Oh Dems! Hurry Up!

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So now we are getting communiques from Rush Limbaugh about what the status of our government is!  What next---pronouncements by our ‘Dear Leader’ about the uselessness of the Congress and how we should all just trust him to make all our decisions for us?

Our ‘Dear Leader’ has now decided unilaterally that we should pull out of Syria—disregarding his advisors’ counsel.  Exit SecDef James Mattis-- perhaps the last ‘adult in the room’.  Now we hear that Trump is considering pulling all our troops out of Afghanistan. 

Apparently, Erdogan of Turkey spoke to Trump on the phone and said, “We’re gonna go into Syria and wipe out those nasty Kurds who happen to be your allies.”  What did Trump say?  “Sure thing, Recip, we will get out of your way and you can come in here and kill them all!”  Instead, we should have said, “You come in here and you will have to fight through us to get to them!”  But no, Trump our brave leader simply cut and ran.  To hell with our allies—they’re foreigners from shithole countries!  Who cares?  “Oh, and by the way, Vladimir, here’s a gift of the Middle East!” (I am sure Israel is trying to figure all of this out!)

Who is now informing and consulting with the President about military decisions, foreign policy decisions, budgetary decisions, etc?  After Mattis’ exit--no one!  Well, that’s not exactly true.  Our President is getting all his advice from the large-brained thinkers at Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, Anne Coulter, Laura Ingraham, etc.  God Help Us!  Forget anyone who has years of experience in government. 

We are circling the drain, folks.  And where are the Republicans?--  Standing mutely by as Trump decides, all by himself, to shut down the government because the Congress won’t give him his stupid wall that he promised would be paid for by Mexico—ah well—just another ‘promise kept’—right?  It means nothing that our best minds on immigration think that there are so many other ways to amplify our border security with intelligent solutions.

What is so interesting to me is that after a midterm election where there was a clear repudiation of the Trump administration and policies, the man is simply ignoring the message.  Any normal president would have done some introspective thinking to see what he could do to bring along the majority of the country to understand and accept his ideas and policies.  Not 'Dear Leader'!  He is doubling and tripling down on his actions and vitriol against all the parts of the government and the people he has been hating. 

Like a 4 year old, he is going to hammer us, whine and scream at us, doing more of the same whether we like it or not.

So, now, elected Republicans—what is your next move?  Do you lie down like worms and bury your pointed little faces in the mud (a-la Paul Ryan?), or do you actually take responsibility for your constitutionally mandated jobs and bring the craven bully in the White House to heel---finally!  My guess is that you won’t do anything, and hopefully you all will die a long, agonizing political death over the next two years before we can boot you out!

I think the worst possible upcoming event could be the impending Mueller report in February.  What if the ultimate verdict of his investigation is that all this Russian intervention conspiracy and collusion behavior is the result of simple incompetence by Trump and his campaign—and not any deliberate conspiracy?  Then the Freedom Caucus crazies (I marvel at the irony of that moniker!) will claim victory and our country just might not be redeemable since whatever trace of psuedo-patriotism and intelligence remaining in the Trump base, will be washed away in a maelstrom of unstoppable uninformed executive decisions until the next election-------if we ever have one!

This is looking more and more like a dictatorship in the making.  Our republic is supposed to be a collaborative country that has separation of powers and truly represents all the people of the nation who adhere to the ‘Rule of Law’.  Is that what is happening here?  I think not.  What we have is an unhinged Machiavellian liar trying to take control of the three branches of our government; being cheered on by one third of the country( ‘deplorable, low information voters’) who are blind to his criminal misdeeds. Along with their extreme right-wing nutjob representatives in Congress, they all scream their delight with every chaotic decision he makes.

Congratulation Republicans!-- for initiating the advent of the 1^st American Reich!  

November 2020 seems quite distant right now.  Somehow we must survive until then.

"Not From the Finest"

I grew up in a middle class suburb of New York in West Orange, New Jersey.  I had a quintessentially  normal childhood for a kid growing up in the 50s.  I would go out and play in my subdivision neighborhood unafraid of intruders or bad people.  I went to Hebrew school three times a week like most of my friends.  I could just go up to any of my friend’s houses; knock on the door and be welcomed with a smile and an invitation to wait until my friend would come downstairs and we would go out and join other friends until the sun set, doing mundane things like playing stoop ball, ‘catch a fly and you’re up’ or trading baseball cards.

As my world expanded and I went to junior high school, my exposure to people and families less fortunate and perhaps less schooled in the niceties of a middle class upbringing increased.  My mother would approve or disapprove of new friends as she got to know them.  In some cases she would caution me about someone who I brought home and warn me about them saying that they or their families were “not from the finest…”. 

Over the years that phrase has stayed with me.  If I describe someone to you as ‘not from the finest’, it conjures up an image of a person with perhaps legal problems, being a bully, doing drugs or drinking.  But even more, it also implies a negative image to whomever was described as a product of other people, namely their parents.

When I got older and dated different women who had occasion to meet my parents, that phrase was used when my mom was unimpressed with whomever I brought home.  She would say, “Just be careful son, that girl just seems like she is ‘not from the finest’.”

That phrase has become a sort of golden rule for me as I travel through life.  The people I choose to associate with, or be with, or do business with all seem to weather that subtle filter.  My mother was right, from the getgo.  I always was somehow  diminished in any relationship where I did not heed that quiet admonishment.

And so it is with our current political situation in America today.  I glanced up at the TV the other night and the commentator was describing 14 portrait thumbnails on the screen of all the people in the Trump orbit that lied about having any contact with the Russians just prior to the 2016 election up until the present; and since then have misdirected and lied about their interactions with a known enemy of the United States—Russia.

My mother would have looked at that group of people and said, “Larry, stay away from those people..’they are not from the finest’.

And she would be correct.  They are the lowlife “best people” promised by Donald Trump.  They have been swept into office and power by the person who now holds sway in the Oval Office.  My mother, seeing that graphic on the screen would have said, (Need I repeat it?)"Stay away, they are not from the finest".

If only the American people had been blessed to have my Mom as their Mom….maybe we wouldn’t be in the fix we are in today.

My, Oh My!

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What we are witnessing happening in Washington is truly sad.  I am speaking about the revealing of the personalities and character of members of the Republican Congress.  After the events of yesterday in Court with Michael Cohen’s sentencing and the release of the ‘press release’ from the federal prosecutor’s office in the Southern District of New York, the reaction of a group of prominent Republicans is so telling. 

As we piece together what really happened, and see the machinations of Trump, Cohen, Pecker, Weisselberg, and in fact the Trump Organization principals (Trump, Trump and Trump—his children!), it is revealed that Trump and all of these people concocted this scheme with willful intent to pay hush money to two women who allegedly had affairs with Donald Trump and committed what amounts to felonies in violation of campaign finance laws.  Trump’s claims of defense keep changing as he tries to persuade all of us that (a) he didn’t do it, or (b) knew nothing about it, or (c) did it but it was a simple transaction, or (d) was only a civil matter, or (e) doesn’t matter.

What he did—plain and simple—is attempt to influence the election by participating and directing the felonious actions of his ‘lawyer’ and hide these actions from the American people.  He is an un-indicted co-conspirator in this circus….and it’s not over yet.  There are now at least two corroborating witnesses; the statement of judgment from a federal judge; and the money trail (and probable third corroborating witness, Alan Weisselberg) giving credibility to this event and shows us yet again the true craven character of the President of the United States.

And still, his supporters in Congress don’t seem to mind the fact that his own Justice Department have implicated him in two felonies:

--Orrin Hatch says "I don’t care, all I can say is he is doing a good job as president”;

--Lindsay Graham says, "Any time a former lawyer of yours goes to jail it's probably not a good day, but I have yet to see any evidence coming from Mr. Cohen of collusion";

--Chuck Grassley says, “Cohen is a liar who cannot be trusted,

I have doubts about whether President Donald Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen could implicate the president in any wrongdoing”.

Really??  Many other Republicans are saying similar things.

Apparently Trump’s Republican supporters are not ready yet to abandon their leaking ship.  I wonder what will happen when the truth about Trump’s obstruction of justice efforts and Russian collusion evidence starts to appear from Mueller’s efforts.  By then it will probably be too late for these people to say they really didn’t want to support him.

The point I am making is that we need to be thinking longer term here.  The election in 2020 is going to be a game changer for all of us.  As the despicable nature of the Trump administration is made clearer day after day, we as citizens need to be ready to do a major purge of the real depraved people hiding in ‘the swamp’ who will reveal their presence as we proceed through the next 20 months.  The Senate is due for a change of representation in 2020 so we can again begin to do things for the benefit of the majority of Americans.  The time to sweep away the legislators that are in the pockets of moneyed interests will be at hand.

People like McConnell, Grassley, Graham, Thune, Kennedy, McCarthy and Hatch need to go away.  Chairmanships need to change hands.  It goes without saying that Trump needs to be defeated, if he has not resigned or been impeached by then.

American values and idealism will be on the rise because the evidence of how far we have fallen at the hands of the deceitful minority that has gerrymandered us and lied to us will be woefully apparent. As Mueller reveals his analysis of what has happened to us, it will be impossible to ignore what we have suffered at the hands of the Republican Party and Donald Trump.

Then all the lies and obfuscation will be clear for all to see.

Patience

A word of caution.  While it is exhilarating to see the Trump leviathan begin to crumble, it should also be a time of caution so as not to rush to judgment.

After watching and listening to the news reports over the past several days, the media is clearly vibrating with fresh reports of cascading evidence against the Trump administration.  All the commentators seem fixated on all sorts of hypothetical assumptions that are still not based on solid fact.  There is clear innuendo to be sure, but the cold hard facts are still unknown.  The Special Counsel Mueller has not revealed the facts, other than the indictments he has handed down.  The reports generated late last week are full of blacked out redacted passages that simply hint at criminality, but they do not lay out the clear roadmap of wrongdoing.  Until they do, we must maintain our patience.

It is terribly hard to do that because of what so many of us see as so obvious.  However we must also understand that all we have are multitudes of questions that still remain.  Until those questions are answered by whatever evidence actually will presented, all the hypotheses are simply that….hypotheses.  It is time to take a deep breath and let this Mueller probe reach it’s conclusion. 

That is why it is so important to protect this investigation.  It is perhaps the only bastion of our democracy that remains in service to the American people.  Clearly the Congress is not interested in finding out the truth.  All you have to do is reflect on the past two years of obstruction and undermining of the investigation by the Republicans as a group, and the White House in particular, to see that it is not in their best interests to reveal the truth.  All they do is scream ‘witch hunt’, but the fact of the matter is that there have been more successful indictments because of this ‘witch hunt’ than Watergate and Ken Starr combined!

Our national security is at stake.  Even if you think this investigation is a ‘witch hunt’, it is incumbent on every citizen to understand all possible ways that an avowed enemy of our system of government might be trying to undermine and destroy our societal structure.  Considering all the falsehoods and misdirection we have seen from the Trump administration (and those are facts!) shouldn’t we want to uncover the truth about an attack against our very social fabric by an enemy?

Although it is painful to weather what seems like the longest journey with the slowest progress, we need to wait until the facts are known before we unleash what surely will be righteous anger and disgust at the damage done to our country by those who have so little regard for the democracy we profess to be.

Until then, remain open to the truth and the facts that eventually will be revealed.

The Cracks are Oozing Truth

  

The walls are closing in around Trump and his administration from so many different angles that it is not possible to see where the final coup d’grace will come from?  My guess would be that the Mueller report, if it ever gets a public hearing, will be the straw that breaks that camel’s back.

The media is all a-twitter(no pun intended!)with new revelations from the Cohen plea, to the Roger Stone blabber, to the Flynn sentencing missive.  What can we deduce from this deluge of new ‘stuff’ that is beginning to shed more light on what many of us knew was hiding behind the curtain all this time?

Not much yet, but the cracks are beginning to ooze truth.  Over the short term we will probably see and hear much more about the real character of this administration and the revelations concerning what was going on all through 2016 between the Trump operatives, Russia, Wikileaks et al. It will no doubt amaze and amuse.  In the end, all that we surmised and expected from such scurrilous actors will be proven true.  The question is what will we as a nation do about it?

There are so many ‘fronts’ on which repair is necessary that it overwhelms the mind once we realize how much damage has already been done in only two short years.  The trigger for me was being reminded of the character and behavior of recently departed George H.W. Bush, his administration, and the people he brought with him into government.  I was never in love with 41, but the comparison of the personalities of Trump and Bush brings it all home.  What we accept as the new unprecedented normal is so far beneath what we accepted during the Bush presidency that we cannot really integrate the two worlds as being from the same place.

Government was always a mix of vision, transactions, lobbying and deals.  But at its worst it was still productive and tried to better the lives we were living.  What we have now is clearly destructive, and attempts only to enrich big corporations and very rich people. 

First steps have been taken.  We have resurrected the ability to have oversight with the arrival of a Democratic majority in the House, and can now begin to deconstruct the lies, the malfeasance, the purposeful destruction of our institutions and begin to re-establish the ideals that set our country on its path in the pursuit of liberty and democracy 242 years ago. 

We have witnessed the crumbling of the Republican Party and its abandonment of principle.  Example:  Look what is happening in Wisconsin after the recent election—the lame-duck Republican administration and legislature are passing measures that will try to preserve the power of their minority and enshrine gerrymandering of their voting districts.  That is so anti-democratic that it boggles the mind!  The new motto of the Republican Party is: “If you can’t win legitimately, then cheat!”  Hopefully, all these newly passed measures that limit voter participation, hobble the incoming administrations ability to pass laws, etc. will be overturned in the courts, and certainly result in the ousting of these craven people in the next election.  But why do that at all in a democracy?  Clearly these ‘legislators’ do not believe in our democratic system.  It’s about retention of power and money above all else.

There is also the destruction that is occurring daily in our national governmental agencies that were created to control abuse of the citizens.  Everything from clean air to consumer fraud to immigration is under attack by people put in power by the Trump administration.  Career employees who believed in the missions of those agencies have been leaving in droves—either by quitting or being fired.  Just look at what Trump has done to the Department of Justice!  All the top positions formerly held by career law enforcement professionals have been exorcised out of their positions.  They have been ruthlessly pursued as disgraceful “democratic lackeys” and evil doers who don’t support the President.  That’s ridiculous!  They were purged in Donald Trump’s effort to create an autocratic Presidency where he can decide who should be indicted, tried and jailed.

That will now be a bit harder to accomplish, thank goodness, because of the oversight now approaching with the establishment of the new Congress.  But really—look at what has happened to the rule of law!  It is now Trump Law that rules.  He wants to decide in spite of all evidence that our intelligence community is flawed and wrong about clearly evidentiary conclusions; he wants to decide if MBS is guilty; he wants to decide if Russia had any role in our election outcome; he wants to decide whether immigrants can claim asylum; he wants to decide whether children should be separated from their parents; etc. ad nauseum!  That is not how a democracy is supposed to work.

Fixing all these things is going to take time.  At least we will now have the ability as a society to rein in these feverish purveyors of hate, racism, misogyny, and prevarication. 

With each passing day, more and more of those who were counting on Trump to make their lives better are realizing they have been duped.  The economy is wildly gyrating because of inconsistent statements by Trump, Kudlow and Mnuchin—people who have no idea what they are doing.  401K accounts are losing money.  Industry is dealing with additional costs because of Trump being ‘Tariff Man’!  How long do you think they will stand for that.  International relationships have crumbled over the past two years.  Which of our allies can count on coherent policy from the Trump administration?

Trump himself is wildly out of control.  Look at his Twitter feed!  Is there anything coherent about his daily rants?  Don’t you think our Chief Executive and Commander in Chief should be focusing on how to pass legislation and create an agenda that could work for the country instead of venting his spleen with lie upon lie after every edition of Fox News that he watches?  And how is it that he has time to watch so much TV?

It is so sad and so increasingly apparent that a great portion of us has been duped into supporting someone who is on a mission to enhance his own wealth and power at the expense of everything else.  The Republican Party made a bad bet on this guy, and they are only just beginning to pay for it with the results of the past election.  Once the revelations start to really arrive, those Congressional Republicans who stood behind Trump and abandoned their Conservative roots to self-serve their quest for power and financial gain will suffer disgrace at the hands of the very voters to whom they lied and took advantage of.  And we will say, “Good Riddance!”

I always counted on the appearance of the truth in the end.  I think I will not be disappointed.

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