THE ROARING TWENTIES ARE BACK

What Will the Future Bring?

We do the same thing on the last day of the year, every year. We review what happened in the year about to end, including a photo album of those who are “gone but not forgotten.” This year, we add a certain twist to the tradition. We are also ending a decade, which is supposed to make this next leap into a leap year more significant.

As we get ready to turn the page to a new year, we have many challenges facing us. We have an impeached president, who sits at home more concerned with his twitter feed, than what seems to be happening to real people. He’s so obsessed with who likes him and who doesn’t like him, he cannot achieve greatness on any level.

Most of the country, as we grow older, have a keen interest in all aspects of healthcare — the doctors, the pills, the cost — and we get no real answers from the executive, judicial or legislative branches of government. The Affordable Care Act which was signed into law by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010, has been challenged, criticized and contradicted for almost ten years. No one in the Congress or the White House has come up with some plan to either replace it or make it better. They are complicit in their inaction, while things are not getting better. Costs for services and medicine keep going up and our President keeps telling us how bad things are, but has no concrete solutions.

Hate has been given more oxygen these days, and many experts claim this is the result of someone in the White House stimulating this vile cancer. Oh, it’s not blatant. It’s a few words here, a denial over there, or just plain ignorance, but it’s a real thing. Just like President Woodrow Wilson didn’t openly admit he was a racist, he surely was. Even Dwight Eisenhower believed segregation was good for America. Have times really changed? It’s not just the xenophobic zealots, white supremacists and marching neo-Nazis that should give us all pause. It’s the actions and policies of the man in charge that keep people of color and economic inequality down. It’s not Trump’s speech writer’s fault, it’s clearly the responsibility of the President to bring us all together. Trump has not and will not do that; it’s just not who he is. He’s the great divider.

There is an old expression, if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. But what if the kitchen in this case, is the whole world? There were many who never understood the term GLOBAL WARMING. They challenged the meaning and the facts. So, we changed it to CLIMATE CHANGE hoping the term would help more people understand what was happening on our only planet. Clearly, the demon in this equation was heat and for some reason, Donald Trump decided that it wasn’t true. Who is he to decide?

He never really excelled in science and bases most of what he knows on TV pundits who stir up some arcane instinct in him. He truly believes everything is a controversy, or worse, a damn conspiracy. Clearly, we are going to be facing major problems soon, and our current government chooses to do nothing about it. Why, these fools have even rolled back environmental laws and policies to let big business pollute more. Trump doesn’t get it and never will.

Probably one of the most lucid right hooks to Trump’s denials came from 16-year old climate activist Greta Thunberg who said she wouldn’t have wasted her time talking to Donald Trump about climate change at the UN summit in New York. She added, “Honestly, I don’t think I would have said anything. Because obviously he’s not listening to scientists and experts, so why would he listen to me?”

Healthcare, Heat and Hate are the things that will remain the challenge after all the balls have dropped and your New Year’s Eve hangover has worn off. Some people will still argue that Trump is the greatest president ever, while others will continue to believe in their heart of hearts, that America will never be great again until he is gone. The oceans will continue to warm, because Trump gave up on the planet because he’s not intelligent enough to comprehend what is really happening. He will simply bail out the insurances companies who will have to pay for his mismanagement. And the national debt will grow some more. What does Trump care? He’ll be dead when the bill arrives.

Trump main job seems to be conflict and hate, not leadership. The healthcare promises made have never happened, because he doesn’t care about you and doesn’t have a clue what to do about it. At least Obama tried, but short of nationalizing the whole corrupt pharmaceutical industry and creating a national healthcare policy, nothing will change.

And as far the rising seas, we can only hope that Trump lives long enough to see the water slapping the walls of Mar-A-Lago. Until something personally affects the Donald, he will not concentrate on problem solving. And the hate he dismisses and pays lip service to, will only slowly grow in the swamp he promised to drain. He’s just another con man with too much power.

Happy New Year America. Welcome to the Roaring Twenties. Can I hear you roar for America? We need your voice more than anything, right now.

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“PUTIN TOLD ME”

Trump’s Bizarre Mind

The most important question is, whom do you trust? When you were a child, your parents probably told you that a man in a red suit riding a sleigh would fly through the air, park on the roof of your house, come down the chimney and leave you presents. When rumors swirled in the parish, parents believed the priest and did nothing to protect their children. And as we lived through many different presidents and administrations, we always believed what we were told.

When they told us that our government had nothing to do with a bunch of ragtag revolutionaries attempting to overthrow Castro in Cuba, they lied. Eisenhower started the plot and Kennedy fell for the Bay of Pigs invasion. When they told us that Nixon had nothing to do with the Watergate break-in at the DNC, they lied once again. When Bill Clinton told us he did not have sexual relations with “that woman,” he was brazenly committing perjury. When George W. Bush claimed that Iraq’s Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, only 44 Congress people voted against invading that country and most people believed the lie. And when Barack Obama said that you could keep your doctor with the Affordable Care Act, it wasn’t true.

Now we have Donald Trump, the biggest liar of them all. A president is supposed to keep us from the really bad news, but make sure we get enough data to make informed judgements. The president has hundreds of thousands of people who were placed in their jobs to be truth tellers and patriots of America and the Constitution.

I never questioned the Santa Claus myth because there were always presents under the tree on Christmas morning. I was disappointed that a smart guy like Jack Kennedy was manipulated by the CIA to invade Cuba. It was a disaster, but we forgot it because of Kennedy’s resolve during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Nixon was not a pleasant person, so I never believed him. Bill Clinton, although he did many good things as president, was foolish. What if Monica Lewinsky was a Russian spy? That would have been extremely dangerous for the United States.

George W. Bush and Dick Cheney had an agenda of regime change in Iraq because they truly believed that one can graft democracy onto an Islamic country and change the Middle East. They were misguided and their action plan was based on a lie. A trillion dollars and a lot of dead bodies later, they remain historical figures. Really?

Unfortunately, either Barack Obama got bad advice, or he wanted something so badly, that he thought a little white lie would get the bill passed. It worked. The bill passed and is now part of history. Even something that helped people has been demonized by Republicans. Funny what people will believe.

The Washington Post published this today, “Former White House officials say they feared Putin influenced the president’s views on Ukraine and 2016 campaign.” The sources for the story claim that Trump became consumed by the theory that Ukraine and not Russia interfered with the 2016 US election. The story continues, “One former senior White House official said Trump even stated so explicitly at one point, saying he knew Ukraine was the real culprit because ‘Putin told me.’” WTF?

The most disturbing point of this story is that there is no evidence that it’s NOT true, to use Trump’s escape-hatch, double-negative to prove he said something he didn’t say. Remember the original line that Trump said in Helsinki after meeting with Putin one of one, “I addressed directly with President Putin the issue of Russian interference in our elections. I felt this was a message best delivered in person. Spent a great deal of time talking about it. And President Putin may very well want to address it, and very strongly, because he feels very strongly about it, and he has an interesting idea.” I added the bolding, because I think this was when Putin told him it wasn’t Russia, but Ukraine that interfered with our election. Putin planted the seed.

And like the programmed puppet that Trump turned out to be, he then said in Helsinki, “My people came to me, Dan Coats came to me and some others, they said they think it’s Russia. I have President Putin; he just said it’s not Russia. I will say this: I don’t see any reason why it would be.” And with that slip of the tongue, President Donald John Trump gave the President of Russia, a pass on criminal acts. Trump later, after much push back from his own party, tried to correct the record by saying, “I meant to say, ‘I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t be.’” Too little too late. Nobody quoted the correction; everyone saw through the lie.

Putin convinced Trump that Ukraine, a country Putin has been attacking both militarily and propaganda-wise for that last four to five years, was the bad guy. Trump fell for it and that, my friends, is TREASON, which is defined as levying war against the US or adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. Conviction requires two witnesses or a confession in open court. I am sure that if witnesses were compelled to testify, we could find at least two of them willing to admit it’s true. Trump is giving comfort to a known enemy, Russia. He’s adhering to their demands and wishes. Hey, once again, no one will charge a sitting president with this crime, but Trump has committed it.

What else can Congress do? They have impeached him and now we must wait for more evidence to surface in the Senate trial. If Donald Trump is removed from office, it will serve notice to future Presidents that they shouldn’t mess with the people of the United States. Donald Trump may have plucked your heartstrings with his con man crap and false piety, but deep down inside he’s just another liar and politician in league with the devil. Trump must be removed from office. Then America can once again focus on a real enemy of the people, PUTIN! How do I know that the President of Russia is our true enemy? Putin told me!

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MOMENTARY HYSTERIA

Senate Leader Hypnotized by Trump

As many have said and continue to say, President Donald Trump has done nothing to bring the country together. Each day he says or does something which deepens the divide. He was investigated in the House and now we wait for the next move by our legislative branch. This is going to be a long Christmas break, with much digging in and each side repeating their talking points. This country will not move forward with talking points, rally lines or slogans. We need to the truth more than ever.

Now we have the Leader of the Senate, Kentucky’s Mitch McConnell, claiming that Trump’s impeachment is just a “momentary hysteria” by an overzealous Democratic House. But while he cannot and will not classify Donald Trump’s letter to Nancy Pelosi as hysterical, he can cast a stone toward the house that our founders built. Just as Mitch McConnell took a partisan position against permitting Merrick Garland a chance to present himself for the Supreme Court, he is building a wall to keep America from a fair impeachment trial in the Senate. He’s an ally and self-proclaimed unbiased jury. Under any normal court and voir dire, Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham would be struck from the jury pool by both sides in a trial. How can they run a fair and unbiased trial?

When one is angry and perhaps a bit hysterical, they usually act. When one is hypnotized, they do whatever the controller bids. The Senate of the United States better put on a fair and focused trial, or this whole matter of equal branches of government will be sucked down the drain. The checks and balances of our democracy are unique and special. Without the oversight of the executive branch, we will lurch toward a government by one, rather than many. If we don’t have a reasonable, brief and fair trial in the Senate, we will now see the balance of power shift to Trump, who will continue to abuse it. He just can’t help himself.

I am totally miffed that the judicial branch cannot step up and decide things faster on these immensely important issues. Why can’t the Supreme Court rule on whether White House personnel, such as Don McGahn, Mick Mulvaney, John Bolton and others should testify? This is all so important and stressful on the populace of this nation. Why can’t we, the citizens, get a speedy decision? The top court seems to be dragging their feet on judgments that should be easy to make. Does the President have the right to block all document discovery and testimony by key witnesses?

It would be so much more gratifying if some people would admit that Donald John Trump is a bad guy. He attacks people, puts down Americans, lies constantly and is nothing better than an amoral egomaniacal narcissist. There, that gets the personal stuff out of the way so let me now focus on the real danger this man is bringing to our country.

First and most importantly, he’s signing too many executive orders (136) which are not backed up with proper research. Most are favors or promises without knowledge of the long-term effects they will have on America. This is nothing new for the chief executive, but Trump’s moves have done much to harm the environment, commerce, banking, health and welfare. His attempt to eliminate cheap social Band-Aids, while running up the debt, is foolish. The US national debt is $22 trillion. In 2014, the national debt was $483 billion. Trump doesn’t care about debt; he’s declared himself the King of Debt. Trump’s businesses have declared bankruptcy six times. And this is the person we put in charge of the America economy?

There is nothing Trump does that has anything to do with normal governance and long-term stability. He’s the drunken sailor spending tons of money at the casino. Sadly, we cannot impeach or remove a president for bad acts. We can only wait for the next election and vote a worthy candidate into office. That time is coming.

I disagree with Mitch McConnell. This is not momentary hysteria; this is a well-thought-out plan to disrupt a bad choice for President. It’s not momentary. It’s ongoing and will continue until Donald Trump gets what he deserves. It’s not quite hysteria; it’s more like a rush to the finish line. The endorphins have kicked in, and those with the charge to remove will carry on. Someone needs to wake up McConnell and bring him out of his manipulated stupor. Maybe the voters of Kentucky will slap some sense into him.

Donald Trump has been impeached. No one can take that away from him. The history books and the Wikipedia page have been written. God bless America.

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HYSTERICAL & HISTORICAL

Donald Trump’s Confession Letter

In times like these I would rather be on vacation, with a good book and a strong alcoholic drink in my hand. Perhaps laying on a smooth, pure, white sandy beach in the middle of the world, far away from the enraging crowd. Sadly, vacationing is not the business at hand. Today we must impeach a President.

In his missive, which could better be called a missile, launched toward Nancy Pelosi, our asshole president attempted to codify his feelings and rationalize his criminal deeds. Trump has always been a walking cliché, and his words, obviously augmented by the hands of legal counsel, do not clear the air but display his own insecurities and anger. He’s a guilty man, pointing fingers and blaming everyone else for his challenges and problems. Let’s not get sucked into his game. Take it for what it’s worth, for what it is, a confession letter.

There are potentially two broad reactions to this diatribe of defensive writing. If you support this jerk-off president, Trump’s words most likely made you angry at Pelosi and the Democrats. If you don’t like or have never liked the Donald, his letter probably inspired more dislike of the man. So, why did he write the damn thing? Oh, he said he wants to document the situation for readers a hundred years from now, which is funny. Most people won’t read it now and it’s unlikely any will read it in the future. So, what is this letter really all about?

Here’s my take. I suspect that the lawyers explained to Trump that he will not be called to testify in the Senate trial. He will be denied his Colonel Nathan R. Jessep moment, as seen in the movie A Few Good Men, where he gets to scream at everyone. “You can’t handle the truth!” Our imbecile president wanted to get everything off his chest before the vote was cast, before the verdict was in, before people forget he was the 45^th President of the United States. What all of us and those to come will remember is that Donald Trump was the third president to be impeached. Bad things are remembered much longer than good things.

Donald Trump doesn’t understand that he is not the judiciary and not the legislative branch. He’s the President. He thinks simply writing the words “your invalid impeachment” are legally binding. He is wrong. A good number of the 135 executive orders he has signed have been challenged in courts of law. It’s not unreasonable to believe he has a severe insecurity disorder which forces him to amplify his own validity at every turn.

In his disillusionment of what it means to be the President of the USA, Donald Trump has failed to understand that respecting and working with all the people of the country is a prerequisite to achieving respect. His letter to Nancy Pelosi is a last-ditch effort to impede impeachment. More importantly, it will become a historical record that dramatically displays this president’s inability to make peace and bring parties together. Whatever happened to the Art of the Deal? Trump confesses that he has no ability, desire or will to work within the system or with anyone who disagrees with him.

In his letter, Trump once again described his call with the President of Ukraine and admitted it was a proposition, thinking it’s okay to solicit help from a foreign government in his next campaign. He says he did nothing wrong, and should he squeal one more time that it was a “perfect call,” half the country will throw up and demand he be removed from office.

Trump is confused by his role. He truly believes that something that’s good for him is equally good for the country. Trump has equated Ukrainian investigation into Joe Biden as a crime fighting badge. His hysterical letter to Pelosi stands as one of the most defensive and humiliating efforts by any elected president. And with that in mind, let me make a few confessions here.

First, I started writing a book the day Donald Trump was sworn in as president and completed it after his first 200 days in office. Maybe my calling for the impeachment of Donald Trump was presumptuous but let me get this off my chest. It’s okay to dislike the president. As a matter of fact, it’s more than my First Amendment right, it’s great sport in our land of liberty. There were people who hated FDR, Truman, Ike, JFK, and some lunatics out there believe that George W. Bush created 9-11, so my dislike of Donald Trump first as a person and now as president is no big deal. Where does Trump get the misconception that we have to respect him? Oh, I guess that is just another of his character flaws.

Next, Trump’s line “You are making a mockery of impeachment,” almost caused me to fall off my chair. Impeachment is bad for a president, and Donald Trump needs to get over it! Does this man even know the meaning of mockery? The clear truth is you can replace every instance of the words “Democrat” and “Pelosi” in his letter with Trump’s name and BINGO, you have solved the riddle! History will eventually show that Donald Trump made a mockery of the presidency.

Finally, (as if this could ever be the final word from your unpleasant, miserable and cruel old writer) there will not be a fair trial in the Senate for Donald Trump. The harsh reality is that unless Congress passes a “veto proof” law saying that no candidate or president can solicit help in an election from a foreign power, this matter will be thrown out of the Republican controlled Senate. They will vote to acquit him. He will live to scream at us another day and the final blow will come only when he is defeated in the 2020 election. That margin of defeat will have to be substantial, or he will never leave office. He truly believes what is good for him is good for the country. He thinks he’s a demigod.

We cannot leave it here. Let’s tie up the bow on our Christmas impeach present with some extra thoughts and prayers. First, it has been said by Trump and others that the Salem witches had more due process. Well if that’s the case, let’s throw Donald Trump in the Potomac River and see if he floats like the turd he is. One Congressman said that terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan had more due process than what Trump got in the House. Perhaps we should waterboard a confession out of 45 and move this trial along faster.

Trump accuses Ms. Pelosi of “scarcely concealing her hatred” and he challenges her assertion that she prays for him. Really? How would Trump know this unless he has a direct line to God? That aside, I have been wondering why Ms. Nancy would waste her prayers on Trump.

In conclusion, Trump writes about the “damage and hurt you have inflicted upon wonderful and loving members of my family.” I cannot talk to my family about America and our political system because of you Donald Trump. The horseshit you have been heaping on this country for the last three years will be remembered for much longer than your immature, temper tantrum letter. Your millionaire offspring will be fine, you self-serving glob of fat cells. See, you have done this to me. You make me angry every day and I do nothing to conceal it. You have altered my frame of mind and after writing one million words about the infection you have shot into the bloodstreams of America, I can only say that millions of my fellow citizens cannot wait until you are gone from office.

And now, let’s impeach this motherfucker. Hey, Stormy Daniels is a mother. Don’t shoot the messenger.

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FAIR, UNFAIR, FAIREST OF ALL

Trump’s True Colors

In the 1937 Walt Disney movie Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, every morning the Evil Queen asks, “Magic mirror in my hand, who is the fairest in the land?” The mirror always replies, “My Queen, you are the fairest in the land.” The Queen is always pleased because the magic mirror never lies. And who might that Queen be in Donald Trump’s brain? Who is always right and who never lies? Is there any sort of inner moral fiber in this shell of a president when it comes to hearing anything other than how fair he is and that any evil comes solely from others being unfair to him?

Who can name any person other than Donald Trump who is so obsessed with things being fair? It’s his go to word for anyone or anything he feels is treating him poorly. Have you noticed that things are either black or white with the Donald? Matters are fair or unfair, and only he gets to decide. He’s fairer to white people than people of color. Does that make him the fairest in the land? He likes rich people better than poor people, with no empathy about the unfairness the world brings to the disadvantaged. Given more power, he would reopen closed asylums to incarcerate all the “crazy people.”

If he had a totally free hand to take action against homeless people, he would find an unfair way to get all of them off the streets and hidden from sight. In his small pea brain, that would be making America great again. He expends no energy to understand the root causes of homelessness. His only desire is eliminating those ugly blue tarp tents.

I have been accused of being unfair to our great blond leader, the fairest in the land, but I am not his magic mirror and I can only reflect what I see back on him. His true colors, if such is even possible for a man who slathers on so much tanning cream that he has turned orange, are rather dark. Trump truly believes most things are bad and only he can make them better.

In a tell-all interview, undocumented housekeepers at his resorts have disclosed what Trump rubs on his face. It’s Bronx Colors face makeup from Switzerland. He demands that it always be at the ready, two containers on standby with one always being no less than half full. Go figure. The maids have to regularly bring new shirts from the pro shop because of the irremovable rust-colored stains on the collars. There is even a rumor that Melania has a separate washing machine at the resorts. They don’t sleep together so why should their laundry intermingle?

We will be hearing from Trump on TV and on Twitter about how unfair this whole “impeachment thing” is, even though all of it could have been avoided if he wasn’t such an asshole. He kept suggesting impeachment was going to happen, and now it’s happening. Oh yes, it’s happening all right. Yes indeed!

Trump would be a great study for Dr. Sigmund Freud. Perhaps the esteemed doctor would uncover a “King Lear syndrome” from the tragedy of the same name. In that Shakespearean masterpiece, King Lear exploits power and deceit among families through the flawed relationship between him and his three daughters. There is the damaged relationships between Trump’s three sons and three wives. Or perhaps Trump is more like Snow White, with the Seven Dwarfs being the yes-men he keeps in tow. I advance the notion that Trump has not led a normal life, and he cannot relate to normal people. He’s the clown of Queens, mentally crippled and incapable of being a worthy president or leader.

The words and laughter about our president caught on open mic and camera by the leaders of Canada, France, Great Britain are telling. Trump used the word, “two-faced” to rebuke Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. That term two-faced describes a person who pretends to be your friend but talks despairingly about you after you have left the room. You know, like Trump. The leaders of the other countries were simply saying that Trump talks too much. Even with protocols in place to avoid wasting the time of powerful leaders, it was more important for Trump to talk and talk and talk. That was unfair to the other leaders. Trump left early because his feelings were hurt. Poor baby.

Trump will obsess on getting a fair trial in the Senate during his impeachment ordeal. If he was the least bit smart, he would simply ignore it and attempt to make the most of whatever is left of his flawed presidency. The sad truth is he will not and cannot. The number of his tweets has grown to a ridiculous level — really, 101 tweets in one day. Isn’t the guy president? Doesn’t he have more important things to do? Even crazy people are starting to think he’s crazy.

No, Trump is not even close to the fairest of them all. At best, he’s a painted lady who is more an “apprentice president” than a demonstrative diva. The characters in this play are rich and diverse, but in the end everyone will turn against him. He’s just not good for our country. The stock market is a giant Ponzi scheme that will eventually turn on Trump, as well. The balloon is over-inflated.

What is fair and unfair? Has Trump been treated fairly by the media? Well, yes, in the beginning with billions of dollars of free airtime. But somewhere along the way, the news outlets figured out that they have been lied to so many times that they began to look like idiots. The only network that falls for every lie is Fox News, but they are not a journalistic institution. They are a propaganda machine which runs tons of commercials and makes incredible income by feeding the “silent majority” the harmful lies of a vacuous man. Fox News is the very mirror that Trump uses for validation every morning. The puppets on Fox smile and verify, “Yes, oh great leader, you are the fairest of them all!” The poison of avarice and greed flows through Donald Trump’s bloodstream all day long and drives him to think only about what is good for him. Remember that King Lear, upon discovering that his beloved daughter has died, himself dies in grief. In Snow White, the evil Queen, after being chased by the dwarfs, dies when she slips while climbing the mountain and falls into the sea. Whichever fairy tale or drama you want to use, the saga of President Trump will not end well.

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PRESIDENTIAL PRECEDENTS

Trump’s Ultimate Shame is Coming

We are hearing the word “precedent” quite frequently lately. A precedent is nothing more than an earlier event or action that is regarded as an example or guide to be considered in subsequent, similar circumstances. The thought that something should be considered, however, doesn’t mean it should be thought of as the absolute solution or outcome.

One of the aspects of law that makes it easier, and some might suggest fairer, is a judge considering how things were decided in an earlier case and study the previous judge’s logic when constructing their new decision. As we’re in the thick of presidential impeachment activity, we are hearing many examples from impeachments of the past. What is most stunning in all these pronouncements is that the number of previous impeachments is only three.

People can examine what happened to Richard Nixon, but he was never impeached. It was the threat of impeachment that drove him from office, not a conviction. His party leaders informed Nixon he had only 15 Republican votes against impeachment in the Senate. Certain to be removed from office, Nixon resigned in shame.

Then there are the impeachment proceedings of Presidents Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton, but neither was removed from office. Johnson was acquitted by only one vote, while Bill Clinton got 45 guilty votes on one charge and 50 on the other. Two-thirds of the Senate must vote guilty before a president is removed from office. Clinton did have to pay penalties in state court cases and lost his license to practice law for life. He also served two-terms as President, but the shame of perjury hangs over him to this day.

In the latest Fox News polls of December 8-11, 2019, 50% of eligible voters said they favored Trump’s impeachment and removal. In those same polls, 53% claimed they thought Trump abused his power, while 48% said he obstructed Congress. I might remind our readers that this is a Fox News poll.

From the time the Donald officially declared he was running for President in June of 2015 through the first two-and-a-half years of his presidency, Trump has tweeted over 17,000 times. These are considered official statements by the President of the United States and they open him up to some harsh criticism from the press and the public. Trump’s tweets more than likely contributed to this impeachment mess in which he’s ensnared.

Historians are being called before the shiny microphones and HD cameras. They can fill us in on what has happened in the past but, let’s get real. Impeachment is not the normal process of our government. Donald John Trump is no more able to use the precedents of previous impeachments than certain people in Congress can ignore all the findings in the Mueller Report.

The two articles of impeachment that the House Judiciary Committee have drawn up, are extremely straightforward. They are ARTICLE I: ABUSE OF POWER and ARTICLE II: OBSTRUCTION OF CONGRESS.

For the first one, it’s clear that asking a foreign government to do anything that would distort or corrupt our process of electing officials is an abuse of power. One thing stands out to me. Trump spent two years telling us he didn’t collude with the Russians to disrupt our 2016 electoral process. He kept repeating that because he knew that his actions constituted a high crime and misdemeanor. He showed the world that he knew soliciting help from a foreign government was unlawful, and he denied wrongdoing over and over. In a rather amazing blog called Lawfare, you can read all of Trump’s statements and tweets on Russian, Putin, et. al. According to this site, the phrase of “no collusion” was transmitted more than 136 times.

Clearly, we have evidence that Trump believed that “colluding with a foreign state” was wrong because he kept telling us he was not guilty of that charge. So, what happens next? He does it again. That is exactly what he was attempting with Ukraine’s new president. He was colluding with a foreign government to help himself in the 2020 election. He even admitted to it on the south lawn of the White House. His partial transcript demonstrates that he asked for something in return for something. He was using the military aid as the bribe to get something, “a favor,” he wanted. Used in the context of that conversation, a “favor” means giving someone something that they wanted.

As for the second article of impeachment, Trump has done everything he possibly could to block witness testimony, conceal documents and not testify himself. Even Bill Clinton testified during his own trial, but the lawyers always cherry-pick those precedents that benefit their case.

All those who want to make this more complicated that what it actually is are mistaken. All those who see it only as a “political act” are wrong. There is nothing more definitive and legally determinative than removing a president from office. Will it hurt the country? Sure, but then what kind of country do we want to have? What kind of lawless executive office do we want to construct for the future? If we overvalue precedents, those mistakes could be codified into law. Trump is guilty of obstruction of Congress and should be removed from office.

In the end, if we think a president’s income taxes should always be in the public domain then we must pass a law that demands it. We should not sit back and complain about people not testifying before Congress after they ignore a subpoena. They should be arrested and imprisoned until they comply. Some reporters are jailed when they don’t reveal their sources. Why are our political appointees insulated by some executive branch cloak of protection? If our country is based on law and order, then let the laws protect the people from a president and all his men who are lying to us. They must come forward and testify or be taken out of their positions. Impeachment is not based on precedents, it’s part of the Constitution and was put there for this very necessary reason.

CONTAMINATION OF JUSTICE

Trump’s Stacking the Deck for Himself

There is something right before the very eyes of Donald Trump’s sycophants and political partisans that they cannot see. Their allegiance to the incompetent man in our White House is more important to them than whether Trump is qualified and effective at his job or loyal to our flag and Constitution. The only way a person can achieve and keep a position in the Trump administration requires unqualified support of Trump and his ego power grab. There have always been people who bend to the will of their benefactor, but what we have now are out and out lies for this man. Why?

We are seeing many people in the administration and in Congress openly lying or failing to answer important questions because they do not want to anger the pumpkin in the White House. What do they fear? They dread being fired with the tactics of intimidation and fear Trump used in the production of his inane TV show, The Apprentice. This is a country, our country, and America and must be treated with much more care than an insipid reality TV show.

One of the characters in Trump’s dysfunctional shameful body of enablers is William Barr. For months and months, we have been assaulted with the harangues and tweets from our President about how bad former Attorney General Jeff Sessions was. Trump did all things possible to shame Mr. Sessions resignation, when he could have simply fired him. Maybe the Donald was stalling for time to find the right guy for the job, a political operative rather than a real Attorney General. From his first day in office, Barr has been doing Trump’s dirty deeds. Perhaps his most devious moment was the discoloration of the Mueller Report before it was released.

This week, Barr graced us with his version of the Inspector General’s report on the investigation into the origins of the Mueller Report. Now, after being pressured by Trump, A.G. Barr has once again discounted the findings of the report before it was made public. His goal of amplifying the mistakes of the FBI may have been warranted, but he ignored the over-arching conclusion that the investigation was warranted. He simply stated that it wasn’t, and he ordered his new handpicked investigator, Mr. John Durham, to release a similar statement. Durham’s pronouncement referencing his ongoing investigation, echoed former FBI leader James Comey’s handling of the Hillary Clinton server investigation. Shame on both for repeating the mistake of talking about an ongoing investigation.

When John Kelly left the White House, Trump pushed his responsibilities onto the plate of Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney. This added to Mulvaney’s role as manager of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which handles and releases funds, including foreign aid. And there you have it. The person who said, “Get over it,” attempted to justify political considerations in US interaction with another country. So, the sycophant running the White House and OMB, was maneuvering to avoid any proper scrutiny or review. The good news is that Trump and Mulvaney got caught.

As Trump continues to stack the seats of the judiciary with men and women who think like the great Donald, he is weakening our system of checks and balances. This is not by accident but rather a bragging point that candidate Trump used at his mob rallies. There are those in evangelical movements who say one of the reasons they look the other way with respect to Trump’s language and bad personal conduct is his selection of judges who will expediate the removal of the Roe vs. Wade ruling by the Supreme Court.

Whether in the majority or minority, all of us Americans have rights. We have heard the voices of those debating impeachment saying that Democrats are taking away the vote of the people. Those against impeachment speak about the process denying the vote of 62,984,828 voters. None of them mention that Hillary Clinton, the other person running for president, received 65,853,514 votes. If most of the people within the popular vote are not being served by this president, then the argument of Trump’s vast mandate is not correct.

Look at the most recent polls and you will see the clear facts. On September 16–17, 2019, Ipsos/Reuters surveyed voters in America and found that Donald J. Trump has only 40% approval. According to the latest numbers from FiveThirtyEight.com, 47.5% of the American public support impeachment. Almost half the voters favor throwing Trump out of office, while 60% of the public disapprove of his performance. If he was the CEO of a major public company, he would have been fired years ago.

The poison that Trump has pissed into the punch bowl of American unity is appalling to this American. The Congress, with a Gallup 24% approval rating, only worsens its reputation with their outlandish TV antics. The arguments and apparent love of Donald Trump is repugnant. And as we all know, love is blind. Most of the Republicans are blinded by the light of lies spewing from Trump’s misshaped little mouth. It’s time for change America!

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VINDICTIVE VAMPIRES & VULTURES

What Saint Trump Has Wrought

This is the time of the year when we are supposed to be thankful and feel inner peace on earth and goodwill toward men (and women). Sadly, this is not what is happening in the United States of America. We are not united, and we seem to be in a state of utter disagreement. There are some who will confront me for putting too much blame on Trump for where we find ourselves, but may I say that, like most viruses, hate has a dormant state and can be released and brought to the surface by the agitation and enabling of just one person.

Trump and his associates are vindictive vampires, sucking common sense out of half of the country, and something or someone must stop them from ruining the fabric of our nation. The vultures are circling democracy, not quite sure if it’s dead, but ready to pounce on the carcass for their self-dealing and personal gain. This is what you get when people are stimulated into selfish gains and myopic political views by the dangerous demigod in the White House. Donald Trump is an evil man with selfish intents and purposes. He cares less about the America people and more about his ego. This motor inside his mind has stolen any empathy he might have once had. He lets others do the vampire work and watches as the vultures take what they want from the roadside.

What I find supremely disheartening is that most thinking people predicted that we, as a country, would be deeply divided by the election of Donald Trump, but they were rebuked by the early sycophants and cult-like followers of this loudmouth lunatic. Shouting down, shaming and shunning is a cancer on the populace that makes blood pressures soar and tempers peak. Why should we have to live with this kind of insanity?

If I point out what is wrong with Donald Trump, I am harshly labeled a trader or “never-Trumper.” I guess that’s an accurate description of me. I have never been a Republican and have always viewed Trump as a TV clown, mediocre businessman and half-baked P.T. Barnum wannabe. I blame the press, NBC TV and cable news for making Trump seem more legit than need be. What were they thinking when they covered every one of his campaign appearances on live on TV? They gave Trump more than a billion dollars of on-air coverage. For what?

Maybe I can be rightly critical of my journalism brothers and sisters for making a mountain out of a mole’s asshole, but there is no turning back now. There must be thoughtful and public analysis of what this kind of aggressive and argumentative activity will do to the country in the long-term. Are we that lame and recalcitrant that we cannot even hear the other side of an issue?

I used to travel the world in my business and I was always ashamed at people I labeled, “ugly Americans.” They believed that the louder they talked the more someone who didn’t speak their language would understand. When they didn’t get the result they wanted, they would pitch a “hissy fit” for all to see. I always tried to intervene, but some of those vacationers were beyond help. Their pushy, bossy and unnecessary reputation makes people from other countries dislike us and distrust our motives. It comes off as brash, self-centered and unkind to many.

Trump is the embodiment of such a person. He is discourteous, discomforting and disorderly at every turn. When three American Navy seamen were gunned down at a Navy Air Station in Pensacola last week, he focused on what the Saudi King had to say about the tragedy rather than comforting those Americans who lost loved ones. He led with the phone call from the tyrant king, rather than reaching out to the parents of our fallen heroes.

Every time Trump speaks, his words divide more than help. At a speech last Saturday at the Israeli American Council National Summit in Florida, he referred to Jewish voters in the real estate business as “brutal killers” who will vote for him to dodge a wealth tax. He went on to claim, some Jews “don’t love Israel enough,” and while the crowd may have chanted “four more years,” his comments were met with much disdain. J Street, a Jewish advocacy group tweeted, “The President of the United States is incapable of addressing Jewish audiences without dipping into the deep well of anti-Semitic tropes that shape his worldview.”

While Trump was personally hurt by the report that world leaders were making fun of him for talking too much, he still suffers from the illusion that he must talk a lot to be an effective communicator. Real killers, like Dirty Harry, are usually brief, low verbal guys who get things done. It’s tortuous dictators who give long-winded speeches, continually repeating themselves, thinking that maybe if they say a lie over and over even God will buy it.

We know that Donald Trump’s actions or inactions have caused death. Ask the Kurds. Ask the airmen in Pensacola. Ask the Ukraine mothers who lost sons and daughters while they waited for US Aid. These situations are Trump’s fault and I blame him for all the hate and attacks against religions and minorities in this country. We should remove him from office and see if the crime reseeds. What do we have to lose? Just a pompous, lard ass bully!

The vindictive nature of this administration is shameful. I truly hope that after we are rid of Trump, those in his White House will never have another government job. They are part of the cancer of division. Trump may be the godfather, but the whole mafia must go as well. And here’s one more thing. His kids also should NEVER BE IN GOVERNMENT. I guess I am just being vindictive. Where did I get that?

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REAL ENEMIES IN THE WORLD

Trump’s Troubling Achilles Heel

Donald Trump didn’t fight in the Vietnam war because he claimed to have bone spurs in his feet. Today, as we witness the decay of democracy before our very eyes, we discover Trump’s true weakness, a troubling Achilles Heel. He doesn’t know the difference between an ally and an enemy. This could possibly hurt American interests in many ways, and something must be done.

It has been discussed ad nauseam that there may be an unusual and disturbing relationship between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has said, “All roads lead to Putin” with our President.

The Moscow Project, an initiative of the Center for American Progress Action Fund, issued an update on June 3, 2019 that documented 272 contacts, including at least 38 meetings, between Trump’s team and Russia-linked operatives. None of these contacts were ever reported to the proper authorities. When the Inspector General’s report comes out on Monday, December 9^th, 2019, we will learn more about the start of the “Russian thing,” as Trump calls it. Still, many of Trump’s comments and moves indicate a lack of transparency in his dealings with Putin. Why?

Trump’s failure to admit that Russia interfered with the 2016 election fuels the idea that Russia must have something on him. Trump’s repetition of Putin talking points on many foreign policy issues ignites negative emotions in members of the US intelligence community. Their jaws drop and evoke the rhetorical question, “Who’s side is he on?”

Trump looked the other way when the CIA told him that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman (MBS) ordered the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi and that it was the Saudi government who killed him. This callous president admitted he looked the other way because there was a large order for military equipment pending. What will he say when he learns that the active shooter event at a Navy Air Station in Pensacola, Florida was the deed of a Saudi national? So, we sell them jets, they come here to train and then one of them decides to kill our citizens. Who is the enemy here, Mr. Trump?

Trump read the response to the Navy base deaths from King Salman, who said that the attack was “barbaric.” Mohammed Saeed Alshamrami, a Saudi National, allegedly killed our people with a handgun. Whether death by use of a handgun or a bone saw, the Saudi’s moral viewpoint of death has no credibility. Trump did the awkward sword dance, sold a bunch of planes to the Saudis, then looked the other way after multiple murders. Not to mention that it was Saudi pilots trained in Florida who flew planes into New York and Washington, D.C. buildings in 2001. According to the Washington Post, “As of Friday, (12-6-2019) there were 852 Saudis in the United States for Pentagon-sponsored training related to security cooperation.” And this just in, the handgun was purchased legally here in the US by using a loophole in our gun laws.

Let me say this in the most explicit way I can. Trump is trusting the wrong people in the world and it’s getting people killed. Now, Kim Jong-Un, another of Trump’s pals, is threatening to give the United States a “Christmas present.” Why doesn’t someone tell Trump to stop believing his own bullshit! What does it take to convince everyone that Donald Trump is BAD FOR AMERICA!

Trump has decided that anyone who didn’t vote for him, or any person or institution that challenges him, are the “enemy.” He declares that the press is the enemy of the people, a quote from such great “leaders” as the Soviet Union’s Joseph Stalin, who used it to describe anyone critical of himself. The phrase has been routinely used by authoritarian rulers as well as Donald Trump. Who would ever want to be associated with Stalin?

Trump demonizes people with his snarky and libelous tweets. Does he feel above reproach because of his position? Does he not understand that after leaving the office of the presidency he could face courts for defamation, slander and corrupt intent? He is not immune.

Russia doesn’t want our way of life to shine. Putin detests the spread of democracy fearing that one day he could be rejected and thrown out of office. MBS and his King father will kiss Donald Trump’s fat ass to get what they want, knowing the Orange One will never hold their feet to the fire. It’s sad to say that our president is a coward when it comes to Russia, North Korea, China, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and, yes, the NRA.

Trump has done nothing to make America safer from mass shooters, neo-Nazis, radical white supremist groups and homegrown terrorists. He freezes during the most tragic times. He works harder at placing blame and fabricating scapegoats than analyzing problems through solution-based logic. He speaks then retreats, listening to the sycophants. He has a perverted concept of friends and enemies, and his actions are based solely on whether he thinks someone likes him. What a fucking asinine fool.

The President of the United States must keep America safe. He or she must bring certain clarity to the job and make sure trusted advisors are heard. Without such vision and trust we have an obese old guy talking dirty shit-lies. Donald Trump is so stupid that he doesn’t understand how bad people are manipulating him. Rudy Giuliani is a bad person. Vladimir Putin is a bad person. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is a bad person. Making matters worse, most of the people left in Dickhead Donald’s administration are spineless yes men with no moral grounding or intelligence. You know it’s bad when a liberal like me is saying I wish John Bolton was still around the White House. It’s a dim time in America. Impeachment is fine, but a landslide election defeating Donald Trump would be the best outcome for our republic.

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TURLEY BIRD A WHIRLING

Trump is just another brick in the wall

If we could hear every conversation of every president, we would probably gasp at some of the stupid mistakes they make. Perhaps we would impeach the lot of them. In my lifetime, there have been several that I would have voted for impeachment if I sat in the Senate.

History has a way of making everything somewhat less dramatic, even though it’s the basis for much of our theater. Shakespeare retold stories from history in such an elevated manner that they lasted for centuries. With the extremely real plague that conquered much of Great Britain at the time, Shakespeare escaped to Italy which influenced All’s Well that Ends Well, Antony and Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, The Merchant of Venice, Much Ado About Nothing, Othello, Romeo and Juliet, The Taming of the Shrew and others. Some would argue he didn’t need to live in Italy to produce those plays, but his experiences influenced his writing and the flavor of Italian culture is now part of history.

Back to today’s Washington; I suppose the four Constitutional scholars who were summoned to Congress were there to explain the Constitution to a bunch of politically charged and highly biased men and women of the House Judiciary Committee. Wouldn’t they already know what the Constitution and the Bill of Rights says? After all, the swore an oath to protect them or was this latest hearing just more drama and theater?

What we got was four hand-picked professors pontificating on what it all means and whether Donald J. Trump should be impeached. Was it educational? Yes. Was it helpful? In some ways, yes, but mostly it was more chest pounding and finger-pointing by the same big mouth know-it-alls in Congress. What would sweet William Shakespeare write about this calamity of the staining of the presidency? Would he spare us sharp barbs bound for this ill-fitted blue suit wearing fool named Donald of Queens? This golden boy Trump doth lie at every turn and cares not for his subjects as much as the fawning flattery that shines down on his golden hair from fools and dictators. But let’s get real. He’s just a damn president.

I watched the proceeding with an attempt at objective analysis, but once again found myself realizing that neither Republicans nor Democrats are capable of un-biased reason. They don’t deserve to decide who should be president or, for that matter, what the laws of the land should be. As I said in my book, Gold, God, Guns & Goofballs, they are all corrupted fools… or, as I call them, Goofballs.

Three of the professors were totally convinced that Donald J. Trump committed either treason, bribery, or high crimes and misdemeanors. The fourth person, Jonathan Turley, a lawyer, legal scholar, writer, commentator, and legal analyst in broadcast and print journalism from George Washington University Law School, is not convinced that Trump’s malfeasance is thick enough to deport the Donald back to New York, or Florida. The other three believe his guilt is thick as a brick and, as the song goes, ”Your wise men don’t know how it feels, to be thick as a brick.” Was Turley’s thin-as-a-wafer attempt a religious reference? I think not.

Pink Floyd sang, “We don’t need no education,” but that didn’t stop Professor Turley from mounting a flimsy defense of Trump, saying that the process should be slowed down and more evidence established. A rush to judgement is never a good thing in court cases and executions, but Turley failed to point out the two biggest problems with Donald Trump, his lies and secrecy.

The 45^th President is in contempt of Congress. Blocking documents and testimony is the most obvious form of obstruction. Just as the pro-Democratic professors are emphatic about Trump’s unfitness for office, Turley allows himself to ignore certain realities. We will not get more evidence unless Trump releases the grip on his aides and documents. Turley argues Congress should go to court to seek that additional information. Okay, but isn’t an impeachment in the House its own court? That is how it’s presented in the Constitution. Why does the Judiciary have to decide what the “Judiciary” committee can see? They should just order it. If he doesn’t provide evidence, impeach the son of a bitch.

Trump likes walls and he has constructed a huge barricade between himself, Congress and the Courts. Yes, Donald Trump is executing a good old power grab by the Executive Branch in broad daylight. And when the dust clears, Presidents in the future can simply say, “Well, you let Trump get away with it, and he wasn’t even a good president.”

As evidenced in my book that urges Congress to impeach the bum, as well as a million words about Trump misgivings on this blog, I have been very clear from day one that I will be extremely happy the day Trump packs his bags and walks out the door. My disdain, however, didn’t start with his presidency. I lived in New York and was able to see his buffoonery almost every day. I hated the concept of the Apprentice TV show and never watched it. My deep-seated dislike for this man is simply personal. I just don’t think he’s a good person.

Politically, Trump’s coalition was put together with negativity toward the system, conspiracy theories and the division of people into US and THEM. What Trump is slowly finding out is that one must work within the system to get things done. When what you do is not legal, you will be stopped. The retweet of conspiracy theories is beneath the dignity of the presidency and chips away at Trump’s credibility with world leaders. They mock him when they are not on camera, or when they think they aren’t on camera. When does Donald Trump plan to unite the nation? NEVER. It’s just not important to him. What kind of president is that?

Impeachment is not an “insurance policy” that we cash in when we don’t like a president, it’s a remedy to remove a bad person from office. The farmers in the Midwest know that things were better when they could freely trade with China. The people on food stamps, who will now be motivated to not only get a job, but vote, will show their disdain for this president. And finally, there is a greater good in most Americans who want someone better. They want a real leader who is focused more on keeping our country great, than tweeting arguments, lies and put downs. Trump’s just an old brick in his own wall who doesn’t mesh with the fabric of America. We don’t need a king, we need a statesman.