A National Emergency....

For the last three weeks we have been distracted by the shutdown of the government that was caused by President Trump.  Any negotiation is at a stalemate.  Trump refuses to compromise.  He is blaming the Democrats for causing this crisis.  As we learned the other day, if he doesn’t get his way and get his wall, he walks away.  No compromise or negotiation. He cares not a whit for the 800,000 people who won’t get a paycheck and he cares not a whit for the hundreds of thousands of peripheral businesses and people who support those federal employees and will suffer loss of business from his actions. 

His complete callousness toward his citizens was revealed in his temper tantrum and ‘taking my marbles home’ attitude.  He told the meeting the other day at the White House that unless he gets his wall that it was a waste of his time to continue to meet.

Beware—this is only a distraction!

Because he refuses to compromise, we are not paying attention to what is going on in the unfolding story revealed by the continuing Mueller probe.  Paul Manafort delivered confidential polling information to the Russians in mid 2016—WHY?  What purpose could that have served?  The data was delivered to Russian intelligence personnel.  The conspiracy is being revealed.  The only remaining question is whether Trump knew about it.  Then the question about collusion and conspiracy is answered.

To continue the distraction, his next move will be to declare a national emergency at the border, take the money from the Department of Defense without Congressional authorization, and further his autocratic transformation of our Republic.  What ‘national emergency’ will be next where he claims he ‘has the authority to do it’?  We are on a slippery slope, folks.

What amazes me more than anything else is the seeming impotence of all of us to do anything about what is happening in our country.  I just can’t understand how rational reasonable people who purportedly are in Washington to represent us can simply passively sit there and watch this happen.  The Congress has the power to put a stop to all this, and yet Republicans led by Mitch McConnell seem unable and unwilling to do anything.  What the hell are they afraid of?  Primaries!

Mitch McConnell is now complicit in the further devolving of this situation.  He is now responsible, as well as Trump, for the disintegration of all the safeguards that begin to fail because the government is not paying people to do their jobs.  The TSA, the FDA, the IRS, the FBI, first responders and other thousands of people who protect us from all manner of threats are furloughed; working without pay.  The irony of all this is that in the name of national security, Trump’s selfish vanity wall is depriving us of national security X 10!  McConnell is hiding in the corner as the Democratic House sends bill after bill to the Senate opening department after department of the government that could easily change the equation and end this farce.  What is he doing? 

“I am not going to put anything up for a vote unless the President will agree to sign it.”, says McConnell.  What kind of bullshit is that?  The Congress is a co-equal branch of government!  If the Congress speaks, the Executive must answer!  McConnell, as I have pointed out repeatedly in the past is a self-interested worm.  Why is he alone able to decide what the Senate as a body can vote on?  Something is wrong with this picture.  Both Trump and McConnell are anti-democratic authoritarians!  They are disgracefully un-patriotic and un-democratic.

Make no mistake, my fellow citizens, the national emergency we are facing is Donald J. Trump and the  sycophantic Republicans who are willing to cede the power they have as legislative leaders to the Executive branch.  These Republicans are there to represent US, and unless we all scream loudly enough at their recklessness, we are doomed to be subject to their fecklessness. 

We the people, are still the ultimate power in this nation unless these goons surreptitiously steal our democracy from us.  We musn’t let them!

Speak out!  Speak out to your representatives, your neighbors, your friends, and most importantly to yourselves!!