WHITEWASHING IN WASHINGTON

Trump’s Defense Includes Large Dump of Manure

I’ve always been frustrated and impatient with the sluggish movement of government, but most historians agree that the framers wanted us to slow down and think things through. Transparency is good; secrets are bad. Law, especially Constitutional law, is often more interpretive than specific. What’s happening in the Senate Impeachment trial of Donald John Trump is frightening. The arguments on procedure by Trump loyalists have turned into downright obstruction and mendacities.

First, let’s start with the witness situation. John Bolton, or someone in the government, leaked comments from his book which set off a firestorm of dissent in the Republican ranks. Trump’s Senior Director for Records, Access and Information Security Management sent John Bolton a letter that said that “substantial parts of his book contain classified information” and cannot be published until further review. Yes, America, Trump is now thumbing his bumpy nose at the First Amendment. If you thought all those panicked people who said Trump was on his way to becoming a tyrant were overreacting, you need to recalibrate your shit detector.

Then there’s Alan Dershowitz, an elite douche bag who claims that if the president of the United States believes that being reelected is in the “public interest,” anything he does to that end is legal and not an impeachable offense. That begs this question. If a candidate acted illegally to get elected the first time, would it be okay if they truly thought it would help them win the election? The answer is NO and the sitting president is acting above the law. Dershowitz wants a place on the Supreme Court and his trial antics are designed solely to please Trump. Alan and Ken Starr bring useless opinions to these proceedings. Both are totally partisan and their comments on the matter of Donald Trump’s impeachment and their actions do more to hurt justice than promote it.

To make sure we all manage our emotions and expectations, on Friday January 31, 2020, the Senate of the United States will vote to acquit Trump and he will do his victory lap at the State of the Union on February 4th. America will become even more divided and the smirks on the faces of Republicans will drive Democrats crazy. Maybe they will work an all-out blitz to defeat Donald Trump in November, but which Democratic candidate has the juice to beat Trump to the ground?

The Democratic party is unique because of its many groups, feelings and philosophies. It’s the party of minority groups and those interested in social justice for all. The dynamic is simple. Some people are altruistic and others are clearly in it only for themselves. Republicans say they care about healthcare, education, science and climate change, but their actions speak otherwise when they help big pharm, downgrade education, ignore science and derail productive ideas on climate change.

So, the difference between the two parties isn’t that one is less patriotic; they both want America to succeed but they just don’t think in the same ways. They never will.

The whitewashing happening in this trial of Donald Trump is a clear indication that herd mentality and party loyalty are far more important than justice or truth or even facts. Whitewashing is the perfect word. It means to gloss over or cover up vices, crimes or scandals or to exonerate by means of a perfunctory investigation or through biased presentation of data. Is it unique to America? Not hardly, but when it happens in broad daylight and on national TV, it begs the question, why is this happening?

Why did our country spend $32 million on the Mueller investigation? Why did we bring charges against Donald Trump for using his office to force another country to announce an investigation that will help his reelection? Why are we ignoring the larger problems of Donald Trump? It’s not as if the Democrats of the House of Representatives didn’t present an easily understood case against Trump. It’s the system, baby. Donald Trump is hurting America in so many ways every day, but no one is guarding our democracy.

The system, as our great orator Donald Trump has decreed, is rigged. However, it’s Trump who is in the driver’s seat and orchestrating the crime. He’s in violation of uncountable rules and regulations but no one steps up and challenges him. He should NOT be having his family members working in the White House. He should NOT be redirecting funds without Congress being involved and he shouldn’t be making money by being President. It will eventually be known how much cash has been funneled through his properties because foreign nations want to be on his good side. Wait, Donald Trump has a good side?

The reaction of Trump’s personal lawyer, Jay Sekulow, on whether the President’s defense team would go along with any decision Chief Justice John Roberts, makes on witnesses, was “No, we will not accept that.” Why the fuck does a slick Scarsdale lawyer in a Senate trial get to stand and say he would not abide by the decision of the Chief Justice? In a real trial Mr. Sekulow would have been held in contempt and ushered out of the courtroom. These Trump people are not law-abiding citizens.

Here it is folks. The Republicans in the US Senate, the Chief Justice, with his hands tied behind his back, and 42% of the American public are about to codify the notion that the President of the United States is above the law. Tragically, there is NOTHING we can do about it. Maybe they will bring in Mick Mulvaney to gavel out the proceeding on Friday with his famous line, “Get over it!”

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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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STRANGE BREW OF POLITICS

Trump’s Impotent Defense and Broken Oath

Why do we stretch things out? Perhaps another question with equal validity is why are we so impatient? Americans want answers to questions on the double. We marched to the other side of our country, and once we got there, we found other countries to control or take over. We have not been a fair actor in world history. Oh, sure, we hold up our great victories, but there have been many “Iran-Contras” along the way.

As we debate the absurdity of whether there should be witnesses in the Impeachment Trial of Donald John Trump, we cannot see the forest for the trees. We are fed a constant string of overanalyzed misconceptions, and most people would simply like to turn off the TV and get back to a normal life. You want that? Well then, elect a boring hard-working serious person to run the country. That wouldn’t end the petty in-fighting and political sport, but it would at least give us a chance of being neighbors again.

The tiresome, fallacious account of what happened between Trump and the new Ukrainian President presented by the Donald Defenders in the Senate isn’t worth examining. With no evidence or witnesses, the trial is a farcical façade. If you look behind the elaborate front wall, you see it’s merely a painting with only two slanted posts holding it up. Trump admitted to the deed. Why are we even doing this?

Witnesses provide evidence in a trial. Through witnesses, lawyers attempt to establish the facts that make up the elements of a case. A witness may testify on virtually any matter if the matter is relevant to the issues in the trial and the witness observed or has knowledge of the events to which he is testifying. Calling the Bidens to testify would establish a reason why Trump did what he did, but doesn’t change the fact that it was ALL wrong. He would still be guilty of breaking the American trust. By calling Joe or Hunter Biden to the Senate, candidate Trump would get what he was asking Ukraine to do, stain the Vice President.

A witness must testify truthfully. Before giving testimony in a trial, a witness takes an oath or affirmation to tell the truth and a witness who refuses the oath or affirmation will not be permitted to testify. A typical oath states, “I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God.” Donald Trump has not done this, so everything he says about what happened has zero credibility. Just to remind you, Trump is being charged with Obstruction of Congress, and there is no doubt he has obstructed this case.

Donald Trump took this oath at his inauguration, “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” Only time will tell if the President has truly done his best to “preserve, protect and defend” our Constitution. From my vantage point, he’s done a pretty shitty job at it.

When the President of the United States lies to the citizenry, I am deeply offended. I cannot trust a person who always lies. Most of the world knows they cannot trust the Donald. Even if Trump was at trial under oath, he would brazenly lie to the jurors. That is called perjury, and it’s a felony.

The caldron of lies that Trump and his Republican loyalists have been stirring for the last three years is more than despicable. It’s downright un-American. Those who say they must protect “their” president (or party) over the Constitution and truth itself are nothing more than witches. Of course, Donald Trump has said from the beginning this whole thing is a “witch hunt.”

The tide is slightly turning toward witnesses being called to the Senate trial, you know, like a real trial. Still, that will not change the harangue of the sycophants who, even when caught still on their knees and wiping their lips, deny they are giving pleasure to Trump to avoid pain. Those running for office in 2020 are clearly afraid of Donald Trump.

Who elected these people? One is the guy in the bright red golf pants wearing a MAGA visor at Stein Mart and another is his pushy, obnoxious wife equally decked out. They don’t even realize how silly they look. They don’t comprehend how close they are to violating this oath, “You shall not make idols,” or, “…thou shalt not have any strange gods before Me.” In the end, they will follow their purses and cast curses against those who question the legitimacy of a liar. They are blinded by the light, or is their lack of vision due to darkness?

This dogma is going to destroy democracy. This “Strange brew, will kill what’s inside of you.” If only what was inside of you was a genuine desire for the truth. If you don’t care about truth, then you don’t care about America. There, I said it. Politics are not truth and never have been, but we should be able to depend on the truth in a courtroom. If not, then what are we doing? A fair trial is justice.

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PARNAS: RUSSIAN DOUBLE AGENT?

Trump Susceptible to Groupies & Secret Agents?

This is how conspiracy theories get started. You see things. You add some other data. Then you paste pictures and notes on a wall and connect them with thumbtacks and red string. Any of us can be a forensic scientist, even without training. Bear with me here. This might make more sense as you read along.

First of all, isn’t it shocking that the President of the United States could have dinner at a hotel in Washington, DC, which he happens to own, where two people who have never been vetted by the Secret Service, State Department or FBI are dining with him and discussing foreign policy? And would it not be even more astonishing if one of those guys recorded what President Donald John Trump said? Yet, it happened.

On October 9, 2019, those same two men were taken off a plane and arrested at Dulles International Airport before departing to Europe with one-way tickets. The two men are Lev Parnas and Igor Furman. The next day, this headline appeared in the Washington Post: Two business associates of Trump’s personal attorney Giuliani have been arrested on campaign finance charges. Before this happened, no one in America ever heard the names Parnas and Furman. But hold on. The next steps in this caper sound like they’re from an incredible spy novel.

When asked about the two gentlemen, Donald Trump, in performed style, said he didn’t know them and, if they are clients of Rudy Giuliani, then the press should ask Rudy about them. So, there’s the opening of yet another dirty chapter in the pathological lying and dangerous distraction that Donald Trump uses to avoid inconvenient truth. He thought his lying about knowing someone would allow him to escape admitting his involvement in stupidity.

This week, ABC News was brave enough to disclose receipt of a part-video, part-audio recording during a dinner at the Trump International Hotel where Trump, his son and others dined. The recording, likely made on April 30, 2018, are revealing. According to his attorney, Lev Parnas’ partner, Igor Furman, made the recording. You know, like spies do. On the recording, it appears the two Giuliani associates are telling Trump that the US ambassador to Ukraine has been bad-mouthing him, which leads directly to this Trump outburst, “Get rid of her! Get her out tomorrow. I don’t care. Get her out tomorrow. Take her out. OK? Do it.”

Let’s stop right here and think about this. I am sure when Trump said, “Take her out,” he wasn’t talking about dating her. It’s important to point out that Lev Parnas has no deep knowledge of political and state matters in Ukraine. Oh sure, he speaks Russian and Ukrainian but, according to Wikipedia, Parnas was born in Odessa, the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, in 1972 to a Jewish family. His family brought him at the age of three to the U.S., first to Detroit, and when he was four, to Brooklyn. [Thus, the accent] He was a student at Brooklyn College and Baruch College. He also worked at Kings Highway Realty, where he sold Trump Organization co-ops. That may have been how Trump first came to know of Parnas. In fact, Trump was introduced to this guy so many times that only a fool would believe our fat-ass president’s claim he doesn’t know him. But don’t take my word, read the news. Even though the Donald is such a “stable genius,” he seems to have a serious memory loss when it comes to any nefarious character he doesn’t want associated with him. Trump’s claim he’s has had his picture taken with thousands of people and doesn’t remember Parnas is total bullshit.

Some news outlets are posting a photo and claiming that Parnas slipped an envelope to Trump at a fund raiser. Was that money? Parnas has been granting interviews to anyone who will have him, almost bragging about his closeness with Trump. The world seems to be missing the bigger problem, however. The recording shows how easy it would be for a Russian, or any other country’s agent, to get inside the inner circle of the most powerful buffoon in the world.

Could Lev and Igor be Russian double agents? Who will protect our country from a president making decisions based on information given to him by possible double agents? Rudy Giuliani, the President’s personal attorney, aided and abetted these characters. On the recording, Parnas claims he doesn’t remember the name of the Ambassador he was slandering. Now Parnas admits he didn’t know that US Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch was “bad mouthing” Trump. He even apologized to her on TV. WTF?

So, here’s the latest, stark example of what we feared all along. Donald Trump is the most gullible, misguided and underinformed President we’ve ever had. Forget about “No collusion,” “Read the transcript” or “What I did wasn’t a crime.” This guy is incapable of discerning a play, a lie, a scheme, a plot, or a conspiracy. If a piano fell on his fucking head he would declare, “What a beautiful melody!” as the instrument’s strings vibrated against his skull. He doesn’t know what he is doing.

Let’s sum it up. Two guys, who have never been cleared or investigated by our government, are in Trump’s inner circle giving him misinformation which he then acts upon. How can this President be trusted? What if Igor and Lev have been trained to con their way into our government? What if they are being paid by Dmytro Firtash, a corrupt Ukrainian businessman with ties to the Kremlin? Oh, yeah, they are. Could it be that Rudy Giuliani, in his glaring stupidity, is being played by Russia and Ukraine to orchestrate a regime change in the former Soviet state? You know, start with the US Ambassador and then work their way up to the new President.

I hope you are tacking your red string up to the wall with the pictures of all these characters and the notes you have taken. Rudy Giuliani’s associates were arrested not because they were caught trying to leave the country but because Attorney General William Barr wanted to send a message to Trump that Giuliani was hurting him. Trump is so dense that he cannot read the Russian tea leaves. Giuliani wasn’t arrested on charges of violating the Logan Act because Barr knows he would be fired if he arrested Rudy. That would anger Trump beyond words. If you are curious, The Logan Act — 1 Stat. 613, 18 U.S.C. § 953 — was enacted January 30, 1799 and is a Federal law that criminalizes negotiation by unauthorized American citizens with foreign governments. Violation of the Logan Act is a felony. Perhaps you could say it is “Treason-lite.”

The facts are simple. Russia interfered with our 2016 election with a massive, multi-million-dollar misinformation campaign, which American social media companies made a mint on yet never detected. Trump, the lessor of two evils in many people’s minds, was elected. He and his associates have been under investigation from the beginning of his campaign, obviously for good reasons. There is credible evidence that Trump has obstructed justice and Congress, but more seriously we have someone in the White House who can be played by untalented actors and agents. Sadly, no one in the Republican party wants to admit this. Wow! Where are our forefathers when we need them?

Two thugs and cons got into Trump’s inner circle, spread the lie that Putin wanted to plant, cultivated that falsehood, promoted the conspiracy, convinced the President of the United States to act on it, and Donald J. Trump changed US policies and actions regarding another country. Hey, I’m not a Fox News guy but wouldn’t that mean that Lev Parnas is a double agent? He played the President to pull off Putin’s plan. He was paid by a third party connected to Russia and the actions taken helped another country, RUSSIA! Trump got manipulated by a double agent who he doesn’t even know is a double agent and the Senate is going to give Trump a way out of conviction. They are not impartial jurors and not smart enough to see what is truly happening. The fools in Congress are fake caretakers of the Constitution.

We need to send some thoughts and prayers out to our Democracy. Oh, too soon?

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FALSE TRANSPARENCY

Trump’s Limited Vocabulary & Honesty

There are times when our children ask us a question we cannot, or don’t want, to answer. I remember a time when a teacher of one of my kid’s explained to the class that there wasn’t a Santa Claus. I know, I know, why would she do that? But the fact of the matter is what she said was true; there is no Santa Claus, but I was less than that direct when trying to comfort my kids. I assured them they would still get presents. And so, it goes. There are times in life when we find ourselves face to face with false transparency.

As youngsters, we are introduced to the notion of “little white lies.” You know, untruths which get us out of uncomfortable situations. There is never a penalty for a white lie, with the exception of someone figuring out that we lied to their face and we then lose that friendship. On the grand scale, however, everyone tells white lies. I just have never understood why we attach a color to them.

Our culture involves a reasonable amount of mythology and religious faith to support our believe in self-worth. I grew up in Pittsburgh where we learned about Joe Magarac, a bigger-than-life steel worker. It was folklore, but that didn’t stop parents, teachers, uncles and friends from spreading the story of Magarac. We all need heroes.

We also had Paul Bunyan, who was not real, but perhaps a combination of different historical characters from Canada or France. Johnny Appleseed was a real person, but his story was stretched to fit the amazing feat of him planting millions of apple trees in the Midwest, as if Mother Nature needed help. By the way, she’s not real either.

Donald Trump, unfortunately, is a real person who, for some unknown reason, tells tons of lies. It would be easy to say that he’s suffering from brain damage, but after deep research I cannot find anything that would have caused such an impairment.

Trump is not an attractive mythological character because he frightens children and can never convince more than 45% of the people that his story makes any sense. His birth story has been a lie, his growth through adulthood is filled with failures and false claims and the elderly man now claims to be the smartest of them all, but he delivers no facts to back up the claim and much evidence to prove it’s a lie.

He has a limited vocabulary and repeats trite phrases over and over. He says he loves things, but his actions show he loves nothing other than himself. Now he’s stupidly saying, “I would love to have this guy testify,” when it’s abundantly clear that is not what he wants at all.

If a woman disagrees with him, she’s “nasty” and anything that overwhelms him is “sad.” If only we knew he suffered from some neurological ailment that continually triggers his venom and sadness, we could get him some free help at Walter Reed Hospital. Now let’s address the elephant in the room, transparency.

You see, transparency is a good thing in government. Voters want to know as much as possible about the candidates, the elected officials and how the government actually works. We don’t need to review the Federal budget line-by-line, but we would like the guy who decides where the money is spent to tell us where he thinks the money should be spent.

For example, when the orange baboon on TV keeps saying, “I want clear air and crystal-clear water,” we expect that he is going to make policies and spend monies to facilitate that desire. On the contrary, this president has cut funding to the EPA and relaxed laws so companies can legally make the air worse and the water undrinkable. Once again, false transparency, or as we used to say on the streets of Pittsburgh, “He’s a fucking liar.”

There is a great quote running around the internet from former White House Director of Communications Anthony Scaramucci. According to the Mooch, Trump once admitted that his entire political aura is an act and he cannot believe that people stupidly fall for it. Does that sound like the man who claims he’s the most transparent president for all times? Of course, it does.

America can be a great place and our achievements, quality of life and freedoms are, for most part, amazing. For those following along, “amazing” is better than “great.” Donald Trump is a false prophet brought to our country by the less than great part of America that says greed rules and a person’s ego is all that matters. So, as you watch the 53 soulless senators vote for Donald Trump and make him feel more powerful, know that they are NOT America. When the time comes, let’s vote all of them out of office.

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THE BIG TRUMP TRIAL

John, Mike, Mick & Bill Must Testify

Unless you have been living under a rock, you know a big trial will be starting tomorrow in Washington. This is the trial portion of Donald John Trump’s impeachment. It’s always revealing to use all three names a person has. You know, like John Wayne Gacy and other infamous villains. We need to know their exact identity for some reason.

I have been told that the addition of Trump’s middle name in the impeachment documents was necessary because he was sworn in under that name during his inauguration. We know exactly who the defendant is and there can be no mistake that the Senate is trying Donald Trump, Jr, so we are using our president’s middle name. Silly, really.

The process of drawing up the articles of impeachment in the House of Representatives has been criticized by Republicans, White House aids and Constitutional experts, but surely these controversies will be put to the test during the trial. Hopefully. The facts are there, but few will agree to agree on these points. The House could have called more witnesses and procured more documentation, if the President didn’t stonewall Congress. And here’s another solid fact. Had the House Democrats gone the route of subpoenaing all the witnesses they wanted, the matter would have dragged on in the courts. Probably until the end of summer, when someone would have suggested, Mitch McConnell most likely, that the court should not rule on these witnesses because it would affect the 2020 presidential election. We’ve been here before.

There are some people on the public payroll who took an oath to the United States and the Constitution and who haven’t come forward to testify about these important matters. These issues are so crucial to our foreign policy and corruption in the administration that these public servants have an obligation to tell the American people what they know.

Let’s walk through these voices that have been muzzled by Donald Trump. In a previous post, we pointed out the flaw in having the person who runs the OMB (Office of Management and Budget) also be the Chief of Staff to the President. However, conflict of interest is something the present occupant of the White House doesn’t care about. He’s the actual swamp.

Mick Mulvaney is officially the Director of the Office of Management and Budget and in this quirky Trump administration, he’s also “acting” Chief of Staff. He doesn’t get two paychecks, but he does control the release of funds, such as military aid to Ukraine, and must be questioned under oath about what happened in the Ukraine-gate conspiracy. He’s already admitted on live National TV that there was a quid pro quo with the President of Ukraine, and he urged us to get over it. Okay, what would he say under oath in a Senate impeachment trial?

Next, we have Mike Pompeo, who used to run the CIA and now runs the State Department. As amazing as it might seem, it took him more than six months to be brought into the loop regarding the US Ambassador to Ukraine being intimidated by Rudy Giuliani, There was even possible spying by Rudy’s boys and a campaign to discredit her by nefarious actors. Really? He was the head of the CIA and he didn’t maintain contacts with his team there to find out what was happening in Ukraine? What a poor administrator and Secretary of State. He must be questioned under oath and show the American public if he is protecting our diplomats and ambassadors.

Then there’s William Barr, the attorney general of the United States. Now there are those people who think he the best man for the job. What’s funny about that last line is most of those folks are Republicans, but remember, the Senate confirmed William Barr to be attorney general with a 54-45 vote. 45 Democratic senators saw Barr’s previous writings about the power of the President and the “flaws” he saw in the Mueller investigations and took them as an early indication that Barr’s ideological philosophy would be used to protect Trump rather than being an objective top cop in America. New evidence has come to the forefront that may implicate Barr in the Ukraine conspiracy and coverup. Lev Parnas believes that Trump commanded William Barr, on the advice of Rudy Giuliani, to arrest Parnas and his partner, Igor Fruman, to shut them up. Giuliani and Trump may have worried that once Parnas was out of the country, he would launch a campaign of truthful disclosure that would hurt both Trump and his personal attorney.

William Barr must testify because, without the oversight of the Department of Justice, there is no justice. Barr has already refused to testify and has been found to be in contempt of Congress. Why is he still the Attorney General? He must testify.

And last, but not least, Former National Security Advisor John Bolton must come forward, be sworn and tell his story. We know that Bolton either was fired or quit during heated discussions about Syria, Turkey, Afghanistan and Ukraine. Bolton has said he will testify if subpoenaed by the Senate. Mitch McConnell, leader of the Senate, doesn’t want witnesses, but it may be too late for him to block relevant witnesses. Trump said he would claim executive privilege to keep Bolton from testifying, which any logical person would take as proof that he is obstructing Congress, one of his impeachment charges. It’s not a Catch 22 — a dilemma or difficult circumstance from which there is no escape because of mutually conflicting or dependent conditions — it’s only a trick to keep the public from hearing more damaging facts that would likely come out during testimony.

No matter what happens during this historical week, Donald John Trump will have the stain of impeachment on his permanent record. When you read about him in history books, Wikipedia and the Congressional Record, it will be very clear that Trump was accused of high crimes or misdemeanors and tried in the Senate. In the past two impeachment trials, Senators concentrated on the number of votes and the articles, with little concern for the cult of personality. Clinton beat the rap, while Andrew Johnson was not victorious after winning the trial. His party took him off the ticket in 1868. So, while Trump and his talking heads keep pointing to the fact that Clinton went on to get reelected, they fail to remember how damaging an impeachment trial can be. Look at what happened to Nixon. He resigned before his trial. Will Trump be smart enough to get out before the election, or will he suffer a terrible loss because of the drip, drip, drip of more corruptive revelations?

Trump is dangerous and damaging to our republic. Let’s quote our “great southern statesman,” Lindsey Graham, “I want to put a vigorous case on that he’s guilty for the sake of the rule of law, for the sake of the truth, if nothing else,” Graham continued, “What I’m saying about witnesses is that if you take them off the table in the Senate, the next Judiciary Committee, the next independent counsel ought to do everything, because they may lose the chance to present their case and that would be bad for impeachment law. That would be against precedent, and I hope that doesn’t happen here.”

Of course, he was talking about the Clinton impeachment trial, not Trump’s, Graham is willing to do something bad for America and law. He’s putting party before his duty to protect the Constitution and will go down as one large-ass, feckless hypocrite of all time!

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A REPUBLICAN PLAYBOOK

A Grand Old Trumpean Possibility

These are times which try our souls. As we enter the impeachment zone, some Senators will take it seriously and others will wallow in partisan swamp water and deny, distract and deteriorate the process the best they can. None see a way out of this mess.

With all due respect, many people in Congress would be unsuccessful in the real world. The old expression, “the gift of gab” is at play here. You don’t have to be intelligent or logical while using your talents of persuasion and speech making. People have put their faith in many a slick talker who took their money and gave nothing in return. Many have been elected by their poison, dogma and ideological frothing at the mouth, but that doesn’t make them smart.

If the Senate Republicans were smart, they would see a clear way out of this impeachment insanity by convicting Trump and removing him from office. You might think I’m crazy, but let’s weigh the pros and cons of this matter. Remember, the President is not a pro at being President and he is certain a con. Let’s look at my plan.

Donald Trump has introduced an instability in politics unlike any seen before. Any sleight penetrates his thin veneer and triggers a thunderstorm of tweets. Who wants to live in this world? One of things that helps people gain and hold power is consistency. Imagine Trump being gone. The air would be cleared and the old liners could take their party back.

Listen up Republicans! If you think you got what you wanted in Trump, perhaps you should ask yourselves what was your goal in the first place. The short-term wins of stock market highs and tax cuts make the long-term health of America uncertain. Debt is soaring out of control, and with banks taking billions to the bottom-line will you ever be able to reinstate a reasonable corporate tax code that keeps America solvent? Trump likes debt and he will certainly taint the conservative fiscal responsibility you’ve fed the nation for years. You will be losing ground if you fall in behind Trump.

After Barack Obama won two elections, you performed an autopsy. It showed that losing suburban women, African Americans and Hispanics would lead to your long-term detriment. But you ignored the report and created Trump. You could have stopped Trump early on, but you refused to take another loss. You dirtied your brand just to win. You may have even cheated or let the Russians help Trump. None of you seem to care.

Some of your hard-core sycophants think that kissing the Donald’s big, fat ass will reap earthly rewards. People like Lindsey Graham, Kevin McCarthy, Doug Collins, Jim Jordan believe that a President Trump is better than anyone from the Democratic side of the aisle, but deep down inside they must realize that they are acting and reacting more out of fear than reasonable thought. Jim Johnson, who is currently ensnared in the wrestling sexual harassment controversy at Ohio University, is mostly worried about Trump picking someone from his Republican loyalty list to run against him. That could spell the end of his Congressional career. This is like the person who denies they are racist, yet all of their actions indicate otherwise. Jordan, McCarthy, Collins and Graham need to realize that Trump is their Frankenstein and they now have an opportunity to rid the country and their party of this problem.

Here is a greater cynical vision. Trump is setting up his kids to inherit the job of President, as if the United States of America is a company he bought. We don’t have kings, queens, princes and princesses in America. If the Republicans are wise, they will send the Donald away now while they have a chance.

Here is another thing we must consider. If the Senate was to convict Trump and remove him from office, they also must ban him from holding any other public office. Here’s what the Constitution says:

“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.

Judgment in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States; but the Party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, according to Law.” I’ve added bolding to point out a few things.

Senate members have taken an oath to be impartial and consider all the evidence, facts and reason behind the impeachment. Two-thirds of the Senate must convict in order to remove a president. One would think that the disqualification of holding an office, trust or to profit under the United States would be automatic, but some scholars believe a president can be removed from office, yet not be disqualified from future running. If the Senate convicts, they must disqualify. Trump could pull a Teddy Roosevelt. He started his own party to run against President Taft, which is how we got Woodrow Wilson; not a good president.

In an ironic twist here, it would be so Trumpean for Congress to throw out Trump and fulfill his ongoing paranoia that he would be removed by a trumped-up conspiracy and impeachment. He could run around the world claiming that he knew it all the time. His faltering old voice box could scream about how the American system is rigged and everyone was out to get him. Truth is, most people who truly care about America are out to get him. We may wish him no harm, but we must never give him power again. He’s a fucking liar and loser.

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CORRUPTION DISRUPTION

GAO, Trump, Giuliani, Parnas, Prison

There is something extremely mercurial about the Trump era. The fire of dissent against this president burns 24/7, and I have a theory about why it keeps burning. The media lives to reveal and discover. It’s what makes the fourth estate valuable and it also is what leads to some over-zealous or slanted reporting. The fourth estate is the press in the United States because they observe and report on the political process. They play a crucial role in the outcome of political issues and candidates. They have a creed to source material and convey their findings with the maximum use of truth. They aren’t trying to convince you of their position, but rather deliver enough facts and information for you to decide for yourself. The more lies Trump tells, the more motivated the press and some television outlets become to find answers and truths.

As was pointed out to me recently by my lawyer daughter, there is a clear difference between opinions and facts. Once you start a sentence with the words, “I believe…,” you are not reporting the news, facts or truth; you are simply expressing an opinion. It slays me that judges express their “opinions” while citing previous decisions and the law itself, which makes it a legal opinion. That is why they call it an opinion. But in our system of law and order, once a decision is handed down, it’s no longer an opinion. It’s something you must now abide by.

Today (1-16-2020), the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a decision concluding that the Trump administration violated the Impoundment Control Act (ICA), a law that regulates how the White House may distribute money appropriated by Congress. And with this announcement, they are saying that President Trump broke the law by withholding funds for Ukraine. By now, most people know the back story to how and why this happened. Donald Trump admitted he did it, and even released a transcript of a call with the President of Ukraine to prove he broke the law. So, what happens now?

It’s unlikely that the Department of Justice will open in investigation into this matter, because the Senate is about to begin an impeachment trial of the president. But in normal order, the GAO would have sent a notice to DOJ stating the case and asking for them to open an investigation into the person or persons who broke the law and why. This now brings us to Lev Parvas, Rudy Giuliani and William Barr, and what is appearing to be a conspiracy to hurt Joe Biden.

It’s clear from the interviews that Lev Parnas has been giving in the last 24 hours that he has some very incriminating evidence against Donald Trump. Who is Lev Parnas? Well, it’s complicated.

Lev Parnas is a Soviet-born, naturalized American citizen who lives in Florida and claims he is in the real estate business. He is also an associate of Rudy Giuliani and he allegedly aided Rudy with a search in Ukraine for detrimental information on US President Donald Trump’s political opponents. On October 9, 2019, Parnas was arrested at Dulles International Airport with a one-way ticket to Europe and was charged with planning to direct funds from a foreign government to US politicians while trying to influence relations between America and Ukraine. In short, he is a dirty trickster who was on Giuliani’s payroll.

By releasing a trove of information and evidence about his interactions with Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump’s personal attorney, Parnas demonstrated that he was being directed not only by Giuliani but by the President himself. He also implicated Attorney General William Barr and US Representative Devin Nunes, who is the minority leader on the Intelligence Committee in charge of investigating the entire Ukraine matter. Can you say, “Conflict of Interest?” If what Parnas says is true, both Nunes and Barr were involved in the conspiracy and the ongoing coverup. This whole mess could explode, you know, like a hand-grenade.

If what the GAO claims was breaking the law, all those who aided and abetted that effort are guilty. This means that John Bolton should testify about this broken law, if not before the House or Senate then in a US Federal court. This brings us to the shining gem of this affair, Mike Pence, the Vice President of the United States.

Was Mike Pence part of the plot to get Ukraine to announce an investigation into Joe Biden and his son Hunter? Was Pence used as a tool in the pressure campaign against the President of Ukraine? Pence served in Congress and knows the rules and laws. He certainly cannot say he didn’t know what he was doing was wrong. That would mean that he is totally stupid and unfit for office.

The White House, the Justice Department and Mike Pence’s office all renounced what Parnas said. Might we be facing a bigger Constitutional crisis than we at first thought? With this information on the table, one could say that Donald John Trump has corrupted Congress, Justice and the Presidency with his lies, deceptions and illegal actions. But then, you already knew that. Trump is a nefarious pathological liar who has no business being President. How can we end this farce quickly and peacefully?

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TODAY IS THE DAY

Donald Trump Faces Charges in Senate

Back in August of 2017, 200 days after our current president took office, I wrote my book, Donald Trump: Repeal, Replace, Impeach. I knew then what I know now — to remove a president from office the House of Representatives must first impeach him or her and the Senate must then hold a trial to determine if he or she is guilty. Removal from office then takes places only if the party is found guilty at the Senate trial. It’s a pretty simple process, but a president has never been removed. Why?

The first impeachment of a president was that of Andrew Johnson, who was in a no-win situation. He was on the ticket with Abraham Lincoln right after the Civil War and his main goal was bringing the country together. Johnson was a southern Democrat from Tennessee and Lincoln thought that having a southerner on the ticket in 1864 would be good for the healing that needed to take place after the war.

Republicans took control of Congress when the southern states came back and they were gunning for the Lincoln-Johnson administration. To make matters worse for Johnson, Lincoln was shot at Ford Theater on the night of April 14, 1865. Historians agree that Johnson wanted Lincoln to deal harsh penalties to the “traitors” in the south. That may have been somewhat tempered because Lincoln was killed by a southern radical sympathizer, John Wilkes Booth.

Tensions were high and the southern Republicans wanted to take “their” country back and thwart the freedom of African Americans. When Donald Trump says that what has happened to him is the worst thing that has ever happened to a president, he shows a dire ignorance of historical facts. The 16^th President of the United States was murdered, and the guy who took over missed being thrown out of office by one vote.

Some say impeachment is a political process and not a legal process, but that is quite the understatement. Impeachment does take place in the House and is a political process, but once the articles of impeachment are given to the Senate a trial takes place and that is a legal process.

If you read the charges in the case of Bill Clinton and you examine the Ken Starr document detailing what Clinton did wrong, it’s totally amazing that he wasn’t removed from office. He lied under oath. His perjury stained the reputation of the presidency, yet he survived an impeachment and trial. How did he do it? This is what most experts point to when uttering the cliché that impeachment is political.

It’s too bad Richard Nixon had no trial to convict and remove him from office. That would have given solid ground on procedure and process so that we would have less grandstanding and political game playing by members of Congress.

Senate Leader Mitch McConnell belittled the serious nature of the event by saying stupid things before the articles of impeachment were sent over. Mitch might be trying to con the public and the president into believing he’s on the right side of this, but he’s just a smelly tread mark on the pavement of US history. McConnell simply wants to keep his job and do the bidding of his party, not his state or country. He’s diminished the Republican party and the Senate by declaring he’s not an impartial juror, a statement he can never take back. If Kentucky is smart, they will vote him out.

Now it’s official. The Senate will get the articles of impeachment and they will decide whether Donald Trump’s withholding of military aid to Ukraine and his shakedown of the leader of another country is legal. It’s a little like this question. Do you think it’s okay for the President to allow people and companies to increase pollution? If you answer yes, then you would also believe the President should have more power than Congress and you would probably vote to exonerate Donald Trump.

Today was an important day. Yes, the articles of impeachment were delivered to the Senate, but more evidence has been leaked from Guiliani’s clients. Is there more?

America’s strange electoral college system brought us Donald Trump. And while he basks in the glow of that win, the truth is that Hillary Clinton got three million more votes than Trump. We could change that procedure, but we won’t, and we shouldn’t. Maybe we just need someone to run for president who is honest and wins both the electoral college and the popular vote so we can have a clear mandate. Then we would have no doubt who the President is.

Do I want Donald Trump to leave office? Yes, please dear God, yes. And why do I think that? Well you could read my book but I’ll tell you why right here. Trump should be removed from office because he’s a liar. America deserves better. There are cheaters in baseball, swindlers in business and goofballs in government, but can’t we have someone at the top who really cares about the American people enough be straight and tell it like it is? Someone like John McCain, Abraham Lincoln or just about anyone with real guts and genuine smarts to rally all the people. Oh, shit, I am sounding like an optimist. Before we change the way we vote or our Constitution, let’s just change the guy at the top. He’s done nothing but embarrass our country.

BAFFLING & BUMBLING LEADERS

Trump’s Distraction from Impeachment

Why do we think that leaders will tell us the truth when they enact something extreme such as an assassination? No one has solved the Kennedy assassination. No one has told the truth about the Jamal Khashoggi hit job. We know more about the murders of President Lincoln and President McKinley than we do about what happened in Iraq last week. Why is that?

We might learn Iran shot down a Ukrainian passenger jet that departed Tehran Imam Khomeini International Airport in Tehran on the night of the Iranian retaliation, but we will never get a straight answer from Donald Trump and the gang of liars he has assembled. And what’s up with all the strange statements coming from the Pentagon, Pence and the President? Is this all part of a giant coverup?

Let’s take a closer look at the ongoing misdirect orchestrated by the White House. When something extreme happens, it seems a bunch of people get together and talk about what they can say to make something illegitimate seem valid. Then they transmit the talking points to as many allies as possible, so that everyone can be on the same page. But this breaks down when people feel like they are being used and it’s too obvious that their leaders are clueless, lying or both.

Two members of the Senate, Mike Lee of Utah and Rand Paul of Kentucky, are known libertarians with a conservative bent and both opposed vocally to the approach Trump and his sycophants are taking. Mike Lee took to the microphones after the highly secret security briefing to let it be known that he wasn’t at all happy. He said it was the worst military briefing he’s witnessed in his nine years in Congress. Lee said the officials warned that Congress would “embolden” Iran if lawmakers debated Trump’s war powers and he added, “I find this insulting and demeaning to the office that each of the 100 senators in this building happens to hold. I find it insulting and demeaning to the Constitution of the United States.” It would be good to mention here that Mike Lee is a Republican. He went on, “I find that absolutely insane. I think that’s unacceptable.”

Reporters and those running the company line on almost starting a war with Iran ask dissenters, “What would you’ve done?” The answer is this tired, old redirect. Iranian Major General Qassem Soleimani was a bad guy and it’s good that he’s off the battlefield. No one has asked this. If we knew Soleimani was in Iraq, and we knew where he was going, why didn’t we just surround him, arrest him and bring him to the Hague to face a war crime tribunal? He might have told the world why he did what he did and then we could all better understand what the world is facing. This is precisely why we always try to take a mass shooter alive.

The plain truth is Donald Trump wanted to do something that would make his base love him more and he killed someone to enrich himself. His brainwashed followers are like the illiterates who support a despot in third-world countries. Until Donald Trump’s three sons sign up for military duty, most “never Trumpers” will continue to disrespect him.

Let’s now look at what happened in Iraq after a US drone took out Soleimani. The Supreme Leader in Iran rattled his sword and promised big retaliation against the “great Satan” America. So, it was no big surprise when we saw rockets glowing in the sky above two Iraqi bases housing US and coalition troops, Al Assad and one in Erbil, Iraq. But wait, we know more.

It seems that under an Islamic moral obligation, Iran told the Iraqi government where and when the attacks were to take place. And judging by the precision of those strikes, they specifically hit areas that would not have affected ongoing use of the bases. I am no military expert, but the ballistic missiles took no lives and did no crucial damage. Really? Was this an exercise for their defense department, or just a way to show the accuracy of their weaponry?

The propaganda out of Iran is remarkable. The Leaders there claim that dozens of Americans were killed and that they have slapped the United States. One commentator said it best, “Slap on the face, not really, more like a slap on the wrist.” Trump painted a picture that helped the stock market recover from possible panic, but he made it seem like Iran was standing down after launching missiles at our bases. WTF? Is Trump in league with the Iraqi leaders to let the assassination stand without any international investigation? Was this a pre-arranged revenge stunt?

Mike Pence, Trump’s professional liar, said on the NBC Today Show that the administration believes Iran was trying to kill our troops. Okay, if that is true then why wouldn’t we stick with Trump’s promise to retaliate if any US interest or person was put in harm’s way? When Pence was asked why we didn’t thwart the attack we knew was coming, he pushed the question aside with this fabricated answer.

Pence also doubled down on the amazing myth that the killing of Soleimani has made the world a safer place. Really? Right after you kill him, you order all US personnel out of that country, the FAA imposes a no-fly zone in the region, and you send thousands of troops there. It’s more than baffling, it’s the unfocused and thoughtless methods of a bumbling executive and commander in chief who automatically puts his minions in circumvention mode. And if one could draw a line between the Iranian militia’s actions in Iraq, with the killing of the Iranian General, the retribution of missiles fired into Iraqi airbases and then the shooting down of an Ukrainian jetliner, our actions are responsible for the death of 176 people. We made the place less safe for people not involved in the conflict. Let’s hope that some strong thinkers in Congress are seeing right through this deception.

In matters of war, a President must be honest, direct and open with the American public. Without the peoples’ trust — all the people — we are just another banana republic with our Constitution next to the shredder. Donald Trump cannot be trusted with the nuclear codes. Why is he in power? He’s not going to make the world safer; he’s already made most things worse. Rick Wilson’s book title says it all, Everything Trump Touches Dies.

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EGO TRUMPS LOGIC

A Titanic Failure of Leadership

If Donald Trump’s goal is producing a large volume of talking points for cable news, well then, he’s quite successful. But that is not how he will be remembered.

Trump is like the guy who drives into a gas station, pulls up to the pump, leaves his engine running and lights up a cigarette before pumping fuel. The engine running is bad enough, but why must he always take an additional risk for absolutely no reason? There is no logical thought progression driving the actions, words and policies of the 45^th President of the United States.

We can see that Iran doesn’t like America and especially Donald Trump. We cannot judge our presidents based on the propaganda that other countries send out to the rest of the world. We can parse the moments in real-time, but we should also analyze the effect of all this bravado and hyperbole. The happenings of trade and foreign policy unfold slowly, much like turning a giant battleship in the ocean. It takes a while to right the vessel. But what we see with Donald Trump is self-imposed challenges that he “fixes” and then claims victory after solving the very problems he created.

Within the last year, the Donald has been disengaging from dialog and diplomacy with Iran. The pull out from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action was a campaign promise that the President can brag about, but clearly the man never took a longer view about how things work in the world and what America’s role should be. If somehow Trump believes that he and his “mistake” department have made the world a safer place, I’ve got some swamp water to sell him. And the water is right outside his Oval Office door.

Donald Trump took to the national airwaves to make his case about what is happening in the aftermath of an Iranian General’s assassination. More than two dozen ICBMs were launched into Iraq near two air force bases that house American military forces. By not killing US forces, Iran may have wanted to demonstrate the accuracy of their targeting systems. That’s a strange way to show advanced technology or maybe it was just a propaganda stunt.

The photo taken during Trump’s big speech, with lots of four-star generals standing behind him, seemed disconnected from what is happening in the world. Trump was more interested in justifying the killing of top Iranian General Qasem Soleimani than answering the many questions that were swirling around.

Of note, he’s calling for NATO to get involved, not the United Nations. He asked the other nations in the Iran nuke deal, to pull out, which would give Iran a total green light to build a nuclear bomb. WTF? The good news is Trump seems to be backing from the hawkish-Neo-Con attitude of regime change, but he talked to the Iranian people as if he thinks they will someday see him on TV. Fat chance. Surely John Bolton is losing it.

It appears that Trump wants to use the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action to, once again, blame Obama. Why does he do that? He also repeated the lie that we paid Iran $150 billion dollars. TO BE ACCURATE: we gave them back their own money. How can anyone believe him when he continuously repeats the same lie?

Rather than focusing on how to solve his “brink of war” thing, Trump seems to be waffling back to a political harangue. His thinking is not shaped by knowledge of foreign affairs, Islamic customs and thinking or US political history. He acts without insightful thought, then retreats to his personal dogma. He started with the declaration that Iran will never have nuclear capabilities, demonstrating his lack of awareness of what is really happening. They will have the bomb. The same thing happened with Pakistan; Trump just never studied it.

There is nothing new with our country attempting to change regimes in other sovereign nations. We have more than one hundred years of CIA operations to overthrow Kings and Queens and some legally, democratically elected governments abroad. If you have an interest in learning more, you should read the books of Stephen Kinzer. He has documented many cases where we have either covertly or overtly executed the most outrageous actions to undermine and destroy leaders in countries that didn’t serve our economic or political interests.

In his book Overthrow, Kinzer outlines “the tumultuous century of American-sponsored coups, revolutions, and invasions” from Hawaii to Iraq. Trump’s actions and policies have pushed Iraq into a cycle of violence. With our troops remaining in that country, Iraq faces a potential war. Even if it becomes a lukewarm war, the Iraqi government is justified in asking us to leave.

Anyone with half a brain can agree that Donald Trump is the most inconsistent president we’ve ever had. One day, he wants to blow up cultural sites, then the next day he wants to negotiate a bi-lateral deal that will bring green pastures and flowing goodness to Iran.

Our killing of the top Iranian general has not made the world safer. If Trump was thinking that pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal would get them back to the table for renegotiating and keep them from further nuclear weapon development, he was blind. They will continue to become a more militaristically strong nation and a bigger risk on the world stage. You know, just like North Korea.

This titanic failure of leadership will not be ignored by world leaders. They see Trump for who he is, a fake president whose attitudes, actions and arguments make the world less safe, less economically stable and less connected. So much for this idea that Jared Kushner was going to bring peace to the Middle East. His father-in-law just ended any chances for that. It’s time for a new President of the United States.

REAL COLLECTOR’S ITEM

Even after 200 days in office, we knew what was going to happen. And this blog is now more than one million words about why Donald Trump should be removed from office. Read the book that started it all: Click now.