Get REAL Democrats!

My anxiety level is rising with each Democratic debate I watch…in fact, I don’t think I am going to watch any more of them—it is too disturbing.  Last night’s slug fest was truly disappointing.  None of the combatants exhibited anything like a Presidential demeanor.  They looked like squabbling schoolyard bully wannabees trying to seem tough.  They are spending all their waking hours refining their arguments about why their opponents will not beat Trump in November.  That is so shortsighted!

What they SHOULD be doing is recounting all the broken promises made by Trump which he lies

about to the American people.  Instead of beating each other up about how many bills they passed or who wrote what legislation or who said what to whom 20 years ago, why aren’t they pointing out what has happened in America over the past three and half years, and what the current trends are:

(the links are the supporting reports)

-- People are working two to three jobs to get by, wages are essentially flat, and layoffs are on the uptick

-- Trump is trying to end you and your family’s coverage for pre-existing medical conditions—along with all the other benefits of the ACA—in a lawsuit now in federal court.

--four in 10 adults can’t afford to pay an unexpected $400 expense, per a recent report by the Federal Reserve

-- the Congressional Research Service found recently, Trump’s tax cut resulted in corporate profits that “grew faster than wages" and worse, "ordinary workers had very little growth in wage rates."

-- wage growth is virtually non-existent. In 2019, after you subtract inflation of nearly 2 percent, the average American worker will see a net wage increase of slightly over 1 percent.  One percent!!

--2019 has been a “bloodbath” for the trucking industry, with approximately 640 trucking companies going bankrupt in the first half of the year alone, that’s more than triple the number that went bankrupt in all of 2018

-- For the 12-month period ending September 2019, Chapter 12 bankruptcy filings by farmers are up 24 percent from 2018—the highest level since 2011. Even worse, there has been a spike in suicides by farmers linked to their economic despair.

--in reality only about 50 percent of Americans own stock. And a whopping 84 percent of those stocks are owned by Americans in the wealthiest 10 percent of households

-- In 2014, under President Obama, we hit over 5 percent economic growth in one quarter and 4.9 percent in another.  Trending downwards, with last quarter our economy growing at barely 2 percent, down from nearly 3 percent the year before

-- the percentage of Americans currently working or looking for a job is almost unchanged since he took office?

These are the real legacies of the Trump years!  Why isn’t anyone talking about these FACTS!  These are facts reported out by agencies of the Trump administration—it is not fantasy—this is what’s happening NOW!

Add to these sobering economic trends, the FACTS that regulations to protect our citizens against fouled water and air have been rescinded by the Trump Administration, shortening our collective life spans.  We have withdrawn from agreements around the world with allies having to do with trade, arms, climate change, etc.

Given four more years of this downward spiral, what do they think will be left of our republic by 2024?

That is what they need to be talking about!---not how many women Bloomberg might have told bad jokes to!

Banana-Time!

Trump has weaponized the Justice Department.  He couldn’t have a more compliant and servile lackey than Bill Barr as Attorney General.  We have seen over recent days what it will mean to have Trump for another 4 years.  The Rule of Law, perhaps mortally wounded, will certainly be dead and buried by the end of another Trump term.  The pardons being wholesale issued are just a softening up process for the ones to come for Manafort, Stone and Flynn.  His transition from Rule of Law to Crime Boss Law is now complete.  Yesterday he declared himself the Chief Law Enforcement Officer of the United States.  Hmmm, with a lackey like AG Barr, he will now pursue political adversaries and perceived enemies relentlessly with investigations.  He has apparently successfully de-fanged the SDNY Justice department by appointing the EDNY as the SDNY’s new controlling entity with his own appointee and himself having to approve any judicial action initiated or currently under way by that agency.  The SDNY has always handled the most corrupt criminals because of its jurisdiction in Southern Manhattan.  What will that do to investigations of Guiliani, Trump’s tax cases, and other national scandals etc.?  Three guesses and the first two don’t count!

However, that is not the worst case scenario to consider.  What are the odds that the Trump

administration Justice Department will ‘discover’ sometime in October that there is a ‘foreign conspiracy”(certainly not Russia!) or a joint foreign/domestic(Democratic) conspiracy to rig the November elections.  Can’t you imagine Trump declaring a national emergency and postponing the election until the DOJ can ‘get to the bottom of the conspiracy’ after which Trump will allow the election to occur?  But in the meantime, of course, he will keep the markets running and of course keep on making America great!  One wonders if the DOJ will ever be able to get to the bottom of the ‘plot’, ergo we'll simply have Donald as our President until……..well, until he decides it is safe enough for him to have the election.  Get ready!

This is pure craziness.  You would think there would be some way for us to free ourselves and our republic from this inexorable slide to autocracy by this most corrupt man.  The tragedy of this is that there are probably 100 men and women in our Congress who could put a stop to this, but these Republicans are so frightened by this guy, as well as addicted to their own lust for power and money that they are supine before this King of the Corrupters.  I wonder if Susan Collins sleeps well at night knowing that Donald Trump has learned a lesson from his impeachment.  I hope our electorate is smart enough to get rid of all these people in time….I somehow doubt they are of course….  which brings me back to the solution to America’s existential threat. 

I just don’t know how we get rid of this cancerous Man if he continues to successfully use our Republic’s structure and ideals to corrupt a system that did not expect a leader like this.  If the Judiciary continues to be weakened by Republican appointees and actions by the Trump DOJ, then there will be no way to stop the slow spiraling death of our American Democracy.

I hope there is some secret Constitutional Patriot group hiding somewhere that is coming up with a plan to exterminate this gangrenous growth that is killing our America.  Otherwise we will all wake up on November 4^th with bananas for breakfast for the foreseeable future.

Now is the Clarion Call.....

The climate has changed in America...you can feel the ill winds blowing.   Trump’s acquittal has unshackled the forces of despair and evil, and now we all wait for the next development that will expand the level of ‘unprecedented’.

The problem America has is not Donald Trump.  He is merely the most visible symptom.  But this past week we got a glimpse of the what lies under the crust of the effort to hide the real discovery that our country’s leadership has rejected the rule of law and has abandoned truth as the ‘true north’ of the American ideal.  We saw our Senate abandon their oaths of office to protect our Constitution.  And maybe for the first time, we truly see what the Republicans have become.  They have rejected the principles of a fair trial; the presentation of evidence and reliance on testimony and documentation.

As a group (and a predominantly white male group) of overweight, blathering supplicants to the acquisition of power above all else, we can think back over the past 3 years, longer actually,  and see clearly how they have defiled the republic our founders created and gave to us.   All you have to do is think about the display they made at the State of the Union event in our House of Representatives.  They all know that Trump is guilty.  But they are so fearful of him that to a man, save for Mitt Romney, they rejected the truth and surrendered to their own greed and power. 

The sad truth is that they do not represent the people who elected them anymore.  75% of our citizenry wanted further testimony and release of documents during the impeachment trial, but their wishes were ignored by the Republicans.  That is not representative government, my fellow Americans.  That is autocracy and dictatorship….think Russia, China, and other countries that have ‘representative legislative bodies’ that rubber stamp policy and edicts from dictatorial leaders.  We have fallen that far.

And so now the carnage continues, without remorse or regret.  The damage that these people are doing to our republic approaches the point of no return.  Things will not change as far as everyday aspects of our lives are concerned…for a while.  Your TV shows will still be on the air; food will still be in the grocery stores; life for the majority of Americans will appear to be the same….but other things will begin to change.  Elections will be contested as rigged by those who don’t get the result they want.  Republicans will continue to purge voter rolls of people of color, and gerrymander voting districts, destroying the integrity of the vote.  Executive orders will supplant legislative action.  People like Mitch McConnell will do all in their power to corrupt and halt positive middle class and working-class initiatives.  Immigration policy will become increasingly cruel and unlawful.  Look at the example of what the Trump administration announced it is doing in New York re: restricting the ability to expedite  boarding of airplanes as punishment for New York being a state that claims  sanctuary support to stop cruel immigration crackdowns by ICE.

McConnell and his Republican majority in the Senate has basically stopped and blocked all House legislative actions.  McConnell’s mission is to flood our courts with confirmed arch conservative judges who will serve the mandates of corporate interests over the interests of the common citizen.  Money and power are now all important.  Retribution for those who rose to support the Constitution and supported impeachment is now going to be the order of the day.  We have already seen it with the Vindman brothers being summarily fired from their White House jobs.  All the others who spoke out in support of our Constitution and obeyed subpoenas to testify are now fearful for their futures as the administration proceeds unabated to purge them from government.

We are fast approaching the last exit before the toll, my friends.  The national election in November will be the last chance we have to stop this madness.  It is not even really about Trump as President that is the real threat.  We can count on him to behave in the most sinister and egregious way.  It is the rot in our legislature that is the real threat.  And you can expect the most vile election in our history as claims of election rigging will abound, not to mention the probability of more episodes like Ukraine and worse, as forces from outside our boundaries strive to curry favor with Trump and find ways to help him cheat his way to re-election.

The Democrats are stumbling.  They must recover and focus on defeating those senators from every state having a senatorial election.  McConnell must be defeated or made a minority or else we will never regain the power to redeem ourselves.  The Republicans have proven themselves liars and craven power-hungry supplicants to a man they fear.  Our ability to survive beyond 2020 as a democratic republic hinges on our ability to motivate our people to vote these miscreants and Trump out of office and replace them with people who believe in integrity, honesty, and the rule of law.

The Senate Trial

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Webster defines a trial as “a formal examination of evidence before a judge, and typically before a jury, in order to decide guilt in a case of criminal or civil proceedings.”  The upcoming impeachment proceeding against President Trump is a trial. 

There are those who say an impeachment trial is only a political exercise.  Sorry Republicans!--- it is also a trial.  A trial requires a formal examination of evidence.  In order to examine evidence, the implication is that judgement about that evidence must be unbiased.  If that is the case, how does anyone reconcile the recent statements by Senators McConnell and Graham to be completely partial regardless of the evidence, and to claim that the verdict has already been pre-determined?  That position is antithetical to the definition of a fair trial. 

What mystical malady has afflicted all the Republicans in the Senate to erase the notion of unbiased fairness?

We Americans have always been taught, and the Constitution demands, that trials be fair exercises with impartial judgment based on the presentation of evidence.  Don’t all Americans believe that?  For members of Congress to promote the exact opposite of that is terrifying.  That position changes our country to a Russian style autocracy replete with ‘show trials’ that serve the interests only of those in power. 

Good Bye Rule of Law!

There is something grievously wrong with our representative government when this orientation to the rule of law is espoused by a majority of our Senate.  Lisa Murkowski is the first Senator thus far to shake off the’ kool-aid’ induced fog of denial that has infected the Republican Party.  We should all hope that more of these people will awaken from their political stupor to reaffirm what is a basic tenet of our democracy.  If they don’t, it becomes our responsibility to remove these people from power.  If we don’t, then we are responsible for the destruction of our country.

That task is made more difficult, however, because these very people are responsible for disenfranchising voters across the nation:  the 2016 and 2018 elections in Georgia, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Michigan being a few examples.  The scourge of gerrymandering created by Republicans nationwide has made our government less and less representative.  The impeachment trial of the President is the latest manifestation of this disease of accumulation of power at the cost of fairness and truth.

So where are the citizens of the United States on this issue?  Are all of us okay with having a pre-ordained impeachment trial without the presentation of evidence?  Recent polls say 71% of us want a fair trial with presentation of evidence.  Where are the other 29%?  Do they really want to reject evidence that might reveal what really happened with Trump and the Ukrainian scandal?  Is it better to stick their heads in the sand and say, “I really don’t want to know or I just don’t care”?  Really??

I say to my fellow 29% of Americans, “Search you heart!  Do you want to know the truth, or do you really not care to know the truth??”

Search your heart of hearts!  Reclaim you integrity!  Be Americans!

A Moment of Reflection

Well, it is now reality.  For the third time in our history we are one vote away from impeaching a President.  It is a somber, serious moment that should make all of us stop and think realistically about what happens next.

Whether you are Democrat or Republican, we are all Americans and we all presumably revere our country, honor our Constitution and at some level believe that lying is wrong, that cheating is wrong, that ignoring facts is antithetical to the pursuit of truth.  We have reached an inflection point in our history as a nation.  Our values, the things we stand for as members of a democratic republic, are common to us all.  We are approaching a moment when those values, specifically the notion that a democracy is characterized by free and fair elections, adherence to the rule of law, and living our lives in honesty and integrity are about to be tested.

I watched much of the House hearings over the past weeks and it is distressing to witness the Republican response to the impeachment process.  As a group, there is denial of fact.  The defense of the President by these people is restricted to yelling, to demeaning the constitutionally mandated process, mirroring the character assassination of the President and to delay and obstruct the process as much as possible.  There has been ample opportunity for them to present whatever fact-based evidence they had to rebut the allegations made against President Trump, but they have failed in all cases to present either facts or any witnesses of fact. 

And now, we are about to witness a trial of the President in the Senate….a place where the end result has already been determined apparently---even before the trial begins!  In fact, we are now hearing news reports that the Republican controlled Senate is going to make rules for this process that will truncate the process in order to dismiss the articles of impeachment and acquit the President without the defense calling any witnesses.  The objective is to make the trial as short as possible and simply make the vote happen as quickly as possible.   What is wrong with this picture?  I submit that it is the obligation of all members of the Senate to have open minds and consider the evidence.  It is the obligation and right of the defense to present evidence that disproves the allegations.  The Republican allies of the President won’t do that because there is no evidence to disprove the allegations, and the fact witnesses the Democrats might call have been muzzled by the Executive branch in naked obstruction of the oversight rights of the Congress.

Add to that the inherent dishonesty of Mitch McConnell and it is easy to see why this trial is already a foregone conclusion.

However, this is a bigger moment than that.

I believe that the members of the Senate, and all of us need to use this moment to consider what kind of country we are.  If Trump is acquitted, then we have essentially approved of his lying; his invitation to foreign parties to affect our elections.  Our country will not be a democracy any more.  It will be an autocracy or dictatorship.  The separation of powers enshrined in our Constitution will be decimated.  The sacredness of free and fair elections will be sullied and rejected.  What kind of a country do we want to live in?  We will have a chief executive and commander in chief who does not believe in the rule of law.  In fact, there are some who warn that if Trump is acquitted, he will be completely unhinged going forward….as if he isn’t already!  Future presidents will have an unfettered path to break the law since nothing will be impeachable.

We must all think about what that means.  What can we all do at this moment?  I submit that each of us has a responsibility to take action in defense of our country.  We all should be calling our Senators and asking them to disregard party and honor our Constitution.  They need to understand that all of us are watching them and history is recording their actions.

A very somber momentous moment for ALL of us is at hand.