by Alexis Ohanian, yes, the guy who married Serena Williams. He’s long been a bastion of free speech and “open” information exchange. According to CNBC, “Mr. Ohanian, who resigned from Reddit’s board in June and urged for a Black director to replace him, said the GameStop short-squeeze that was instigated in recent weeks — pushing the video-game retailer’s stock up nearly 2,000% this month alone — shows the disruptive nature of the internet.” How could a company explode that quickly in such a short period of time? Look to the actions of a group of people who, in another time and place, would probably be hackers and protesters.

Most likely weaned on the movie lizard Gordon Gekko who told us that “greed is good,” these amateur traders want to stick it to the man. The New York Times said it best, “Propelled by a mix of greed and boredom, gleefully determined to teach Wall Street a lesson, and turbocharged by an endless flow of get-rich-quick hype and ideas delivered via social media, these investors have piled into trades around several companies, pushing their stock prices to stratospheric levels.” In fact, several GameStop investors became billionaires in one day. WTF?

These scoundrels have run up the value of GameStop, a marginal company, because they have ganged together to control investing and the timeline to reap profits by selling when the stock value crests. It should be against the law.

Then, just when I think I know what I am talking about regarding the stock market, I get an opposite opinion from a friend, “I do not share your view on this, at all. The ‘whiz kids’ of Wall Street are playing the very same game of the ’established investors’ who work their subterfuge in plush corner offices using far more subtle, and perhaps undetectable, ways. The result is exactly the same for each group, wealth acquired by manipulation. The real problem is a lack of control to prevent devious strategies.”

My friend didn’t stop there. “Yes, we have the Securities and Exchange Commission, but I think they’re in bed with the stock market establishment. If that wasn’t the case, I’m sure they could implement a bulletproof mechanism to detect and prevent exploitation. I am more aligned with the whizzers, showing us all that the system is vulnerable to control by a few. Their transparent behavior is unsettling only because it brings into the light what has been happening in the dark for decades. It’s a seriously flawed, perhaps corrupt, system.” Well, that certainly does fit into my previous statement that much of the Stock Market is a giant electronic Ponzi scheme.

Are the internet and the way people use mass communication platforms for evil intentions the bigger villains in this story? These rebellious investors are raising their middle fingers at authority, marching to the opening bell while waving flags of disruption and discord. How can we guard against the insane behavior of these Wall Street “whiz kids?” Should we close the internet?

I applauded Facebook when they stopped political advertising the month before the election because it impeded misinformation getting to the public. Most voters had already made up their minds by then, and 81 million people told us they wanted a change. The economy of the United States is not the stock market, but the symbiotic relationship is apparent. People tend to spend the money they make selling stocks. When they use their gains to buy things the whole boat rises with the tide, but the harsh reality is Joe the Plumber doesn’t make more money.

The Securities and Exchange Commission was created after the 1920s stock market crash. It’s supposed to protect investors and the national banking system without thwarting or manipulating the natural market fluctuations. The market is a tool for the people, like the Federal Reserve adjusting interest rates and effecting institutional corrections that become necessary at times. Without knowing the accurate picture of our economy, we are at the mercy of a bunch of day traders at the bar.

Amateur investors chatting up a storm on Reddit and creating stock market waves shift our attention away from legitimate investments into new companies needing dollars to bring their great products to market. Things will calm down when the stock market imposes control over these rouge traders and suspends disruptive trading. After the market took a few minor steps, the Dow Jones went back up; nothing to see here, move along.

It’s time for Elizabeth Warren and people like her who understand how all this works to roll up their sleeves and figure it out. Maybe my friend is right. It could be those assholes on Reddit showed the man behind the curtain is not really controlling anything, but it’s too important to give the wolves more time in the henhouse. Someone has to clean up the feathers. Gee, maybe we could use them to start a pillow business.

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A REWRITE OF HISTORY

Trump’s Leftover Waste of Money

Right before Trump left office, he put together a commission to study and address schools applying a more accurate history curriculum about slavery in the US. It was mostly motivated by the 1619 Project published by the New York Times. One of the first things the 46^th President Joe Biden did was to sign an executive order to dissolve the 1776 commission. For you to fully understand the context of this letter, you unfortunately might have to read this report: The-Presidents-Advisory-1776-Commission-Final-Report

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen of the 1776 Commission:

I read the lengthy complaint letter to America titled The 1776 Report and want to share my feelings and thoughts about what you and your cohorts have written. I read it all with an open mind, attempting to grasp your purpose and intent. As someone who cares deeply about this country and the issues you covered, I am compelled to express my raw reactions.

Here’s my basic understanding. The United States of America is not a person who needs its large ego to be defended but rather a homeland that needs to be protected. So, I assume your first goal is protecting American citizens from misinformation and bias. That’s noble, but sadly, it’s not the overall thrust of what you have produced.

I see this warning draped in flowery language, “…unrealistic hopes and checks against pressing partisan claims or utopian agendas too hard or too far.” Are you speaking about anyone who disagrees with your version of the truth? You quickly add that America has its “share of missteps, errors, contradictions, and wrongs,” and while that is true, your statement about being governed with “consent” is highly inaccurate. Not a single slave ever gave consent for their condition and women did not agree to being prohibited from voting for 144 years. Those are facts.

I’m glad your first report was your last because your findings prove a dramatic need for truthtellers and historians to put America’s errors and wrongs into proper context. Why should you get to write your “truth” without giving voice to those who endured the deep pain of their fight for equality? You point out that one of the tenants of our founders was to have “limited government,” but that government has evolved and has now paid you to provide your version of its history. Why is that? Has the Federal Government hired you to tell us citizens how we should think?

You talk about the “more problematic” movements that “seek to reject the fundamental truths of the Declaration of Independence and seek to destroy our Constitutional order.” Which movements are these? Why didn’t you name them? Are they the same boogiemen seen by McCarthy, John Birch and the KKK, or are they the immigrants seeking asylum in this free land only to be arrested at the border and have their children taken from them? Maybe you can’t point a finger right now because you’re far too busy trying to figure out who deserves those “eternal truths” and the “priceless inheritance” you mention.

You hide behind the smoke screen of a learned scholar while denouncing higher education itself as a bastion of communism, socialism and American haters. You cast the first stone yet also claim that anyone who calls our founders hypocrites is doing “enormous damage” and having a “devasting effect on our civic unity and social fabric.” Can you even imagine a young Black man in America pointing out the words “…all men are created equal…” and then asking why his ancestors were enslaved and treated like animals? Would you say his question was damaging our social fabric? How would you answer him? If your document is the answer, then you have profoundly failed every African American.

You write that “the institution of slavery has been more the rule than the exception throughout human history,” but you started that sentence using the words “the unfortunate fact…” Does the fact that it happened pervasively somehow make the reality less than immoral? Wrapping the word “fact” around tragic historical events doesn’t make them right, it just makes them indisputably horrible.

Senator Tom Cotton and President Donald Trump were behind your whitewashing of our history and much of what you have written is simply wrong. George Washington paid hunters to track and return some of his escaped slaves. Sure, Thomas Jefferson condemned the notion of slavery but ask Sally Hemmings how much she was paid to bear his offspring. The founding fathers were intelligent but flawed human beings. More to the point, they were HYPOCRITES. Now don’t get all ruffled here. To this very day there are still many hypocrites in Washington, and that is unlikely to change in our government.

Great Britain banned slave trade in 1807 and outlawed the practice of “owning” people long before the United States did the same. Check your calendar. President Abraham Lincoln issued an executive order named The Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862, long after Europe and Great Britain ended slavery. Since you are selling us on the need to understand facts, perhaps you should get yours straight.

Your explanations of the various dogmas and principals of tyrants and totalitarian governments reminds me of what J. Edgar Hoover tried to do to Martin Luther King, Jr. If one finds fault with America, then accuse them of being a communist, or worse, a Democrat. Your use of the term “Identity Politics” does not mask your clear “partisan claims or utopian agendas.” Caught you!

You advanced a lofty claim that everywhere “American troops went, they embodied in their own ranks and brought with them the principals of the Declaration, liberating peoples and restoring freedom.” What are you talking about? Did you forget about Vietnam? How about those “weapons of mass destruction” and other fabricated foes in whose name we gladly spit all over the Declaration of Independence? Have you noticed there’s not much liberation happening in Iraq?

I love America, and the strong feelings I hold for my home will not allow me to sit silent and watch your biased, politically motivated piece of misinformation being marched down Main Street masquerading as a parade of truth. Get this straight. A person who points out brutal truths can still be a patriot and a law-abiding citizen. America is getting better, but your commissioned report isn’t worth the price of the ink that printed it.

Thanks for your time.

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UNITED WE STAND, DIVIDE WE DECAY

An Open Letter to my Republican Family and Friends

My Fellow Americans,

When this country first announced it would separate from Great Britain and declare its independence, the Douglas side of my family had already been in the land for more than seventy years. We were Scottish farmers who landed at the James River Settlement, and then traveled to Dover, Delaware and then on to Lancaster, Pennsylvania where we grew deep roots on our farm. Over the next hundred years, we moved west and ended up in the Western part of the state. I guess that makes us immigrants.

As much as I love to throw that timeline at the immigrants and their families who landed later, I really shouldn’t. Regardless of when they arrived, most Americans are pretty much alike. We all have our small minded faults and fabulous imaginative minds. The majority of us speak the same language, give or take the localisms, idioms and accents. All that aside, today let’s look at the great divide. It’s a story we’ve been fed for years. We even paint our maps with each state’s voting preference, calling them red states or blue states. We have a few purple states, but not a single one lacks color.

Here’s a relevant fact. In every state that is declared to be one color, on one side, there are millions of voters on the other side. There are Republicans in New York and, wait for it, Democrats in Alabama, meaning there is a difference between a party and a people. We are all Americans, but if you spend any time on social media or watch cable news you might believe every person is born with an R or D sticker on their forehead. It’s not hard to imagine every newborn American baby getting a blood transfusion which determines their political values and affiliations for life. Not true.

My parents were Republicans, and I honestly believe their political choice was tied to my father fighting in World War II under General Dwight D. Eisenhower, who was a Republican. My mother and father adored Eisenhower and it’s no coincidence that my first name is Dwight. Maybe I was switched at the hospital with a Democrat infant, but I never bought into the fact that my father was a union member and a truck driver but not a Democrat. I had assumed that the Democrats were labor, and the Republicans were owners. That was the first of my personal myths I was able to disprove.

The anti-Vietnam War movement in my young adult days was much like the Black Lives Matter movement of today. It drove a wedge between parents and their kids. The concept of “taking a side” helped rivet the armor of every person and deflected any attempt at a logical argument that might lead to consensus. Some people say it’s okay to disagree as long as you’re not being disagreeable, but that’s bullshit to me. When I dive into an argument I want to win, and that means not that you see my side but that you convert to my idea. So, there you have it, I am the problem but at least I admit it. So, how do we make things better?

I understand the hurt when your friends, family and social media makes fun of you or the person who got your vote. It’s impossible to move forward when contrasting actions of one with the reactions of others. When someone posts a terrible picture of Donald Trump on social media and makes fun of him, his supporters are bothered by it. I get that because I was annoyed beyond description seeing photoshopped pictures of Obama as a Nazi or Muslim. Graphic graffiti is everywhere, even down to racist rants scrawled on the bathroom wall of a classy restaurant.

One letter cannot heal the wounds and change the face of bigotry and hateful comments about innocent people, but let’s look at our situation. Why did so many people fall into depression when Trump didn’t win? Do they really believe that deep-state radicals stole the election from the man who said that if he didn’t win it proved the election process was rigged? 74,222,593 people voted for Trump, despite his constant cautions that the election would be fraudulent, because the voters knew it wasn’t. They had faith that the system would work. Then there were the 81,281,502 people who voted for Joe Biden because they felt that Trump seriously mishandled the COVID crisis. Sometimes when we disagree with another we preface a critical comment with the words “nothing personal,” but this election was personal. It was a matter of life or death.

You may have poured a lot of emotional currency into one man, but just like the devoted wife who finds out that her husband of many years has been unfaithful, there comes a point when an unworthy individual no longer deserves the benefit of the doubt. Millions of people doubted Donald Trump’s words and deeds about the pandemic. I genuinely believe that if the coronavirus hadn’t attacked the US, Trump would still be president.

As we learn more about wanting power, talking about power and whipping up members of a “base” into some deep fervor against things, we might see that Donald Trump didn’t understand who we are and neglected to emphasize the good things. When a soldier is constantly under fire in battle mode, he cannot display warmth, empathy or grace. If I tell you what I really think about Donald Trump, why must you attack me? Why do you think I am your enemy? If you really knew me, you would understand that I care about America just as much as you do, and I also have a strong altruistic side.

I’m ready to move on to what John McCain called “regular order.” That arrangement of things was violently confronted and some people lost their lives during the riot on Capitol Hill. Why? Had the radical Trump people overthrown Congress, what would they have done next? Would they have hung Mike Pence and declared Donald Trump the winner? Then what? Following the French revolution, enemies of the state had their heads sliced off at guillotines in the Paris parks. That’s a major reason why intelligent and caring people distanced themselves from the Capitol Hill melee.

This brings me to my fundamental plea. Blaming and demeaning all Republicans is wrong, but Donald Trump’s brand is so tainted that members should denounce him and focus on rebuilding their party. That would be a huge step in bringing this country back to civil intercourse. We had a president who constantly squawked about how bad it is to be a loser, but when he actually lost, no one saw the irony. Donald Trump himself caused Joe Biden’s win and he is the reason Republicans lost the majority in the Senate. It’s proven that he suppressed the vote in the Georgia runoff election by telling Georgians their election was rigged, and the voting turnout was less than that of the general election. You’re smart, you know this, yet you want to let him lead the party in the future. Why would you let the wolf back into the hen house? Who wants to be led by a loser?

I laugh at my neighbors with their Trump 2020 and Blue Lives Matter flags flapping in the wind. I am too polite to ask them, “Still with the cop killer?” but until they see the dichotomy of supporting both ideologies, they will be at war with themselves and America. In this rare moment I admit that Mitch McConnell is right. Trump incited the riot and people lost their lives because of his lies. We need to move on from Donald and allow two strong parties to act as a check and balance. If Republicans allow people like Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz to fertilize the lie, the party will fracture into two factions and Democrats will win every election thereafter.

I want you to have one savior, not two. I want you to separate yourself from someone who did a bad job and caused many people to suffer. You don’t have to hate him but send that cheating husband away and let him try to earn back your trust, if he can. As for me, I just want people to stop dying unnecessarily. Unless we become united our democracy will decay. For the sake of our kids and grandkids, please open your mind to at least admitting there is more than one way to make America great again.

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THE PRECEDENT TRUMP IGNORED

His Departure Will Make Us Stronger & Greater Again

President Donald Dumbass forgot that he needed to win an election to stay in office. He didn’t believe he would triumph in 2016, so he never bothered to write a victory speech. Then for the next four years he adlibbed and lied his way through the most important job in the world. On the eve of the 2020 election, Trump really believed he would win. In fact, he said he would lose only if the election was rigged.

This stratagem, however, did not eliminate Trump’s need to gain the greatest number of votes, and that didn’t happen despite his lies to the contrary. There is something to be said about liars in America. Consider one of the greatest con artists in the history of the United States. He was so good at what he did that we gave his name to the concept of his scheme, Ponzi.

Charles Ponzi lived in Boston, Massachusetts in the early 1900s. The scam he developed was based on one lie that he exploited for years. He claimed he was buying US Postal stamps for a lower price in one country that had a devalued currency and then selling them here in the USA for a higher price. The people who were swindled never saw the stamps; they simply believed. Ponzi fooled them into thinking he was doing masterful work and convinced them their money would double in a short time.

Ponzi bilked people out of substantial amounts of money, their life savings in some cases, then used those investments to pay off earlier investors. Had anyone done the math they would have understood the impossibility of his high-volume stamp purchases in Europe keeping ahead of the quickly fluctuating currency rates. While he may actually have made money for a while, the scheme was not sustainable.

Ponzi eventually was charged in the US with mail fraud. He served more than twenty years in jail, until he was deported. He died in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1949. To put Mr. Ponzi’s dirty deeds in perspective, Bernie Madoff’s 2008 schemes cost his investors more than 53 times as much as Ponzi swindled from his believers.

Donald Trump either did or didn’t do many things during his term in office that must now be examined and reformed to improve and stabilize our government and the presidency. Let’s take a look.

First is the issue of transparency. In a story released over the weekend, we learned about Trump’s administration hiding information, destroying files and blocking Inspectors General from doing their jobs. American Oversight announced their document preservation initiative to ensure the Trump administration complies with federal public record laws. They’ve previously obtained more than 800,000 pages of documents from the Trump administration through public records requests and lawsuits, and they are prepared to litigate under the Freedom of Information Act and the Federal Records Act to ensure that outgoing Trump administration officials do not remove or destroy documents. The fix was in from the very beginning as administration workers moved various electronic files to super secure servers to hide Trump’s activities. Assuming those electronic assets haven’t been deleted, President Biden can and should declassify them.

Just as I was putting the final touches on this post, this story appeared in the Washington Post, “The Trump administration bailed out prominent anti-vaccine groups during a pandemic. Five groups got more than $850,000 in PPP loans to help small businesses through the pandemic.” These recipients are the very people who are trying to convince people not to take a vaccine while the US Government is spending billions on inoculations to end a pandemic. Let’s find out how these decisions came about and revamp the process accordingly. Stephen Mnuchin, Secretary of the Treasury, was supposed to insure this didn’t happen.

We need to take a good, long, hard look at presidential pardons. Should their absolute power be retained going forward? Debtors’ prisons never existed in America because of the way Great Britain abused them throughout their history to incarcerate innocent people. It’s now clear that we must maintain a certain level of punishment for those who have wronged society. A president should not be allowed to award a pardon to any government official found guilty of heinous or corrupt activities while in office. This will take a Constitutional amendment.

The idea that Trump could appoint a political operative to the position of head lawyer for the NSA right before he leaves office is an outrageous overreach and violates the intent of the appointment system. Can a new president fire the person in such a position? It appears that Trump’s actions are intended to handcuff President-Elect Biden as he assumes office. Why should such behavior be tolerated? The House, Senate and White House will soon be in the hands of Democrats. Hopefully, they will eliminate bad policies and executive orders and replace bad federal agents with qualified appointees so we can get our country moving in the right direction.

I would love to see Congress pass a resolution that says nothing Trump did while in office sets a precedent. He did so very little that was authentically worthwhile that ignoring everything would not be a big mistake. We also need to tear up those agreements and treaties he signed that are not keeping America safe.

Here’s a great story from Bloomberg News showing how we lost Trump’s Trade War with China. Read it for yourself. Trump’s maneuvers to lower the trade deficit didn’t work. The deficit was actually higher than it was in 2016. Worse yet, China’s retaliatory tariffs on our goods saddled average Americans with higher prices and damaged the profits of our farmers and manufacturers. And what about Trump’s bragging that he demanded that China buy more of our goods? Well, about half of his $172 billion goal was not realized during his term in office. Maybe it’s time for Congress to scrutinize all of Trump’s treaties and give the people a say in these issues, just like states have referendums.

We should not have to adhere to anything Trump said or did while he was in office. We need to open all the files, study his conversations and see his tax returns to know exactly how he governed. Without a full understanding of what he did, there will be no way of stopping such bad things from ever happening again. We need to understand Trump’s corrupt behavior and learn from it so we can devise proper governance guidelines for our future. Then we need to make sure Donald John Trump goes to jail.

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How to Hire Great People: Tips, Tricks and Templates for Success

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The book that tells it like it is…

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