The GOP firmly faces up to Trump's criminal activities

Once again, the Republicans (with evangelical help) are on the job...of obfuscation and misdirection, to help Trump.

Impeach Donald J. Trump

Why is removing Trump from office even a question anymore?

A Clown Gets a Pie in the Face

        Why wait? We need laughter now. If only for a moment. So we'd benefit from a hilarious distraction away from the constant chaos, mounting scandals and lawsuits, violations of the Constitution, the subjugation of American democracy, and destroying whatever international goodwill was left toward this nation. There's got to be a pie out there somewhere with his name on it.

Trump 2020 - Here's Hoping

         How about that? Clothes to match his skin color. Let's work to make this happen...and put an end to the Trump Family Crime Spree. 

The Swarm

Maybe Donald Trump’s anger is justified, or at least understandable in a primitive, insect kind of way. He is accused of covering up his misconduct…but he doesn’t recognize his bumbling actions, his threats and distractions as a cover-up anymore than a bug considers the consequences of eating a field of a human’s crops. To Trump, he is being himself because we all knew he was a coward, a con-man, a bully, a liar, and a tax cheat when he was running for the presidency. He figures since we knew what we were getting, why are we surprised? He doesn’t understand our anger and disgust because he’s still the cowardly, bullying, lying, cheating, con-man who got elected for at least a four-year term thanks to Russian interference (he even tweeted his admission that they did, it's just that he wasn't involved), so what right does anyone have to complain?

Trump’s supporters got exactly what they wanted; an unbridled wrecking ball who would shake things up in Washington. The first few weeks of his presidency when he started to display gross incompetence, those supporters and his cheerleaders in the GOP insisted that Trump would eventually “grow into the job.” No, of course, they didn’t expect him to make enemies with the world, threaten war against North Korea, Venezuela, Mexico, Iran, expand fighting in Afghanistan, Syria, Somalia, Niger, Yemen, ram through a massive tax cut bill that primarily rewarded him and his billionaire friends, renege on his promise that manufacturers like Carrier, Ford, and Harley Davidson would stay open and expand when all three companies have laid off their workforce and closed down or moved operations overseas, initiate a trade war with China, Mexico, Canada, the European Union, and other trading partners. But they crossed their fingers and hoped he could somehow look presidential while still "being Trump."

Trump takes his job so seriously that the “I-won’t-have-time-for-golf president has spent fully one-fourth of his time in office at one of his resorts or golf courses…usually playing golf. We the taxpayers have had to pick up the bill for over $100 million to provide security for him at his own golf courses…you know, those places he mentions at his rallies that make him a billionaire. But his supporters did expect him to be different. Vive la difference, huh?

They look around and gasp “but what about our economy, look at all the new jobs, the low unemployment numbers, a booming stock market...that has to be Trump's doing. Yes. Look at all those - but peek behind the curtain to see what is really happening. Bloomberg, MarketWatch, and even the Wall Street Journal admit that Trump’s massive tax cut bill in December 2017 hasn’t done anything the Trump administration predicted it would. The nonpartisan Congressional Research Service confirms it has had no effect on the economy, other than driving the federal deficit $2 trillion further in the hole. Are prices coming down? No. Are jobs paying more? Only a few of the high tech, limited access jobs. Low-income job numbers have risen but not the pay. If you’re in the stock market, you’ve had a hell of a roller coaster ride, which is not what the market is supposed to do, but it has gone up in the past two years. However, a simple check of the Dow Jones chart for the past 10 years will show that due to policies enacted by Obama, there has been a steady bull market since 2010. When Obama left office, the jobless rate had dropped to 5%. Under Trump, it has gone down to 3.8. How has that 1.2% drop improved things for you personally? The most honest answer I’ve heard on that from a Trump supporter was “it makes Trump look good.” If that’s your bar, then the bar is sitting flat on the ground.   

The laughable part (if there is anything to laugh about) is that all along the Republicans have kidded themselves into thinking they could contain and control Trump and his horde. They found out it is like trying to herd locust. That is a pretty good metaphor for the Trump administration…a criminal enterprise that operates like a swarm of locust. Locusts usually gorge themselves on whatever is in front of them and to hell with anyone or anything else.

You can see Trump and his hand-picked “best people” fit the locust comparison perfectly, like Elaine Chao, Alex Acosta, Michael Flynn, Tom Price, Scott Pruitt, Ryan Zinke, Jeff Sessions, David Shulkin, Rex Tillerson, Betsy DeVos, Ben Carson, Wilbur Ross, Steve Mnuchin, Rick Scott, Reince Priebus, Kellyanne Conway, Kirstjen Neilsen, Rob Porter, John Bolton, William Barr, just for starters. Plus, consider the people who have been forced out or deserted this bizarre White House like rats abandoning a sinking ship: John Kelly, H. R. McMaster, Jim Mattis, Gary Cohn, Nikki Haley, Don McGahn, Rod Rosenstein…etc. How have they made anything great again when they leave their job after only a year, or are forced out by the guy who said they were his best people? Remember, the GOP supported and approved of every one of them.

What these human locusts amount to are the flotsam and jetsam that stuck to the bottom of the hiring barrel and had to be scraped out of the corner with a sharp stick in order to be considered. Trump has filled up the Washington swamp with a massive swarm of locust, because every one of these “acting directors,” Cabinet yes-men and yes-women serve Trump and Trump only, not the American people. They are enriching themselves at our expense while they encourage, enable, and run constant interference for Trump to cover up what he does. They know what he is doing is wrong just as they know what they are doing is wrong. But Trump provides camouflage. And like a good cult leader, Trump has convinced not just his administration but his supporters that they are not seeing the whole picture or the real world. Only Trump knows all and sees all. So they believe his lies and this helps them continue to support Trump because who can now tell who is telling the truth anymore. They believe it is better to simply support Trump and his lies than to search for the truth of a story. That’s too much work.

Trump supporters, when did intelligence, decency, and character in a president stop mattering to you? Why do you approve of the Trump swarm picking America clean?

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.