The two words that condemn Trump - “though” and “announce”

The two words that condemn Trump are “though” and “announce”. He said I need a favor “though”. That means he won’t release the aid until he gets his favor.  What is the favor?  That the president of Ukraine “announce” an investigation into Biden corruption. If you want an investigation you ask for an investigation.  If you want to damage Biden you ask for an ANNOUNCEMENT of an investigation. The last thing you do to investigate someone is to announce that you will investigate. That forewarns the target to cover their tracks.



The Trump lawyers are smart folks and are doing a pretty good job of defending a HYPOTHETICAL TRUMP who Could have had policy reasons to investigate corruption in Ukraine. But they aren’t defending the actual Trump, who did it, and did it as an abuse of presidential power to cheat in the 2020 election.

Isn’t jury intimidation an impeachable offense?

Isn’t jury intimidation a crime?  Isn’t intimidation of the Senate jury in the president’s impeachment trial by the president an impeachable offense?  When the president threatens the Senators of his party isn’t that further evidence of obstruction of Congress?  The president made this threat:

According to a report from CBS News, Republicans even entertaining the idea of giving Democrats the necessary votes to call witnesses have been told, “Vote against the president, and your head will be on a pike.“

Every day this president abuses the power of his office. The more he gets away with the worse he gets. Is there any chance that Republicans will fight back?  I suppose not. 

When do Republicans say "ENOUGH!"

When will some Republican Senators finally get pissed off?  Trump just threatened them not to vote against him in the impeachment trial:


"According to a report from CBS News, Republicans even entertaining the idea of giving Democrats the necessary votes to call witnesses have been told, “Vote against the president, and your head will be on a pike.”


Trump continues to prove that Adam Schiff's brilliant and heartfelt closing speech from last night is all too true;


""If 'Right' doesn’t matter, it doesn’t matter how good the constitution is," Rep. Schiff told the Senate. "The framers could not protect us from ourselves if right and truth don’t matter. And you know what (Trump) did was not right."


Not only is what Trump does "not right", what Trump does is profoundly wrong.  There is just something wrong with him.


I think it is about time that about half a dozen Republican Senators break the wall of fear, get pissed off, and vote to impeach this pathetic little man.  Probably won't happen, but what is it going to take?


How is what Trump is doing any different than an authoritarian tyrant would do?  This is what the Republican Party stands for today - blind and fearful obeisance to an authoritarian despot. 


They don't have to do this.  They can take their party back.  But it will take more than one, but only one is probably needed to crack open the wall.  Romney, Collins, Murkowski?  I would wager that it will be a woman who is most likely to have the courage to finally say "ENOUGH!"

What the world looks like when America doesn't lead

America has been the necessary nation ever since WWII.  It provided, imperfectly, the moral leadership of the post war world - it was the international stabilizer - it was the bulwark against the tyrannies of the Soviet and Chinese Communist dictatorships. 


But that is gone now.  Trump's America is not in any way a moral leader in the world.  Trump's America is in no way a stabilizer of the international order.  Trump's America is a imitator of Putin's Oligarchy, and Saudi Arabia's oligarchy, and the authoritarian rules in Hungary, Turkey, the Philippines, etc. 


Trump admires authoritarianism, not democracy.  Trump admires and promotes oligarchy.  Trump admires, promotes, and is saturated with political and financial corruption.


One of the latest examples is Saudi Arabia Crown Prince MBS hacking the phone of Jeff Bezos as part of MBS campaign against his perceived opponents.  Why wouldn't MBS do whatever authoritarian thing he wants?  He has Trump as an admirer rather than a constraint.


One of the many ways our president is diminishing and weakening America.

Trump's inability to comprehend anything complex - please read the book

This is a much longer than normal post.  Rather than get involved in the prelude to the impeachment trial in the Senate, I wanted to show an episode that illustrates who it is that my conservative friends are wanting to protect and keep in office.


It is excerpts from an book by Phillip Rucker and Carol Leonnig "A Very Stable Genius" being released on January 21, 2020.  It tells a story that I have read before, but this tells it in terrifying detail.  It shows the level of Trump's inability to comprehend complex issues and shows his deeply ingrained corrupt instincts. 

"...six months into his administration, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, Director of the National Economic Council Gary Cohn, and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had grown alarmed by gaping holes in Trump’s knowledge of history, especially the key alliances forged following World War II. Trump had dismissed allies as worthless, cozied up to authoritarian regimes in Russia and elsewhere, and advocated withdrawing troops from strategic outposts and active theaters alike

...felt that many of Trump’s impulsive ideas stemmed from his lack of familiarity with U.S. history and, even, where countries were located. To have a useful discussion with him, the trio agreed, they had to create a basic knowledge, a shared language.

...The episode has been documented numerous times, but subsequent reporting reveals a more complete picture of the moment and the chilling effect Trump’s comments and hostility had on the nation’s military and national security leadership.

...Just before 10 a.m. on a scorching summer Thursday, Trump arrived at the Pentagon. He stepped out of his motorcade, walked along a corridor with portraits honoring former chairmen of the Joint Chiefs, and stepped inside the Tank. The uniformed officers greeted their commander in chief. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Joseph F. Dunford Jr. sat in the seat of honor midway down the table, because this was his room, and Trump sat at the head of the table facing a projection screen. Mattis and the newly confirmed deputy defense secretary, Patrick Shanahan, sat to the president’s left, with Vice President Pence and Tillerson to his right. Down the table sat the leaders of the military branches, along with Cohn and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon was in the outer ring of chairs with other staff, taking his seat just behind Mattis and directly in Trump’s line of sight.

Mattis, Cohn, and Tillerson and their aides decided to use maps, graphics, and charts to tutor the president, figuring they would help keep him from getting bored. Mattis opened with a slide show punctuated with lots of dollar signs.  Mattis devised a strategy to use terms the impatient president, schooled in real estate, would appreciate to impress upon him the value of U.S. investments abroad. He sought to explain why U.S. troops were deployed in so many regions and why America’s safety hinged on a complex web of trade deals, alliances, and bases across the globe.

An opening line flashed on the screen, setting the tone: “The post-war international rules-based order is the greatest gift of the greatest generation.” Mattis then gave a 20-minute briefing on the power of the NATO alliance to stabilize Europe and keep the United States safe. Bannon thought to himself, “Not good. Trump is not going to like that one bit.” The internationalist language Mattis was using was a trigger for Trump.

“Oh, baby, this is going to be f---ing wild,” Bannon thought. “If you stood up and threatened to shoot [Trump], he couldn’t say ‘postwar rules-based international order.’ It’s just not the way he thinks.”

For the next 90 minutes, Mattis, Tillerson, and Cohn took turns trying to emphasize their points, pointing to their charts and diagrams. They showed where U.S. personnel were positioned, at military bases, CIA stations, and embassies, and how U.S. deployments fended off the threats of terror cells, nuclear blasts, and destabilizing enemies in places including Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, the Korea Peninsula, and Syria. Cohn spoke for about 20 minutes about the value of free trade with America’s allies, emphasizing how he saw each trade agreement working together as part of an overall structure to solidify U.S. economic and national security.

Trump’s first complaint was to repeat what he had vented about to his national security adviser months earlier: South Korea should pay for a $10 billion missile defense system that the United States built for it. The system was designed to shoot down any short- and medium-range ballistic missiles from North Korea to protect South Korea and American troops stationed there. But Trump argued that the South Koreans should pay for it, proposing that the administration pull U.S. troops out of the region or bill the South Koreans for their protection.

“We should charge them rent,” Trump said of South Korea. “We should make them pay for our soldiers. We should make money off of everything.”

Trump proceeded to explain that NATO, too, was worthless. U.S. generals were letting the allied member countries get away with murder, he said, and they owed the United States a lot of money after not living up to their promise of paying their dues.

(Penguin Press)

More broadly, Mattis argued, the NATO alliance was not serving only to protect western Europe. It protected America, too. “This is what keeps us safe,” Mattis said. Cohn tried to explain to Trump that he needed to see the value of the trade deals. “These are commitments that help keep us safe,” Cohn said.

...Trump then repeated a threat he’d made countless times before. He wanted out of the Iran nuclear deal that President Obama had struck in 2015, which called for Iran to reduce its uranium stockpile and cut its nuclear program.

“It’s the worst deal in history!” Trump declared.

“Well, actually . . .,” Tillerson interjected.

“I don’t want to hear it,” Trump said, cutting off the secretary of state before he could explain some of the benefits of the agreement. “They’re cheating. They’re building. We’re getting out of it. I keep telling you, I keep giving you time, and you keep delaying me. I want out of it.”

Before they could debate the Iran deal, Trump erupted to revive another frequent complaint: the war in Afghanistan, which was now America’s longest war. He demanded an explanation for why the United States hadn’t won in Afghanistan yet, now 16 years after the nation began fighting there in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Trump unleashed his disdain, calling Afghanistan a “loser war.” That phrase hung in the air and disgusted not only the military leaders at the table but also the men and women in uniform sitting along the back wall behind their principals. They all were sworn to obey their commander in chief’s commands, and here he was calling the war they had been fighting a loser war.

“You’re all losers,” Trump said. “You don’t know how to win anymore.”

Trump questioned why the United States couldn’t get some oil as payment for the troops stationed in the Persian Gulf. “We spent $7 trillion; they’re ripping us off,” Trump boomed. “Where is the f---ing oil?”

...“I want to win,” he said. “We don’t win any wars anymore . . . We spend $7 trillion, everybody else got the oil and we’re not winning anymore.”

Trump by now was in one of his rages. ...

“I wouldn’t go to war with you people,” Trump told the assembled brass.

Addressing the room, the commander in chief barked, “You’re a bunch of dopes and babies.”

For a president known for verbiage he euphemistically called “locker room talk,” this was the gravest insult he could have delivered to these people, in this sacred space. The flag officers in the room were shocked. Some staff began looking down at their papers, rearranging folders, almost wishing themselves out of the room. A few considered walking out. They tried not to reveal their revulsion on their faces, but questions raced through their minds. “How does the commander in chief say that?” one thought. “What would our worst adversaries think if they knew he said this?”

This was a president who had been labeled a “draft dodger” for avoiding service in the Vietnam War under questionable circumstances. Trump was a young man born of privilege and in seemingly perfect health: six feet two inches with a muscular build and a flawless medical record. He played several sports, including football. Then, in 1968 at age 22, he obtained a diagnosis of bone spurs in his heels that exempted him from military service just as the United States was drafting men his age to fulfill massive troop deployments to Vietnam.

Tillerson in particular was stunned by Trump’s diatribe and began visibly seething. For too many minutes, others in the room noticed, he had been staring straight, dumbfounded, at Mattis, who was speechless, his head bowed down toward the table. Tillerson thought to himself, “Gosh darn it, Jim, say something. Why aren’t you saying something?”

But, as he would later tell close aides, Tillerson realized in that moment that Mattis was genetically a Marine, unable to talk back to his commander in chief, no matter what nonsense came out of his mouth.

The more perplexing silence was from Pence, a leader who should have been able to stand up to Trump. Instead, one attendee thought, “He’s sitting there frozen like a statue.

...Others at the table noticed Trump’s stream of venom had taken an emotional toll. So many people in that room had gone to war and risked their lives for their country, and now they were being dressed down by a president who had not. They felt sick to their stomachs. Tillerson told others he thought he saw a woman in the room silently crying. He was furious and decided he couldn’t stand it another minute. His voice broke into Trump’s tirade, this one about trying to make money off U.S. troops.

“No, that’s just wrong,” the secretary of state said. “Mr. President, you’re totally wrong. None of that is true.”

Tillerson’s father and uncle had both been combat veterans, and he was deeply proud of their service.

“The men and women who put on a uniform don’t do it to become soldiers of fortune,” Tillerson said. “That’s not why they put on a uniform and go out and die . . . They do it to protect our freedom.”

There was silence in the Tank. Several military officers in the room were grateful to the secretary of state for defending them when no one else would. The meeting soon ended and Trump walked out, saying goodbye to a group of servicemen lining the corridor as he made his way to his motorcade waiting outside. Mattis, Tillerson, and Cohn were deflated. Standing in the hall with a small cluster of people he trusted, Tillerson finally let down his guard.

“He’s a f---ing moron,” the secretary of state said of the president.

...

Trump once again gathered his generals and top diplomats in December 2017 for a meeting as part of the administration’s ongoing strategy talks about troop deployments in Afghanistan in the Situation Room, a secure meeting room on the ground floor of the West Wing. Trump didn’t like the Situation Room as much as the Pentagon’s Tank, because he didn’t think it had enough gravitas. It just wasn’t impressive. But there Trump was, struggling to come up with a new Afghanistan policy and frustrated that so many U.S. forces were deployed in so many places around the world. The conversation began to tilt in the same direction as it had in the Tank back in July.

“All these countries need to start paying us for the troops we are sending to their countries. We need to be making a profit,” Trump said. “We could turn a profit on this.”

Dunford tried to explain to the president once again, gently, that troops deployed in these regions provided stability there, which helped make America safer. Another officer chimed in that charging other countries for U.S. soldiers would be against the law.

“But it just wasn’t working,” one former Trump aide recalled. “Nothing worked.”

Following the Tank meeting, Tillerson had told his aides that he would never silently tolerate such demeaning talk from Trump about making money off the deployments of U.S. soldiers. Tillerson’s father, at the age of 17, had committed to enlist in the Navy on his next birthday, wanting so much to serve his country in World War II. His great-uncle was a career officer in the Navy as well. Both men had been on his mind, Tillerson told aides, when Trump unleashed his tirade in the Tank and again when he repeated those points in the Situation Room in December.

“We need to get our money back,” Trump told his assembled advisers.

That was it. Tillerson stood up. But when he did so, he turned his back to the president and faced the flag officers and the rest of the aides in the room. He didn’t want a repeat of the scene in the Tank.

“I’ve never put on a uniform, but I know this,” Tillerson said. “Every person who has put on a uniform, the people in this room, they don’t do it to make a buck. They did it for their country, to protect us. I want everyone to be clear about how much we as a country value their service.”

Tillerson’s rebuke made Trump angry. He got a little red in the face. But the president decided not to engage Tillerson at that moment. He would wait to take him on another day.

In March 2018, Trump abruptly fired Tillerson while the secretary of state was halfway across the globe on a sensitive diplomatic mission to Africa to ease tensions caused by Trump’s demeaning insults about African countries. Trump gave Tillerson no rationale for his firing, and afterward acted as if they were buddies, inviting him to come by the Oval Office to take a picture and have the president sign it. Tillerson never went."end of excerpt...


But, isn't Trump actually smart but just different?  Didn't he go to a great school, Wharton?  I don't think so.  He got into Wharton because his brother was a friend of a man who vetted candidates and recommended Donald as a favor to Donald's brother.  Plus, long ago, before Trump ran for president, a retire Wharton professor said very publically and often that Trump was the dumbest student he ever had, you couldn't teach him anything.


But, wasn't Trump a very successful businessman?  Not really.  He took over $400 million from his father and blew it, ending up in multiple bankruptcies and business failures.  As best I can tell his money is from money laundering billions from Russian oligarchs who needed to find criminals like themselves with real estate, casino, resort and golf courses that could take in dirty cash and give them back clean cash in return.


Trump is good at conning people, good at building a brand, an illusion of success that evaporates under scrutiny.


Trump's impeachment is the least of his problems.  His real problem will be to stay out of prison on money laundering, tax fraud, and bank fraud.  That is why his real passion is to keep his finances secret.


It will all come out eventually, and those who so loudly defend him now will try to quietly slink away when it becomes undeniable.

Soleimani was not like bin Laden or Baghdadi

Bin Laden headed up Al Qaeda, and Baghdadi headed up ISIS. Both of these were non state terrorist movements.  Soleimani was the second most powerful member of the government of Iran. Assassinating him on the grounds of an ally, Iraq, was an act of war. Doing so without consulting with Congress was pretty close to a violation of the Constitution.

Soleimani deserved to die, and the world is better without him. But previous presidents, W and Obama, decided that declaring war against Iran was worse than working to oppose the actions of Soleimani. I agree.

Bullies only know about bullying. So it is with Trump and his cult.

America has plummeted from the heights of the Leader of the Free World to the depths of the Biggest  Bully. And a Stupid Bully at that.

Showing restraint

Looks like President Trump is not escalating dramatically against Iran, as I had feared he would.  He is diminishing the effects of the attack on the military base and just talking about economic sanction increases.


Good for him. 

The stupidity is escalating

To the Iranians, the assassination of Soleimani was akin to the assassination of JFK in America in 1963. Although each had some opposition within, they were beloved and both nations were both shocked and grieving intensely.  Imagine America's response in '63 if it was discovered that the USSR had assassinated JFK!


Iran has now attacked to two Iraqi military bases hosting Americans.  The U.S. is huddling to determine their response.  Expecting anything approaching intelligence or wisdom from Trump and his war-hawks close to him is just beyond my ability to credibly imagine.


It would be good to remember that Iran lost about half a MILLION men in their war with Iran in the '80s.  They sent thousands of boys across mine fields to their deaths as a way to clear out the mines.  Expecting restraint from Iran is also beyond my ability to credibly imagine.

Why did previous administrations stay away from going to war with Iran?  The straits of Hormuz.  It is too easy for Iran to block it and stop oil coming out of the gulf.


This is not going well.

Did the nitwit just start a war with Iran?

Trump just assassinated the second most powerful man in Iran, Qassem Soleimani, head of the dreaded Quds force.  I think this is Trump's declaration of war against Iran.  Do we expect Iran, of all countries, to be diplomatic in its response? or rather to fly into a blood-lust frenzy instead? Not really that hard to figure out.

Is it good that the horrible Soleimani is dead?  Sure.  Was he working to attack Americans in the Middle East?  Probably.  Was he a primary force in the brutal expansions of Iranian power in the Middle East?  Yes.  

But, how does the leader of the free world respond to that?  By assassinating him?  George W Bush said no.  Obama said no.  They didn't want to start a war with Iran.  They countered Soleimani's moves with U.S. moves.  That is the level headed and responsible approach.  The approach of grown ups.  The approach based upon the interests of America rather than the political interests of a childish president needing to distract from his impeachment.

Did Trump consult with Saudi Arabia's leader, MBS?  I expect that is very likely, as Trump immediately sided with Saudi Arabia against Iran as soon as he took office - remember him standing with a ridiculous grin on his face as Saudi warriors danced around him swinging swords? 

Why?  Even though you can find Republicans and war hawks agreeing with this assassination as justified, the support rings hollow to me.  They keep being forced to defend the egotistical impulses of the child at the head of their party.  When will they speak out?

Why?  This nitwit, whose only concern is himself, needs big headlines to distract from his impeachment.  I have long feared just this - a war to pull the headlines away from his exposed corruption and to capture the headlines. 

He is a danger, not only to American democracy with his authoritarian attacks on our democratic institutions (free press, neutral judiciary, fair Justice system, Constitutional congressional powers, etc.) but he is a danger to the world with his bloodthirsty need to prove his pathetic notion of manhood. 

I do hope and pray that this does not escalate into a war the way Iraq did, because I fear it could actually get worse than Iraq.

Climate change catastrophes

Climate change is producing terrible damage to this world.  The most recent catastrophe is in Australia where so far about 18 people have died, many are missing, mass evacuations are happening, people are fleeing into the ocean to stay alive, smoke inhalation is affecting vast numbers, and nearly ONE HALF A BILLION animals have died.  Some species may have disappeared.  The cause is unusual heat and dryness.  Apparently this fire season has gone far beyond the normal, gotten into trees, and there is no quick end in sight as the heat and dryness continue.


We in California understand this problem all to well as we have gone through three consecutive out of the ordinary fire seasons. 


In addition to fires there are blizzards and floods that are unusual due to the unstable polar vortex caused by climate change. 


Of course there are more category 5 hurricanes assaulting us as well. 


We are in a New Normal - instability in our climate.


My political beliefs have long been to stay away from the extremes in either party, and I don't want an extreme lefty to get the Democratic nomination for President this season because I think that is the only way that Trump gets elected. 


But, I think the youth today are much less interested in whether or not a candidate cares about Medicare for All and is much more interested in cleaning up the air and water, and attacking the causes of climate change. 


It is finally dawning on me that environmental concerns need to take the lead going forward.