Does Russia benefit?

I think that any foreign policy move made by Trump should always first raise the question - Does Russia Benefit?


Trump is abruptly withdrawing U.S. troops from Syria, abandoning our allies, the Kurds - an astonishing betrayal setting up the slaughter of American allies.  U.S. troops are humiliated and enraged by the depth of dishonor of this move by this dishonorable president.


So, who benefits?  It is said that Trump has investments in Turkey and this narcissistic president can only think in terms of what benefits him - and he is sucking up to the Turkey strong man Erdogan in order to make millions of dollars for himself.  That could very well be true given the character of this president.


However - Does Russia Benefit?  Well, it does. A lot.  Putin is allied with the Syrian dictator, Assad, and the forces of Assad, Iran, and Russia all move into the vacuum of the American withdrawal.  So, yes, Russia does benefit.


Looking at Trump foreign policy we see Putin's Russia benefits on almost every front - America weakens its foreign policy leadership in the world by pulling out of the Trans Pacific Partnership in the far east, weakens its foreign policy leadership by attacking and threatening NATO in Europe, weakens its leadership in the Americas by pulling out of NAFTA. 


Looking at Trump domestic policy we see Putin's Russia benefits by Trump's attack on and virtual destruction of the State Department, by his attacks on his own CIA, FBI and all Intelligence Agencies, by his attacks and weakening all science based policy across all government agencies.


Putin can't make Russia strong because it is a fairly insignificant economy, about the size of Italy as I understand it. So, Putin does what any top notch former KGB officer knows how to do - weaken and destroy his enemies - America, NATO, pretty much everybody in the world - by weakening their foreign and domestic powers.


Trump is an incompetent and ignorant man with no real foreign or domestic policy other than what can make him money.  Putin, however, has a very clear American domestic and foreign policy.  And it is pretty clear to me that Putin controls Trump.  Trump is pretty easy to control for a KGB agent - feed his fragile grandiose ego, feed him money, or.... threaten him with lifetime prison for things like money laundering and tax fraud. 


Trump hasn't a clue, but Putin and the Russian Oligarchs know exactly what they are doing.

New article of impeachment needed

It is a constitutional right and duty of the House of Representatives to conduct impeachment proceedings if the House decides there is a reason to do so. It is the constitutional duty of the Senate to vote to remove or keep in place the impeached President.

I think it is unconstitutional for the target of an impeachment investigation to refuse to allow witnesses to respond to subpoenas issued by the House. Apparently this lawless president has just declared nobody will be allowed to respond to House subpoenas.  

This seems to me to be an impeachable offense in itself. This should now be the first article of impeachment.  Obstruction of justice. Obstruction of Congress. 

Congress cannot allow this. Congress is equal to the president. 

Trump continues his march toward autocratic rule. He must be stopped. 

The TV Trump

The TV critic of the New York Times, James Poniwwozik, has an interesting view of our president - he can best be perceived as a reality TV character, rather than as a politician or as a normal person.


I am very grateful that I do not watch reality TV.  I watched the first (?) season of The Apprentice and was properly mesmerized by the horrors of watching Amarosa's disgusting antics. Plus there was the fascinating disgust of watching Trump preen as well. That was more than enough to turn me off to reality TV.  Never more....


But, reality TV has gone on to a number of successful shows, and they all seem to present a formula for success.  Apparently the biggest drive for a reality TV performer is to keep the red light on - i.e. have the camera on and watching them.  How do they do it?  What does Trump do now that he is on the biggest reality TV show of all time - "Trump is President". 


Here is the formula - I present Mr Poniwwozik's observations in bullet form.  I want this as a reference when I get especially disturbed by the latest outrage designed to "keep the red light on" and focused on the TV Trump::

• Using TV as a magnifying glass, to make himself appear bigger than he was.   
• What does TV want? It wants conflict. It wants excitement.
• It wants a fight.
• It wants MORE. It is always eating and never full.
• Playing a character on reality TV means being yourself, but bigger and louder.
• Telegenic brashness
• You do not attempt to understand other people, except as obstacles or objects.
• Project your "fullest" you.
• Encourages “getting real.” (resonates with a rising conservative notion: that political correctness kept people from saying what was really on their minds)
• To be real is to be the most entertaining, provocative form of yourself - that will focus the red light on you
• Amarosa wrote - “exaggerate the unique part of themselves.” - the “strategy” is to do what feels good.
• Fighting.
• Insulting
• The only solution for any given problem was a being a Trumpier Trump.
• Never de-escalate and never turn the volume down.
• He serves up one “most shocking episode ever” after another, mining uglier pieces of his core each time
• Be aggrieved over minor slights
• Taunting, insults, dog whistles
• He’s half-man, half-TV, with a camera for an eye that is constantly focused on itself.
• His character shorthand is “Donald Trump, Fighter Guy Who Wins.”

Before taking office, he told aides to think of every day as “an episode in a television show in which he vanquishes rivals.” 


This perception of Trump actually explains his actions more accurately than any political or psychological analysis I have read.  He becomes easy to see now. 


He is still dangerous, because the nature of the Show is ever escalating outrage, and as a desperate performer losing his audience who happens to be president, killing people (wars - attacks by outraged "fans" - other countries feeling permission to act in their most authoritarian ways - etc.) becomes a ratings booster.




But, you know?  The act gets old.  Tired.  Used up.  No longer fascinating.  Soon it will be time to turn the channel.  Just like audiences did on The Apprentice. 


It went off the air.  It failed.
 


Ho hum....

Shoot migrants' legs???

Apparently, our president actually suggested that America shoot migrants' legs.  And, oh yes, there is that thing about snakes and alligators - and an electric wall:


"Privately, the president had often talked about fortifying a border wall with a water-filled trench, stocked with snakes or alligators, prompting aides to seek a cost estimate. He wanted the wall electrified, with spikes on top that could pierce human flesh. After publicly suggesting that soldiers shoot migrants if they threw rocks, the president backed off when his staff told him that was illegal. But later in a meeting, aides recalled, he suggested that they shoot migrants in the legs to slow them down. That’s not allowed either, they told him."


There is really something wrong with this guy.


Really...

Trump threatens the life of the whistleblowers

Did anyone else notice that Trump actually threatened the life of the whistleblowers? He said:

“…he or she or whoever the hell it is — sort of like, almost, a spy. I want to know who’s the person that gave the whistleblower, who’s the person that gave the whistleblower the information, because that’s close to a spy. You know what we used to do in the old days when we were smart? Right? With spies and treason, right?”

We used to handle them a little differently than we do now,”


Handle them differently now?  Death is what he means.   By the way, the law protects whistleblowers and their identity.  This lawless tyrant is in the process of adding to the charges to be leveled against him in his upcoming impeachment.


This is mob boss speak. Trump has many avid followers and some are dangerously prone to violence. This seems to me to be a call to “rub out” the whistleblower.


He thinks he can get away with anything.



This is going to keep getting uglier. This man and his enablers can always go beyond our darkest imaginings.  The closer he comes to impeachment the more desperate he will become.  And he is getting closer...   

What happens when an egomaniac narcissist thinks he can get away with anything?

What happens when an egomaniac narcissist thinks he can get away with anything?  He tries to get away with more and more and more and.....


Until he is stopped.


Our egomaniac narcissist president hasn't yet done what he speculated he could get away with - shoot someone on 5th Avenue in NYC and not lose any support from his base.  But, who knows what he'll try next?


So, he has to be stopped.  I think it may actually be happening now.

Quid Pro Quo doesn’t matter

 Trump spin doctors are trying to change the whistleblower story to whether or not there was a quid pro quo deal with Ukraine in order to get dirt on Biden and his son. That is not the story. That is not the hurdle to impeachment. The story is requesting aid on a political opponent of a foreign government. That is conspiracy with a foreign government to help the presidents reelection.

Quid pro quo would be worse but not necessary for impeachment of this lawless man.

Everybody does not do it. Getting help for your presidential election campaign from a foreign government is conspiracy with the foreign government. Asking for help from a foreign Government is impeachable whether or not the foreign government helps.  He did more than ask. He did more than request. It was a mob boss shakedown. It was worse than a request. But all it had to be to be impeachable was a request. 

This is not hard to figure out.

Of course he should be impeached. The phony criteria of quid pro pro is just that – phony.

The man has no shame. Does the Republican Senate?

Whistle blower update

This ongoing story seems to be changing to Trump pressuring Ukraine to dish up dirt on Joe Biden's son.  I guess that means Trump is afraid of Biden.  That probably helps Biden.


If the current version of the story turns out to be true, that would be Trump actively soliciting help from a foreign power to help him get elected.  Conspiracy?  Perhaps this time, the foreign power refused.  Or maybe not.  Trump escaped being charged with conspiracy with the Russians in the Mueller report, not because he rebuffed Russia's help, but because it couldn't be proven that he sought Russia's help.


This time, Trump himself seems to have not only sought a foreign power's help, he coerced it. 

Impeachable?  Of course.  Will the Republican Senate finally get sick of this nitwit's unconstitutional abuse of power? 


I wouldn't count on it.  This is really disgusting.


The story develops.

Whistle blower says Trump made an alarming promise to an un-named foreign leader

What has Trump promised a foreign leader, and who is that foreign leader?  An intelligence official was so alarmed by this promise that he or she filed a formal whistleblower complaint. 

"Trump’s interaction with the foreign leader included a “promise” that was regarded as so troubling that it prompted an official in the U.S. intelligence community to file a formal whistleblower complaint with the inspector general for the intelligence community..." 

This doesn't look like just some anti-Trump "gotcha" event.  For an intelligence official to feel they have to go to this extent to warn the country of what they obviously see as a threat to our country is pretty serious, and could be very serious indeed.

It is not a mystery that Trump has had numerous secret conversations with Putin of Russia, and that Trump has been doing remarkably damaging things to American interests, and remarkably helpful things to Russian interests, ever since his campaign and election.  For example: 

Internationally:

• Attacking and weakening America's relationships with America's allies around the world - withdrawing from NAFTA and the TPP, attacking NATO, attacking the European Union by supporting English extremists Brexit, pulled out of the Iran nuclear accord and ceding leadership in the world on disarmament
• Destroying America's reputation of being the nation of hope and opportunity for refugees seeking asylum
• Destroying America's moral leadership in the world by leading cruel attacks and treating refugees heartlessly
• Demanding that Russia be re-invited to the G7 after all the nations had driven Russia out after Russia attacked Crimea

Domestically:

• Threatening to question the validity of the 2016 election (if he would have lost) And already threatening to question the validity of the 2020 election if he loses.
• Weakening each and every government department, from the State Department, to the Department of Energy, to the Environmental Protection Agency, to all but the Defense Department.
• Getting rid of science experts in agriculture, environment, nuclear cleanup and safety, etc. etc.   (He hates experts because they actually know things)
• Overtly and proudly declaring his white supremacy and inflaming racial divides in the country as an expression of his beliefs and as a campaign tactic to arouse his base
• "Joking" that he will be president for three or more terms.
  So, an intelligence official was so alarmed by the promise that Trump made to a foreign government, Russia is the obvious most likely, but it could be North Korea, Israel??
   
  Our president is a threat to American security.  He is either a ridiculously bumbling fool or under the control of a hostile foreign power (or both).

Don't trust Trump with sensitive foreign intelligence

Trump has proven himself to be untrustworthy with U.S. intelligence secrets.  The latest proof of this is that we find out today that the CIA is fully aware of Trump's stupidity/perfidy.  Michelle Goldberg writes:


"According to CNN, in a secret mission in 2017, America “extracted from Russia one of its highest-level covert sources inside the Russian government,” partly because of worries that Trump’s cavalier handling of intelligence information could expose the person. On Monday evening, The New York Times added to the story, reporting that the source was a Russian official whose job provided “access to the highest level of the Kremlin.”

“The secret removal of the high-level Russian asset has left the U.S. without one of its key sources on the inner workings of the Kremlin,” reported CNN’s Jim Sciutto"  So he loses key info on Putin's Kremlin.

And let's remember some earlier Trump revelations to our enemies of sacred state secrets:

"Trump, you’ll remember, was in office for only a few months before he revealed to Russia classified intelligence about ISIS that originated in Israel, potentially endangering a source who was, as The Wall Street Journal reported, “the most valuable source of information on external plotting by Islamic State.”  So, he loses key info on ISIS.

And, another memory:

"Not long after, Trump bragged to Philippine strongman Rodrigo Duterte about the presence of American nuclear submarines off North Korea. (“We never talk about subs!” stunned Pentagon officials told BuzzFeed News.)" So he warns North Korea of military secrets.

And another in a long line of this man's attack on U.S. security:

"Less than two weeks ago, Trump tweeted what was likely a classified photo of the aftermath of an explosion at an Iranian space center. From the image, journalists and internet sleuths were able to deduce important information about the type and location of the satellite that produced it. “This is the first time in three and a half decades that an image has become public that reveals the sophistication of U.S. spy satellites in orbit,” reported Wired." So he gives Iran info to help them hide from the world their missile work.

So, is Trump just an unstable, mentally ill, unbalanced fool?  or is he an agent of Russia following orders to weaken and destroy America's leadership in the world.

I think it is the latter.  I am tired of giving him the benefit of the doubt and saying he is just stupid and nuts.  He could well be reacting to Russian blackmail.  And America and the world loses.

Is Trump a tyrant?

I think that many conservatives write off Trump's behavior as damnable but not all that serious.  I don't.


Is Trump a tyrant?  He is not Hitler, and he is not Caligula.  But I just finished a Netflix special about Caligula - "Roman Empire" season three.  It was very interesting, and it showed a man who was badly psychologically wounded and dominated in his youth, thrust into the position of Emperor of Rome (the third emperor after Augustus and Tiberius) and who started off courting popularity from the people and cooperation with the Senate.  That changed after he suffered a very serious illness of three months where he almost died, an illness that drove him into paranoia, madness, and violence. His behavior was debauched, and he slaughtered tens of thousands accused of treason. He ended up being assassinated by his uncle, Cassius after only three years of being an emperor at the age of 28.  Cassius went on to be what Caligula was not - a competent Emperor.


So what has this to do with Trump?  Trump is not an unfettered Emperor and although the Senate is doing nothing to curb his whims and abuses of power, there is an opposition press and opposition House of Representatives that are having some effect. And the judiciary has not been compromised by his commands.


However, there are some descriptions of Caligula by the historians in the film that are interesting to us in America today:


"Caligula did not know what he was doing.  You have this damaged individual that you now have thrust into power, with no skills, no background, nothing but his damaged psyche who you have now given all the power in the world to, and asked him to behave properly" 


Sound familiar?


"Caligula needed to make sure that the people knew that he was all powerful and could do anything.  So he built bridges, he built temples, he was putting up  statues of himself everywhere.  He tried to be worshiped as a God while still living."


Sound familiar?


The most frightening thing about the Caligula story was that after he had lost the adoration of the crowds he decided to lead Rome into war and conquer Britain, which was a total failure because of his incompetence, so he staged a fake victory and returned in a fake triumph. It didn't help him all that much. 


Hoping and praying that Mr Trump doesn't decide to become popular by attacking some country....


Of course, Trump has not slaughtered tens of thousands for treason, but he does accuse critics of him as being treasonous, doesn't he?  He hasn't built statues and monuments to himself, but he does put his name, TRUMP, on buildings and anything he can get away with, doesn't he?


The Romans didn't have the tools of impeachment and elections to replace terrible Emperors, and America does.  The only way they could get rid of Caligula, and indeed get rid of Caesar, was assassination. 


I hope my conservative friends recognize the danger that this incompetent, ignorant, erratic, and mentally unfit man is and support any and all challengers to Trump in the upcoming primaries.  And if that fails, I hope that they hold their nose and vote for his opponent in the general election.


The man is no Caligula, but not because he wouldn't like to be...

Conservartive calls for Trump primary upponent

Some conservatives are finally waking up to the damage of the Trump presidency and calling for a primary challenge to him in the upcoming election cycle. 


Joe Walsh, former Illinois Republican Congressman and Tea Party darling writes:


"At the most basic level, Mr. Trump is unfit for office. His lies are so numerous — from his absurd claim that tariffs are “paid for mostly by China, by the way, not by us,” to his prevarication about his crowd sizes, he can’t be trusted...At times, I expressed hate for my political opponents. We now see where this can lead. There’s no place in our politics for personal attacks like that, and I regret making them...I soon realized that I couldn’t support him because of the danger he poses to the country, especially the division he sows at every chance, culminating a few weeks ago in his ugly, racist attack on four minority congresswomen....he sides with Vladimir Putin over our own intelligence community. That’s dangerous. He encouraged Russian interference in the 2016 election, and he refuses to take foreign threats seriously as we enter the 2020 election....That’s un-American...We need someone who could stand up, look the president in the eye and say: “Enough, sir. We’ve had enough of your indecency."


Anthony Scaramucci, formerly briefly in the Trump White House, call for a primary challenger as well:


"my public criticism of the president has been mounting over the past two years. His response to the neo-Nazi march in Charlottesville was repellent. I was appalled by the administration’s child-separation policy along the southern border. His ranting about the news media as the “enemy of the people” was dangerous and beyond the pale. But the final straw came last month when Trump said on Twitter that four congresswomen — all of them U.S. citizens, and three native-born — should “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.” ...like all demagogues, he is incapable of handling constructive criticism. As we lie on the bed of nails Trump has made, it’s often difficult to see how much the paradigm of acceptable conduct has shifted...I challenge my fellow Republicans to summon the nerve to speak out on the record against Trump. Defy the culture of fear he has created, and go public with the concerns you readily express in private."


Scaramucci is appealing to former Cabinet members to speak out against Trump.


"...OK, the guy's unstable, everyone inside knows it, everyone outside knows it, let's see if we can find a viable alternative,'"..."I predict in middle or late fall there will be a trove of people that will come together in unity to say this is what's going on. This is how the person's acting."


There has been a relentless parade of Conservative Never Trumpers, from George Will and Charles Krauthammer to Michael Gerson and Jennifer Rubin. These two are not pundits, and they are actively calling for conservatives to Replace Trump at the top of the Republican ticket in 2020.


That would make this country, and the world, a safer place.

America's Spirit needs to renew and awaken

I continue to struggle to understand the presidency of Donald Trump.  His flaws are pretty much all that he is - corruption, racism, bullying domination, lying, incompetence, ignorance, disloyalty - the list can be extended I am sure; these are just what comes off the top of my head. 


But why is he our president?  I want to look at it in a much broader scope than electoral constituencies and grievances. 


I think that Trump is a face of America that has always been there, and one that the rest of the world has always known.  It is one that blacks and browns and yellows and reds in America have always known.  It is a racist and violent face that I, and I think a very large majority of Americans, had thought was behind us.  I think we thought we were beyond the George Wallace, Jim Crowe South, white supremacist racist domination of the past.  It is a shock to me to see it take over the county.


But, even deeper than the horrors of racism, I think there is something underneath it holding it up - a toxic masculinity, a macho chauvinism, that is dying out and is making a last gasp effort to reassert its tyranny.  We are in the emergence of the Me Too movement that includes punishing sexual predators, but also includes the emergence of women as a political force.  And more than that, I think we are in the process of awakening more feminine energies and turning away from the twisted masculine energies of brutal domination and violence.


Shortly after the 9/11 attacks, conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer wrote that the Muslim extremists were violently reacting against the what they saw as the corrupt influences of the West, and especially they thought the West had lost control of their women, and Islam was not about to lose control over their women.


I think the emergence of Trump and the Trumpsters is a kind of a parallel to that desperate urge - they want to assert their control over women - and even more so they want to assert their control over the feminine energies - to make sure that force and domination and bullying are in charge of America, not the more feminine energies of caring, compassion, negotiation, win-win solutions, and respect for people who are different.


I am hopeful that this remarkably toxic president and his domineering and racist followers, by marching proudly into the light, lets America see them clearly and know we can no longer turn away and pretend they aren't there. 


I am hopeful that Trump and the Trumpsters are exposing themselves and the true Spirit and Soul of America is in the process of waking up and turning away from their toxic brew of bigotry, hate, and domination.


It is time for a renewed American spirit to emerge.  Or so I hope.

Ignorant Trade War

Donald Trump does not understand trade deficits. He thinks if we have a trade deficit with China it means that China is pulling money out of America.  It just means that our economy buys more from China than it sells to China.  If we lower the trade deficit with China we will just increase a trade deficit with other countries.  We buy more than we produce, so we have trade deficits.

And Donald Trump doesn't know history - especially the history that says that the Smoot Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 was a contributor to the collapse of the U.S. and world economy of the Great Depression of the '30s.  This has been explained to this poor hapless guy in the White House, who is in way over his head, many times by many people, but he is incapable of learning because he thinks he knows it all already. 


Or he just doesn't have the mental capacity to understand complicated things, as has been reported by a number of former staff who tried to deal with him. 


Or maybe he is under other influences?

So, Trump announced a ridiculous 25% tariff on China.  He thinks he is negotiating.  He thinks the way you negotiate is with sledge hammers. He only is capable of imagining using force, and incapable of imagining or using persuasion.  He can only see the world in win-lose terms, and hasn't a clue to what win-win is.   He is the worst negotiator in U.S. history, as far as I can tell.  So, China responds with its own draconian measure, dropping the value of their currency.  And today the stock market dropped 767.27 points. Is this a surprise to anyone?

That Trump is ignorant is obvious.  That Trump is incapable of learning is obvious.  That Trump is incapable of admitting a mistake is obvious.  

I just hope and pray that he doesn't complete his mission of plunging the country into a real depression. 

It is almost as if he were taking orders from a hostile foreign power waging war against America and having him do those things most destructive to America, and America's economy, and America's leadership and standing in the world, and America's power in the world.  

Did someone mention Russia?

Williamson and Yang

The Democratic contenders for president are all focusing on policy.  And, of course, that is what they would do.  The basic idea is that whoever is nominated will be a vast improvement over the ignorant and corrupt president Trump.  And they are right.  But....


Two of the contenders are focusing on problems much bigger than policy.  Marianne Williamson correctly runs on the idea that the country is in a moral and spiritual crisis, and what we need is what conservative commentator David Brooks calls "An Uprising of Decency".  He writes:

"It is no accident that the Democratic candidate with the best grasp of this election is the one running a spiritual crusade, not an economic redistribution effort. Many of her ideas are wackadoodle, but Marianne Williamson is right about this: “This is part of the dark underbelly of American society: the racism, the bigotry and the entire conversation that we’re having here tonight. If you think any of this wonkiness is going to deal with this dark psychic force of the collectivized hatred that this president is bringing up in this country, then I’m afraid that the Democrats are going to see some very dark days.”

And she is right about this: “We’ve never dealt with a figure like this in American history before. This man, our president, is not just a politician; he’s a phenomenon. And an insider political game will not be able to defeat it. … The only thing that will defeat him is if we have a phenomenon of equal force, and that phenomenon is a moral uprising of the American people.”

I hope and trust that America will rise up and demand a leader who is simply a decent human being rather than the dark, twisted, deeply corrupt and toxic leader we now have.

The other visionary on the stage, also who has no chance of winning the nomination, is entrepreneur Andrew Lang whose message is that the exponential growth of computer and artificial intelligence capabilities are and will continue to eliminate jobs that human beings do.  This effect is obvious in manufacturing. As Yang pointed out in the debates this week it is robotic machines that fill up the auto plants in Michigan, not illegal immigrants.  We are heading toward a country without work where it is not just mechanical work being replaced but intellectual work as well - AI does better diagnosis than the best doctors in some instances, and what white collar or blue collar jobs will be safe against the exponential progress of technology?  I understand that the computers will need to be programmed and the robots will need to be repaired, but those jobs won't be enough to occupy the entire country.

His solution is paying everyone a monthly survival stipend. Not sure that is the answer.  I think we might be moving toward an economy based on services, entertainment, artistic expression, hands on medical care, for example - the kinds of things that it takes a human heart and human creativity to do. But Mr. Yang points out that jobs and careers that we know of are going to go away.

Interesting times.

Step one is get rid of the dark vortex of hate and ignorance that currently runs our government.

Trump support

I think 35% will vote for Trump no matter what. That is his real base.  That is the core Republican base and it always has been and always will be, I believe.


The current Trump approval rating is about 43%. That means about 8% of the people who currently support him are not really his hard-core no-matter-what base. 46% actually voted for him in 2016. That’s about 11% who actually voted for him are not his hard core base.

I think there has been a change in Donald Trump ever since the Mueller report and now especially since the Mueller testimony in Congress. The change is that Donald Trump thinks he has gotten away with it. The Mueller report and the Mueller testimony said there was no criminal conspiracy.  And although neither the report nor the testimony exonerated Trump on the question of obstruction of justice, there has not been it outcry from the country that included Republicans to prosecute impeachment.

So I think that Trump feels freshly empowered to go for his reelection with no holds barred. And since the only real issue that Donald Trump has ever cared about is white supremacy that seems to be the issue that he is going all in on.

It used to be that the Republicans used racist dog whistles and talked about things like law and order or states rights or welfare queens or the menace of drug gangs. Those issues were not exactly subtle references to minorities.  But  they were disguised just enough that people could vote for a Republican and pretend to themselves or others that race was not their issue, but rather their issue was law and order, drugs, or tax cuts, or fiscal austerity, or balancing the budget, etc. So they could think of themselves as good people caring about issues other than white supremacy and racism.  Indeed, many just put up with the racist appeals that did not appeal to them and voted on the basis of conservative economic or social issues.

However, now Trump is in full out white supremacist mode. He attacks four women of color and tells them they should go back to where they came from – which of course everyone understands they should go back to their brown countries even though they are all actually from America and are American citizens. 


And then he attacks Elijah Cummings and says that his state Maryland is a rat infested disgusting place and said "No human being would want to live there." No human being? Black and brown people are not real human beings? So there is no longer any question about who Trump thinks real human beings are - white people are real human beings in Trump's twisted mind. 

White supremacists certainly hear this toxin and are thrilled. So the 35% that will always vote for Donald Trump knows they are speaking to them. What about that 8% to 11% that voted for Trump or still approve of Trump who are not white supremacists. Who are perhaps Republican out of habit, or ideological belief but who do not think of themselves as racist or white supremacist? Who might not even be white? The cover is blown. How do they support this overtly white supremacist and racist presidential candidate now?

Oh, you say to yourself, this is just a moment in time and he won’t be saying these kind of things for very long. And he will get smarter as the election cycle continues.  Are you kidding? Trump will never stop being Trump. Trump has always been a white supremacist. Trump has always been a racist. And Trump is sure that that is why people voted for him. 


And indeed, political scientists and sociologists struggled to understand the Trump election, and they studied many options that could explain his victory - the economic dispossessed and forgotten voted for Trump? The lower classes ignored by the elite so they voted for Trump? Racists voted for Trump? The unfortunate result of a many very good scientific studies was that the biggest predictor for a trump voter was racial resentment (racism).   

Trump knows this even if Democrats think they’re supposed to be trying to come up with programs for farmers and abandoned manufacturing sectors - he knows his real draw is racism. And I think Trump will become more and more overtly white supremacist and racist as he campaigns for president. And I think that he is going to lose much of that 8 to 11% who currently support or voted for him because they do not want to be associated with that slime.

Trump will always be Trump.  He did not win the popular vote last time, he got 46.1% of the popular vote, and he lost by 2.1%. His result in 2020 could well end up being not much more than that core support of 35% as the non-racists finally peal away and turn their back on him.

Or at least so I hope.  I hope that my conservative friends who do not want to be associated with the white supremacy and racism of this president will, like me, will hold their nose and vote for a giraffe rather than for Donald J Trump in 2020.

Mueller's testimony

For those of us who actually read the Mueller report, his testimony is no surprise, just a restatement of what he wrote:

• Russia interfered with and influenced the election of 2016, and Russia and other hostile nations are doing so again right now.
• He did not charge Trump with obstruction of justice because Department of Justice rules said he couldn't
• He didn't make a determination whether Trump committed a crime of obstruction, leaving that to others (read Congress)
• He said Trump was Not Exculpated of obstruction even though Trump repeatedly says we was totally exonerated by the report
• He said that Trump could be prosecuted for crimes after he leaves office.
• He said that criminality was not the necessary standard for determining a politicians fitness in office, things like ethics are a needed standard.

There was no "gasp" moment in the hearings that would grip the nation in astonishment and horror.  I have been gasping in horror ever since Trump's disgusting ride down his elevator announcing his candidacy by attacking brown people as the basis of his candidacy.  It remains the basis of his presidency.


There is enough to impeach him in the House, of course, but I don't see the Senate convicting him.


I think it is time for Congress to focus on his current unconstitutional violations, such as his massive refusals to allow people in his administration honor subpoenas to testify.  Such as investigating financial crimes of money laundering and tax fraud and financial obligations to other countries that force him to do their bidding rather than operating in the interest of America.


We have a criminal in the White House.  And the Republicans know it and the Republicans are doing nothing about it.


Rats....

Trump and the Trump Cult is Un-American

America is a shining light on the hill. Trump's America is a cesspool of corruption, ignorance, racism, and greed.

America is where people of the world come and manifest their dreams. Trump's America blocks the world out and tells them to "go back where they came from".

America is world on the march toward freedom and democracy.  Trump's America moves relentlessly toward dictatorial autocracy and welcomes dictatorial leaders as inspiration and friends.

America leads the world in free trade and commerce. Trump's America blocks free trade and inhibits commerce.

America created strong political and economic alliances to promote prosperity and freedom around the world.  Trump's America is destroying its alliances and weakening America diplomatically and economically around the world.

America leads the world in scientific exploration and development. Trump's  America attacks and destroys scientific research by neutering and destroying department of energy and agriculture, and by denying and destroying evidence of climate change.

America is essentially idealistic. Trump's America is greedy and avaricious. (And when I use the phrase "Trump's America" I mean the Trump Cult - those that are blindly believing and following this horrible man regardless of how horrible he is.  I do not mean the poor folks who voted for Trump because they hated Hillary, or thought he was somehow "conservative'.  I understand that they are trapped in a party that is not giving them alternatives to his depraved impulses.)

America has always had the horrors of Trump's America - from the genocide of Native Americans, to the crushing of African Americans through slavery, to the Jim Crow South, and to the relentless and enduring racism that has recently raised its nauseating head and shown itself in all its disgrace and shame.

There are times that I start to feel that the heart of America is a criminal enterprise, and the fact that enough of America elected a corrupt criminal to be its president supports that despairing feeling.

BUT...

Trump is Un-American. America is going to reject Trump, and recover it’s soul.  Trump and his cult will be embarrassing footnotes in the American history and will join the KKK, George Wallace, the Tea Pot dome scandal and other darknesses in its checkered history.  The real America will continue it’s march toward freedom, justice, caring and prosperity for all who are willing to have it.

I believe America is in a profound identity and spiritual crisis, and that the inspirational America will emerge to transform the corrupt America.

How the Democrats lose to Trump

How can the Democrats lose to Trump in 2020?  The same way they always do, by being taken over by the left wing nut case faction.  Busing?  Reparations? Medicare for All? Impeachment?  Do everything they possibly can to force never-Tumpers to vote for Trump?  to force independents to turn away in bewilderment?  to prove to America that the Loony Left is riding again?


Look, I will vote for a giraffe before I vote for Trump.  I have a bunch of very sound reasons for that, about which I am sure I will write of in the future and often. But now I am talking about the Democratic Party primary season.  And so far it is not comforting to the large swath of moderate America hoping to find someone to replaced Trump who isn't nuts.


Loren Thompson of Forbes Magazine lays out a very articulate warning.  He says he knows how this movie will turn out, he has seen it before, way too often.  And Democrats lose a race that should be impossible to lose.  Nixon crushed lefty McGovern.  HW Bush easily handled lefty Dukakis.  Reagan stomped lefty Carter and then had no trouble with lefty Mondale. 


Clinton won as a moderate liberal, centrist - big tent. Obama was almost post ideological, not a lefty firebrand.


Thompson writes:


"Even in the depths of the Great Depression, FDR knew he had to run as a centrist and populist rather than a socialist to bolster his chances of getting elected (Carter and Clinton successfully embraced the same lesson)."


Trump is a dangerous lunatic but that is not how the campaign will be run.  He will be the sane one and the Lefty Dem will be a dangerous Socialist trying to change everybody's lives, thoughts, feelings, and consciences. 


Thompson says Trump will run on five things, probably successfully:


Peace - will say he saved the world from war with North Korea and Iran (only after threatening war with both and then pulling away)


Prosperity - good stock market, low unemployment, will say that tariffs and being a tough negotiator saved the day (all wrong, of course, but that will be a constant drumbeat)


Sovereignty - The Wall, The Wall, The Wall, Fear the Brown People, Fear, Fear, Fear....


Self Sufficiency - America First, America alone, America to build in America, American jobs in America (while actually destroying jobs in America with his ignorant tarrifs)


Energy of the candidate - Trump as the energizer bunny that never ever ever ever gives up and pushes and pushes and pushes for what he wants - bad things, of course, but many see them as good things.


Trump can't win on his base alone.  So, why are the Dems playing to their base alone? 


It is very predictable, of course, that the left, including me, thinks that Trump is so god-awful that the country will turn away from him in horror and nausea.  And they will, unless the Dems are taken over by those that think that now is finally their chance to put in a radical lefty agenda.


For example - as Mark Shields, liberal commentator on the PBS Newshour pointed out after the first Dem debate - Liberals had been trying to get expanded health care for all for about a century and finally got it in the Affordable Health Care law.  They got it through Congress.  They survived a Supreme Court challenge.  It is a compromise that keeps private hospitals, private insurance, private doctors, private drug companies.  They won. And now we have Dem candidates who want to throw it away for the health care that exists only in the dreams of the extremists in the Democratic Party - Medicare for All, which would be a massive change and will be rejected fiercely not just by the Right wing but by moderates and liberals as well the more the details of what would have to change are revealed.


Never underestimate the delusions of the extremist faithful.


All the Dems have to do to beat Trump is not be crazy.  Trump is crazy. One is enough.

Well, there goes democracy in America

The conservative Supreme Court Judges just ruled that the courts cannot stop undemocratic partisan gerrymandering.  Every 10 years the states redraw congressional districts.  And every 10 years whichever party controls the state draws the districts to favor their party. 


An old practice?  Yes.  An unfair and undemocratic practice?  Yes.  So, since it has been around forever what's the problem?  The problem is that in today's world, with today's computer data, the party in power can draw the districts so precisely as to guarantee victory for their party in as many districts as possible.  The power computer analysis can give to the party in power to disproportionately represent themselves by cheating using skewed gerrymandered districts will only get worse and worse over time. 


Is there a solution?  Referendums.  Like in California.


California voted against allowing the politicians to draw up the districts and gave the job to the Citizens Redistricting Commission - 5 Democrats, 5 Republicans, and 4 others.  This seems to me to a necessary thing to do to have the votes of the people in the state mean anything at all.  As it is now in too many states the politicians choose their voters rather than letting the voters choose their politicians.


I am very disappointed in the non-democratic efforts of this conservative majority Supreme Court. The only way the Supreme Court works in this country is if the vast majority of the people think it is fair.  And, starting for example at Bush vs Gore where the conservatives gave the election to Bush rather than letting the final vote tally decide, the Supreme Court is proving itself to be unelected politicians, with a big agenda to enact. 


Bad day in America today.

Number 16

The 16th brave woman, E. Jean Carroll, revealed that Trump sexually assaulter her by grabbing her by her genitals and, indeed, inserting himself into her forcefully.  In a book excerpt in New York Magazine she describes three or four rich boys who were hideous boys and men - sex assaulters.  She reveals incidents of 21  hideous rich boys (men) in her book apparently. 


Real estate celebrity Donald Trump was one of them in the '90s.  He was ranked as the 20th most hideous rich boy/man on her list.  Here is what happened:




So now I will tell you what happened:

The moment the dressing-room door is closed, he lunges at me, pushes me against the wall, hitting my head quite badly, and puts his mouth against my lips. I am so shocked I shove him back and start laughing again. He seizes both my arms and pushes me up against the wall a second time, and, as I become aware of how large he is, he holds me against the wall with his shoulder and jams his hand under my coat dress and pulls down my tights.

I am astonished by what I’m about to write: I keep laughing. The next moment, still wearing correct business attire, shirt, tie, suit jacket, overcoat, he opens the overcoat, unzips his pants, and, forcing his fingers around my private area, thrusts his penis halfway — or completely, I’m not certain — inside me. It turns into a colossal struggle. I am wearing a pair of sturdy black patent-leather four-inch Barneys high heels, which puts my height around six-one, and I try to stomp his foot. I try to push him off with my one free hand — for some reason, I keep holding my purse with the other — and I finally get a knee up high enough to push him out and off and I turn, open the door, and run out of the dressing room.

The whole episode lasts no more than three minutes. I do not believe he ejaculates. I don’t remember if any person or attendant is now in the lingerie department. I don’t remember if I run for the elevator or if I take the slow ride down on the escalator. As soon as I land on the main floor, I run through the store and out the door — I don’t recall which door — and find myself outside on Fifth Avenue.

And that was my last hideous man. The Donna Karan coatdress still hangs on the back of my closet door, unworn and unlaundered since that evening. And whether it’s my age, the fact that I haven’t met anyone fascinating enough over the past couple of decades to feel “the sap rising,” as Tom Wolfe put it, or if it’s the blot of the real-estate tycoon, I can’t say. But I have never had sex with anybody ever again.

Who were the other 15 brave women who have revealed Trump's assault on them? 


"...he has denied accusations of sexual misconduct made by at least 15 credible women, namely, Jessica Leeds, Kristin Anderson, Jill Harth, Cathy Heller, Temple Taggart McDowell, Karena Virginia, Melinda McGillivray, Rachel Crooks, Natasha Stoynoff, Jessica Drake, Ninni Laaksonen, Summer Zervos, Juliet Huddy, Alva Johnson, and Cassandra Searles"


I believe her because Trump confessed to these assaults during the campaign on the Access Hollywood tape - because he was a celebrity he could "grab them by the pussy"  - he is talking about inserting fingers, by the way.


I believe her because 15 others also made these kinds of revelations about this hideous man.


I believe her because she took the advice of one of her friends about why not to go to the police:


She grew very quiet when I told her, then she grasped both my hands in her own and said, “Tell no one. Forget it! He has 200 lawyers. He’ll bury you.”


I believe her because we have been watching this man's behavior for three years as a president and campaigner and know him to be corrupt, a bully, and a deeply immoral rich boy/man.


Will any of this matter to his base?  I suppose not. They already know he is a rapist and as long as he gives them Christian activist judges and their stupid wall and tax cuts they don't care.  His corruption has corrupted the Republican Party - not that they had all that far to fall......

The Shkreli-Trump smirk

There is a particular look that only seems to show up on the faces of men who think themselves to be so wealthy and powerful that they consider themselves to be invincible. Kind of like I have so much money that nobody can touch me or harm me in any way.  Kind of an entitlement smirk. Pretty nauseating to the rest of us.  Shown below are photos of Shkreli (the astonishingly greedy pharmaceutical executive) and Donald Trump (the astonishingly greedy reality show star turned president of the United States).


Mr Trump might be wise to note that Mr Shkreli is in jail.

Trump admits to collusion

Trump just admitted to collusion with the Russians.  On TV.  And said there was nothing wrong with that.  He just dares people to impeach him.  This is a deeply disturbed and twisted man in the White House.


George Stephanopoulos interviewed Trump and asked him if he would accept info from a foreign power.  He said yes, of course, why not?


"I think you might want to listen, there's not anything wrong with listening. If somebody called from a country, Norway, (and said) ‘we have information on your opponent' — oh, I think I'd want to hear it."


That is against the law, by the way.  It is pretty close to treason which the Constitution defines as "adhering to the country's enemies" or "giving aid and comfort to them".  Russia is an enemy of America.  Russia is out to weaken and destroy democracy in the world, and most importantly, destroy democracy in America, the former leader of democracy in the world. 


This president just said that he welcomes interference from a hostile foreign power, and in so doing he has effectively confessed that he already did welcome interference from a hostile foreign power, Russia, in the 2016 presidential election.


That alone is reason to impeach this totally unfit and corrupt imitation of a man.  Do Republicans try to justify this as well as every other of his assaults on the decency, integrity, and goodness of America? 


Trump's basic playbook is when presented with evidence of his crimes is to deny it first, then lie about it, then admit it and say there is nothing wrong with it.  Just disgusting that so much of the country are OK with that.


Good grief.