Trump feels that he dodged a bullet when his Attorney General, William Barr, said that there was no conspiracy with Russia, and that there was no provable obstruction of justice. So, he shouted to the world "No Collusion, No Obstruction!" An actual reading of the Mueller Report, of course shows a lot of welcoming of Russian interference in the presidential election, even if there was no proof of active conspiracy. And apparently there are at least ten very overt examples of obstruction that Mueller decided to allow Congress to decide what to do about. I am reading the report and haven't gotten to the obstruction portion yet.
But, something to remember - Trump will not stop being Trump. That is to say, Trump will continue to be a child; Trump will continue to act like a nine year old's version of how a king can act; Trump will continue to bully and intimidate anyone he can, including Congress (if they allow him to); Trump will continue to operate as if the whole point of being President is to make a financial fortune; Trump will continue to be cruel to all but the upper 1% of the wealthy in the country (and the world); Trump will continue to be overtly and blatantly racist and white supremacist; Trump will continue to violate the Constitution on a daily basis.
So, Trump will continue to be Trump, only more so now that he thinks he can get away with anything. He thinks he got a Get Out of Jail Card, and he is off to plunder and destroy.
He has an excellent chance of creating something so outrageous that it will force Congress to impeach him, and perhaps even force the Senate to convict him. He is not a smart man. He is a foolish child, bent upon destroying as much as ne can, and thinks he can get away with anything.
I would not be surprised that he runs right off the cliff.
Friday, April 26, 2019
Monday, April 22, 2019
Trump's "Mission Accomplished" moment - "no collusion! no obstruction!
I guess one of the benefits
of having an Attorney General who introduces the Mueller Report by claiming
that there is nothing to see here is that the first impression is that there
is, indeed, nothing to see. But...
I remember the U.S. invasion of Iraq with the toppling of statues to Saddam Hussein and American tanks in the streets of Baghdad. And, of course, there was the indelible image of the U.S. President, George W Bush, standing on a battle ship under a huge banner that said "Mission Accomplished" basking in the glow of triumph and surrounded by admiring military.
Well. How did that turn out? All he did was boldly emphasize that the Mission Was Not Accomplished. The war lasted about a decade and still isn't really over. That "Mission Accomplished" moment turned out to be a bad choice on the part of W. It was just started, and nothing was accomplished.
So too for our current president and all the president's sycophants. As soon as Barr said that the Mueller Report blessed his president, Trump leaped forward to claim exoneration (against the actual words of the report itself as far as obstruction of justice is concerned).
But the report is over 400 pages long. It says the same things that the Trump books which exposed the Trump White House has always said - Trump commands his subordinates to obstruct justice, reaches out to get help from the hostile foreign power - Russia, ignores and tramples over laws and norms, behaves like a nine year old’s version of a king, and trashes the very concept of America endlessly.
Michael Wolff's "Fire and Fury" said it. Bob Woodward's "Fear: Trump in the White House" said it. Now, it is time to read the Mueller Report. It says the same thing, with the enormous authority of 22 months of sworn testimony and records to substantiate it.
No Collusion? No Obstruction? Congress will hold hearings with the testimonies of Barr, Mueller, McGahn and perhaps others. Trump and the Reps want to say that there is nothing to see here. They say don't drag their leader through the mud - mud? is there mud? Golly gee. I wonder?
Maybe Trump escapes impeachment. But his mud is on very plain view.
I remember the U.S. invasion of Iraq with the toppling of statues to Saddam Hussein and American tanks in the streets of Baghdad. And, of course, there was the indelible image of the U.S. President, George W Bush, standing on a battle ship under a huge banner that said "Mission Accomplished" basking in the glow of triumph and surrounded by admiring military.
Well. How did that turn out? All he did was boldly emphasize that the Mission Was Not Accomplished. The war lasted about a decade and still isn't really over. That "Mission Accomplished" moment turned out to be a bad choice on the part of W. It was just started, and nothing was accomplished.
So too for our current president and all the president's sycophants. As soon as Barr said that the Mueller Report blessed his president, Trump leaped forward to claim exoneration (against the actual words of the report itself as far as obstruction of justice is concerned).
But the report is over 400 pages long. It says the same things that the Trump books which exposed the Trump White House has always said - Trump commands his subordinates to obstruct justice, reaches out to get help from the hostile foreign power - Russia, ignores and tramples over laws and norms, behaves like a nine year old’s version of a king, and trashes the very concept of America endlessly.
Michael Wolff's "Fire and Fury" said it. Bob Woodward's "Fear: Trump in the White House" said it. Now, it is time to read the Mueller Report. It says the same thing, with the enormous authority of 22 months of sworn testimony and records to substantiate it.
No Collusion? No Obstruction? Congress will hold hearings with the testimonies of Barr, Mueller, McGahn and perhaps others. Trump and the Reps want to say that there is nothing to see here. They say don't drag their leader through the mud - mud? is there mud? Golly gee. I wonder?
Maybe Trump escapes impeachment. But his mud is on very plain view.
Friday, April 19, 2019
Mueller - Russia interfered in U.S. election - and succeeded!
Despite the happy face distortions of the Mueller report made by Trump's Attorney General William Barr (who has proven that he is not America's Attorney General) the Mueller report revealed that Trump's campaign was welcoming Russian interference although not provably conspiring with Russia. Also, Mueller makes it very clear that Trump himself made every effort to obstruct justice and only the refusal of his subordinates to carry out his unconstitutional orders saved him from criminal prosecution. Does that save him from impeachment?
Russia swayed this election toward Trump, and they succeeded. This is one of the saddest things I have ever written.
What to do?
Follow the advice of the political master, Nancy Pelosi - Speaker of the House - and have Democrats focus on building an agenda for America and support the wave of Democratic victories of the 2018 mid-term elections by staying the victorious course of moderation, health care, compassionate assistance to the middle classes and lower classes?
Or decide that the danger to America and the world posed by the manifestly corrupt and unfit man it the White House is too much of a danger to avoid impeachment proceedings?
Up to now, I was on the side of you can't impeach him if you don't have a "gasp moment" where the country recoils and turns against him. The Barr spin has dampened the impact of the Mueller report. But, wouldn't a full public exposure of the evidence in the Report build to such a conclusion?
I think the good middle ground is to get Barr and Mueller before Congress in public hearings to grind through the evidence to bring the corruption and incompetence of this president and his White House to the full light of day. Might not lead to an impeachment trial, but would let the country actually see this administration as they actually are - without the propaganda machine telling us all to look away.
And it looks like that is going to happen
Russia swayed this election toward Trump, and they succeeded. This is one of the saddest things I have ever written.
What to do?
Follow the advice of the political master, Nancy Pelosi - Speaker of the House - and have Democrats focus on building an agenda for America and support the wave of Democratic victories of the 2018 mid-term elections by staying the victorious course of moderation, health care, compassionate assistance to the middle classes and lower classes?
Or decide that the danger to America and the world posed by the manifestly corrupt and unfit man it the White House is too much of a danger to avoid impeachment proceedings?
Up to now, I was on the side of you can't impeach him if you don't have a "gasp moment" where the country recoils and turns against him. The Barr spin has dampened the impact of the Mueller report. But, wouldn't a full public exposure of the evidence in the Report build to such a conclusion?
I think the good middle ground is to get Barr and Mueller before Congress in public hearings to grind through the evidence to bring the corruption and incompetence of this president and his White House to the full light of day. Might not lead to an impeachment trial, but would let the country actually see this administration as they actually are - without the propaganda machine telling us all to look away.
And it looks like that is going to happen
Friday, April 5, 2019
How did Venezuella go so terribly wrong?
Millions are fleeing Venezuela. I heard a radio report of the brutal exodus over frigid mountain passes on a narrow road filled with trucks and not much walking space by families including pregnant women and children. Venezuela is without food, power, and now water. Things are desperate.
So - why?
During my Conservative Years the answer would have been obvious - Socialism destroys economies, tyrannizes peoples, and crushes freedoms. Look at the Soviet Union. Look at Cuba. Look at - Venezuela. And, indeed, it is clear that Trump and Republicans will use the specter of Venezuela in their 2020 campaigns.
But, I am coming to a very different conclusion. It's not so much Socialism itself, it's authoritarian demands of loyalty over expertise. Venezuela is a clear warning to Americans about our own authoritarian who is doing the same thing here - Trump.
Venezuela has essentially one economy - oil. And Venezuela has ruined its only economy. How? By astonishing incompetence. By having the authoritarian presidents - Chavez and Maduro - replace industry professionals with political toadies whose only qualifications are political loyalty to the supreme rulers. Per Robert Rapier of Forbes:
"During the Venezuelan general strike of 2002–2003, Chávez fired 19,000 employees of the state oil company Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA) and replaced them with employees loyal to his government."
Oil production is complicated. It takes qualified, professional, educated and trained scientists, engineers, a craftspeople. So it is the same for government. The Departments of Energy, Agriculture, Education, State, etc. all require highly educated and trained professionals to run them. To keep America safe. To keep America growing and prospering.
But Trump has replaced the heads of almost all government agencies with political hacks whose only qualifications are loyalty to him. This is pointed out in terrifying detail in Michael Lewis's "The Fifth Risk". The most recent, and terrifying examples are Trump's desire to put Stephen Moore as the head of the Federal Reserve (the most complicated and demanding job for the top economists in the country - this man is an incompetent ideological nitwit with no approval of real economists). And even more cartoonishly, Trump now wants the amazingly ridiculous Herman Caine of the disastrous "9-9-9 (personal tax, sales tax, and corporate tax)" presidential campaign in 2012 before he was laughed off the stage.
So, I think the way Socialism destroys economies is political as much as economic. It's not so much that Socialism destroys incentives and as a result economies die. Perhaps it is that Socialism easily becomes tyranny and tyrants replace expertise with ideological loyalists who are ignorant and incompetent.
So here is the real question - where else to we see ideological and personal loyalty being the sole criteria for leadership in government? Trump. America. The Republican Party has abandoned principle, expertise, competence, and its soul to the whims of its authoritarian ruler - Trump.
If you think Socialism means Venezuela, then of course Socialism is bad, really bad. But if you think that Socialism is Social Security, Medicare, interstate highways, libraries, police departments, fire departments, NASA, bridges, museums, public schools, water and wastewater treatment plants, clean air and clean water regulations, inspections and codes in public safety, environment, and food quality - then Socialism is actually quite good. All of these things have been called Socialist. And they are, I guess. They are public funds for public good. They are the heartbeat of civilization. Take them away and you have Fascist tyrannies which end up in - Venezuelas.
By the way. I am thinking that as time passes the old fights between Right and Left, between Free Markets and Socialism, are going to become passé. The real split that is coming is between the old Boomers of my generation who see things in Right-Left terms, and the Young Millennial generation who will blow past such chasms and come up with whole new paradigms. They didn't grow up in the Cold War. They grew up in a land where they had to be trained how to stay alive during a crazed man with military assault weapons trying to kill them in school - and in a world where they went into six figure debts to get a college degree - and in a world where climate change is an economic and existential threat to humanity. They aren't in the thrall of old Boomer hatreds.
I have great hope and expectations of the Millennials, and for America.
So - why?
During my Conservative Years the answer would have been obvious - Socialism destroys economies, tyrannizes peoples, and crushes freedoms. Look at the Soviet Union. Look at Cuba. Look at - Venezuela. And, indeed, it is clear that Trump and Republicans will use the specter of Venezuela in their 2020 campaigns.
But, I am coming to a very different conclusion. It's not so much Socialism itself, it's authoritarian demands of loyalty over expertise. Venezuela is a clear warning to Americans about our own authoritarian who is doing the same thing here - Trump.
Venezuela has essentially one economy - oil. And Venezuela has ruined its only economy. How? By astonishing incompetence. By having the authoritarian presidents - Chavez and Maduro - replace industry professionals with political toadies whose only qualifications are political loyalty to the supreme rulers. Per Robert Rapier of Forbes:
"During the Venezuelan general strike of 2002–2003, Chávez fired 19,000 employees of the state oil company Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA) and replaced them with employees loyal to his government."
Oil production is complicated. It takes qualified, professional, educated and trained scientists, engineers, a craftspeople. So it is the same for government. The Departments of Energy, Agriculture, Education, State, etc. all require highly educated and trained professionals to run them. To keep America safe. To keep America growing and prospering.
But Trump has replaced the heads of almost all government agencies with political hacks whose only qualifications are loyalty to him. This is pointed out in terrifying detail in Michael Lewis's "The Fifth Risk". The most recent, and terrifying examples are Trump's desire to put Stephen Moore as the head of the Federal Reserve (the most complicated and demanding job for the top economists in the country - this man is an incompetent ideological nitwit with no approval of real economists). And even more cartoonishly, Trump now wants the amazingly ridiculous Herman Caine of the disastrous "9-9-9 (personal tax, sales tax, and corporate tax)" presidential campaign in 2012 before he was laughed off the stage.
So, I think the way Socialism destroys economies is political as much as economic. It's not so much that Socialism destroys incentives and as a result economies die. Perhaps it is that Socialism easily becomes tyranny and tyrants replace expertise with ideological loyalists who are ignorant and incompetent.
So here is the real question - where else to we see ideological and personal loyalty being the sole criteria for leadership in government? Trump. America. The Republican Party has abandoned principle, expertise, competence, and its soul to the whims of its authoritarian ruler - Trump.
If you think Socialism means Venezuela, then of course Socialism is bad, really bad. But if you think that Socialism is Social Security, Medicare, interstate highways, libraries, police departments, fire departments, NASA, bridges, museums, public schools, water and wastewater treatment plants, clean air and clean water regulations, inspections and codes in public safety, environment, and food quality - then Socialism is actually quite good. All of these things have been called Socialist. And they are, I guess. They are public funds for public good. They are the heartbeat of civilization. Take them away and you have Fascist tyrannies which end up in - Venezuelas.
By the way. I am thinking that as time passes the old fights between Right and Left, between Free Markets and Socialism, are going to become passé. The real split that is coming is between the old Boomers of my generation who see things in Right-Left terms, and the Young Millennial generation who will blow past such chasms and come up with whole new paradigms. They didn't grow up in the Cold War. They grew up in a land where they had to be trained how to stay alive during a crazed man with military assault weapons trying to kill them in school - and in a world where they went into six figure debts to get a college degree - and in a world where climate change is an economic and existential threat to humanity. They aren't in the thrall of old Boomer hatreds.
I have great hope and expectations of the Millennials, and for America.
Monday, April 1, 2019
25 security clearances given to Trump officials who were denied clearances
In what ways are Donald Trump hurting America? There are many ways, actually, but here is a particularly frightening one - Trump has given security clearances on his whimsical say so to 25 people who had been denied clearances by the professionals whose job it is to vet officials for security clearances. We have people who have access to high level security secrets who shouldn't be having them! When will my conservative friends wake up to the damage their beloved president is doing to America?
Politico's Andrew Desiderio writes that a whistleblower in the White House Security Office, Tricia Newbold, has testified to the House Oversight Reform Committee:
"According to Ms. Newbold, these individuals had a wide range of serious disqualifying issues involving foreign influence, conflicts of interest, concerning personal conduct, financial problems, drug use, and criminal conduct,”..."noting that her internal complaints were ignored even as she amassed a list of more than two dozen officials whose clearances were approved despite an initial denial....Newbold, who currently serves as the adjudications manager in the personnel security office, has worked at the White House for nearly two decades under both Republican and Democratic presidents. She was suspended without pay for two weeks earlier this year, an action she described as retaliation.... other whistleblowers have “corroborated” Newbold’s allegations, “but they were too afraid about the risk to their careers to come forward publicly."
This president actually thinks that the laws and rules don't apply to him. He thinks he has been made king. I know that each president usually expands the powers of the office, but this president's changes are not a difference in degree, but rather are a difference in kind. He is trying to be an authoritarian ruler. It is up to America to make sure he fails in his attempts to become the American Mussolini.
It is a courageous woman who has finally decided that she must speak up even though the price she will pay could be very steep. So many of the reforms needed in America are coming from brave women. Our country owes them a debt of gratitude, and the hits will just keep coming....
Politico's Andrew Desiderio writes that a whistleblower in the White House Security Office, Tricia Newbold, has testified to the House Oversight Reform Committee:
"According to Ms. Newbold, these individuals had a wide range of serious disqualifying issues involving foreign influence, conflicts of interest, concerning personal conduct, financial problems, drug use, and criminal conduct,”..."noting that her internal complaints were ignored even as she amassed a list of more than two dozen officials whose clearances were approved despite an initial denial....Newbold, who currently serves as the adjudications manager in the personnel security office, has worked at the White House for nearly two decades under both Republican and Democratic presidents. She was suspended without pay for two weeks earlier this year, an action she described as retaliation.... other whistleblowers have “corroborated” Newbold’s allegations, “but they were too afraid about the risk to their careers to come forward publicly."
This president actually thinks that the laws and rules don't apply to him. He thinks he has been made king. I know that each president usually expands the powers of the office, but this president's changes are not a difference in degree, but rather are a difference in kind. He is trying to be an authoritarian ruler. It is up to America to make sure he fails in his attempts to become the American Mussolini.
It is a courageous woman who has finally decided that she must speak up even though the price she will pay could be very steep. So many of the reforms needed in America are coming from brave women. Our country owes them a debt of gratitude, and the hits will just keep coming....
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