It’s that venerable holiday when Americans have picnics, parades and fireworks. Often times when people go away to the beach, the mountains or other places.
It’s supposed to be in recognition of that day in 1776 that patriots declared their independence from the British Empire and its monarch, King George. Most people don’t give that a great deal of thought, one suspects.
Ironically, today one is reminded of those allegedly tyrannical times by the Tyrant Trump. An aspiring autocrat more concerned with increasing his own and his family’s wealth. A man who disregards the checks and balances established the Founding Fathers, aided by Banana Republicans.
Since the end of World War II, America has been the dominant military and economic power throughout the world. Trump, in his profound ignorance and self-delusions of greatness, has nearly succeeded in destroying America’s reputation and leadership.
Admittedly, America has had its low points. Slavery. The Civil War and Reconstruction. Vietnam. The training and support of Latin American military forces of despots. Racism. Income inequality. The intervention of the CIA in the affairs of other countries. Corrupt politicians of every party, every era—and from local officials to the White House.
Nonetheless, America has been a shining city on the hill. Better than many other countries–though not as great as it once was. Trump’s slogan is an oxymoron–Make America Great Again. By his actions and ideals, he will return it to an abysmal past.
Trump is an aberration. One that can and must be corrected. Just as true patriots declared their independence those many years ago, we must do so again. Not by taking up arms but by removing the worst President in American history. Impeachment must begin NOW. Failing conviction, he must not be restored to the White House. Then he must be prosecuted, convicted, sentenced and imprisoned.
Today, in his unmitigated gall, Trump dares make the celebration of America’s independence all about him. Worse, he does so by offering remarks at one of America’s best Presidents—Lincoln. One could expect that leader of the Republican Party to turn over in his grave at the offenses of Trump and the lack of any morality, decency or honor among the current so-called Republicans.
Happy Fourth of July—celebrate it by urging your elected officials to do the right thing: remove the abomination occupying the White House illegitimately with aid of Vladimir Putin. America CAN be great again–greater than ever before, once the criminally insane man in the White House is gone and Americans come to their senses.
No President has committed more offenses. None has obstructed justice more often. Abused power more cavalierly. Been so manifestly unfit for the office. High crimes and misdemeanors? Let me count the ways–no, on second thought, there’s too many. That would take too many pages.
I am SO tired of not-quite-treasonous, Republicans
They not only tolerate but excuse Trump’s lawlessness. He couldn’t get away, so far, with what he does without their support. About the only thing Trump hasn’t done is the oft-quoted shooting of someone on 5th Avenue.Forgive me for doubting that few Republicans would do more than wring their hands and say tsk, tsk if Trump actually did.
Meanwhile, Nancy Pelosi is SO afraid of political fallout from impeachment that she considers talking about it something like discussing the pros and cons of incest.NO Nancy—impeachment is NOT a dirty word. It’s a legitimate response to abuses of power, obstruction of justice and all the other offenses for which Mueller could have indicted Trump—if not for the OLC flawed and outdated opinion that a sitting President cannot be indicted.
Now Trump has a cadre of lawyers willing, apparently, to risk judicial sanctions for filing frivolous suits or motions. Like what? Asserting executive privilege over anything former White House Counsel Don McGahn might say in testimony before House committees. Having waived privilege to allow McGahn to freely talk to Special Counsel Mueller, the privilege cannot now be asserted.Some say such legal cases might take months or years. Seriously? Slam dunks. Dismissed with sanctions on the lawyers. Quickly. Short appeals. Denial of hearing by the Supremes. Six weeks total unless heard by Trump appointees.
Should be a writ of mandamus to the IRS Commissioner issued by a Federal Court to immediately release Trump’s tax returns.Ways and Means Chairman Neal needs to stop pussyfooting along and get this before a judge—who will warn the IRS (and Steve Mnuchin) of the penalty for violating applicable IRS codes, five years in the slammer.
Yes, the American public isn’t yet ready to support impeachment. Trump’s approval rating has dropped five points since the Mueller report came out and his disapproval rating gone up. Yes, the public needs live testimony reciting the contents of the Mueller report. Yes, they need documents and testimony from the banks, mortgage companies, accounting firms, etc. With all those, large numbers of Republicans would still kneel before Trump or kiss parts of his anatomy. But the public would support impeachment.
How then to get that testimony before House committees? Get Mueller, his legal staff and/or FBI agents to appear—hopefully with video recordings of the interviews with those people. Can Trump block that? He’d try. But the harder he tries, the more counts of obstruction pile up. At that point, either Nancy Pelosi gets over her fears or she can expect to have a great many Democrats receive primary opponents next year—especially including herself.
Woe is we, many Democrats fear. If we impeach Trump and the sycophantic Senate fails to convict, we’ll lose in 2020. Bulls**t! With all the Trump offenses already known, the GOP risks massive losses in the Senate. They have MANY seats up in 2020.Those who continue down the Trump path are who needs to worry–NOT NancyPelosi.
Yes, it’s time for the monthly rant about America’s Fake President and the sycophants who support him. Hereinafter, we’ll just refer to him as Comrade Trump.While he calls today for the death penalty for drug dealers, he neglects to note that treason also carries a death penalty. In truth, of course, it’s unlikely that his efforts on behalf of Vladimir Putin would rise to a level qualifying for that penalty if convicted. Meanwhile, the behavior of the “Russo-Publicans” in Congress may not be as treasonous as Trump’s offenses but some may be serious criminal offenses. Under the speech and debate clause, they may be safe from slander charges for what they said about Comey, et al.
Who are the Russo-Publicans?We call them thatbecause they don’t care that the Russians intervened in the 2016 election–OR that the Russians plan on meddling in the 2018 mid-terms. All they care about is protecting their boy–Comrade Trump. Maybethe Russians even have something on them too.
Devin “Numbnuts” Nunes is one of them. Jim “Shouter” Jordan is another. Matt Gaetz is one more. There are way too many others to mention–but you know who they are. Then there’s Trump TV (AKA Fox News/Fox and Friends) with Sean Hannity heading up the cheerleading squad of anti-FBI ranters.
Will Comrade Trump find someone who will fire Mueller? It won’t be Rosenstein. Sessions can’t. If Mueller is fired, will the Russo-Publicans care enough to do anything about it? Here’s some of what might happen if Comrade Trump does succeed in getting rid of Mueller and the Russo-Publicans do nothing.
The Mueller team, which has been watertight up until now, will spring a leak—with some members revealing details of the criminal offenses it has found among Trumpistan party members
The American populace will take to the streets in numbers vastly exceeding the Women’s March of January 2017
The 2018 Mid-Term Elections will not be a wave—it will be a tsunami.That will afford Democrats an opportunity to impeach Trump and begin investigations of those members of the Russo-Publicans that survive the election. That could result in expulsion from Congress for some and/or criminal prosecution.
But let’s say Comrade Trump doesn’t manage to rid himself of Mueller and the probe,then we can expect more indictments. First will come the hacking, cybercrimes, money laundering and other financial offenses and—the collusion (legally known as conspiracy) that Comrade Trump and Trump TV (AKA, Fox News) has insisted didn’t happen.
Obstruction charges will come last, but relatively quickly on the heels of the other indictments.
So, who will Mueller indict and who will Trump pardon?
Here’s my prediction of some who will be indicted (the most likely in my opinion):
Fancy Bear, Cozy Bear and Guccifer 2.0 (and probably many other Russians who can be identified)
Wikileaks and Julian Assange (who better hope that the current government of Ecuador never changes to one that doesn’t like him)
Cambridge Analytica—and perhaps Brad Parscale
Roger “Zippy” Stone (think of the polka dot clown suit and hair strands tied in a bow)
Jared Kushner
Ivanka? Probably not
Steve Bannon? Not too likely
Jeff Sessions? Nah
Devin Nunes—should be but won’t be
What about pardons? We all know Trump demands loyalty from everyone but gives it to none. But he might pardon son-in-law Kushner.
Two other reasons to pardon someone:
To avoid them testifying against him
Because Putin demands it
It’s too late for Flynn and the rest who have cooperated with Mueller; their testimony is admissible regardless of pardons. Here’s my pardon predictions:
Kushner—probably
Russian oligarchs but not lower level people
Manafort–not too likely; he better cut a deal
Will Pence pardon Comrade Trump once he is booted out of office? Pence is between a rock and a hard place.
If he doesn’t pardon him, the Russo-Publicans and the rabid base voters won’t support Pence for the 2020 election
If he does pardon him, Pence won’t stand a chance with the rest of the American voters in 2020 (see what happened to Gerry Ford after his pardon of Richard Nixon)
Bonus material for March
Stormy Daniels!!!! What’s the prenup look like for Melania?
What will Stormy tell the World that she and Donald did? Must be juicier than salacious stuff in the Steele dossier for all the efforts to hush her up
August, 2017, will mark 43 years since Richard Milhous Nixon resigned. I had expected Trump would resign, in face of certain impeachment, no later than mid-2018 as Congressional elections approached. Now, I’m not certain he’ll last that long. It’s time for the Trumpistan rats to jump off the sinking ship of state. Their future prospects have diminished, but the longer they stay, the more potential they might wind up like one of the 40 Nixon staffers who went to jail.
The FBI investigations are accelerating while the House and Senate Intelligence Committees are plodding along–but eventually will produce results. Subpoenas are coming from grand juries. Now comes the firing of FBI Director Comey and Trump’s contradictions of his own staff (citing advice from the AG) and instead admitting that he had planned to fire Comey anyway. Today we have Trump threatening Comey in a tweet,
“James Comey better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press.”
Comey has leaked nothing nor even spoken to the press since his firing. It’s his former associates that have offered defenses of Comey, including denying Trump’s version of conversations or events. They also reported that Comey had said Trump was “crazy” for claiming he had been wiretapped by Obama.
Let’s consider the possible explanations for Trump’s behavior:
He IS crazy, as Comey suspected–that Trump’s narcissistic personality disorder progressed to dementia or other mental problems well before the election.
He’s accustomed to being the boss of a privately held corporation–no board of directors, no shareholders, etc. He expects to be able to do what he wants, hire and fire with impunity and to demand loyalty. Doesn’t work that way as President.
He is simply stupid—Trump, it’s fair to say, knows nearly nothing about almost anything. Consider this piece from David Cay Johnston in the Guardian, who says “Donald Trump’s ignorance is becoming more evident with each passing day.” He may well have been socially promoted through elementary school before cheating his way through high school and college.
He has been compromised by Putin and other Russians–most likely through financial entanglements such as loans. Middle income people with bad credit may go to loan sharks. Those who have been rich may go to Putin-associated banks and oligarchs who don’t break legs–they coerce them to do stuff for them.
All of the above—which is the most likely of the options.
Tapes were, of course, Nixon’s downfall–the nail in his presidential coffin. Does Trump have tapes? Probably not, but then he’s undoubtedly stupid enough to have such a system, given his lack of historical knowledge.
Why would Trump resign? He might get forced out by the threat of impeachment (not likely YET). He might get removed under the 25th Amendment for being unable to fulfill the duties of the office (really unlikely–YET).
The biggest reason Trump might quit? He can’t stand much more of this. While he never wants to be a loser, he is getting white-hot angry with every newscast focusing on the Russia investigation and his own incompetence. Just read the tweets. The more he rants, the worse it gets–a vicious circle of self inflicted misery. That’s been notable after the Comey firing fiasco.
Eventually, Trump might face impeachment due to:
Collusion with the Russians during the campaign or since (see the satirical bit about the Lavrov and Kislyak visit below).
Other financial offenses (like money laundering for the Russians). See requests/referrals by the Senate Intelligence Committee, to FinCEN, the financial crimes enforcement unit of the Treasury Department to investigate Trump and associates dealings.
Impeachment calls started with California Congresswoman Maxine Waters. They are spreading among Democrats but haven’t reached Republicans–YET. If Trump keeps on tweeting recklessly and/or results begin coming from the FBI subpoenas, intelligence committee hearings or leaks from the White House or former associates, the Republicans will jump on the bandwagon. The most serious event will be people flipping on him to save themselves. People like Michael Flynn or Paul Manafort.
The GOP may still hold out hope for legislation, but that will dim. They will soon be faced with the rock and hard place choice of cutting their losses by throwing Trump under the bus NOW or losing control of at least the House, if not the Senate, in 2018. No later than January 2019, when the next Congress takes office, impeachment will be a certainty.
At Vladimir Putin’s request, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Ambassador Sergey Kislyak met with Trump in the oval office the day after Comey’s firing—which Lavrov laughed about. For those of you who are keeping score at home, Kislyak is the guy that all the Trump associates lied about meeting and is known as a Russian asset recruiter. The Russians plastered this photo across social media. Why did Trump look like a child who’d just received a wonderful gift?
Here’s why, relayed in this fictional dialogue [AKA fake news–not ASSUMED or claimed to be true]
“Comrade Trump, we have great news for you,” said Lavrov. “Your good work for us has been rewarded. You have been accepted into the Strong Man’s Club.”
“Wow, fantastic! I’m so looking forward to visiting with Vladimir again–and meeting Erdogan, Duterte, Mugabe and the others.”
“There were those who thought you weren’t ready and that you’d never be able to overcome the restraints on American presidents to be a true authoritarian,” said Kislyak. “But your offer of complimentary memberships to Mar-a-Lago for ten of President Putin’s closest friends–as well as the members of the club, got you in.”
“Wonderful, wonderful!”
“Here’s a memento of the occasion,” said Lavrov, handing an envelope to Trump. “Also some instructions from President Putin. Please read them carefully and follow them to the letter.”
“Oh, of course,” Trump said. “And you will have that dacha for me if I am forced to exit America in a hurry someday?”
“Ah yes, have no worries, my friend,” said Kislyak.
Soon after leaving the White House, Lavrov had this to say to Kislyak. “Damn, that guy is dumber than borscht!”
“You’re right about that, Sergey,” Kislyak laughed. “If he gets busted, he’s on his own!”
Seeing things as they really are, without the illusions or delusions
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