The Coward-in-Chief

President Trump, what are you afraid of? You’ve weathered everything that would have put any other person in prison or at least in serious legal jeopardy…debasing women by grabbing their genitals, traitorously siding with Putin against the entire U.S. intelligence apparatus, paying off women you had extra-marital affairs with in order to get elected, blurting out highly classified material, enriching yourself at taxpayer’s expense, defending neo-Nazis, racists, and the KKK, praising the Saudi and North Korean murderers of Americans, even hiring undocumented workers at your resorts, hotels and golf courses. Isn’t it clear you are above the law? You’re untouchable and can do whatever you want because you get to interpret the law and decide what to comply with.

But above and beyond all that, you're innocent, remember?  You said so. Why would you even care if Don McGahn, Hope Hicks, or Robert Mueller testifies before Congress? All they can do is confirm that you are innocent - as you and William Barr claim the Mueller Report concluded. They can prove to the world that you did nothing wrong. And all those idiotic Democrats and Trump-haters will have to sit there with egg on their faces once you let those people testify as to how Donald Trump has now been exonerated of all collusion and obstruction charges. It will even play well with your base. They hurt when you hurt.

So man up, Trump. Only a loser, a coward, or someone guilty would block testimony and evidence that clears their name once and for all.

Trump's Rap Sheet

It would be easy to conclude we have reached the end of the American experiment in self-government. Thanks to Donald Trump we are now being manipulated by foreign powers and Trump is playing along with them. He’s not colluding. He just doesn’t care how it looks to anyone. It doesn’t matter if it’s Russia, or China, or Saudi Arabia...if it is a benefit to Trump, then it is okay…whether it’s criminal conspiracy, emoluments violations, obstruction of justice, not upholding the oath of office, deliberately misleading people, repeatedly lying when the truth is more believable, defending murderers because he makes lots of money off of the host country, praising tyrants, denigrating allies, and declaring himself above the law.

This isn’t the stuff you’d find on the resume of a great statesman. It’s the rap sheet of a criminal. That’s what Trump’s presidency is…a criminal enterprise. And the GOP continues to shield the head criminal against any and all justice. They willingly consent to Trump slithering away from abiding by the law…this, from the “law-and-order” party with the “law-and-order” president.

With his flouting of the law, Trump has completed the divide in our country between the haves and the have nots. He has successfully (along with Fox News, Infowars, and Breitbart help) demonized anyone not a wealthy, white, Anglo-Saxon protestant. He is leading the charge to return those particular people to their most privileged and protected positions and is guaranteeing the nation’s laws will be perpetually tilted in their favor. That’s what Trump really means when he blathers on about his hat-selling “Make America Great Again” gimmick. It’s making whatever is left of the United States great for Trump…and a few other billionaires.

The GOP is good with that. Notice that they have made no attempt to curtail anything Trump does and in many cases have acted as his cheerleader even while claiming to uphold and defend the Constitution.

In the future, smarter but more sinister men than Trump, will run for and attain office. They will use Trump’s flouting of the law and circumventing established norms to do far more damage than Trump was able to accomplish. They will be justified in everything they do because Trump opened the way for them to take full advantage of the presidency to enrich themselves at everyone else’s expense. The only reason Trump hasn’t been that successful is because he doesn’t have the intelligence for it. He can get by for a while on his bluster and bullshit, but it only goes so far. It’s one thing to brag about having “street smarts” and quite another to have gained an actual education and know how to use it. Even though he should be referencing his Wharton education, he instead says he has street smarts. So I hear him saying he has pretend smarts instead of real smarts. It shows in the way he “governs.” A more intellectually inclined criminal will be able to leapfrog passed Trump’s kindergarten-like attempts when they hold the reins of power. Trump has now made that not just possible, but probable.

Make no mistake regarding Trump and Russia; wittingly or unwittingly, Trump is a Russian asset. He is in office because of Putin's interference. He even acknowledged the Russian meddling in a speech before live cameras on January 9, 2017, eleven days before he was sworn in. Trump has betrayed us to a foreign power for his own selfish financial interests and we will be severely tested over letting him hold the power of the U.S. in those miniature hands for four years.

A Quiet Coup d'etat Has Taken Place in the U.S. Government

We have had a bloodless coup d’état in Washington DC if the anonymous New York Times op-ed author is to be believed. Men and women we didn’t elect are running things any way they want, and they corral Trump like he’s a five-year-old claiming they are protecting us by doing so. They are talking about Trump’s behavior and character as being childish and they must keep him 'cribbed' to prevent him from acting on his impulses.

PEOPLE WE DIDN’T ELECT ARE RUNNIG THE GOVERNMENT TO PROTECT US FROM TRUMP.

One of Trump’s earliest cheerleaders in the Senate, Bob Corker, less than a year ago described the White House as an Adult Day Care Center where they swipe things off Trump’s desk so he can’t sign them and he forgets they were even there, just like what happens with an easily-distractible five-year-old. Corker has not changed his view on that. This past July, Lindsey Graham had to scold Trump on TV that “Putin is not your friend” like he was talking to a kindergartner. Graham has not walked that back. Is anyone in the GOP concerned about the optics of this? The man elected as the head of that party is being handled like a little child, and the GOP basically is saying “Yeah, we know. It’s been that way since day one. But we work around it and we get as much of our agenda crammed through under his name until someone comes along and figures out what’s really going on.”

SO PEOPLE WE DIDN’T ELECT ARE RUNNING OUR GOVERNMENT AND USING TRUMP AS A SHIELD.

Trump, who is being described as an amoral dimwit, is being used by the Republicans so they can do what they want almost unchecked. Keep in mind, the op-ed letter writer is proud of what they’ve accomplished so far, which, all things considered, isn't much. But of course it includes the program to terrorize kids by separating them from their parents at the border, the tax cuts rammed through last December of which 83% of it will benefit the wealthiest 2% of the population - like Trump – and add almost $2 trillion (with a “T”) to the deficit, and are now attempting to rush through a Supreme Court pick who is on record as saying that a president should not be subpoenaed or even investigated. The GOP is going along with forcing through and putting a man on the Supreme Court who will most likely get to decide cases regarding Trump’s criminal liabilities, obstruction of justice, and possible violations of ethics, security, and political power. Because if Kavanaugh says Trump is above the law, then the GOP gets the Putin-installed childish puppet to continue to cover for them for the next 2 to 6 years. Thanks for putting party before country, GOP.

PEOPLE WE DIDN’T ELECT ARE RUNNING OUR GOVERNMENT SO PUTIN CAN’T RUN IT.

Every U.S. intelligence agency (along with warnings from our foreign intelligence friends) clearly identified Russia as having infiltrated and influenced the 2016 election. Who did Putin’s meddling get elected? Trump is indebted to Putin one way or another. 
        And from people inside this administration, there have been repeated whisperings to reporters, analyses of his speeches, and detailed information given to reputable authors about Trump’s unfitness for office. So the adults in the room - these are supposedly Trump’s “best people” - have gently pried the government away from Trump like you take a toy away from a five-year-old. And through this op-ed letter, they have assured us they are doing it to protect us from Trump’s worst inclinations, like, say, aiding and abetting a hostile foreign power or violating his oath of office to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution, the nation, and the people who serve it by saying he believed Putin over his own intelligence people. The GOP wants to protect this charade so they can continue to govern in Trump’s place because Trump doesn’t appear to know what he’s doing. The letter implies they did this for altruistic reasons because they can’t trust Trump’s decision-making. Like we're in a plane with a disabled pilot spiralling toward the ground and the anonymous resistance member is able to reach up and tap the rudder pedals or nudge the throttle every so often to delay the impending crash. 

We did not elect these people. Aren’t Trump supporters upset that there is a quiet resistance to Trump’s inclinations? Doesn’t it bother them that the president is described as, and treated like, an unruly five-year-old? Do they support a coup d’état carried out quietly by unelected people who are now making governing decisions for them? They’re not doing what Trump wants; they are doing what they want. Trump is not in control. He’s being treated like a child because he appears to be acting like a child. They say they are doing it to defend the republic, and make it seem noble that they get to make all the decisions instead of the five-year-old. If you’re a Trump supporter, is that what you want the government to do? Keep him contained in such a way as to minimize whatever damage he can do? If you’re a Trump supporter why would you tolerate that? Either one…that he is being kept from governing or that someone is having to corral him and govern in his place?

WE HAVE HAD A VERY QUIET AND HIDDEN COUP D’ÉTAT CARRIED OUT IN OUR GOVERNMENT.

If Trump is not capable of conducting the affairs and duties of the office of the presidency, then get him out of office legally. That's what you can do. That is what you must do. Don’t take over and then tell us you’re doing it for our own good to save us from what Trump is trying to do. Present your case to the American people. We decide. You don’t.

REMOVE THE CRIMINAL-TRAITOR-ETHICS VIOLATOR-CHILD KIDNAPPER-LIAR (TAKE YOUR PICK) FROM OFFICE

Michael Cohen indicates Trump ordered him to violate campaign finance laws to pay hush money to two women he has extra-marital affairs with.

Trump violated his oath of office by aiding and abetting Russia when he validated Putin’s denial of meddling in the 2016 election against the information he received from his entire intelligence apparatus.

Trump signs into law a Tax Bill last December that substantially benefits him and his organization, specifically it gives huge tax breaks to golf course owners and real estate developers, to the tune of billions of dollars after Republicans, and only Republicans, pushed the $1.5 trillion tax bill through the Senate without any hearings, testimony, or expert witness feedback. And on June 22, Trump signed an executive order to roll back environmental regulations to protect the world’s oceans thereby handing himself a business win in the process. It will “facilitate the economic growth of coastal communities and promote ocean industries” which will include most of Trump’s hotels and golf courses, increasing their profit margins. The order eliminates several regional planning bodies that were designed to keep an eye on local bodies of water and apply federal standards accordingly.

To date, 535 migrant children have still not been reunited with their families even after being ordered to do so by a federal court over a month ago. This is a form of terrorism endorsed by Trump to scare immigrants from coming to the U.S. by forcibly taking their children away when they cross the border. The children are innocent, yet they are ripped from their parents and put in cages in a detention camp. One has died while in ICE custody, and at least a dozen have been sexually or physically abused by ICE or HHS employees.

Immediately after Trump became the Republican nominee, the FBI provided him with high-level security information by high ranking counter-intelligence officers that the Russians were infiltrating the US election system and trying to spy on his campaign. They even warned him explicitly that the Russians were trying to contact his campaign and that if he was contacted or if he knew of any attempted contact, he should alert the FBI. This was AFTER the meeting Trump had in March with George Papadopoulos at the table who presented an offer to contact the Russians, after the Trump Tower meeting with Jr., Kushner and Manafort with at least 5 Russians on June 9^th, after Jeff Sessions first meeting with Sergey Kislyak, after Paul Manafort had offered a Russian oligarch close to Putin with a personal update on the Trump campaign, and after Carter Page had gone to Moscow at the behest of Manafort for the Trump campaign. Keep in mind this was BEFORE he became president. Yet he still claims there was no collusion. Was there a criminal conspiracy, then?

Trump’s lies? Did he ever provide his tax returns before the election which he vowed to do at least 16 times before November 8^th?  Was Don Junior’s meeting with the Russians at Trump Tower about adoptions like Trump wrote aboard Air Force One as an explanation? Didn’t Trump brag when he came back from Singapore that North Korea would de-nuclearize immediately? Didn’t the White House promise that 70% of the GOP tax cuts would go to workers when it is now confirmed that 83% has gone to the ultra-wealthy in this country? Didn’t Trump say he would hardly leave the White House to play golf because there was so much work that needed to be done? To date, he has golfed over 60 times in less than 2 years in office, far more than Obama did in 8 years.

Trump has been involved in over 1,300 lawsuits in the last 18 years, including one over his fraudulent Trump university that was still ongoing during the campaign. Nineteen women have accused him of sexual assault or misconduct, including ex-wife Ivana who once used the word "rape" to describe what he did to her in a court case. His businesses have repeatedly declared bankruptcy, including three casinos, an airline, vodka, a mortgage company, bottled water, steaks, a magazine, a dot com company, even a board game. He has told an average of 6 1/2 lies per day since taking office, for a total of over 4,000.

At the beginning of June, the Pentagon told Congress it estimates that nearly 500 civilians were killed as a result of US military actions in the first year of the Trump administration. "The Department of Defense assesses that there are credible reports of approximately 499 civilians killed and approximately 169 civilians injured during 2017." The report adds that "more than 450 reports of civilian casualties from 2017 remained to be assessed," meaning the number of civilian casualties caused by US military operations could go up. The report covers both US airstrikes as well as ground combat operations. The DoD acknowledged that civilian casualties have more than doubled since January 2017.

How many more reasons does anyone need to remove this criminal Russian asset from the Oval Office?

Hello, GOP. Anyone home?

Evangelicals and the GOP - What is Wrong with You?

Republicans and evangelicals: WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU? I know I am digitally shouting by typing in all caps and then making it bold, but this is an issue worth shouting about.

Even the American Bald Eagle recognizes Trump is a danger.

Are you Republicans and evangelicals just going to stand by while Trump trashes ALL of our intelligence services and then sides with Vladimir Putin? When he waits over 28 hours before being forced to read a statement that claims he simply misspoke one word, but he doesn’t take back anything else he said defending Putin or questioning US intelligence assessments, do you swallow that hook, line and sinker? If there is no collusion, as Trump claims, why wouldn’t he want to prove it by doing everything in his power to help Mueller get to the bottom of the Russian interference question and clear his name? Why is it okay for Trump to “consider” for over four days to handing Americans over to the Russians for interrogation with no apparent reason to do so? Trump said it was “an interesting idea" and "an incredible offer” and still has not refuted that stance. Why do GOP members block every effort to get to the truth? 

Here is Trump wiping 'a fluid from Vladimir Putin' off of his tie.

Do you really think Trump is the poster-boy for your Christian values and associated political viewpoints? It appears you have been corrupted by something far beyond the boundaries of patriotism, decency and moral standards. It's called Trumpism. Trumpism is a term for duplicity, deception, and contempt for the American people. It is Trump First, not America First.

          The GOP and evangelicals used to be rabidly anti-Russian. They couldn’t say enough bad things about the Russians, the Soviets, the communists, the oligarchs that ran the country from the Kremlin. Now, the GOP and evangelicals all cozy up to the Russians because of Trump. Trump participated in a Russian disinformation campaign by agreeing with Putin - thereby legitimizing Putin's denial and weakening the credibility of U.S. intelligence agencies. If Trump sides with Putin, that’s good enough for his supporters. They'll side with Putin and the Russians too. Those Russians are tough...but when Trump cuddles up with them, Trump is tougher. Does that make sense?

GOP and evangelicals, seriously, what in the hell is wrong with you?

On Twitter, Trump says his critics are suffering from "Trump Derangement Syndrome". The desperation in Trump’s tweet where he even wants to take oblique credit for a perceived medical condition because his name is on it - came a day after he appeared side by side with Putin and chose to believe the claims of the Kremlin that there was no meddling in US elections rather than the unanimous consensus of all US intelligence agencies that there WAS Russian meddling and influence. So people who question the motives of a president siding with the Russian leader are 'deranged.' Over a day later, to show how not adding an "n't" was just a slip of the tongue, Trump read from a prepared statement that he repeated a part of almost word for word, three times…as though he hadn’t read it up to that point and wasn’t sure what it would say next...then added a qualifier that "it might have been someone else," Trump's non-explanation immediately placated Republican congressmen. And despite the controversy, Republican voters still support Trump.

Trump knows he doesn’t have to convince the American people. He just had to convince the GOP…because those GOP leaders will block all attempts to hold him accountable and will run interference against any impeachment proceedings. They will lie to Trump’s supporters and tell them the Deep State is just trying to destroy good-old-honest-stable-genius-Donald Trump. All the GOP members are behind this, even when they stand on the sidelines. They all support Trump and his agenda.

Republicans: WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU? 

Senators Jeff Flake, Bob Corker, Orrin Hatch, Lindsey Graham, Mitch McConnell, Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins…etcetera, and all you GOP congressmen and women - like Paul Ryan - abandoning ship prior to the November 2018 election…where are you? You have nothing to lose. Why are you NOT doing more than shrugging your shoulders when you should be defending the nation from Trump?

Iowa senator Joni Ernst still supports Trump even though, by her own admission, his tariffs and trade policies are detrimental to Iowa farmers and will vastly hurt her constituents. Yet she says she will still support Trump because he came up with $12 billion - that is not in the federal budget thanks to Trump's tax cut last December - to pay the farmers because his trade war with the EU, Mexico, and China has cost them at least $11 billion. So Trump is solving problems of his own making by conjuring up money from a supply of cash the government doesn't have. 

Evangelicals say they will give Trump “a mulligan” for his banging adult film actress Stormy Daniels, former Playmate Karen McDougal, sexually harassing Apprentice actress Summer Zervos and at least 19 other women who have accused Trump of years of serial sexual assault, all while he was married to one of his three wives. But evangelicals find nothing wrong with that and don't get the least bit excited about Trump’s adultery, dishonesty and misogyny since they think he is working for God. They remind us with quotes from the bible like Romans 13:1 Every person must be subject to the governing authorities, for no authority exists except by God's permission. The existing authorities have been established by God.“ 

So Trump is in office because that's the way God wanted it. 

But wasn’t King George III appointed by God…and the 13 colonies waged a war on him and killed his soldiers? Doesn’t that mean that the United States began its existence by violating the word of God? Of course not. American Christians say the United States was different. But because we were so different, we should and would base our laws on God's laws. The evangelicals are counting on Trump to do just that.

So Trump screwed a porn star while his (3^rd) trophy wife was home with their newborn son, Barron...just as he did with former Playmate Karen McDougal. Keeping the Stormy Daniels affair out of the newspapers before the 2016 election reportedly cost him only $130,000 which he admitted to in the addendum of his tax release last April. It makes up only 0.004 percent of his claimed net worth of $3.1 billion — But paying her off and letting the world know about it means nothing to him. This speaks volumes about him, and it speaks volumes about his supporters when he can pay off a woman he screwed 10 years prior - to keep her quiet while he was running for president - with the EVANGELICALS giving him their full support.

And they STILL support him.

Why?

 Keep in mind Trump doesn't give a damn about anyone being concerned and worried about his collusion, treasonous actions, emolument violations, lying about paying for adulterous affairs, passing a tax bill that almost exclusively gives him and his wealthy friends massive tax cuts, or his threatening nuclear war. Trump is immune to scandal and social censure. Ridicule hurts his feelings and he whines like a baby about it but it doesn’t change who he is. Republicans in Congress must accept much of the blame for what has happened to our democracy and our presidency. They sat on their asses and “let Trump be Trump” for too long. Now it may be too late. Just four days after Trump's disastrous Helsinki meeting he invited Putin to Washington DC. Not even the president’s Director of Intelligence knew this was coming. Why?

Republicans and evangelicals: What in the hell is wrong with you?

Trump knew on January 6, 2017, that Russian Military officers, at Putin's express instruction, carried out interference in our presidential election to help Trump. That is no longer in question. Trump was told the meddling was Russia…and Russia alone...two weeks before he became the 45^th president. He has lied about not knowing it since then.

Think he should answer any of the above questions? Should we have access to the interpreter's notes from his 2+ hour meeting with Putin? Should Trump be held accountable for violating his oath of office? Should he finally have to pay a price for all his lies?

Or are you just going to let him get away with another outrage?


July 19, 2018

There was no collusion with Russia, as long as you ignore that, and that, and that, and that, and…

Oh. Okay. The recent addition to Trump’s eccentric stable of legal advisers - Rudi Giuliani - says there isn’t a stitch of evidence that Donald Trump colluded with Russia - even though Giuliani hasn’t seen any of Mueller’s information - so on his word, we can take that to the bank. After all, Don Jr., Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort’s meeting with at least 5 Russians on June 9, 2016, (in Trump Tower of all places) two of whom had known ties to Russian military intelligence, wasn’t collusion. Rob Goldstone who would also attend that meeting had even written in one of the earliest emails to Don Jr., quote "This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump." unquote. Plus the subject line of the email sent to Don Jr. and forwarded to Jared and Manafort states right at the top “Russia-Clinton-private and confidential,” so 'a confidential liaison with Russians and their government's support proves it wasn't collusion.

Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer who met with Don Junior and those other officials in Trump Tower, acknowledged on NBC news Friday, April 27^th that she is not just a lawyer but a source of information for top Kremlin official and confidante to Vladimir Putin, Yuri Y. Chaika, the prosecutor general…but of course, interacting with a self-admitted Russian government informant isn’t collusion.

President Trump concocted a cover-up story aboard Air Force One that Don Jr., Jared, and Paul were just meeting with the Russians to discuss a suspended child adoption program - which fell apart days later when Don Junior released the email chain showing it was a clandestine meeting with the Russians to get dirt on Hillary Clinton - but that doesn’t suggest collusion.

At a Wilkes-Barre, Pa campaign rally in October 2016, Trump quoted almost word-for-word from a supposedly recently recovered Hillary Clinton email regarding the Benghazi attack in 2011 that was posted on the Russian propaganda website Sputnik. The information was discovered to be a false story spun by Sputnik and upon exposure they immediately took it down. Trump never retracted his statement, but naturally, quoting from a Russian propaganda site wouldn’t be an act of collusion.

Michael Flynn violated the Logan Act by discussing the President Obama-enacted U.S. sanctions with Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak in several phone calls on Dec. 29, 2016, but that wasn’t collusion. Trump later defending Flynn for that very act and claiming he “didn’t do anything wrong” and “I would have expected him to do it” isn’t remotely collusion.

 Jeff Sessions having at least three discussions during Trump’s campaign with that very same Sergei Kislyak that he initially told a Congressional committee he “didn’t remember” isn't indicative of collusion.

Jared Kushner contacting Kislyak in December 2016 to see if members of the Trump administration could use the Russian embassy’s communications to contact the Kremlin instead of using U.S. services can’t seriously be mistaken for collusion.

Also, Jared having - what the White House described as - a "relationship meeting" with Sergei Gorkov, president of sanctioned Russian bank VEB in mid December 2016 as part of Trump’s efforts to establish a back channel to Putin, could never be confused with collusion.

President Trump meeting in the Oval Office with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and ambassador Sergei Kislyak, then banning any U.S. media from covering the occasion but allowing a TASS photojournalist unlimited access, giving away highly-classified intelligence from Israel to the Russians during that meeting, and bragging about his firing James Comey the day before got rid of “the Russia thing,” would NEVER be misconstrued as collusion.

Felix Sater, a Trump business associate who boasted of connections to Vladimir Putin, sent back and forth emails to Michael Cohen about a Trump Tower Moscow project and that Donald Trump had personally signed a letter of intent for it in October 2015, contradicting his repeated assertions that he has had no business dealings in Russia. But plainly, no one would accept THAT as collusion, would they?

The distinction in Giuliani’s mind is, everyone in Trump’s campaign, transition team, and his administration, DID interact with the Russians, but since Trump doesn’t know what the word collusion means, how can he be guilty of committing it? Besides, he can’t remember doing any of it, or hearing about any of it…ergo...there wasn’t any collusion. Whew, there you have it, the guaranteed "not a stitch" of evidence as Giuliani interpreted it., Everybody's innocent. Case closed.

Trumpism - A Blight on America

Germany is a nation in which I have been interested since I was old enough to find it on a map. Because the U.S. had been involved in combating them twice in less than a half a century I was curious about the Germans. What drove them? How was the pitch for war made palpable less than 20 years after the Versailles Treaty was signed? Why were they willing to endanger another generation of Germans? My curiosity even made my xenophobic father heap scorn on me as being a “Kraut in my mind.” He ridiculed my research and interest because he felt I was ignoring our British/Scot/Irish roots and claimed I just wanted to “be German” or “be a Nazi.” I wondered what he was so upset about. I wasn’t making excuses or gushing about them; I just wanted to find out how the Germans were drawn into war so quickly and easily in the 20^th century. That meant I needed to study them.

My curiosity was stimulated because both of my grandfathers fought in World War One against German forces, and one of my uncles in World War Two. My interest was known to other family members. I went to a party at a relative’s house in the mid-1970s, and while there he introduced me to a woman named Geezy whose husband had been a Luftwaffe anti-aircraft gunner throughout the war. My uncle wanted me to talk with her partly because she grew up in Germany and lived in Berlin during World War Two, but mainly because of her stance. Geezy stated in no uncertain terms she loved Adolf Hitler and still thought he was a great leader. This was 30 years after the end of the war. I was stunned by her admission and probed hoping to find some rationale. She was unapologetic about his crimes against other countries and even against his own people. She didn’t care. If Hitler said it needed to be done, then it was the right thing to do. She was never a member of the Nazi party but she supported the Nazis 100%...even to that day. She said she would still vote for and support Hitler, despite all the revelations about what he did. She was proud of him.

Remembering her blind adulation stills seems eerie. But more disturbingly, it sounds just like today’s Trump supporters. It doesn’t matter what Trump does…they support him unconditionally. How do you reason with that kind of fanatic? Trump bragged he could shoot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue and not lose voters. He is saying they will support a cold-blooded murderer with no reservations. Trump also boasted that he loved “poorly educated” voters. He wasn't just talking about people who only had a limited education. He meant people who were deliberately ignorant; people who didn’t want to think things through, people that just took marching orders, people who didn’t read or question anything. These are the people we should be very concerned about because they are Trump’s sycophants, his supporters, his loyal base. They look upon Trump as a messiah. How are they any different than Hitler’s SS?

Like the SS, they throw out Nazi salutes to intimidate others. At Trump’s urging, they beat up protesters. Now they are even emboldened to march in nighttime torch-lit parades as though this is Nuremberg or Munich in 1938. It’s frightening because these Trump supporters are living among us like a fifth column by the millions. They believe it is Trump, or nothing else. This Trumpism is a danger to American democracy and its survival.

Germans have been addressing the Nazi Germany image for over 70 years but they will continue with that struggle for the foreseeable future. We in the United States are about to join Germany in our own long, difficult quest to improve our image and try to make amends for what Trumpism is doing to our country and to the world. Fifty to a hundred years from now, we will still be trying to shake off our own “Nazi-like” period. It will be much shorter than the twelve years Hitler inflicted on Germany, but the damage to the world will be the same. It will be a time in our nation’s history known as Trump’s America from 2016 to 2018. I’m no seer stating the end will be in 2018. It’s just that there are so many things roaring right at Trump at this point (undeniable Russian collusion, money-laundering, obstruction of justice, serial sexual assault, violation of the Emoluments Clause, violation of the oath of office…etc.) that I have no doubt one of them will most likely get him out of the White House shortly. Pence, Kelly, Mattis, McMaster, DeVos, Mnuchin, Tillerson, Conway, Miller, Huckleberry Sanders, Rick Perry, Scott Pruitt, Wilbur Ross, Trump’s kids, his son-in-law, and all the other enablers should be dragged out with him and left with broken bones, deep gashes, grievous injuries, missing teeth and hair and tossed in a bloody pile at the base of the Washington Monument. But we still have a ways to go to get there. I am concerned about what will happen to us before Trump is forced out of office. Trump unabashedly pits Americans against each other, claims white supremacists and Nazi sympathizers are good people, signed a tax bill to transfer the nation’s wealth to himself and his ultra-rich buddies, threatens nuclear war, attacks the free press, and lies even when the truth sounds better. His enablers in the Republican Party and his evangelical base cheer him on and urge him to keep it up.

Comparing the U.S. under Trump to Germany under Hitler seems outlandish but almost daily we are introduced to a new Trump outrage that makes us look more and more like a budding totalitarian regime. The world looked on in concern and then horror when Hitler turned Germany into a fascist state and finally launched a war. The world is now watching the U.S. do the same thing under Trump.

No one knows who originally made this quote, but it’s appropriate; for the citizens of Nazi Germany - to the U.S. in 2018…”We’re all in the same game; just different levels. Dealing with the same hell, just different devils.”

Putin and Trump - World-Class Liars

Trump – “There is no collusion. Absolutely none. I have nothing to do with Russia.”

Putin - "Thank you, President Trump. Information obtained from the CIA was sufficient to search for and arrest of criminals.”

          Today, it is revealed by White House press manipulator Sarah Huckabee Sanders that on Sunday Russian President Putin phoned Trump to thank him for a tip from the CIA that thwarted a terrorist attack being planned at Kazan Cathedral in St. Petersburg. A tip from the CIA? And Trump had a hand in providing it?

Countries share intelligence occasionally, but this call was highly unusual since presidents rarely, if ever, thank one another for something from the other's spy agency. According to the White House press release, which was offered only after the Kremlin had mentioned it in their own TASS dispatch, “The Federal Security Service said Friday that seven members of a terror cell had been detained for their involvement in the plot, and that "a significant amount of explosives," weapons and "extremist literature" were confiscated.

          TASS also reported that when caught, the perpetrators even obliged by confessing to the whole terrorist scheme on camera. It was almost as if it was STAGED!!!

For the fifth time this year, this information was released by the RUSSIANS…not by the White House. Not until the Kremlin made the phone call known did our own president acknowledge he had been colluding with…I mean, in contact with, Putin. So we’re just now finding out OUR intelligence agency is working with the RUSSIAN intelligence agency and American citizens have deliberately been kept in the dark. Yet both governments now want to openly brag about it, so it’s not like they’re trying to keep it a secret so they can thwart future terrorist attacks. Why is Trump telegraphing this information? He said so many times on the campaign trail that he wasn’t going to let our enemies know what the U.S. is doing. (What he seems to mean is he doesn’t want U.S. citizens to know what he’s doing.) As if it has always been done this way, Trump is pointing out how our intelligence service is helping the Russians.

This then begs the question of why didn’t our CIA do the same for the Pakistanis who supposedly are our allies when a terrorist bomber struck at a Christian church in Quetta last Sunday killing 9 people? Why didn’t our intelligence services provide any help to Nigeria in recent weeks when Boko Haram killed hundreds of people in separate attacks across that country since mid-November? Closer to home, why didn’t that vaunted intelligence stop Akayed Ullah the New York City subway bomber on December 12th? On top of all that, as recently as last month, Trump said he didn’t trust our intelligence agencies, and less than a year ago he was comparing them to the Nazis. Why was their untrustworthy intelligence good enough now to pass on to the Russians?

Does anyone believe this nonsense? What evidence do we have that the CIA provided the information? There is nothing to show it sent anything or contacted the FSB at all. Neither Trump nor Putin has provided proof of cooperation between the two agencies. We just have to take their word for it. But things that are asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence. Putin called to thank Trump for the CIA tip, after Thursday's call congratulating him on how strong our economy is. Why would the Russians congratulate the U.S. on a booming economy? How does that help Russia?

          This is just the latest pack of lies from two world-class liars. It was invented (by Putin or Trump, or both) to gloss over something entirely different. Both leaders agreed that this serves as an example of the positive things that can occur when the two countries work together. Here’s the bizarre part…you notice that “when the two countries work together,” the Trump administration never works with Brazil, Thailand, Iran, Denmark, China, Sri Lanka, or any other country in that manner. It is always…ALWAYS…the Russians - and only the Russians. Why?

          Do you believe Trump when he says there’s no collusion?