Election 2017 - The End of the Trump Presidency

            

           We shouldn’t have to wait until 2020, or even 2018, we need to have a new vote for the presidency of the United States this summer.

            The Trump administration is not going to last. It’s been nothing but a series of lies, stonewalling, bullying, unethical behavior, dishonorable actions, subterfuge, and mismanagement, not just by Trump, but almost the entire administration, and it has been going on since the moment Trump took office. Not even the three most corrupt administrations in the nation’s history; Warren G. Harding, Ulysses S. Grant and Richard Nixon’s combined, had this many scandals in just the first two months in office.

The investigation into Russian influence in the election is already drawing a noose around Trump’s neck. The latest shell game is the nonsense Devin Nunes has foisted on the American people by accepting supposed incidental intelligence gathered by the White House, not sharing any of it with his investigative committee, refusing to identify what information he had or how he obtained it, then had to go back to the White House to tell Trump what it was (even though Trump should have had it before Nunes did)…but it had NOTHING to do with his own committee’s investigation into the Russian impact on Trump’s campaign. Trump will not survive. And don’t look to his administration to pick up the reins of power and move on after Trump is gone. They are all just as complicit.

Trump and Pence cower before the truth - Pence rages about Planned Parenthood

A Mike Pence presidency won’t work. Vice President Pence has been part of the problem all along too. He was the head of Trump’s transition team. He was informed in writing and personally by Mike Flynn’s lawyers TWICE in November that Flynn was a foreign agent for the nation of Turkey. What kind of vetting was Flynn subjected to that THAT slipped by? Mike Pence was in charge of the vetting process. Also, Trump KNEW on January 26, 2017, when he was informed personally by acting Attorney General Sally Yates, that Mike Flynn had discussed US sanctions with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak on Dec. 29, 2016. Trump knew Flynn had lied about talking with the Russians. Does anyone believe he DIDN’T tell Mike Pence about it? Why would he keep that a secret from the Vice President? The retired lieutenant general was forced to resign as National Security Adviser in February after supposedly misleading Pence about the nature of his conversations with Kislyak during the transition. Initial reports about his departure said that Flynn decided to step down voluntarily. The next day, the story changed: Trump had ‘lost confidence’ in Flynn and asked for his resignation. Yet Trump to this day maintains Flynn didn’t do anything bad or wrong. It was all the dishonest media’s fault that Flynn was let go. Pence claimed he found out from a news report about Flynn’s lying on February 9^th. Trump knew on January 26^th but just forgot to mention it to Pence? Horse flop! Trump can’t let go of his lies even when they make his Vice President look like a burbling dimwit.

            Speaker Paul Ryan cannot be considered viable either. He is a Trump toady and essentially a one-issue politician…and that issue is getting rid of Obamacare. What he would replace it with, even HE doesn’t know. We need a president who has a broader more mass appeal idea for the country.

            Almost none of Trump’s cabinet picks can be honestly considered capable of doing even a slightly more credible job. Jeff Sessions? Mired in so much self-inflicted scandal he can’t even see to the end of his nose. Steve Mnuchin or Wilbur Ross Jr.? Pirates in business suits. Tom Price or Scott Pruitt? Up to their earlobes in proven-beyond-a-shadow-of-a-doubt illegalities and unethical behavior. Betsy DeVos? Probably the most ignorant person (and that’s saying something) on the cabinet. At that, she barely beat out Rick Perry who didn’t even know what his Department of Energy actually did…yet Trump STILL appointed him! Rex Tillerson? He doesn’t want the State Department job he has and he's doing a lousy job with that one. Frankly, I've seen smarter cabinets at IKEA.

            The one exception I would consider would be National Security Adviser General H. R. McMaster. He is the lone stand-out on Trump’s otherwise abhorrent cabinet.  But I doubt he wants to clean up the mess the Trump administration has made.

            They will most likely have to resort to the 25^th Amendment. Trump will need to be forcibly removed from office when it is proven he acted as an agent for Russia. He will not go willingly. I can’t imagine Melania, Ivanka, Jared or Steve Bannon convincing him to resign. He never admits he’s wrong so he will insist that everyone else is wrong, that the situation doesn’t apply to him, and will probably call for an insurrection. Don’t be surprised if people get harmed or killed when Trump is forced out of office.

If we are to get back the kind of nation as we ideally see it, there will need to be a two-month presidential campaign throughout the months of May and June, and then everyone votes on July 4^th. Absentee ballots should be sent out the first week of June and received back for counting no later than June 30^th. Each state should appoint trustworthy people to watch the polling places. There is to be no voter suppression. If that person has a valid US I.D. and/or is on the voting roll, they should be allowed to vote. If any are proven to have voted more than once, or that voter suppression actually took place, the full weight of the law should be used to correct that situation.

Democrats, Republicans, Independents, put forth your best candidates.  Let them hold rallies wherever they’d like but no PAC or Super PAC money can be used in the process, Citizen’s United be damned. Have the candidates debate three or four times between the start of May and the end of June, let American’s hear their viewpoint, and then we vote.

This year’s Independence Day celebrations should truly reflect that America is not an authoritarian kleptocracy, oligarchy, ineptocracy, plutocracy, nepotocracy or a stooge for a foreign power. We can once again be the Constitutional Republic that answers to the people and is not beholden to Russia, Big Business or a lying sycophant who couldn’t tell truth from a hole in the ground.

WikiLeaks, Trump, and the Deep State

I’ll state at the very beginning of this post that I am neither a fan of Julian Assange nor a cheerleader for WikiLeaks. I understand what they’re doing, I know why they are motived to do it, but I am concerned about the cavalier approach they take in publishing what they hack and the timing of its release, their attitude that there is no “right or wrong” in what they do, not to mention that many times it appears WikiLeaks is a tool of Russian intelligence. It is meant to harm others in ways they never faced harm before. There are no checks and balances. Once the hacked information is exposed, there is no going back. We are all at the mercy of WikiLeaks which has the ability to smear anyone with selective leaking (as they did to Hillary Clinton last year) or call into question the very legitimacy of any organization they target.

But with that said, I can’t help but growl “How do YOU like it?” at the CIA and the American spying apparatus that has turned its attention and its microscope on the very people it is supposed to serve and protect.

With WikiLeaks publishing of thousands of documents this week that it says came from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, and according to CIA insiders who’ve seen the released information it does appear to be legitimate, it represents yet another catastrophic breach for U.S. intelligence. So much for the agency's cyber professionalism. They've not only had their zipper pulled down, they've been de-pantsed. 

Now they know how the rest of us feel.

If someone hacks the CIA’s computer, it’s bad. If the CIA hacks someone else’s computer, that’s good because it’s the trade-off you have to have to feel secure in 21^st Century America. The CIA, NSA, FBI and other intelligence agencies are part of the Deep State - a shadowy conglomerate of industrialists, high-ranking military men, spies, legislators, and wealthy investors - and has been a threat to this nation and every president since Eisenhower. But they’ve successfully deflected any serious attention as to who and what they are by pushing the idea to compliant writers and reporters that such an organization is just a (wink-wink, nod-nod) conspiracy theory. Eisenhower didn’t have enough fear to cower in their presence but noted their existence in his farewell speech as he left office in 1961. John Kennedy wouldn’t cower either….we know how that ended. Richard Nixon made the mistake of thinking he could use them to his advantage and when he couldn’t; he tried to do an end run around them during his second term…and paid for it by being forced to resign from office for his stupidity. At least he can be thankful he wasn’t assassinated. Every other president since then has understood the ‘game’ and fallen into lock step with them. There would be no challenges to the Deep State operatives.

And then along came Trump who the Deep State didn’t take seriously. Thanks to Russian interference Trump became president. The Deep State knew of his staff’s involvement with the Russians, figuring Trump and his cast of characters would then be easy to manipulate but found out it is like trying to control a swarm of locust. And that’s exactly what the Trump administration is, a swarm of locust. They will pick the U.S. economy clean and afterward if they have enough momentum, a good portion of the rest of the world - if it’s okay with Putin. The Deep State was caught off guard by how inept the Trump people really are, which is why there is now a scramble going on behind the scenes as they try to understand the bizarre antics of the Trump team. The Deep State’s intelligence agencies are finding they have to play a weird game of ‘Whack-A-Mole’ every day with some new idiocy unleashed by Trump.

So when you read or hear about Trump and his minions complain that they are fighting the Deep State, they are correct. It appears at this point, the Deep State isn’t overly concerned because all they’ve seen is a thoroughly incompetent administration with massive ties to Russia and a bungling apparatus that can’t even keep their lies straight. The Deep State may forgive a lot that a new administration does, but they are not going to jeopardize current economics in the nation - which is based on crony capitalism, not free-market capitalism - for the kleptocratic totalitarian style of economics practiced in Russia. When the Trump administration begins to allow Russia the world dominance they seek, then the Deep State will retaliate forcefully.

Unfortunately, Americans will lose no matter which side wins. I do not trust any of our intelligence agencies. They lost that trust long ago due to their illegal activities. There may be good, decent, honest, and honorable Americans working for them, but they are vastly outnumbered by those who see the rest of us as annoying ‘soft targets’ and unwashed rabble. What WikiLeaks hacking of the CIA has exposed clearly shows how little regard they have for U.S. citizens or for the Constitution. So I now have no regard for them, But the alternative is the Trump clique wins. We can already see what kind of seismic damage they are doing to the country under the misleading cry of “Make America Great Again.” If the Trump bunch defeats the Deep State cesspool, America will not become "great again"...things are only going to get worse for us. Yes, the upper 1% will benefit no matter which side wins. The rest of us? Neither the Deep State nor Trump gives a damn.

The intelligence agencies operating in coordination with the Deep State military-industrial-legislative complex are now engaged in a mild but escalating death match with the Trump team. I want to see Trump and his ilk not just forced out of office, but completely pummeled, with torn out patches of hair, broken bones, black eyes, deep gouges in their skin, blood running from their ears, nose and mouth, teeth missing, and tossed in an unkempt pile at the base of the Washington Monument never to rise or threaten the U.S. again.

But that will leave the Deep State in complete charge and they do not care about America's interests. They are only interested in helping themselves and enriching their bank accounts at our expense…much like the Trump administration…only they’re slightly more competent, far more sinister, and have over 50 years experience of unelected "governing" as the shadow U.S. government.

There is no upside regarding who wins the fight. I have no doubt it will be the Deep State simply because the amateurs of the Trump administration have no idea what they are up against, or how to fight it. They are approaching it like a petulant eight-year-old. They will be spanked like one, too.

                Julian Assange and WikiLeaks have convinced themselves they are a force for good. Hacking the computers of the CIA amounted to a game to see if they could do it, and they succeeded. The consequences of that action are something I don’t think they considered very long or very deeply. We are all going to pay for it. And we will not like that bill.