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.

Faithfully Dumb

What is it about the Republican mindset that causes the men in that party to abandon common sense when it comes to pregnancy and rape?

Last month, Indiana Senate candidate Richard Mourdock became the latest in a collage of Republican dimwits to say something astonishingly idiotic regarding women and rape. In a debate with his Democratic opponent Joe Donnelly, Mourdock explained his abortion stance saying that “even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that is something that God intended to happen.” There you have it…God intended it to happen. God knew the rape was going to occur and did nothing to stop it…which means rape should be taken off the books as a crime, since it is something God foresees and wants. Following biblical law, maybe Mourdock should also introduce legislation demanding that the victim then marry her rapist and he must pay the woman’s father fifty pieces of silver. After all, that’s precisely what it says in Deuteronomy 22:28-29. God’s law is great, isn’t it?

God often sneaks over to watch down on some of his "intended" rapes as they occur

Prior to Mourdock stuffing both feet in his mouth, we had Tom Smith, a candidate for the Pennsylvania state senate comparing rape to having a baby out of wedlock. Smith said if you “put yourself in a father’s situation”, it’s a similar kind of thing. So guys, when you rape a woman, look at it as though she’s having your baby without the hassle and inconvenience of a wedding. The whole point of rape is just recreational procreation, right?

Republican Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan, on August 23^rd during an interview on WJHL in Roanoke, VA stated  "I'm very proud of my pro-life record, and I've always adopted the idea that, the position that the method of conception doesn't change the definition of life." What he is referring to is rape as a "method of conception" when asked if it should it be legal for a woman to be able to get an abortion if she's raped. If that sperm makes into you, the method is acceptable for obtaining protection from the government and it is now your responsibility to see it through to its 21^st birthday. The rape victim’s health, mental and otherwise, isn’t up for consideration in Ryan’s view. Only that of the newly engaged sperm and egg. They must now be federally protected and the 'method of conception' carried to full term. The Republicans don't really give a damn about what happens after the birth of the baby though.

                And lest we forget (although, much to his chagrin, I doubt most people will), there was Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin in an August interview stating, “if it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.” Leaving aside what exactly constitutes ‘legitimate rape’ (maybe that’s Paul Ryan’s definition as well), not one Medical School I know of teaches that a woman’s body can shut down the consequence of a rape. The implication behind his statement is; if the victim is not really being raped but just fooling around with her rapist and enjoying the ‘sex’ involved, then any conception is automatically intentional, should have the full protection of the federal government, and the woman must carry the result full term. Republican logic isn’t baffling, it can be completely understood from the viewpoint of an alternate universe where only men understand a woman's reproductive capabilities.

                         Mourdock, Ryan, Smith, and Akin…a Mount Rushmore of Republican stupidity.

What do all these poor excuses for XY chromosomes have in common, aside from the fact that they are arch-conservative right-wing GOP standard-bearers? To one degree or another, they are Christian fundamentalists. That can’t be stressed enough; they are all Christian fundamentalists. Why should that be the emphasis? Because it is that bible-infected influence resulting in narrow-minded (or rather brainless) thinking that leads them to make such asinine and morally-bankrupt remarks. When rape is thought of as nothing more than a method of conception, can be legitimized through some magical process, or that the Christian God intended it to happen, I have to wonder why ANY female would vote for a Republican…or attend a Christian church. (Who knows, maybe God rounded up a few rapists with ‘intent’ on their minds and are now lurking behind the altar.) Don’t be concerned ladies, following God’s law, your dad will be bribed with a token amount of money, and you’ll get a guaranteed husband out of the deal. Oh, and most likely that unplanned baby too!