HOW DEEP IS THE THREAT?

Trump’s Inside Job Surfacing

How long will it take to heal the nation? Can we tamp the threats and fear that Donald Trump has brought to us? Many Trump loyalists in Congress, even after being attacked by insurrectionists, believe that nothing major happened and the President bears no responsibility for all of his lies and actions these past four years.

Are they trying to give Trump a pass for the damage he has done? Why are they resisting wearing masks in the Capital? Are they dashing around metal detectors to avoid being outed for caring firearms into Congress? Who are these people? We are no longer in the 18^th century when disputes were decided by duels.

An Axios/IPSOS poll showed that among those Republicans who consider themselves “traditional,” 42% would like to see Donald Trump as their candidate in 2024. Trump has been impeached twice, and faces a chance of being convicted of insurrection by the Senate after Joe Biden’s inauguration. Wake up people! We must convict Donald Trump to ban him from our political blood stream forever.

Unsettling facts are emerging indicating that the attack on the Capitol Building may have been planned and organized, which is the true definition of conspiracy. The Washington Post has reported a very disturbing inference that the violence might have been an “inside job.” The Philadelphia Inquirer took it to the next level, “Weeks before a mob of President Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol, right-wing activist Ali Alexander told his followers that he was planning something big for Jan. 6, 2021. Alexander, who organized the “Stop the Steal” movement, said he hatched the plan — coinciding with Congress’s vote to certify the electoral college votes — alongside three GOP lawmakers: Reps. Andy Biggs, Ariz., Mo Brooks, Ala., and Paul Gosar, Ariz., all hard-line Trump supporters.”

According to the reporting, their stated goal was to “change the hearts and the minds of Republicans who were in that body, hearing our loud roar from outside.” Did their rally get out of control, or did someone give them permission to attack? I genuinely believe the protest would have been contained, had not President Trump told them to march to the Capitol and be strong, words that rabid minds translated into “Attack!”

This is not a unique idea. In May of 1604, a handful of Catholic dissidents in England — Guy Fawkes, Robert Catesby, Tom Wintour, Jack Wright and Thomas Percy — met at the Duck and Drake inn in London. Catesby proposed a plan to blow up the Houses of Parliament with gunpowder. Afterwards, all five men purportedly swore an oath of secrecy upon a prayer book. The men were part of a movement that wanted to kidnap the king, kill him and replace him with another king who would be more open to Catholics. How did that turn out?

By the time of the conspiracy, Fawkes was calling himself Guido rather than Guy. He also used the alias John Johnson while serving as caretaker of a cellar that was located just below the House of Lords. The group’s plan was detonating large barrels of gunpowder under the House to blow it up. An anonymous letter that warned a Catholic sympathizer not to go to the State Opening of Parliament was the beginning of the end of the conspiracy. The letter’s recipient requested the authorities to investigate, and this led to discovery of the plot. To this day no one knows who wrote that letter. Here in 2021, we have sophisticated means of investigation and evidence gathering. Might this uncover a scheme of three Congressmen to overthrow the US government?

New Jersey Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill posted a Facebook video saying she witnessed members of Congress leading what she called “reconnaissance tours” of the Capitol the day before the deadly attack. Who are these Congress people? Do we have traitors in our midst? Can the bodies of our government ever be safe with members bringing guns into the building and not wearing masks during a pandemic? Full disclosure is needed and, might I add, a special prosecutor.

Ms. Sherrill’s story has been corroborated. Here’s a quote from the Washington Post, “[Florida Representative] Debbie Wasserman Schultz said in an interview that I do know that, yes, there were members that gave tours to individuals who participated in the riot.” Did these Congress people know about the plan?

Guy Fawkes is portrayed as a revolutionary hero today, largely due to the influence of the graphic 1980s novel “V for Vendetta” and the 2005 movie of the same name. They depicted protagonist Fawkes wearing a white face mask. Here in the United States we don’t depict John Wilkes Booth as a hero because he was an insurrectionist and assassin.

Treason, sedition and insurrection are taken seriously in our country. When found guilty, we typically execute operatives of such acts, but we are getting ahead of ourselves. Any elected official who was involved in any way with the insurrection must be removed from Congress. Those people who encouraged and supported Donald Trump’s lies and fraud should at least be censured. All those who participated in the attempted coup should incur maximum penalties. We need to clean up this mess, then work on a national plan of intervention and prevention.

American law enforcement has been extraordinarily successful dealing with organized crime over the years. I’m not saying that they always got their man, but they weeded out the mob bosses and lunatics who thought it was okay to kill those they didn’t like. No matter how much money or power a person has, they are not above the law.

Imagine an individual who ran into a packed theater and yells, “Fire!” when there was no fire. People panicked and were killed trying to get out of the building. The argument that there wasn’t a fire is irrelevant; the legal argument will be based on the intent of the person causing the panic. Did they understand that their words would lead to such a tragedy? Did they yell the warning because they had some deep-seated grievance with those in attendance? Was the scream meant to strike fear or just a stunt? Maybe the yeller wanted to demonstrate their power over others. All such possibilities must be considered as we judge whether words and actions of the 45^th President of the United States caused death and destruction at the Capitol.

This may go beyond a federal insurrection. It could also be a deep state conspiracy inspired by President Trump, facilitated by some members of Congress and executed by a vicious mob of militant supporters who were brainwashed into action. Should a trial find that he was responsible, Donald John Trump must be held accountable with a conviction and punishment.

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Gold, God, Guns & Goofballs: If you only read one chapter of this book, try “Take a Knee for America” and think about our never-ending conflicts between minorities and the police. I’m not asking you to take a stand but having a deep and honest conversation about why some people think the way they do would be productive. This is a book for the moment which seeks to start a conversation about peace. And if you are worried about social media, you really should check out the chapter called “Social Media Menace.”

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REMEMBER THE ALAMO

Trump’s Final Road Trip

I couldn’t help noticing Donald John Trump’s schedule. After 1,141 days in office, with a grand total of 321 days playing golf, he’s headed to the southern border to brag about his 400 miles of almost finished wall. Mexico paid zero pesos for this unnecessary project and has zero interest in what will be the subject of this pathetic, broken man’s last speech. Trump doesn’t want to talk about the hundreds of thousands of American lives lost to COVID, the insurrection he caused at Capitol Hill on January 6^th or the stark reality that in just a few days he will no longer be president.

Trump defended himself with his speech in Alamo, Texas yesterday. He won’t be at the actual historical structure, and that’s great news, but the irony of this location cannot be ignored. My father’s family came to America in the late 1600s. They landed at the James River settlement and then traveled through Dover, Delaware before settling in Lancaster, Pennsylvania where they became farmers.

Some of my lineage ended up in Tennessee and there is amazing family research that reveals that we are related to Davy Crockett. He died at age 49 during the Texas revolution at the Alamo in 1836. It’s ironic that our President will be in Texas bragging about his wall and its central aim of curtailing immigration or, as Trump puts it, keeping the “Bad hombres” from coming here to rape, murder and exploit us. Perhaps his stupid rhetoric and policies lowered the numbers of people who migrated north, but who really wants to enter the United States in the midst of a raging pandemic? Our southern neighbors are neither stupid nor killers; they are just immigrants looking for a better life.

Internet chatter has led the FBI to issue a warning about armed protests in all 50 state capitals and in Washington, D.C. during Joe Biden’s inauguration. Coupling that with the bloodshed at last week’s deadly siege at the U.S. Capitol convinces me I have been correct. The blog writings here haven’t been springing from a left-wing lunatic spreading fear about an unhinged president. I’m just a patriot who has been trying to warn you that Donald Trump is an evil, destructive, anti-democracy power-hungry demagogue.

Sometimes there’s a need to share the backstory of honorable people who fight for noble causes and creeds. Davy Crocket and the freedom fighters from Tennessee weren’t on a mission to free people in the “country” of Texas, they were involved in a deeply flawed and politically motivated land grab. Most of the people who moved to the Texas territory were colonizers eager to snatch up the land Mexico was handing out by the acre. To get the land, they were required to convert to Catholicism and sign up for Mexican citizenship. Few did what they agreed to, and instead hatched a plan to get rich growing cotton in the excellent Texas climate. Mexico had banned slavery, so the settlers turned to the US government to help them acquire slaves whose free labor would pave the way to their dreams of wealth.

The Mexicans fought bravely to save the land they felt was theirs, and Davy Crockett was killed in battle. The war cry “Remember the Alamo” was born and used to raise money for troops. The United States government annexed Texas in 1845 and the skirmish for slaves led to the Mexican American War, which lasted from 1846 to 1848.

Back then the newspapers of countries around the world destroyed the credibility of the United States because of its promotion of colonization and cheap land. With the insurrection at the Capital last week, we are once again losing the high-moral ground of democracy for the people, by the people. The citizens of the world plainly see our modern day version of Napoleon, but he’s taller, fatter, slimier and stupider. His name is Donald Trump.

This self-destructive man was told by his White House lawyer and the former Attorney General that he cannot and should not pardon himself. Sources say he replied, “If I can’t pardon myself, then no one will get pardoned.” At that, he picked his ball, went home and locked himself in his room.

Trump’s obsession with walls provides a revealing, remarkable insight about the man. He doesn’t allow just anyone into his walled reality. Only those who come groveling and shoveling praise get past his locked door. Some have suggested to Trump that he doesn’t need expensive, ugly walls at the border, that fences would suffice. Ironically, we now have walls and fences around the White House, the Capital and the Supreme Court. Donald Trump has brought us an unwelcomed lockdown, and we will have more than 15,000 troops guarding the presidential transition next week.

The good news is that military presence will be a force ready to evict the son-of-a-bitch if he refuses to leave the White House. Today may be Donald Trump’s last official road trip, but no later than January 20^th he will take his last trip on our dime to Mar-A-Lago, where he can melt back into the realm of “private citizen.” But please make no mistake, his dream of becoming today’s equivalent of Robert E. Lee is dashed. The National Guard knows what they are doing and will not allow any domestic terrorists into the halls of freedom.

After learning that several of the Capital Police are being investigated for aiding and abetting the terrorists, the thin blue line has faded a bit. What country is this? It’s time we sanitize all three branches of government. A great start will be expelling all the Senators and Representatives who tried to steal the election from the people.

Donald Trump is not an Aaron Burr, the man who killed Thomas Jefferson. He’s just an old, orange pumpkin who has TOTALLY FAILED as a president, a father and a person. At a bare minimum, he owes a deep apology to all of us. Short of that, LOCK HIM UP.

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FIRST AMENDMENT TRASH TALKING

Trump Propaganda Machine Diversion

Today we see all the hypocritical politicians complaining about how Facebook, Twitter, Google, Amazon and Apple have slammed the door on those who flame insurrection, post false claims and threaten violence. Their true fear is that the tech CEOs and presidents of social media have more power than they do. Previously, Congress complained that the social media platforms allowed Russians to corrupt our elections with propaganda. Now they are whining about these same platforms taking steps to protect America from domestic terrorist flamers, including soon-to-be-ex-President and certified loser Donald John Trump.

When Twitter threw me off their platform for life, I signed up on Parler, and can now confirm that it’s GONE. Their founder says the shuttering of the service will put them out of business. It’s not hard to get an ISP to serve a website or service. All you must do is pay them. The truth is these billionaire public bulletin board runners are worried about one major thing, liability. If someone were to sue them as a victim of violence or harassment, it could open the whole can of worms surrounding their current protections embodied in what’s known as Section 230. Let’s take a look.

United States Code Section 230 states that providers or users of “interactive computer services,” which include internet service providers as well as platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and Craigslist, cannot be treated as publishers of — and thus held liable for — content produced by others.” It’s like your inability to sue a phone company for something said about you over their phone lines.

The end user license agreements of the social media platforms state they can prevent anyone who violates their policies from using their services. I was banned for life from Twitter for violating two policies, using multiple accounts to promote this very blog site and “interrupting conversations.” Some of my posts to top administration officials were not at all polite, but Twitter has no due process for appeal and they never respond to my letters to delve further into the matter. It’s just how they are.

The executives of these firms testified at public hearings on Capitol Hill, but the main result of those one-sided media circuses was a rise in their stock values. Many of the stodgy members of Congress have no clue how the basic internet works, let alone the operation of the complex and manipulative social media sites.

Section 230 has absolutely nothing to do with the First Amendment, and anyone going down that alley will soon hit a dead end. Section 230 exists to prevent frivolous lawsuits from gumming up the works of the courts. Without Section 230, there would be little incentive for social platforms to even exist. I am sure the CEO of Parler, John Matze, Jr., will be laying off his thirty employees today, but what about the other companies? Google has 100,000 employees, Facebook provides work for more than 45,000 people and Twitter has about 5,000 workers, so which service has the greatest impact on our economy?

Let me take a diversion here. One of the Parler investors is Rebekah Mercer, heiress, foundation director and major Republican political donor. She is the daughter of Robert Mercer, a hedge fund manager billionaire and oversees the day-to-day operations of philanthropic and political projects for the Mercer family. Rebekah has a master’s degree from Stanford and an internet cookie company named Ruby et Violette. Just placing the words “internet” and “cookie” in the same sentence is funny to me.

Mercer, along with her father, contributed $25 million to the 2016 presidential campaign of Donald Trump, and they have pumped millions into conservative campaigns through their many Political Action Committees. Mercer and her father were key financial benefactors for Breitbart News, and for a long while they thought Steve Bannon walked on water.

Parler was created to create chaos. Without critical review and management of posted material, a social media website can become a venue for insurrectionists and conspiracy theorists from ANYWHERE! This isn’t funny. My entries on this blog are reviewed before they are posted, not by the government but by a journalist and editor. We all need an angel on one shoulder to counteract that devil on the other. It’s too easy to type dangerous sentiments so a watchdog is needed.

I don’t like Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and Jack Dorsey of Twitter because they don’t know what they are doing. Their platforms have become so big and vast with squillions of members, that no algorithm or mass of humans can adequately stop the spread of hate and misinformation. On the other hand, those platforms also transmit important safety information, disclose scams, assist with Amber Alerts, help fight crime and enable all of us to reconnect with people we’ve misplaced. There’s a huge upside along with the downside.

Zuckerberg and Dorsey certainly know how to make tons of money. I will leave out Google because they are less a social media platform and more a software development company. Sure, their search results can be manipulated, but spend a week on another search engine and you be will less than satisfied with the results. Has Google also caused harm? Sure, but we’re way too far up the river and without the time to head back to the mouth of the stream to fix things.

I am sure Parler will find some internet provider in Costa Rica or Isle of Man to help them return to the internet, perhaps then the matter of government intervention will become tricky. The US does not block any internet sites, but Trump was close to shutting down his dissenters on social media. Meanwhile, the platforms are just biding time until Joe Biden becomes president, holding onto the naïve belief that all their problems will then go away. They won’t.

Donald Trump doesn’t care about the First Amendment; he just wants an outlet for his pungent propaganda, baseless beliefs and crazy conspiracies. Trump is a drug addict, and he misses his fix of Twitter. He liked slinging his shit and watching the numbers tick up right in front of his eyeballs. Then, he switched on the TV to bask in the glory of everyone talking about him and what he just wrote. That is his high.

We need to have a debate about stabilizing the government and solidifying our security. We must refine the pardon process and power of the executive. It’s time to examine our laws and traditions to see how they stand up in our modern world. Most importantly, we need more accountability and background disclosures of our elected officials. Money is a primary driver, and we have a right to understand how it motivates each of those who serve us. Think about this. We know more about the finances of Rebekah Mercer than we do about those of Donald Trump. Transparency is the only way we can remain free. Hey, that’s good, I should post that on Twitter. Oh, sorry, I can’t.

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THE GREAT AMERICAN LIAR

Trump Believes Only in Himself

After watching Donald John Trump in office for his first 200 days, I was convinced he was unworthy of the presidency. I felt so strongly that I wrote the book, Donald Trump: Repeal, Replace, Impeach, which was one of the first books to state, in no uncertain words, that Trump should be impeached. Why? My premise was simple. Trump never tells the truth and doesn’t deserve to be president.

My book’s conclusion presented arguments against the Donald and the conflicts he created. Remember, this was early in his administration:

Pitting his political base against the majority of America

Enabling hate and bigotry instead of inclusiveness and progress

Pushing fear and a bullying method rather than fair, mature leadership

Employing hyperbole and lies without truth and facts

Promoting domestic supremacy over global leadership

Demolishing rules for business at the expense of the environment

Allowing fraud

Defunding education so that we can overspend on military

Grabbing excessive executive power and creating a Constitutional crisis

Being unpredictable rather than consistent

I expect my outdated book will eventually become nothing more than a door stop, but I do stand by everything I wrote. Each point happened and has been amplified over time. But why should we care about Donald Trump? He lost the election. He’s become a one-term president who was impeached and is now about to be repealed and replaced.

When the neo-Nazis and white supremacists barked out the trope, “Jews will not replace us” in Charlottesville, Virginia, Trump showed his deplorable lack of leadership by saying there were “good people on both sides.” It was not much of an admonishment of anti-Semitism but a fine example of using the wrong words at the wrong thing. That’s exactly what Donald Trump has done, over and over again.

NBC News just published a piece entitled, “Trump versus the truth: The most outrageous falsehoods of his presidency.” As they point out, the stage was set early on when the Donald made Sean Spicer (remember him?) argue with the press about the “size of his inauguration crowd.” There was a damn picture comparing Trump’s crowd to Obama’s crowd. The former was indisputably smaller. We could easily see it. I guess size is somehow important to this loser president.

The article quotes historian Michael Beschloss, “I have never seen a president in American history who has lied so continuously and so outrageously as Donald Trump, period.” It sounds a bit like what Sean Spicer said, “This was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period!” It’s as if saying the word “period,” when the sentence already has a period, makes it more, well, credible.

Donald Trump is close to being evicted from his current residence. It’s almost sad that he genuinely believes he won the election and deserves to have four more years in office. He’s desperately failed at his primary job, the one he swore under oath he would do. We all heard him say, “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.” His blatant and constant lies have slashed a hole in the Constitution, which he has failed to protect and defend. He’s mostly ignored its words, doing whatever he damn well wanted to do with a lie attached to every move.

I’ll focus on one item from my list of Trump’s weaknesses as a president — promoting domestic supremacy over global leadership. On the surface it can be seen as idealism wrapped in flowery language, but the nugget inside reveals how the seed of cancer has been growing within this president from day one. Donald Trump has no capacity for altruism, selflessness or concern for the well-being of others. He views himself as the center of the universe and has convinced himself that he is America. I realize that sounds outrageous but think about it. In his small brain if it isn’t good for Donald Trump then it isn’t good for America. Why didn’t he emphatically rail against Nazis in America? Was he doing the best he could to support people who think like him?

Many events over the past four years underscore the Donald’s ultimate maxim, “You are either with ME, or you are against ME.” Let’s be clear, The “me” is the man’s ego, or clinically speaking his id, the personality component of unconscious psychic energy that works to satisfy fundamental urges, needs, and desires. Donald Trump doesn’t care about how things really are, his only concern is about the way he wants them to be. He has tranced millions of people from the need to critically think, creating a diabolical regression of thought. If you believe in the man, you believe all his lies.

Over the weekend, Trump was on a call with the Secretary of State of Georgia for more than an hour, trying to get him to find votes for him. The call was recorded and released by the Georgia officials, so that the world could hear the overconfidence of this criminal we have in the White House. More will be made of this, but for now, every concern I’ve had for four years has been exposed as warranted.

He doesn’t care about the flag wavers and gun packing fools who pledge their allegiance to him. He needs only to be adored and masturbated by the masses, like a common store-bought dictator. When things don’t go his way, first he first pouts and then rage-tweets into the night like a spoiled seven-year-old boy. The weak people around him either placate him, or worse, mouth his lies to the point they believe them as truth. I believe that’s called brainwashing.

Trump has said he has no regrets in his life and has nothing to apologize for, even to God. Okay, that’s rather contemptable. As NBC News pointed out, “Trump’s run for the presidency was fueled by political prominence gained by promoting the racist ‘birther’ lie about President Barack Obama, and his 2016 victory was secured by a campaign rooted in false claims about immigrants and inner-city crime.” Just like Trump’s full-page newspaper ad urging the death penalty for the Central Park Five, he has no problem stating innocent people should be executed based solely on his opinion rather than the truth. When his good buddies in Saudi Arabia murdered Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi he looked the other way, justifying his attitude and lack of action by a huge arms deal with the Saudi Crown Prince. I wonder how God would classify such behavior.

On March 10, 2020, Trump commented on his administration’s handling of the COVID-19 crisis by saying, “We’re doing a great job with it. And it will go away. Just stay calm. It will go away.” At that time, the US had just over a thousand known infections and thirty deaths. Trump’s words were a lie. From thirty deaths to more than 351,000, Donald John Trump has been spewing falsehoods every day he’s been in office. Now he wants you to believe his biggest lie of all, that he won the 2020 election. This man has been poisonous for America and we all need a vaccination against the disease he carries – lack of empathy. We will all be better without him, period.

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WHY THEY’RE SUPREME

No Christmas Party for the Poor Old Donald

In 1517, a small-town monk named Martin Luther marched up to the Castle Church in Wittenberg and nailed his 95 Theses to its door, thereby lighting the flame of the Reformation — the split between the Catholic and Protestant churches. His propositions were essentially a list of grievances against the Catholic Church, which included a strong and logical position against a practice he believed to be corrupt, the sale of indulgences. When Mr. Luther refused to recant his complaints, he was branded a heretic and an outlaw. He immediately hid for fear of his life.

Over the last four years, I have been nailing my complaints about Donald John Trump to the front door of the internet at www.whywait4years.com, a website I created in the hope of convincing Americans to stop this excuse for a leader. Things were going well, until I got a lifelong ban from Twitter for being, I guess, too honest and forthright. I am not at all angry with Twitter, but they can go fuck themselves. Hey, would you please hand me another nail? But wait, this isn’t about me. My goal has always been making America reasonable, sound and protected, again.

I read a post on Facebook today from a dear friend who penned an open letter to her Catholic brethren and cisterns, uh, sisters, who voted for Donald Trump. It seems that the Donald, mister prison reformer and law and order guy, has been executing someone each of his last days in office. I assured her this was not a religious issue and that a study of history will show what it’s all about.

I reminded her of all those 1940’s GERMANS who focused on visual improvements and trains running on time while keeping a down-low about all those OTHERS who mysteriously left town. The good people of that land suffered generations of guilt after their tyrannical leader was deposed by Allied Forces.

The Pope and his church looked the other way and even kept Nazi money in their bank, but Adolph Hitler was not a CATHOLIC problem. When a government allows an individual to take advantage of critical laws to gain power, and then stands down as that person warps the principles and culture of their country in a way that harms people, what surfaces is a humanity problem which is not the responsibility of an individual church.

Last night, nine loyal Americans said, “OH, NO YOU WON’T!” In their grand way they did exactly the right thing. After saving our democracy and protecting our freedom, maybe those nine Supreme Court justices do deserve their jobs for life.

As for those 17 states and 126 Representatives who joined the attempted coup, how should they be punished? After all, their treasonous work could have overturned the will of American voters. Here’s an idea — TERM LIMITS. Do the right thing and you get to keep your job, screw up and you get to go away.

It didn’t take long for New Jersey Congressman Bill Pascrell to make the case against those who supported the Trump election lie that could have ruined our democracy. He called on Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi to refuse to seat the 126 Republicans who signed on to a Texas lawsuit aimed at throwing out election results in four states that backed President-elect Joe Biden. Thanks to Rolling Stone magazine for the link to the list. Pascrell tweeted, “I’m demanding that the 126 Republicans who have endorsed a malignant lawsuit to overturn the will of the people and undermine our democracy not be seated in Congress!”

In his letter to Pelosi, Pascrell cited Article 1, Section 5 of the Constitution which “gives each chamber of Congress the ultimate authority to decide their membership.” He also invoked the 14th Amendment, passed in the wake of Southern secession and the Civil War. Section 3 of that amendment forbids anyone from holding office in federal or state government who “having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any state legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any state, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”

Where that might be a road too far, it should serve as a warning. If the Democrats were as vindictive as President Trump, or the northern state officials during the Civil War, those miscreants would be sent home. Instead, how about a bit of civility and humanity? Let’s just block them all from committee work. That’s where they wield their power and dangle it in front of their donors. Without power, they will have less money. With less money, they might fail at reelection. It would be sweet revenge without the drama.

The White House loves holiday parties. After the Supreme Court shut down the Texas Attorney General’s frivolous lawsuit last night, the rumor circulating around D.C. is the President will not be coming down to Friday’s holiday party. That seems plausible, but one never knows for sure when it comes to the Donald.

This headline in the Washington Post caught my eye, “Trump is losing Twitter followers as Biden gains nearly 2 million heading to White House” Yes, slowly but surely, people are deleting Trump from their daily diet of social media. But even as the pain of truth being driven into Donald Trump’s ego becomes more unbearable, the fat fellow is not finished. He remains busy selling indulgences and playing the quid-pro-quo game, taking orders for pardons from those he likes and those his critics dislike. The immoral man behind the makeup is simply doing what he has always done, performing transactions that make him feel large and in charge.

Getting back to Martin Luther, the Reformation was successful and the church eventually stopped selling indulgences because everyone knew it was wrong. Why would money on earth hoist you into heaven, or give you a pass on purgatory? As we have written on this site recently (scroll down), there was no way any sane and honorable judge would have descended into the dark pit of deceit the Donald’s buddy in Texas wanted to throw at America and our democracy. It’s funny that the cult of Donald was back online last night, retweeting his lies about fraud and unpatriotically plotting their next moves. Really, people? If you don’t respect the Supreme Court, then what do you respect?

May I bring a snarky ending to this diatribe? TEXAS, look at me. You were part of MEXICO and we rescued you by trumping up a fake war. Be careful, we could sell you back to them and move that wall to Oklahoma. Remember the Alamo!

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THE ABUSE OF PARDON

Trump’s Final F.U. to America

We will have to rethink many things after Donald Trump leaves the White House. We certainly should look into the wisdom of and need for the Electoral College. We must also investigate the 73 offices of Inspectors General (1,600 employees), enforce their responsibilities and devise remedies to stop their abuses. At the very top of the list, we need to scrutinize the power of the President of the United States, especially as it applies to granting pardons, and make reforms as needed.

The notion of a “pre-emptive” pardon needs to be rethought. A relevant fact is the pardon that President Gerald Ford signed for Richard Nixon, who resigned the presidency in shame. It was good to go back and review the original text of the proclamation to grasp the full breadth of the issue. I am not a lawyer or Constitution scholar, but my understanding of words, thoughts and intents is valid. Look at this sentence:

“As a result of certain acts or omissions occurring before his resignation from the Office of President, Richard Nixon has become liable to possible indictment and trial for offenses against the United States. Whether or not he shall be so prosecuted depends on findings of the appropriate grand jury and on the discretion of the authorized prosecutor. Should an indictment ensue, the accused shall then be entitled to a fair trial by an impartial jury, as guaranteed to every individual by the Constitution.”

President Ford succinctly pointed out that Nixon did something before he resigned. He also is clear that “…the accused shall then be entitled to a fair trial by an impartial jury.” In his pardon of Nixon. Ford didn’t say a trial by jury could not take place.

Ford editorialized, “It is believed that a trial of Richard Nixon, if it became necessary, could not fairly begin until a year or more has elapsed.” But then, a few lines later, “The prospects of such trial will cause prolonged and divisive debate over the propriety of exposing to further punishment and degradation a man who has already paid the unprecedented penalty of relinquishing the highest elective office of the United States.” I bolded those words to highlight Ford’s ascertainment of Nixon and his ego, believing that resigning from the presidency would be punishment enough. Okay.

Here is where Ford’s moral grounding and precise language set in stone a firm legal precedent, “…have granted and by these presents do grant a full, free, and absolute pardon unto Richard Nixon for all offenses against the United States which he, Richard Nixon, has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 20, 1969 through August 9,1974.” Ford was quite clear that he was pardoning Nixon from any charges of federal crimes he may have committed while in office.

A question we’re now facing is whether a president can lawfully pardon themself. The Constitution is not vague at all. It’s noticeably clear in Article II, Section 2, Clause 1, “…and he shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.” Again, I am not a lawyer, but by those words I assume that Donald John Trump cannot pardon himself of any of the charges brought against him during his impeachment trial. Yes, the Senate did not find him guilty, but couldn’t Trump face a Federal judge and jury to answer those charges once he leaves office?

Then there’s this. If a president can self-pardon, such an action negates American belief and tradition that no one is above the law. By allowing a president to self-pardon, whether preemptively or under a belief that he or she committed a crime, such action would place that person above the law! If the proclamation of pardon includes information regarding the crime committed, it would be less of a pardon and more of a legal confession.

Trump hired his kids and relatives for key government positions in violation of the Federal nepotism rules. Any pardon of them would be a conflict of interest on the highest order. If the power to grant “Reprieves and Pardons” was placed in the Constitution to right a possible error or deal with an abuse of power in the judiciary, it logically follows that a charge, trial and determination of guilt would be required before a person could be pardoned. Without such certainty, how would we ever know what they did?

So, let me lay out a hypothetical, but certainly an interesting scenario. Let’s say we had a very corrupt and nefarious person in the Oval Office. Hey, it could happen! Let’s further speculate this self-serving president revealed to another that he was going to pardon them of any federal crime they committed during the president’s term. Now, the pardoned person demands the Justice Department delete all the records of the investigations into their actions. The end result would prevent their premeditated crime from a legal action in court. Oh, wow, is that what the framers of our Constitution had in mind?

It is clear that Donald Trump has used his pardon power in full view to prevent associates from turning on him, and any threat to withhold a pardon becomes witness intimidation. If the Justice Department determines that a Trump subordinate has bestowed political contributions to Trump. or placed money into any of his enterprises, they should be slapped solidly by the long arm of the law. How can we enforce oversight and bring charges to a government operative who took an oath to a higher standard if we don’t know which laws they broke? Trump is an anti-law-and-order president, not a worthy caretaker of the pardon clause.

I know this may sound counterproductive, but I hope Trump does pardon himself. The ultimate “Hit the road Jack, and don’t you come back no more” moment will happen when the Supreme Court, politely and unanimously, tells Trump that he’s not above the law and brings charges against him. Donald Trump is just one of 44 other presidents, Grover Cleveland is counted twice. Effective legal action against him will help move our country back to some semblance of normal where Presidents protect us from not only bad actors but also from the government itself.

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THE LAW & ORDER LIE

It’s Always the Opposite with Trump

There is a sizable amount of evidence that the Trump family has little respect for the law, perhaps believing that they are above it. Fred Trump, Donald’s father, hid millions of dollars to avoid taxes by creating protected trust funds for all his kids. Mary L. Trump, Donald’s niece, eventually sued the family for her fair share. Not only did the family drain money from Fred Trump, Jr, Mary’s father, they paid off his wife, Linda Clapp Trump, to essentially go away. It’s all very well documented in Mary L. Trump’s book, Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man.

An analysis by USA Today, published in June 2016, found that over the previous three decades, Donald Trump and his businesses have been involved in 3,500 legal cases in various federal and state courts.

Trump’s older sister, Maryanne Trump Barry, was a judge on the United States District Court when she recused herself in a drug-trafficking case due to her brother Donald’s relationship with the accused trafficker. That’s a fact. On February 1, 2019, four legal professionals, who had filed complaints against Judge Barry in October 2018 stemming from allegations made in a New York Times article, were notified by the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit that an investigation into judicial misconduct by Barry had been launched because of her alleged participation in fraudulent tax and financial transactions. Ten days later, Barry, who was a senior inactive judge at the time, announced her retirement from the bench, effectively ending the investigation. In a sense, it was a “judicial pardon” to save face.

When Donald John Trump squawks about “law & order,” he’s lying through his little teeth. He’s been one step ahead of the man all his life. He’s used bankruptcy to rip off vendors and other companies and crawled through loopholes to defraud the American people and our Treasury. When you give a man like this the power to grant pardons, he will use it to help his loyal friends while extending his short, middle finger to the law.

When the US Government has spent a huge amount of time and money to bring charges against someone, and that person then pleads guilty two times, one would think justice has prevailed. Later, when a corrupt Justice Department attempts to withdraw the charges, we see Trump’s corruption in plain view and it illustrates a major problem with the system of law and order in America.

The little guy who gets picked up by the police, thrown in the back of a paddy wagon and becomes tossed about like a paper doll on his way to the police station doesn’t have a sister judge or a elite team of lawyers to help. Should the poor guy die from injuries at the hands of cops during the arrest or the “we’ll teach him a lesson” ride to the hoosegow, well that’s just too bad for a poor nobody.

Donald Trump believes he should be the judge and jury of what is right and what is wrong. During his presidency, the Donald promoted prejudices against the judiciary more than any other public figure. He called them “Obama judges,” which so angered Chief Justice John Roberts he felt compelled to rebuke the claim with a statement. Roberts takes objectivity seriously, as we all should.

Here’s a gem from the Brookings Institute website: Under Article II, Section 2, the president has the “power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.” After the Constitution was drafted in the summer of 1787, it had to be ratified by at least nine of the states before it could take effect. Nearly everyone agreed that the president should have the power to pardon, but some thought that no one should be pardoned in the case of treason without the concurrence of at least one of the two houses of the legislature. Alexander Hamilton offered this marvelous statement, “The supposition of the connivance of the Chief Magistrate ought not to be entirely excluded.”

This power of pardon was given to the President of the United States as a way to right the wrong done by a corrupt or vindicative court. The framers assumed the President would be a good guy and act honorably.

As do many Republicans, Michael T. Flynn thinks of himself as a patriot. He’s an ideolog of the highest order and had been carrying on for years until President Obama fired him. Flynn’s motivation to jump on the Trump train was revenge against Obama, forging a natural connection with the big orange leader of the free world.

Michael Flynn’s activities before the inauguration weren’t really that bad, it was the subsequent lying to the FBI that got him into trouble. He also lied to Vice President Pence, and when Pence discovered that he forced Trump to fire him. Trump asked James Comey to “go easy on Flynn,” which in mafia-speak means “drop the case.” Comey didn’t drop it, and then Trump fired Comey which gave us Robert Mueller. Trump should have been pissed at Flynn for lying, but there was something else in play. Trump told Flynn to call the Russians and tell them that Trump would lift all their sanctions. Trump thought that would pave the way for his boys to build a Trump Tower in Moscow.

Donald Trump doesn’t care about law or order. As always, he games the system to make more money, because more moola means more muscle. It’s that simple. He won’t release his tax returns because they will show that he’s been cheating the IRS for years, never paying his fair share of taxes.

When Trump got the crowd to chant LOCK HER UP, deep-down inside, he was worried about being locked up himself. When he accused Joe Biden’s son of making money overseas, he was simply being jealous. Whatever Trump says, believe the opposite.

Trump has said that people who take the Fifth Amendment are guilty, but watch him do exactly that the next time he’s under oath. During special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russian Interference investigation., Trump said he couldn’t remember 36 times in response to various questions. That was his wily way of avoiding the words, “I exercise my right…. “

I honestly believe that had Jeffrey Epstein been convicted of the charges brought against him, Trump would have given him a pardon. Countless numbers of times during his sex trafficking case testimony, Epstein cited the Constitution’s Fifth Amendment, which protects a person from incriminating themselves. When Epstein was asked if Ghislaine Maxwell, his partner in crime, was “one of the main women” he used to procure underage girls for sexual activities, he took the “Fifth.” When asked whether Maxwell met one of the females she recruited for massages at the Mar-a-Lago resort owned by President Donald Trump in Palm Beach, Epstein again took the “Fifth.”

For those who are following this fiasco, remember this. When President Donald Trump pardons Ghislaine Maxwell, you will know she has something on him. This “Law & Order” President is nothing but a corrupt, immoral person. You’ll see.

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TRUMP’S AMERICAN TALIBAN

The Truth About Far-Right & Far-Left Movements

Tomorrow is a sacred date in American history, and I hesitate to write this piece, but I feel compelled to connect some dots, dates and delusions. Can there be any doubt that Donald Trump is promoting and motivating the far-right to rally behind him with their pickup trucks, Trump flags and automatic weapons? If the President of the United States honestly believes that encouraging militias and their half-baked wannabe mercenaries into the streets to mess with protesters and far-left groups is a positive effort, then he’s not only an idiot but unfit for the presidency.

I can’t help seeing Trump’s young male supporters in trucks with their flags and guns and comparing them to troops from other places. Don’t we see the same picture with Taliban and ISIS groups patrolling the towns and territories of Iraq and Afghanistan? Or how about the new pro-Trump, anti-mask militias in places like Washington state, Wisconsin and Oregon? Those troops are not sanctioned to do this work. The have not be deputized and they should not be in our streets with guns because they make things worse, not better.

Trump thinks of these clowns as his army. I remember the remarkable NFL success of the Steelers in my hometown of Pittsburgh. One of the stars of that legendary team was fullback Franco Harris. During World War II, Franco’s father fought in Italy where he met his future wife, an Italian, thus the name Franco. That history produced the lore and fan base known as “Franco’s Italian Army,” whose wild fans wore army helmets displaying his number. It was playful and fun, and no guns were involved.

I believe that Trump visualizes losing the election but calling on these goons to take control of the country so he can stay in office. Donald would resist even if his golfing buddy Lindsey Graham were to visit the White House and cajole his departure. This is not a game, people. This is real. It’s plain that Donald Trump’s ego is tempting him to do dreadful things.

Just like the Taliban and ISIS, Trump’s “LIBERATION” groups are being motivated by dark and unamerican ideals. Yes, the concept of militias is supported by the Second Amendment but only if “well regulated.” It is disheartening to see local police and federal agents lending support and encouragement to these guerrillas. We must stop their lawless, murderous entries into cities, even if it’s their own city. Trump’s not-so-subtle call to action of these thugs can be adjudicated after he leaves office as a blatant form of obstruction of justice overflowing to voter intimidation. If I were a Grand Jury member, I would vote to indict this cretin.

Our society has a problem with how we apply justice. Do you remember when the Ohio National Guard killed four students on the campus of Kent State in 1970? Well, no one was ever charged in that action. There is a thin line between peaceful protesting and crime, and I wonder why members of some far-right groups can roam our streets dressed in camo uniforms, carrying long guns and waving Trump flags and be treated with respect and kid gloves, while peaceful protesters against racial grievances are beaten, pepper sprayed and pushed back.

In 1966, it was legal to openly carry a loaded firearm in California. When the radical Black Panthers figured this out, they marched in the streets with rifles. They even entered San Francisco City Hall while armed, which inspired the state to change the law. You see, there are two standards. Most states with open carry laws do not discriminate against people of color, but their reaction to someone of color holding a gun is vastly more extreme. Black kids with guns get shot by police.

I don’t think those with flags and signs displaying their love for Donald Trump should be arrested. The moment they display a firearm however, they should be seen as a potential problem and dealt with differently than they are now. They are currently intimidating peaceful citizens with their guns.

Most legal experts will tell you not to pull a gun unless you are threatened. If you are not being in danger, raising a weapon is called brandishing. In essentially every US state there is a sharp legal distinction between a person pulling a gun for self-defense or doing so for another purpose. Even under a murky circumstance, all one has to say is that they felt threatened, and judging by the latest events it would be fair to say that either or both sides could feel in danger.

Leadership flows from the top, but our feeble President has placed himself in the middle. He’s rooting for the militias, while the real military is becoming less and less impressed with Trump’s actions and words. Donald John Trump is uncomfortable with the military and oblivious about how the Pentagon works. Military soldiers don’t like militias; they never have. Any notion that citizen groups must take up arms to protect the police and the country is stupid and ill-advised. Local, state and federal police don’t need any help to do their jobs and, contrary to what Trump has said, they are not wanting to go to war and spend lots of money.

The irony of Trump claiming that certain people in the Pentagon are spending money in corrupt ways did not sit well with Central Command. The President’s suggestion that they want to go to war and spend enormous amounts of cash is paradoxical, coming from the guy who brags about how well he funded them. According to Department of Defense records, on February 10, 2020, President Donald J. Trump sent Congress a proposed Fiscal Year 2021 budget request of $740.5 billion for national security, $705.4 billion of which is slated for the Department of Defense (DoD). Why would the Donald say anything about how the DoD spends its money? He’s an ignoramus.

One could argue that people riding around in pickup trucks draped in Trump election gear makes them guilty of voter intimidation. Our President is breaking his pledge to uphold the laws and protect the Constitution. We have a criminal in the Oval Office and gangs in the streets. Every action of Donald Trump only makes matters worse.

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VOTE EARLY & OFTEN

Trump’s Seditious Chaos Sowing

It’s all just a joke with Donald Trump. Imagine a preacher giving their Sunday sermon at the church pulpit and proclaiming that any woman who had the audacity to wear red is a whore. Not only would that cause much disdain throughout the congregation, but everyone in the sanctuary would be looking around to see what the attendees were wearing. When people in positions of authority say untrue or outrageous things, we sometimes accept them until we think about what they said.

Donald John Trump encouraged people to send in an absentee ballot and then go vote in person on Election Day, “Let them send it in and let them go vote, and if their system’s as good as they say it is, then obviously they won’t be able to vote. If it isn’t tabulated, they’ll be able to vote. That’s the way it is. And that’s what they should do.”

Voting twice in the same election is illegal and both President Trump and Attorney General William Barr know it. During an interview on CNN, Barr didn’t object to President Donald Trump’s statement that voters should cast two ballots this November. Bar expressed no outrage or dissent about Trump’s extreme suggestion. Barr said, “This is playing with fire. We’re a very closely divided country here. People trying to change the rules to this, to this methodology — which, as a matter of logic, is very open to fraud and coercion — is reckless and dangerous and people are playing with fire.”

William Barr is a disgrace to American justice. He doesn’t have the balls to stand up and tell the citizens of this country that VOTING TWICE IN AN ELECTION IS UNLAWFUL! To make matters worse, he’s the source of the Trump screed that mail-in voting is full of fraud. Having a loaded gun in your hand is extremely dangerous, but it’s not a “matter of logic” that merely holding a weapon will always lead to death. It’s wrong to demand that sick and vulnerable people risk their lives to vote. If I had a say in the matter, William Barr would be the first person I would fire in a new administration. His father gave us Jeffrey Epstein, and William gives us baskets of bullshit.

Barr went on to answer the question of what Trump was trying to say, “I don’t know exactly what he was saying, but it seems to me what he’s saying is, he’s trying to make the point that the ability to monitor this system is not good.” I am fed up with these feckless, fat assholes telling us how bad things are, but don’t have the brains or conviction to fix them. Listening to Barr could lead you to believe that his Justice Department is an arm of Trump’s campaign.

Continuing from the Trump playbook, Barr claimed, “I accept that there is some preliminary activity that suggests that they might try again. It wouldn’t surprise me if Russia tries something again of the same general genre before.” After that pronouncement, he added, “I believe it’s China, because I’ve seen the intelligence and that’s what I’ve concluded.” Following that, Barr declined to give more details.

I am sick and tired of William Barr, a non-elected head of the Department of Justice, spewing out his conclusions like he’s a judge. He’s an employee of the Executive Branch, but he acts more like the President’s personal lawyer.

Let me get this off my chest. When asked if Obama and Biden committed “treason” by “spying” on the Trump campaign in the lead-up to the 2016 election, the Attorney General of the United States said, “Well, treason is a legal term. I think he’s using it colloquially. To commit treason, you actually have to have a state of war with a foreign enemy. But I think he feels they were involved in an injustice. And if he feels that, he can say it.” No, No, No! If the top guy in the White House is saying that Biden committed “treason” without any charge or credible evidence, he’s attempting to hurt his opponent and not just riffing on the subject of law. Why can’t Barr just say the President shouldn’t use that term? Why did he give Trump a Get-Out-of-Jail card with the word, “colloquially?”

President Trump has said Barr could, “…go down as the greatest Attorney General in the history of our country, or he can go down as just an average guy. It depends on what’s going to happen.” While Barr wants the legal community to believe he’s doing his job in righteous ways, he uses terms like “spying” instead of surveillance, which is something the FBI does every day to Americans. Barr used the term, “Russia-gate thing” describing a fully functional and sanctioned investigation into Russian interference in our election by Robert Mueller. I concluded early on that William Barr was not a real Attorney General. He’s just another political appointee, operating in ways that clearly demonstrated he doesn’t have the American’s people’s back on the subject of “liberty and justice for all.”

Another conclusion that tumbled from his fat, bull-frog mouth is there is “no systemic racism” in America’s law enforcement agencies and police departments. William Barr admits that racism exists, and there are some police officers who might have racism in their souls, but he’s hung up on his own definition of racism. He’s trying to say there aren’t some built in racist polices, practices or procedures in the training of police officers and the exercising of their duties. He did admit that we have much work to do. What work would that involve? Making sure we know who the “bad cops” are and keeping them off the forces or in the streets with loaded guns. You see, if there isn’t a system to fairly, honestly and completely eradicate racists from law enforcement, then we have a systemic weakness. He admitted that in a roundabout way but did not say anything meaningful regarding those he oversees on the federal level.

Thinking ahead, I would love to have the next Attorney General be Preet Bharara. He was the US Attorney of the Southern District of New York before Trump fired him. Bharara is one of the only US attorneys to land a conviction during the housing and money scandal of the mid-2000s. It would then be great if new A.G. Bharara appointed another former SDNY US Attorney, Geoffrey Berman, to serve as special prosecutor in an investigation of the Trump administration. We the people need to know the depth of the corruption, who was involved and who should never hold any political office ever again. Hey, it may sound like LOCK HIM UP… but lots of Trump guys have already been jailed. Sue me if you like, but make sure you have a good attorney.

Finally, I’ll sew up this post. I voted early by mail in the Florida primary that was held on August 18, 2020. I was curious to know what would happen if I tried to vote again in person. I walked into my polling place and spoke with the folks there, explaining that I had already voted by mail and was curious what would happen if I tried to cast another vote here. They were very friendly and helpful, electronically running my driver’s license (one registers to vote in Florida when you get a license) and showing me that my vote had already been counted. They also directed me to a website where I could see if my vote was in the count for the future. You see, William Barr, you and all others who think Florida is unorganized and fraught with “logic-based” fraud are WRONG!

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PROPHECY OF ATTAINMENT

The Confidence Man Cometh, Again

You cannot say a challenge is resolved before you fix it. You cannot solve a problem by pronouncing it conquered. And you cannot wash away this pandemic by pouring wet, little lies over it. Donald Trump believes he can lie his way back into office. Is America really that dimwitted and demented? We are only seventy days away from the answer.

During the opening day of the Republican National Convention, the New York Times put matters in perspective by writing that the campaign will “…engage in sweeping revisionism about Mr. Trump’s management of the coronavirus pandemic, his record on race relations and much else.” They also laid out a dystopian picture of what the United States would look like under a Biden administration, warning of a “‘vengeful mob’ that would lay waste to suburban communities and turn quiet neighborhoods into war zones.”

Here we go, people. Donald Trump wants you to believe America is going down the drain. If the intent of the Republican party was painting a more optimistic picture, then what the hell was that? What I find most disturbing is not only blaming others for what has happened in the last four years but also the constant disassociation with reality. I am not a zombie and I am not on SOMA (for all you H. G. Wells & Aldous Huxley fans).

Let’s take some of the con-man’s words and deeds and put them to the test. Are people rioting in certain cities? Yes. Why? Because African Americans are seeing videos of police shooting Black men and women. Why? Could it be that there is systemic racism in our police departments across America? It does seem many people of color are being snuffed out at the hands of white men. According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, which is part of the National Institutes of Health, “the fatality rate is 2.8 times higher among blacks than whites” during interactions with police officers.

The Republican sales pitch is that COPS are right, and DEMOCRATS are wrong. Really? Why does that surprise anyone? Donald Trump has some deeper motivations that you can either ignore or investigate. If Donald Trump’s party of one sincerely cares about African American rights and societal changes, why are there so few Black voices supporting and echoing him? Oh yeah, there’s Tim Scott of South Carolina, but for the life of me I cannot reconcile his myopic view of the civil rights of Black people. However, we’ve seen this before and my Uncle had a term for it.

The prophecy that electing Joe Biden will destroy western civilization is an extremely strange way to pitch a fraud. Most con artists tell you how great your life will be if you buy what they are selling. The Donald’s positioning at the convention was totally defensive and negative. It was like a bar fight where one of the survivors comes out the carnage to announce, “Well, yes, my mother, father and wife were killed in the fight but I am the winner. I’m still standing.” It’s not the lack of empathy; it’s the unbelievable quote of the bloodied survivor justifying why he couldn’t save more people, “Hey, they were there on their own. If I didn’t get out of there the death count would have been much greater.” Yes, 177,000 people have died from COVID, but let’s remember what Donald Trump said, “It’s going to be just fine. One day, it’s like a miracle, it will disappear.” He bragged that if we had less than 100,000 deaths it would prove HE did a fantastic job. Really? He also said, “This should have been stopped in China.” Okay, but why haven’t WE stopped it in the United States?

Trump never scrutinizes the effects of his actions and policies. He simply moves on. Achieving a goal is part of leadership but I see no accountability. Trump went so far as to say he takes no responsibility. Wow, who is this guy? Even Jerry Falwell, Jr. faces the truth and is honest for a couple of hours before crawling back into his deep, secret place.

Another Republican talking point is voting for Democrats will make America socialist. I find this funny. The guy who is attempting to gut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid is trying to lump Biden supporters into a “socialist bucket.” There is no altruism in the party of Trump. There is only selfishness and screeds lacking empathy. If socialism is so bad, why did Trump allow the national debt to get so far out of control? If socialism is so evil, why did he sign bailout bills that gave away billions of dollars to companies, organizations and buddies? The money he handed out was a raid on our national bank. Donald somehow believes that donations will keep people from going back to jobs they no longer have. It’s just another ludicrous lie. People want to work safely.

Now, let’s pull in for a close-up on the ludicrous harangue that Democrats will destroy the suburbs. Trump’s tweet about affordable housing was so racist I cannot understand how Republicans can credibly support the man. The President of the United States tweeted, “I am happy to inform all of the people living their Suburban Lifestyle Dream that you will no longer be bothered or financially hurt by having low income housing built in your neighborhood. Your housing prices will go up based on the market, and crime will go down. I have rescinded the Obama-Biden AFFH Rule [Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing]. Enjoy!”

One of the great TV comedy characters of Key and Peele was Luther, President Obama’s anger translator. His role was helping get Obama’s messages out to African Americans. Please allow me to channel that routine by showing the way Luther would have written that tweet, “Hey WHITE PEOPLE, I know you really don’t want Blacks and trailer trash moving in next door so you should be KISSING MY ASS because I just changed the law that will keep those lowlifes that DEMS call “PEOPLE” out of your clean, white suburbs. YOU OWE ME.”

Donald Trump has spent his life far removed from the suburbs. He is out of touch on the true meaning of that term. When he uses the outdated word “housewives” to attempt resonance with suburbanites, he sounds like a guy from the 1950s.

Check out the stats from Gwinnett County, Georgia A SUBURB OF ATLANTA. The racial makeup of the county’s population is 47.4% White, 28.5% Black, 18.8% Asian and 28.5% Hispanic, meaning 75.8 of the Gwinnett County population is non-white. Are Republicans happy about Trump’s declaration of “purifying” the suburban neighborhoods of America? Putting this in perspective, Donald Trump will need tons of votes from that 75.8% slice of that county to win. What a misguided strategy. Oh well, we need a new president. Donald Trump’s myth that he’s been the greatest President since Abraham Lincoln is the biggest, STRONGEST and most RIDICULOUS LIE that has ever been articulated, and Trump knows articulation. He uses his left hand to do it.

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