Monday, December 24, 2018

Betrayal by a man without honor

Trump's betrayal of allies is perhaps the signature characteristic of his presidency.  It started with pulling out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, attacking NATO, pulling our nuclear deal with Iran, pulling out of NAFTA (only to make minor changes and get back in with a different name he can claim credit for).


But now his betrayal of the Kurds in Syria is a new level of betrayal.  Many who have fought side by side with our Special Forces are going to die.  Why did he do it?  As I wrote earlier, he satisfies Russia by turning the Middle East over to them. 


But, as subsequent stories have revealed, he did this infamous deed at the direct request of the dictator of Turkey - Erdogan.  This gives green lights to the Turks and to ISIS. 


Turkey now has full permission from the U.S. to slaughter the Kurds who are fighting to defeat ISIS.  Turkey now has full permission to slaughter Kurds in Turkey.  Turkey now has permission to slaughter Kurds wherever it wants to slaughter Kurds. Turkey sees the Kurds as a revolutionary force inside of Turkey and wants to crush their efforts to create a Kurdish state, as I understand it.  So, let the blood bath escalate, with full permission of our Honorless president.


ISIS of course is not defeated despite the ridiculous Presidential claim.  They have been given a tremendous morale boost by the announcement of U.S. withdrawal.  They have sent waves of suicide missions against the Turkish forces who have been working with U.S. special forces.


David Ignatius of the Washington Post is an expert on the Middle East.  His interview of the Kurdish leader, Gen. Mazloum Abdi, alongside our Special Forces today is disheartening and says obvious truths.


"Mazloum explained the dangers of a terrorist resurgence after Trump’s sudden decision. Islamic State communications last week showed new hope they can restore their caliphate, which was on the way to destruction"..."after this decision, what are people going to say about America? All the credibility and trust that was built, we have lost.”..."With American air support, SDF fighters destroyed the Islamic State’s capital of Raqqa and all its major strongholds. The Kurds and their Syrian allies paid a severe price: They have suffered about 4,000 dead and 10,000 wounded since 2014. Over that same period, the United States lost only three soldiers in Syria, according to a U.S. military spokesperson"..."Mazloum said his forces had suffered at least 27 killed in action since Trump’s abrupt decision, and many more wounded, as a revitalized terrorist adversary sent a wave of more than 10 suicide attacks against Mazloum’s front lines."...“Right now, we are fighting for ourselves, for our existence,” Mazloum said. “Because all our fighters know that if they don’t defend themselves [the Islamic State] will come back and be stronger, murdering and beheading their families.”


I pay special attention to the following statement by Mazloum -


"...after Trump’s announcement, he’s scrambling to open channels with Russia and the Syrian regime, "to fill this vacuum left by America.” 


Note - Russian and Syria will enter the vacuum left by the U.S  - no, the vacuum is not created by the U.S., the vacuum is created by Trump.  Is it just ignorance?  stupidity? a distraction from the Mueller investigation?  Treason? 


A man without honor is turning America into a nation without honor.  WHERE IS CONGRESS?  WHERE ARE THE REPUBLICANS IN CONGRESS?


Speaking of betrayal of allies, anyone who has worked with Trump in his campaign or administration knows full well this pathologically narcissistic man-child will turn on them in an instant - just look at the Kurds.  The Betrayer in Chief is a very dangerous.

Thursday, December 20, 2018

Trump to pull Special Forces out of Syria


Trump suddenly and without warning decided that America is pulling about 2000 special forces out of Syria.  I don’t know if this is wise or foolish. 
 
Why did he do it?  Probably just to distract America and the world from the ever growing criminal investigations into his criminal activities.  The long arm of the law is reaching out for the Criminal in Chief.

 
I think Putin is happy because that leaves Russia as the only superpower in the region and elevates Russia’s influence in the region.   Did Putin order Trump to leave?  He certainly seems to benefit from Trump’s foreign policy, and he seems to me to have some form of control over our president.

 
Who benefits from American withdrawal from Syria?  Putin.  He finally gets his long term goal of being  the sole power broker in the Middle East.  He gets to push America out and put Russia into the power vacuum.

 
Who benefits?  The murderous Syrian president, Assad (fully supported by Putin) because the Americans have been helping the anti-Assad forces.

 
Who benefits?  Iran and their support for and control of Assad.

 
Who benefits?  The authoritarian despot Erdogan of Turkey who now has full permission to attack and destroy the Turks who have been backed by America.

 
Who benefits?  ISIS, who were badly damaged but have never gone away, melted into the populace, and will very likely emerge newly, dangerously, and powerfully.  They could claim a victory in pushing America out of Syria as a recruiting ploy, and perhaps multiply alarmingly.

 
Who benefits?  Russia, of course, as they become the power broker in the Middle East.

 
Who benefits?  Perhaps the American boots on the ground who are no longer in harms way.


Who benefits? Trump - in some way since his only motivation is to benefit himself - pleasing someone on Fox News? pleasing Putin? thinking he will get votes in 2020? probably just another day's distraction from his legal problems I suppose.

 
Who is harmed?  Perhaps American boots on the ground in the future if ISIS and Iran and the forces of chaos multiply with the absence of American influence.

 
Who is harmed?  Perhaps America.  We lose all ability to negotiate and shape things in Syria.  We flee the arena and turn over power to our avowed enemies -  Putin’s Russia, Iran, and Assad.

 
Who is harmed?  American allies who have fought and died with us and under our direction and protection.  As always happens in the Middle East, America has proven beyond a doubt that we are not reliable or trustworthy allies.

 
What is likely to happen?  Russia and their ally Iran will control Syria.  America will not have influence in Syria.  ISIS will rise again.  America will be drawn back to fight and die all over again.  I hope I am wrong, but….

Thursday, December 13, 2018

The Criminal in Chief

The Trumpsters haven't figured it out yet, but their president is a criminal, always has been, and will continue to be.


His long time attorney, Michael Cohen, was just sentenced to three years in prison for carrying out the orders of his boss.  His boss is guilty of the same crimes, of course.


Step one is to show the country and the world that Trump directed felonious activity to violate campaign finance laws by covering up sexual affairs that were about to be revealed just prior to the election.  He did it. He is guilty.  Will the Republicans impeach for this? (only the Reps can impeach Trump, the Dems can't do it on their own) - No, they can't impeach for covering up sexual affairs, look at what happened when Clinton was impeached for a sexual affair.


Step two is to show the country and the world that Trump received and solicited the help of a hostile foreign power, Russia, to get elected.  We already know this is true (the Trumpsters pretend not to know this as they keep their heads buried in the right wing media bubble which ignores, discounts, diminishes, denies, and deflects actual news about the conspiracies between the Russians and Trump's campaign, and Trump himself).  I expect Mueller will be revealing hard evidence of this going forward.


Regarding the Trump Russian connection, it is a matter of record now that Trump was negotiating with Russia to build a 100 story Trump Tower in Moscow up until the Republican convention that nominated Trump to be their candidate.  Part of that negotiation with the Kremlin was to gift Putin himself with $50,000,000 apartment in the tower.  


So what?  Well, I think it should give the Trumpsters a reason to notice that Trump lied, over and over again, when he said that he had no connections with Russia. (By the way, do you think it might be possible that after Trump leaves office Putin will approve the Moscow tower and Trump can flee to Russia and live in his own tower there?)


So what? Hard evidence of Trump-Russian conspiracy in the hands of Putin gives Putin the leverage of exposure and empowers Putin to control Trump's foreign policy - which we have been witnessing for two years.


Step three will be when Muller and/or the Southern District of New York Attorney General exposes Trump's decades long crimes of money laundering for the Russian oligarchy.  This crime is an even stronger leverage that Putin has over Trump.  You will never see Trump strongly displease Putin. Jail time for this one. 


Eventually, the best option for Trump will be to do what Nixon did - resign with a promise of a pardon from his Vice President who will become president and have the power to pardon him for federal crimes.  Of course, that won't protect him from prosecution by New York, Illinois, or New Jersey, so he may just have to flee to Moscow and trust that Putin will treat him nicely.  But why would he?  Trump will no longer be useful to the wealthiest criminal on the planet. 


Trump's future could be quite bleak.  And he knows it. So, watch out world, the desperate actions of a cornered man-child who happens to have influence over America's military and nukes could become unbelievably ugly. 


It could be that the real ugliness is about to begin.

Wednesday, November 28, 2018

Trump tarrifs reduce manufacturing jobs in America

General Motors is cutting its workforce 15%.  A big reason for this is dramatically increased steel prices due to Trump's idiotic tariffs.  A lot of steel goes into cars and trucks.  Caterpillar needs to raise prices.  GM too, plus they cut jobs.  This was very predictable.  Trump's lack of knowledge about trade deficits and the effect of tariffs hurts America.


So, what does our I-Never-Ever-Admit-To-A-Mistake president do?  He blames someone else.  In this case it is the Fed.  But it's Trump.


Ignorance combined with a preposterous narcissistic ego becomes a willful ignorance incapable of admitting mistakes and making corrections.   We all get hurt by this, but many of those hurt the most are Trump voters as they watch their jobs go away.  This is a very sad time in America. 


But it will pass and this temporary president will tumble off into the garbage pile of of failures.  America will find its spirit and soul once again and become a beacon of hope, freedom, and heart.

Friday, November 9, 2018

Democrats win back the House while Trump pretends to be triumphant

The Dems won at least 30 seats (some races still to be decided) and the Reps won at least 2 states (some races still to be decided).  Trump is pretending that he personally has had a fantastic victory, historical, monumental, historical - did I say historical? Whistling in the dark.


One thing for sure, Trump has screamed at the top of his voice that he is going to make the next two years as ugly as possible.  First, he fires the Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, for having recused himself from the Mueller probe into Republican and Trump.  Next step, of course, is to appoint someone who will fire Mueller, which will be in itself an obstruction of justice.  The target of an investigation firing the investigator is pretty much by definition someone who is obstructing justice.  So, I expect justice will actually get done, but it is likely to be more ugly than I can imagine at this point.


And, another thing he rushed off to do is ban a CNN reporter from White House press conferences for daring to ask him a question.  Worse yet, his press secretary provided a doctored video that tried to portray the reporter, Jim Acosta, as striking a young woman intern as she tried to take his microphone away.  Pure propaganda.  Very disturbing. 


Trump's attack on the News, calling them the Enemy of the People, is pure authoritarianism.  I believe the only thing he ever studied relative to politics is propaganda - Nazi propaganda.  Unfortunately, he does it pretty well.  For example. Himmler said that whatever you are guilty of accuse the other side of the same thing - Trump (and his Russian enablers) have been flooding the country with actual fake news since early 2016.  So, what to do?  Accuse real  news organizations who report actual news of being Fake News.


Another example is following Goring's admission on the stand at the Nuremburg Trials after WWII where he said "The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders.  That is easy.  All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the Pacifists for lack of Patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works in any country."  Sound familiar?


By the way, there has been absolutely no mention of the terribly frightening Caravan of brown people hundreds of miles away from the U.S. border in Mexico now that the election is over, of course.  Just a stunt to terrify the Trumpsters and get them out to vote. Make them fear brown people.  Not allow a man with a last name of Acosta to attend press conferences.


The fight against Trump is not left wing against right wing, not liberal against conservative.  It is democracy against burgeoning authoritarian tyranny.


Democracy is going to win.

Sunday, November 4, 2018

May the light push back the darkness

I have many conservative friends, and I trust that most of them are not overt racists and I hope they are impervious to the darkest energies coming out of the woodworks in this election - Trump and many Republican candidates are not sending out racist dog whistles that can only be heard and responded to by the racists they are messaging, but rather they are sending out loud trumpet calls of overt racism to play to the hardcore Trump supporters, far too many of which are hard core right wing anti-semites and racists.


The ridiculous false claims that the caravan of refugees fleeing poverty and violence in Central America to seek asylum in America includes Isis and hard core drug criminals is just an overt message to those who fear brown people to vote Republican who also fear brown people.

The astonishing voter suppression in Georgia and Kansas and other Republican strongholds is an echo of voter suppression in the Jim Crow south.  There is not even an attempt to hide the racism in these efforts.



When the Republican candidate, Desantis, for governor in Florida says that voters shouldn't "monkey this up" by electing a black man, there is nothing subtle about that racist message to his base.  And when Trump's Agriculture secretary says that the Florida governor's race is "cotton picking important" this again is an overt message to anti-black voters.


But, there is so much more to conservatism than racism.  I am very saddened that the avid Trump base is so mired in the darkest places of the party - from racist fears to the darkest and most vile conspiracy theories such as Jews like Soros are trying to replace whites with brown people. 


I have a fervent desire and hope that the forces of light amongst conservatives, and my conservative friends, will be repulsed by these forces of darkness and push back. As many long term and reputable conservatives have said, the only way to defeat the Trumpster darkness is to vote against it.  Indeed, I believe the only way for conservatives to prevail and return the Republican Party to conservatism is to punish this relentless overt racist, xenophobic, misogynistic, isolationist campaign being led by Trump and the Trumpster candidates.


I expect that the forces of light are stronger than the forces of darkness.  And I expect that many Republicans appealing to the darkest energies in the conservative movement will be defeated this Tuesday. 


I certainly hope so, but even if I am pleased with the outcome of this mid-term election, the forces of darkness will still be there. Perhaps electoral losses can be a wake up call for what used to be called compassionate conservatives, and maybe even a wake up call for those in the thrall of the flim-flam leader of the Republican who is temporarily leading the Republican Party.


America has always been a light in the world, and that light is not going to be extinguished by Trump and his appeals to the darkest corners of America.

Thursday, November 1, 2018

Please vote - against Republicans this election

There are many conservatives who are advocating for voting against today's Republicans because today's Republicans have been captured by Donald Trump, who has been captured by the Alt Right - who are racist, authoritarian, cruel, exploitive, and essentially un-American.


Max Boot, conservative historian, just wrote an article entitled "Vote against Republicans. Every single one."


Conservative columnist George Will wrote an article entitled "Vote against the GOP this November."


Former George W Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson wrote an article entitled "The only way to save the GOP is to defeat it."


There are many many more conservatives who are adamantly against Trump and his subservient Republican Senate and Congress who are all afraid of offending the offensive alt-right base.


As I have written before, I was a Democrat in the '60s and '70s, but a Republican from1980 until the extremism and cynicism of the Tea Party pushed me to register as an independent.  Then Trump pushed me to become a Democrat.  Today's Republican Party which refuses to stand up to the morally bankrupt Trump is itself morally bankrupt.


My conservative friends think that opposition to Trump is liberal opposition to conservatism.  It's not.  It's opposition to racism, hatred, violence, and incipient fascism.  The Alt Right collection of KKK, neo-Nazis, racists, and torch bearing violence used to be on the fringes under Reagan and the two Bushes. They are in charge now, and a country as great and the United States must just say no to these white nationalists and white supremacists.


We are in a time of the crumbling of old institutions, but that doesn't mean we have to be in a time of domination by a racist and fascist morality.



Wednesday, October 24, 2018

It's the impulsive ignoramous, stupid

In keeping with the motto of the Clinton victory in his first campaign - "It's the economy, stupid", I have suggested a few mottos for this mid-term - "It's the corruption, stupid", "It's the incompetence and neglect, stupid", and "It's the cruelty, stupid."  Here is another....

"It's the impulsive ignoramus, stupid."

I mean Trump, of course, but Republicans are too timid to challenge his ignorance. 

Nothing wrong with being ignorant, we are all ignorant - that is just not knowing something.  All presidents are ignorant about many things.  But, they have the decency and character to explore, ask, listen, learn----learn----learn. 

But an ignoramus is one who is ignorant and refuses to learn, one who is ignorant and thinks he knows it all, one who is ignorant and thinks it is not necessary to learn or be informed.  That pretty well summarizes the TV star who is playing the president on TV, Mr Trump.

A few top of the head examples - trade - he thinks a trade deficit with a country means the country is taking advantage of us, even though it has been explained to him over and over that this is not true.

Trade war - he thinks the way to grow the economy is via a trade war.  Caterpillar today announced that the price of their very heavy products will have to rise because of the increased price of steel, and the stock market dropped 608 points, culminating a bad week and wiping out all the gains of the year.

The economy - I caution against keeping investments in the stock market while this ignorant loose canon is president - between his ignorance of economics, ignorance of diplomacy, and ignorance of actual news rather than just the right wing propaganda he is slave to his impulses are likely to have pretty drastic damage on the economy.

Taxes - he thinks lowering taxes will have no consequences other than getting him votes, and thinks increasing the deficit is of no importance.  Of course, the Reps in Congress are happy to go along because they can use the frightening deficit to cut social programs, which they hate because it helps the people they try to ignore - the poor and middle class, especially those of color.

The Middle East - he has sided with the murderous Saudi Arabia against the murderous Iran.  Hard to imagine anything dumber than to pick a side in the Middle East.  You break it, you own it, and now he owns Mohammed bin Salman who just dismembered a critical media person, Kashoggi, while he was still alive - took him 7 minutes to die.  But, what the heck, they buy weapons from us - to ....

Immigrants - he is whipping up a paranoid frenzy about 5000 desperate people fleeing Latin American countries from poverty, despotism, and cruelty.  All bad folks, he says.  What nonsense. Terrified people needing a refuge.  But that would take compassion, which he and too many of his followers can't muster.  And that would mean abandoning his number one campaign strategy - whipping up fear of brown people.

The list is endless, but this is as much as I can bring myself to remember right now.

It's the impulsive ignoramus, stupid - and his supine Republican politicians running as close to him as they can - the ignoramus caucus.

Friday, October 19, 2018

It's the cruelty, stupid

Another suggestion for Democrat strategy this election - "It's the cruelty, stupid". 


Carville said "It's the economy, stupid" to help elect Clinton.  I've suggested "It's the corruption, stupid" and "It's the incompetence and neglect, stupid".  But cruelty seems to be a feature of Republicans these days.


Where is the cruelty?  Here are a few examples:


After redistributing wealth from the middle class and poor to the wealthy with the Republican tax cut last year which increased the deficit, just as planned, the Senate Republican leader has announced that they will just have to be forced to cut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.  Just as I predicted the day after the tax cut.  Disempower the middle classes to make them more dependent upon the ruling oligarchy. Cruelty.


Another example?  separating children from their parents if the cross the border as a way of deterring undocumented immigration.  Cruelty.


Deporting Dreamers?  Children brought to American by their parents and undocumented, even though they are students and soldiers? Cruelty.


What else?  Defend the police whenever an unarmed black man or youth is killed.  Keep the people of color in line, don't cha know?  With - cruelty.


And, how about reduce environmental regulations on drinking water in poor neighborhoods?  Cruelty.


Cutting food stamps to the elderly, children, disabled veterans?  Cruelty.


Promoting violence against the critical press, including refusing to condemn Saudi Arabia for the torture and killing of an opposition journalist?  Cruelty.


Mocking a reporter with a congenital disorder? Cruelty.


Mocking the appearance of women politicians and reporters that are critical? Cruelty.


Paying scant attention to the horrific effects of the hurricane in Puerto Rico? Cruelty.


These are just what comes off the top of my head.  There are examples of Trump and Republican cruelty weekly, and sometimes daily.


It's the cruelty, stupid.

Sunday, October 14, 2018

It's the incompetence and neglect, stupid

On a previous post I suggested that Democrats focus on a theme - "It's the corruption, stupid".  This is a take off on James Carville's famous "It's the economy, Stupid" which was the focus that helped elect Clinton.  Here is a second idea - "It's the incompetence and neglect, stupid".

We now have a crisis with Saudi Arabia where there seems to be evidence that the Saudi leader tortured and killed and dismembered a critical journalist.  But, guess what, America does not have an ambassador to Saudi Arabia.  This is one example of the unbelievable level of incompetence and neglect of this administration.

Michael Lewis is a writer who is a national treasure.  His book "The Big Short" was the best written book on the financial collapse of 2008.  I just finished his newest - "The Fifth Risk".  What is the fifth risk? it's the one that nobody is thinking about.  He reveals some terrible facts.  

The first is that there was no transition to the Trump administration from the Obama administration, because Trump did not have a transition team.  He started out with the experienced Chris Christie running the transition team, but fired Christie because Trump didn't understand that a transition team was needed, and demanded by the law.  He didn't care. And nobody really replaced Christie.

Horrifying example - the Department of Energy. The day after Trump's election the leaders of the DOE showed up with extensive briefing books they had taken about a year to put together to teach the incoming administration what the DOE did, the ongoing programs, issues, problems, etc.  Nobody showed up from the Trump administration.  What??  After a few days some guy eventually showed up, spent an hour, took no notes, left, and never came back.  The only thing that guy eventually did was purge the DOE of people who had anything to do with studying climate change. 

About half of the DOE $30bn budget is on our nuclear arsenal - testing, guarding plutonium and uranium, cleaning up nuclear waste.  The most knowledgeable people in DOE left or were pushed out. 

The DOE runs the nation's 17 national labs, including Fermi, Oak Ridge, Lawrence Livermore, etc.

"The office of science for the DOE is not the office of science for the DOE, it's the office of science for all science in America."  

They work to prevent huge risks - accidental explosion of a nuke, North Korea nuclear threat, Iranian nuke capability, containment and reducing nuclear waste, safety of the electrical grid.

Hanford Washington was where most of the plutonium for America's nukes were made.. It is close to the giant Columbia river that cuts across between Oregon and Washington.  It is now in the dangerous business of cleaning up over 40 years of deadly toxins.  That is 10% of the DOE budget.  Things like Strontium is already in Hanford's ground water.

"Beneath Hanford, a massive underground glacier of radioactive sludge is moving slowly but relentlessly toward the Columbia river."

There are 177 giant tanks buried on Hanford's tank farms.  Most are single shell steel containers and they leak.  In the '40s and early '50s they piled waste, contaminated liquid and uranium into open pits near the Columbia river.

It is not just Trump, it is also right wing ideologues who can only think one thought - that the free market solves all problems. But there are many problems that only the government can solve - problems that take extensive scientific research and massive amounts of government money to solve.  Trump knows nothing of this, and the ideological storm troopers capitalizing on his ignorance are gutting essential protections.

Trump's budget laid off 6000 people from the national labs and eliminated all research on climate change.
 
Same across the federal government. Nobody showed up from the Trump administration for the transition. Or if they did, they were too few and too ignorant and confused and unprepared to be worth anything.


At the State Department those who showed up didn't have security clearances and couldn't be briefed.

There are many places where the U.S. government is what stands between us and what can kill us.  Those places are places where civil servants do their jobs, and we get to live and prosper.  The civil service is the foundation of civilization. Of the top 6000 career civil servants, 20% were fired or pushed out or left in disgust in the first year.

The right wing ideologues who so trust the free market don't realize that without the government there is no internet, no iPhone, no GPS.  Reagan's famous catchy campaign phrase that government is not the solution but is the problem used to be believed by me.  No longer.  Government  is vital to America, especially our safety, from the military and police and Justice Department to the DOE and State Department and the Department of Agriculture.  Indeed, all of the governmental departments.

It's the incompetence and neglect, stupid.

 

Friday, October 12, 2018

Trump's war on the press - death to Khashoggi

It seems tragically clear that Saudi Arabia has tortured and killed Jamal Khashoggi, Washington Post opinion columnist and editor for Saudi newspaper Al Watan.  He lived in Virginia, just outside D.C. 


Khashogi criticized the Mohammed bin Salman (MBS).  He also criticized Donald J Trump. It looks like Mohammed bin Salman killed him.  Trump doesn't want to criticize or punish Saudi Arabia.  His excuse is jobs - he, the Great Negotiator, was solely and completely responsible for selling $110bn in military arms to Saudi Arabia.  So, he is certainly not going to stop that magnificent business deal over such a small thing as an authoritarian regime killing a critic in the press.


Trump's war on the press has given permission to authoritarians around the world to go to war on their press as well.  We already see dictators denounce critical press reports and opinions as "Fake News", just like our esteemed president.  Well, in authoritarian countries other than the U.S. the war on the press sometimes means death. 


Deaths of journalists have gone up around the world since Trump became president, and I think a real reason for that is that the U.S. no longer is the exemplar of moral leadership in the world - no longer is the powerful promoter of human rights and democracy - no longer is the opponent of tyranny around the world.  Indeed, this president actively attacks and demeans our allies and praises and sucks up to our authoritarian enemies - Putin and MBS for example.


Trump's violent rhetorical attacks on actual news in America inspires hatred against responsible news outlets.  Violence is looming. Khashoggi shows us what can happen - even here, even here, even here.


America must take a very hard line against MBS and Saudi Arabia.  This must not be sanctioned with a wink and a nod toward an authoritarian leader in Saudi Arabia by a wanna be authoritarian leader in America.

Sunday, October 7, 2018

It's the corruption, stupid

James Carville famously said while helping elect Clinton that that election had one basic theme - "It's the economy, stupid".  Meaning, their campaign should be focused on the economy.  They did.  Clinton won.


Today its a different campaign theme for the mid-terms coming in a month - "It's the corruption, stupid".  Meaning the Democrats should be focused on corruption of Trump and his administration. 


How corrupt is Trump?  His entire career has been a fraudulent con job.  We just recently learned that Trump's tax evasion and fraud go back to his earliest beginnings where he owes about $500,000,000 to the taxpayers, you and me.  This is not a trivial thing. Al Capone died in prison for tax evasion.   


“The president’s parents, Fred and Mary Trump, transferred well over $1 billion in wealth to their children, which could have produced a tax bill of at least $550 million under the 55 percent tax rate then imposed on gifts and inheritances. The Trumps paid a total of $52.2 million, or about 5 percent, tax records show.”


Perhaps an even deeper level of Trump corruption is around his money laundering.  Apparently, he was billions of dollars in debt due to his many bankruptcies and business failures and could no longer get loans from American banks.  So, what to do?  Enter Russian mafia and oligarchy. They use his real estate and casinos to launder billions.  Trump escapes ruin. He gets his stupid TV show.  He does what he does well - promote himself and his brand.  He becomes wealthy.  He becomes president.  But it is based upon fraud and crime. This is a lifetime of criminal activity.


What about his start in real estate?  Well, it was his father, not him. 


"Trump has admitted to getting only a $1 million start-up loan from his father, Fred Trump — mere peanuts, he said. Turns out there were hundreds of millions of those peanuts. According to the Times, his father bankrolled him to the tune of more than $413 million and provided crucial loan guarantees to rescue him from his corporate bankruptcies. The Times article makes clear that there was only one business genius in the Trump family, and his name was Fred."



As for the Trump Administration? the scandals go on forever - Ryan Zinke, Secretary of the Interior; David Shulkin, the secretary of Veterans Affairs; Scott Pruitt, Environmental Protection Agency; Tom Price, secretary of health and human services; Paul Manafort, Trump’s campaign chairman; Michael Flynn national security adviser; Michael Cohen, personal attorney.  I know there are more, but these are what come to mind now.


It's the corruption, stupid.

Friday, September 28, 2018

The pretense of Supreme Court impartiality has been replaced with a declaration of conservative war

Brett Kavanaugh made it clear in his hearing yesterday that his earlier pretense of impartiality was just a mask he thought he had to wear to get confirmed. Yesterday he replaced that mask with an open declaration of war on Democrats and what they stand for.  He now will be able to dive deeply into his own adolescent sense of offense to righteously oppose anything promoted by Democrats. And feel morally justified in so doing.

The Supreme Court may have been destroyed. It is hard to see it these days as little more than a legislative body - one that does not answer to the electorate directly. And the bulk of the responsibility for this tragedy goes to the Republicans. 

The first violent assault on credibility of the Supreme Court was in 2000 when they ruled in favor of George W Bush over Al Gore and installed him in the White House.  The obvious solution was to just count all the votes in Florida, and the one with the most votes wins the election.  But, they didn't do the obvious, and the conservative judges installed a conservative president.

The second violent  assault on the credibility of the Supreme Court happened in 2016 when the Republican leader of the Senate, Mitch McConnell, refused to even have a hearing for the moderate, center left judge, Merrick Garland.  The then president Obama disappointed his more liberal wing and deliberately presented someone who was not a lefty but who had a good reputation as a moderate on the liberal side in hopes of getting some Republicans to vote for him.  

McConnell proclaimed his intent for the Supreme Court to be an extension of the Republican Party when he refused to follow the established precedent and process of holding hearings on the president's nominee early in 2016.

And now, the third violent assault on the credibility of the Supreme Court happened yesterday, when we watched Judge Kavanaugh who threw a juvenile temper tantrum yesterday and proclaimed himself to be the the implacable enemy of the Democratic Party.  (Imagine for a moment how a mature, even tempered  man, someone like Judge Roberts or retired Secretary of State Colin Powell, would have presented themselves had they needed to make denials of wrong doing of someone like Dr Ford.  Flushed faces and shouted insults would not have been part of those defenses, would they?)

Actually, in fairness, I suppose we should go back to Roe vs Wade as the  first assault on the credibility of the Supreme Court.  It is the icon for legislating from the bench.  And has sent the Supreme Court on a descending path ever since as the offended side goes to more and more extremes to overturn that ruling.  It has been said often that if the Supreme Court had not approved abortion the political process would have played out to approve abortion over time.  It didn't seem like people had time to wait back then.  So, here we are.

So, the Supreme Court is becoming just a more powerful version of the Senate. That is deeply wrong.  The country remains a democracy because the electorate does not stage a revolution after elections and the transfer of power from one party to the other.  The Supreme Court has always been the final arbiter of very vehemently held opposing political views.  But, if the country doesn't trust them to be impartial and dedicated to the rule of law and the application of the Constitution and established law, but rather see them as only representing a political party that they loathe - the downside goes very far down indeed.

Having a Supreme Court justice who so passionately hates one of the parties is a terrible step into a very dark place in this country.

By the way, what happens if Trump loses in 2020 and refuses to step down, proclaiming that his loss was rigged? (not a far fetched notion, unfortunately, with this deeply disturbed man in the White House)  and the new swing vote supports him in the Supreme Court? the one who just bellowed his hatred of Democrats?

Yesterday was a terrible day for America when a nominee to the court showed uncontrollable fury at one political party.  And we had another terrible day today when the Republican controlled Senate Panel sent his nomination to the floor without sending the issue to be investigated by the FBI first.  

Years ago, there were two very influential declarations of what it meant to play sports.  The football owner and coach, Al Davis of the Oakland Raiders, had a motto - "Just win baby".  In an earlier time, the great sports writer Grantland Rice wrote "It's not whether you win  or lose, but how you play the game."  These had influence on their times.  We are still suffering from the "just win bay" ethos.  "How you play the game" is about character and sportsmanship.

Rice was right.  Davis was wrong.  It's the difference between character and a lack thereof.  We are living in a time of a profound character crisis among our leaders.  And I am afraid that our president is at the bottom of that character rung, and he has pulled his party down with him - plus a probable Supreme Court justice.

I love America too much to be anything other than deeply dismayed by what I saw yesterday and today.

Thursday, September 27, 2018

The Kangaroo court rushes to prejudgment

The Kangaroo court is over. The preordained verdict will be carried out. Kavanaugh will be put onto the Supreme Court. There will be no examination of other witnesses by the FBI or the committee. This is not a surprise. I will be shocked if the committee doesn’t vote in favor of Kavanaugh. 

I believe Dr Ford. I do not believe Judge Kavanaugh. The quiet and fearful Dr Ford was believable to me. The pugnacious, petulant, and resentful Kavanaugh was startling, and troubling to me. My conservative friends probably feel his outbursts were understandable and warranted. Not I. 

Here is my biggest question. Does anyone think that Judge Kavanaugh can possibly judge impartially in cases before him where Democrats line up on one side and Republicans are on the other? I think he has long been much more of a conservative operative than a judge, but after his venomous attack on the Democrats who he accused of trying to destroy him, who can believe he could be other than revengeful? 

I certainly did not see anything that I would call judicial temperament. 

Friday, September 21, 2018

The Abuser in Chief - abuses

Why didn’t she file charges earlier?  That is the endlessly predictable accusation offered by those who don't want to believe a sexual assault victim. The Abuser in Chief came out with that accusation today, of course.  The man that 13 women credibly accused of sexual assault is defending a man who is being credibly accused of sexual assault. 


The answer is obvious - fear.


The sexual assault victim is traumatized twice.  The first time when the assault happens - a rape, or in this case an attempted rape.  Make no mistake.  This is a traumatic event that the woman will never forget.  The assaulter may think it was no big deal, but the assaulted has been humiliated, wounded, damaged, and can't stop remembering.


The second time the sexual assault victim is traumatized is when she makes the assault public.  The reaction is inevitable, and terrible for the assault victim - why didn't you come out earlier?  what were you wearing?  had you been drinking?  wasn't it your fault? how many men have you had sex with? aren't you just a disgusting low life slut? and in this case, what political party do you belong to?


Actually, there are multiple other times the assault victim is traumatized, and that is every time she or he sees their assaulter lauded in society, or promoted, or honored as some kind of good person.  The assaulted knows better and has to relive the memories each time the assaulter shows up in his or her world.  Dr Ford had to endure watching her assaulter be glorified by - Christians? - for his high moral character as he climbed his way up the Republican and judicial ladders.  The Supreme Court was apparently a ladder too high for her to remain silent.


There are two things that make it clear to me that Christine Blasey Ford should be believed.  First, she has so much more to lose than gain by having her good name exposed.  She has already received death threats. She has had her home address published on line by the haters and had to move her family.  She will forever be known for one thing - being a victim of a rape attempt. She will be suspected as being sexually promiscuous and irresponsible. 


The second thing that makes me believe her is that she did not say that this happened to her, but she said it happened to her and there was a second person in the room.  A witness.  A witness who was Kavanagh's friend.  That is not just a she said he said. Naming a witness would be way too dangerous for her to say if it was just made up.


So, I believe Dr. Ford. 


Trump was given a list of about 20 hand selected judges known and trusted to be anti-abortion and pro-gun by his evangelical base supporters. He can pull the Kavanagh nomination and put in another trusted judge.  But he won't for two reasons. 


First, of course, the Abuser in Chief never admits a mistake and never backs down.


Second, and by far the most important thing, he sees Kavanaugh as his get out of jail free card.  Kavanaugh is on record as writing that a sitting president shouldn't be indicted.  This is by far the most important thing to the Criminal in Chief.


Trump will force the Reps to confirm Kavanaugh. The abused women of America are watching (and one of the surprising revelations of the MeToo Movement is that a vast majority of women in America can say ME TOO!) and they will vote.



We may be watching the Fat Old White Men driving the Grand Old Party off the cliff.  If so, good riddance to this amazing level of corruption that Trump has brought to our government with the full cooperation and approval of Trump voters and the frightened little men in the House and the Senate. Mustn't upset the Trumpsters, you know. The elected Reps just swallow any dignity they may have and go along with El Trumpe. 




They may think that eventually Trump will be gone and they can go back to being the amazingly courageous people they think themselves to be, but I think that once one has thrown one's dignity and character away, one may never get it back.

Tuesday, September 18, 2018

"You've got to deny, deny, deny and push back on these women..." Trump

From "Fear" by Bob Woodward:

"Trump gave some private advice to a friend who had acknowledged some bad behavior toward women.  

"Real power is fear.  It's all about strength.  Never show weakness.  You've always got to be strong. Don't be bullied.  There is no choice.

"You've got to deny, deny, deny and push back on these women," he said.  "if you admit to anything and any culpability, then you're dead.  That was the mistake you made.  You didn't come out guns blazing and just challenge them.  You showed weakness.  You've got to be strong.  You've got to be aggressive.  You've got to push back hard.  You've got to deny anything that's said about you.  Never admit." page 175 of 357, 41% into the book

That is clearly what Trump did with the dozen or so women that accused him of sexual harassment.   

Of course, truth is not something that ever enters the mind of the Republicans' president, just whatever is best for him.  

Et tu, Kavanaugh?  

Thursday, September 13, 2018

What socialism has brought to the U.S.

Socialism.  That one word is all conservatives need to hear to turn away and shout no, no, no!

As I've written before, I have been a left winger, then a right winger, and now on the left again.  When i was on the right it seemed blatantly obvious to me that any road toward socialism was a road to tyranny - Venezuella, Nicaragua, Cuba, and of course the worst of all the Soviet Union.

But, as I have also written before, it is now clear to me that capitalism without socialism is a tyrannical nightmare of Oligarchy and Fascism.  Just as socialism without capitalism is a tyrannical nightmare of Communism and scarcity.

But, is socialism bad?  Really?  How about socialism in America?  Do we have some?  Is it bad?

Here are things that we have in America that are either socialist or were brought about by people others denounced as socialist.  A good definition of socialism is it is "taxpayer funds being used collectively to benefit society as a whole, despite income, contribution, or ability."

  • The Military/Defense - paid for entirely by taxpayer dollars to benefit everyone regardless of who they are
  • Highways/Roads -paid for entirely by taxpayer dollars to benefit everyone.
  • Police - paid for by taxpayer dollars as a public service for all
  • Fire Dept. - taxpayer dollars pays for it all for the benefit of all
  • Bridges - taxpayer dollars gets your across the rivers
  • War - the biggest socialist projects in history are taxpayer funded wars
  • Farm Subsidies - taxpayers support farms to keep them going, which is good, but unfortunately corporate farming probably gets most of the benefits
  • CIA - taxpayer funded to keep us all safe
  • FBI - totally taxpayer funded benefit for society
  • Polio Vaccine -Dr Salk gave the vaccine to the government which vaccinated America and ended the terrible polio scourge.
  • EPA - necessary socialist intervention to keep air and water healthy
  • Social Security - we pay taxes to support the elderly (we are investing in our own retirement but the money the government collects gets paid out now to care for the elderly - our time will come soon enough)
  • Museums - many museums exist because of government, i.e. taxpayer, money
  • Public Schools - public schools largely funded by taxpayer dollars for the benefit of all (except the wealthy who get private schools and some Christians  and others who home school).
  • Jail/Prison System - mostly publicly funded, but some are private prisons, which is probably a bad idea to have profit connected to arrests and imprisonment.
  • Food Stamps -taxpayers help pay for food for those that can't properly feed themselves, and I don't believe the typical conservative rant about fat people of color getting steaks in front of them at the grocery while the poor white conservative is buying peanut butter.
  • Medicare - taxpayer funded health care for those who are mostly beyond their earning years
  • Court System -taxpayer funded justice system which is the necessary heart of capitalism, as well as personal justice and protections.
  • G.I. Bill - taxpayer money that says thank you for your service
  • Hoover Dam - one of the many very productive Great Depression public works projects.
  • IRS - taxpayer funded collection of taxpayer dollars necessary to run the government that is the necessary force that allows and provides a civilized world.

  • Medicaid - taxpayer dollars for those poor enough to be unable to provide their own health care.
  • FDA - taxpayer dollars gives us food and drugs that don't kill us
  • State Construction - potholes, piping, bridge and road repairs etc, all from taxpayer dollars.
  • State Snow Removal - taxpayers pay to keep the roads and thus commerce and education open
  • Welfare - taxpayer dollars help the poor who spend all of it to stay alive, which is a 100% payback into the stimulation of the economy
  • FEMA - taxpayer dollars respond to the terrible disasters that seem to be multiplying every year
  • Public Defenders - taxpayer dollars help provide some semblance of justice for the poor.
  • S-CHIP (State Children's Health Insurance Program) - taxpayer dollars for uncovered children
  • Amtrak - taxpayer dollars transport millions
  • NPR - taxpayer dollars pay for some of the news to a nation that needs it.
  • OSHA - taxpayer dollars to protect workers
  • Census Bureau  - taxpayer dollars to try to ensure proper head count to allocate voting apportionment as well as needed info for governmental programs (too bad one party is trying to fudge the count!)
  • Department of Energy - taxpayer dollars to oversee nuclear weapons, nuclear reactors, energy conservation, radioactive waste disposal, and energy production.
  •  Government - an essentially socialist enterprise which is created in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity...
  • Law - is a socialist enterprise that makes democracy possible, makes capitalism competitive and thus possible, makes life in the world livable.
  • Civilization - without taxation that is used to provide the above "socialist" benefits, we have no civilization, we revert to savages.

All paid for by funds from the taxpayer for the social good - socialism.

So, maybe everyone isn't going to like everything on this list, but one thing I can say, it is an American list, not a Venezuelan list or Cuban list or Soviet list.  So, maybe it is time to stop being scared into not thinking when someone throws the word socialist at us.  Maybe some socialism is actually pretty darned good.

I used an article from the liberal blog dailykos.com to put together the above list.