RICK PERRY & THE BIBLE

The Ultimate Corruption of Christianity

Maybe I went to different Sunday school classes than Rick Perry, but he certainly caught my attention with this expression of his opinion. Perry said in a recent interview that he believes that President Donald Trump was “chosen” by God to lead America at this point in history. Okay, I get it. If God oversees everything then, of course, he was the deity that made sure the electoral college put the Donald in charge of the United States of America. Now call me a doubting Thomas, but I just don’t buy it. Did God appear to Rick Perry to directly deliver this big news?

I happen to hold a very strong belief that God is not involved in politics. To say that God has any power of intervention and control over elections would mean that he/she/it would have helped the German populace elect Adolf Hitler. God is not now and never has been in the election business. There are not chosen people or countries or religions or clubs or parties; there are only people. People who are born, eat, shit, sleep, work, pay taxes and then die. No royal from the history of the world is still alive, which is fairly good evidence that no man is above the law or chosen by God.

The current corruption of Christianity is not unique in world history. Religions and churches have been coopted by leaders, popes and politicians since the beginning of beliefs and organized religion. The Crusades are one example of the church being hi-jacked by politics and choosing to do the wrong thing. Experts claim that there were as many as 1.7 million people killed during the Crusades. How did religious people justify death to forward their dogma?

Rick Perry went on to babble, “God’s used imperfect people all through history. King David wasn’t perfect. Saul wasn’t perfect. Solomon wasn’t perfect. And I actually gave the president a little one-pager on those Old Testament kings about a month ago. I said, ‘Mr. President, I know there are people that say you said you were the chosen one and I said, ‘You were.’” He also added, “I said, ‘If you’re a believing Christian, you understand God’s plan for the people who rule and judge over us on this planet in our government.”

As they should say on TV, how do we unpack this heaping pile of camel shit? If Rick Perry really thinks Trump is a “believing Christian” he wouldn’t have needed to give him a paper on Old Testament kings. The brother would have already been speaking in tongues. And what is the origin of the revelation that Trump was chosen by God for anything? How did hard-working, God fearing evangelicals get sucked into this strange idea that we should look beyond the flaws and imperfections of Donald Trump and pronounce a savior status on his head?

I think I got it, and my next statement isn’t going to go down very easily with the 1.2 billion people who call themselves Catholic, but here goes. The ultimate corruption of the church took place here in America and around the world right under the noses of naïve mothers and fathers. For years, young boys and girls were terrorized in their own churches and the hierarchy of the Catholic Church covered it up. This is fact.

There is a common retort from long-term faithful in the church that goes something like this, “I know there were some bad priests, but look at all the good the church has done for so many people.” There it is. The flawed souls and imperfect people have a get-out-jail card that people give institutions and criminals. Jerry Sandusky is in jail for what he did. How many priests were punished?

Christians of all stripes will tell you that Trump’s lifestyle and language isn’t as important as those Supreme Court justice appointments, the move toward making abortions illegal and his undying support for Israel. Okay, you got those boxes checked my sisters and brothers of the cross, but was the separation of children from their families on your list? Did you overlook the changes to the laws that allowed big business to more easily pollute the world? Did your preacher ignore the tax law that gave the rich more money and hardly helped the middle class? Would Jesus approve?

One might argue you can still support a church, even though some of its authorities sexually abused children. And let me ask you this. Is the binding of Trump’s power to a Godly endorsement the creation of over-eager minds or just people ignoring a few commandments? Do you remember, “you shall have no other gods before me” or “you shall make no idols” or “you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain” and of course, “you shall not commit adultery.” Even if you are blind to everything Trump has done so far, you certainly must see that he has, indeed, been bearing false witness against his neighbors? He tells multiple lies every day and some of them put real people in harm’s way. Do you get the term “death threat” my holy friends?

As we sit down to Thanksgiving dinner this year, we will all be giving thanks for the many blessings and wonderful things we share in America. I will not be giving thanks for this President, however, because I truly believe he’s not worthy of thanks. He’s a liar living under a blanket of secrets. He claims to be the most transparent president ever, when we cannot even see the skin on his face.

Rick Perry is not very smart, because he’s enabling Trump and his worst instincts. If he truly was a man of God, why would so many people hate him? He’s more than imperfect. He’s so flawed morally and psychologically that the real evil he’s propagated will take years to be discovered. We already have a new generation of neo-Nazis, white supremacists and racists who rally around this man. How do they get along with the Christian evangelicals? Are they both looking the other way?

If Trump buys into this “chosen one” routine, he will believe every action he takes is ordained by the Lord himself. Isn’t that what Kings and Queens and tyrants of every kind believe? God, if you are listening, please straighten out this hot holy mess. Once Christianity gets corrupted, what will stand against tyranny, hate and disorder? We can only pray.

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Gold, God, Guns & Goofballs shows how we’ve wasted our GOLD on bad wars and corruption. While GOD is there for many people as a spiritual enrichment and the provider of glowing feelings, the truth is just praying and believing will not change our major arc. We don’t determine who gets a GUN. We aren’t sure if we have paramilitary groups ready to storm the White House or a White Castle. There is no control of weapons. The GOOFBALLS with the power constantly try to manipulate us into spending more money on bombs and tanks and wars. When all of our institutions are infected with neglect and fall in disrepair, we will only have ourselves to blame. This book is not an antidote for the left or right, it’s an accelerant to move the middle off their collective asses to go do something positive for America.

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BLAGOJEVICH & TRUMP

Birds of a Feather Flock Together

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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THE TRUMP PRESIDENCY

A Single Point of Failure

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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THREADING THE NEEDLE

Is There Really a Deep State?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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HONK KONG VS. KENT STATE

Trump Doesn’t Understand Freedom

Almost 50 years ago, something very bad happened in Ohio. The Ohio State National Guard, on orders from the Governor, entered the common grounds of Kent State University and used lethal weapons against students who were protesting the Vietnam War. On May 4, 1970, twenty-eight National Guard soldiers fired approximately 67 rounds over a period of 13 seconds, killing four students and wounding nine others, one of whom suffered permanent paralysis. This is the event that motivated the Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young song, Ohio with its iconic chorus, “Four dead in Ohio.”

The attack on the students came after days of protesting, including the burning of the ROTC building on campus. The protest was triggered by the recently leaked story of the bombing of neutral Cambodia by United States military forces, and its coverup by the Nixon Administration. Ten days later, police in Jackson, Mississippi opened fire on protesting students there, killing two and injuring twelve. I contend that the lethal force used at Jackson State was motivated and justified by the happenings at Kent State.

Now there are student protests happening more than 8,000 miles away from our nation’s capital. The back story will help you to understand this disruption. People have lived on the island of Hong Kong since the stone age, but as the port became more valuable for international trade many players sought control over the land. The Qing dynasty ceded Hong Kong to the British Empire in 1842 through the treaty of Nanjing, which ended the First Opium War. Hong Kong then became a British crown colony. Britain also won the Second Opium War, forcing the Qing Empire to cede Kowloon in 1860, and Britain signed a lease with China, giving them ownership of Hong Kong for 99 years. The Opium Wars were fought by Great Britain to end the trafficking of opium in Hong Kong. It was giant time-out for the Chinese government.

The agreement stated that after 99 years (July 1, 1997), the Brits would give control of the island and port back to China, but the pact included some gradual changes in the transfer. That brings us to the current day. China is now under the total control of President Xi Jinping, the guy Donald Trump keeps saying is a good guy. The power in Peking is slowly enacting laws and policies designed to take more control from the locals and eventually put Hong Kong under control of the Chinese Communist party.

The students in Hong Kong are fighting against the dilution of democracy. President Trump has remained relativity silent on the protesters and he hasn’t stated a position about where America stands regarding Hong Kong’s future. There was a rather limp proclamation that we do not endorse using lethal force against students, but no concrete policy has been stated by the White House or our State Department.

The most movement we’ve seen so far was based on a tweet from the Houston Rockets basketball General Manager who said, “We stand with the protesters in Hong Kong.” That set off a firestorm against the NBA, who first apologized mildly then, a few days later, slightly endorsed freedom of speech. The NBA has more than 500 million TV viewers in China and makes close to a billion dollars on rights and merchandise.

Because of the success of Chinese national Yao Ming, who played in the NBA for years and now runs the Chinese government basketball association, American basketball teams are very popular in China. Fun fact: Yao’s mother and father were the top basketball players in China and rumors had it that they were “urged” by the government of China to marry and produce a basketball player. They made a good one!

This weekend, the Hong Kong protestors blockaded the Polytechnical University and started a fire there. In recent months, they have moved from masks and umbrellas to bows and arrows and Molotov cocktails. The police and military have moved from blockades to tear gas then rubber and real bullets. This surely will end up just like Kent State if someone doesn’t figure out a way to negotiate peace.

It’s hard to get behind the anarchists in these situations, but did the anarchists hijack the protest or did the students progress to violence and destruction of public property because no one is listening?

We don’t know who lit up the ROTC building in Kent, Ohio, but that act of destruction forced the Governor to move troops onto the campus. Most people don’t remember that for several days before moving to the Kent State campus, the troops were in Cleveland dealing with a truckers’ strike. Many hadn’t slept for days and were on edge when they got to the college. Most of the guardsmen were the same age as the protesters. In fact, one of the gunned down ROTC students was headed to Vietnam after graduation.

If Donald Trump was a true leader, he would advise the Chinese government to sit down and talk with the protesting students. In the aftermath of Kent State, many potential confrontations on American college campuses were avoided by listening to what the students had to say, regardless if they were immature and unreasonable. The President of Kent State, the Governor of Ohio and President Nixon were all to blame for the 1970 slaughter at Kent State. Not one person was ever charged in the shootings or the ordering of the shootings at Kent State. There was no justice for the students.

Maybe the next generation of Honk Kong kids want a democracy. And if they don’t get it, China will be forever guilty of denying a democratic state that would make people feel good about themselves. When they disagree with their government, people often protest. When they disagree with their leaders, they challenged them. They might act to get them removed from office and if that fails they may spill blood in the streets. Trump will never back the students, because money, trade and his relationship with Xi are more important to him than human rights. And that is just one more reason why we must get rid of Trump.

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UNDER THE INFLUENCE

Is Impeachment Bad for Democracy?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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THE TRUMP PRESIDENCY

Malformed, Myopic & Malignant

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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IMPEACHMENT HEARINGS

How to Watch the Show

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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BRIBERY…

With a Steamy Side of Corrupt Intent

Donald Trump either doesn’t understand law or he simply chooses to ignore what is on the books. I’m fairly sure he can be diagnosed as a pathological liar with narcissistic personality disorder. Perhaps in his quiet, alone time he knows that he’s a fraud on many levels, but then he would have to admit that on top of all his other flaws he has a dual personality. But let’s not get too far into the world of science; it’s a world that Trump never visits.

Federal laws define bribery as the practice of offering, giving, receiving, or soliciting something of value for the purpose of influencing the action of an official in discharge of his or her public or legal duties. To put this another way, bribery is used to gain an illicit advantage.

According to USLegal.com, “The General Federal Bribery Statute says that whoever directly or indirectly, corruptly gives, offers or promises anything of value to any public official with intent to influence that person’s official act will be fined for the offence of bribery by an amount not more than three times the monetary equivalent of the thing of value, or imprisonment for not more than fifteen years, or both. And if convicted, that person would be disqualified from holding any office of honor, trust, or profit under the U.S government.”

It doesn’t say that the person being bribed must be a US official and it also plainly states that a promise of anything of value can be an ingredient in a bribery case. Clearly, almost $400 million in aid is something of value. After reading all the available testimony and transcripts and digesting the diatribes of the President himself, I believe Donald J. Trump is guilty of bribery. It’s time to stop using the phrase “Quid Pro Quo,” just as we no longer talk about “collusion,” a word Trump thought would shield him from the truth in the last investigation.

There is no doubt that Trump had a corrupt intent, and his defense in the form of a denial is pointless. Trump typically denies everything when he’s accused of wrongdoing. In more than 11,000 tweets, President Trump has lied more than 13,000 times. After many initial claims of non-involvement, evidence has proven that he not only had direct knowledge but participated in the corruption.

The laughable plea that he was trying to root out corruption in Ukraine is astonishing. Trump’s trick of trying to destroy Joe Biden as a political rival could possibly work, which would then become more proof that he is a chronically immoral being. Trump himself has corruptly used the Justice Department to carry his water and attempt to discredit the very people in Justice who are charged with defending our country against crime. Those who are complicit will be remembered.

Going after the whistleblower is a gross injustice being perpetrated and encouraged by the President of the United States. This is against the law and surely will be added to the impeachment charges.

The whistleblower protection act states that anyone who comes forward to point out corruption is afforded protections from retaliation such as reduction in pay or hours, denial of overtime or benefits, a suspension that lasts 14 days or more, termination from serving as federal civil employee, demotion to a lower paying position in federal employment or reducing one’s responsibilities. The death threats that the whistleblowers lawyers have been receiving are important to people like Donald Trump and the Napoleonic Senator from Kentucky, Rand Paul. Shame on all who break the law!

Bribery is a thug crime and degrading act. Using it in a scheme to keep aid from a country that could affect the security of this country borders on treason is perilous. It’s time we start using proper terms so that the American public can understand exactly what this president did.

People understood the Black Sox scandal of 1919, when baseball players took bribes to throw a World Series. People understand a late breaking case of bribery, in which three Twitter employees allegedly took bribes to help Saudi Arabia spy on dissidents. People understand the stain on politics when some local politician takes a bribe to help his brother-in-law get a big government contract. BRIBERY is the correct word with respect to Trump. Use it!

A person offering a bribe is guilty of an infraction, as is the person who takes the bribe. The President of Ukraine didn’t take the bribe, but the bribe was discovered. It’s time that we use the law, 18 USCS prec § 201(b) against Donald Trump and his corrupt administration. It’s time that this “law and order President” gets a personal dose of that law and order he swore to defend.

Read About The Country We Love

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