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.

Celebrating our Independence?

The Republican Party has sold out the nation to Russia. Our own intelligence agencies, as well as our foreign intelligence friends, were warning us the Russians were interfering in the 2016 election. The Mueller Report confirmed this. Donald Trump became president thanks to Russian meddling.

How clearly does that have to be stated to anyone?

Here’s the thing; Donald Trump doesn’t care how this looks. He doesn’t care if there was collusion or obstruction. As long as it got Trump what he wanted, it was okay. He admits it in his line of tweets like “…I had nothing to do with Russia helping me to get elected.” This is called an Excited Utterance which the Federal Rules of Evidence say is admissible in court. Trump is admitting he knew they were doing it but he doesn't see anything wrong with it.

The Republicans, the nation, even the Constitution mean nothing to him. Power and the unbridled capacity to enrich himself with it is the only thing that matters.

Yet the GOP still defends whatever Kremlin-asset Donald Trump does without question. This is the very definition of treason against the United States.

But by all means, enjoy Trump’s overpriced Fourth of July martial spectacle celebrating our “independence.”

Trump Decay

There is a decay eating at America. A decay personified by the unchecked dishonesty emanating from the office-holder at the highest level of the government. There, resides an individual who lacks any moral character, who fans the flames of division, who encourages chaos among those in his administration and who surround him, who was actually laughed at by the entire world in his speech before the UN last September. That decay is spreading across the land. What a metaphor for what has happened to our country.

Ann Coulter, one of his biggest supporters, writes “For those of us who were ecstatic the night Donald Trump was elected president…it used to be easy to defend him against the charge that he is just a con man who would say anything to get elected. It’s getting harder.”

Sebastian Smith of AFP* wrote from the G-20 meeting in Buenos Ares on Dec. 1, 2018, regarding the announcement that Bush 41 had died:

One US president talked softly, the other harangues. One built international coalitions, the other tears them up. One was a war hero, the other avoided battle.

One was called George Herbert Walker Bush and the other is the current occupant of the White House…Donald J. Trump.

Trump was one of the first of current and past world leaders to praise the life of Bush. But even Trump's courteous statement couldn’t gloss over the undeniable contrast between the two. Using words like "humble," "quiet," "unflappable leadership," and "inspired" in their condolence announcement couldn’t detract from how alien they sounded coming from the Trump administration, especially Mr. Trump himself.

         Honor, honesty, and faithfulness are not words that would describe Mr. Trump. While he was running for president, Donald Trump was heard on tape discussing the payment scheme with Michael Cohen to pay off Karen McDougal for an affair Trump had with her just a year after he married his third wife. Another scheme was confirmed involving a quickie with adult film star Stormy Daniels one month after the birth of his 5^th child Barron when the reimbursement payment to Michael Cohen showed up in the tax filing Trump released last April. What are the odds that those were the only two times that Trump had an extramarital affair covered up? Yet the evangelicals claim to love and support this man because he is the beacon of Christianity to the world. No one is better at the Bible than Trump.

          The Bible calls for people who’ve committed adultery to be put to death. Shouldn’t Trump head the list of the “first to be executed” for dozens of instances of adultery that he admitted to on the Howard Stern radio show, on the Access Hollywood tape, and other times when he publicly bragged about it? Evangelicals tend to cherry-pick what parts of the Bible apply when it comes to Trump.

The Trump Administration sounds like a broken disc that keeps repeating "I-didn't-know-better…I didn’t know better…IDKB…"

Donald Trump sides with dictatorships over and over against the interests of the American people - for personal gain, not to MAGA. (IDKB)

He can’t be bothered to attend a remembrance ceremony honoring US World War One dead, then gets angry with others who didn’t warn him how bad that would look. 

Ivanka’s use of a private email server. (IDKB)

Kellyanne Conway, Dan Scavino, Hope Hicks, and others in his administration, repeatedly violating the Hatch Act. (IDKB)

The self-serving exploits of Scott Pruitt, Tom Price, David Shulkin, Rex Tillerson, Mike Flynn, Ryan Zinke…the list grows every day.

Did Trump collude with the Russians to get elected? Rudi Giuliani rushes to Trump's defense on TV and says that even if he did, collusion is “not a crime.” Is it still alright if the Trump Administration didn’t know better?

Trump puts his stamp of approval on the murder of a legal U.S. resident that was committed by a foreign government…a foreign government that - by Trump’s own admission pays him personally millions of dollars - would not be sanctioned because it would be financially “bad” for the U.S. to hold them accountable. It would especially impact the businesses supplying military hardware to the Saudis, who were fighting a proxy war for the Trump administration in Yemen. As a reward, imported oil suddenly costs less, and Trump tweets congratulations to himself over the Thanksgiving weekend for the lower gas prices. Can your moral compass be compromised over artificially and temporarily lower prices at the pump so the Saudi government can get away with murder?
Speaking of getting away with murder, remember these four soldiers...

        Mr. Trump treats our military like an afterthought. There is no respect for the military. There never has been. To Trump, the military is just a convenient macho-looking backdrop for when he needs to puff up his ego and remind them he's their Commander-in-Chief. His record of avoiding the draft in the late 1960s along with his contrived bone spur excuse still produces a stream of hilarious comedy material because Trump can’t remember which foot had the bone spur that kept him out of the military. Should we be trusting a forgetful, dishonest coward with the nuclear codes?

His unforgivable attitude toward military veterans was on full display when he weighed in on John McCain’s capture and torture during the Vietnam War claiming it was nothing heroic – tweeting his new name for him was “very foul-mouthed Sen. John McCain”, called him incompetent - all the way up to a final disrespect by raising the White House flag after just a few hours at half-staff the day McCain died. Nor did Trump attend the funeral. Those who serve our country mean nothing to him. Veterans mean nothing to him.

That’s why he didn’t do anything on Veteran’s Day 2018.

That’s why he skipped the visit to the Aisne-Marne US cemetery in France on the 100^th anniversary of the end of World War One.

That’s why he threw our intelligence services under the bus twice in the past 6 months. Siding with Saudi Arabia in regards to who killed Jamal Khashoggi, and siding with Putin last July in Helsinki thereby validating his deliberate attack on our election…an election that got Trump into the White House.

And now it turns out Trump has had a very recent business interest in Russia, and in order to get the money to build a business in Moscow, he needed to be president of the U.S. so he could remove those unfair sanctions, allowing Russia’s VTB bank to finance Trump Tower Moscow. And the top penthouse would be given as a gift to Vladimir Putin…for getting him into the White House.

How is this NOT a criminal conspiracy?

I can hear the sputtering of the GOP and Trump’s supporters already…”Those are just coincidences…why, he never…that’s absurd…he’s…he’s doing it to protect us…that’s just more fake news…so what if he makes a buck or two off of it…who cares what the Emoluments Clause says…who cares if he continually lies to us about it?”

Hasn’t Trump been leaving clues all along about his intent to use his position to enrich himself at our expense? Keep in mind the tax cut bill he signed last December specifically gives huge tax breaks to real estate developers and golf course owners. Is that what you put him in office for? You are right about one thing though…you Trump supporters are not forgotten anymore. Trump is holding his middle finger up at you right where you can see it. And unless we see to it he dies in prison, Trump will get to keep and enjoy those billions – of your tax dollars - long after he leaves office. Thanks, Republicans.

This is the president we currently have. He is raping the United States in front of the world to expand his bank account. He’s using the power of the presidency in order to justify his own personal financial gains. We will have to start paying for that soon with our taxes. There is no other choice unless we choose suicide via civil war.

        Trump is leading us into a disaster. It’s like approaching Niagara Falls in a large rowboat. You climbed into the rowboat when you voted Trump into office and let him steer the ship of state. You’re already in the middle of the river; you either row for the side as hard and as fast as you can, or you go over the falls.

If you get to shore, what are you going to do about the ship’s captain whose bank account meant more to him than any peril you and the country would face?

Trump is rotting the United States from the inside out because Trump is in it for Trump…and Trump only. His solitary concerned is with his bank account. He doesn't give a damn about yours. If anything he does makes you a little extra money, it is incidental, not deliberate. Make America Great Again is simply a slogan on a hat Trump uses as part of his get-rich-quick scheme that will bankrupt the country. 

        The Trump administration is like a dead fish. The stink starts at the head.

 [*AFP is the world's oldest news agency, and is the third largest news agency in the modern world] 

TRUMP + SAUDI ARABIA + $$$ = MURDER IS A-OKAY

        It’s a great day for murderers! Murder has become tolerable, even chic. According to Donald Trump, murder is acceptable. Not just acceptable, but okay to the point of making money off of it.

Who cares what the Bible’s outdated 6^th Commandment means? Evangelicals who support Trump have to be so pleased that Trump has invalidated “Thou Shalt Not Kill.” Whether that means “killing” or more precisely “murder” if you’re a Christian, who needs that kind of restriction or restraint? It’s all for the best that evangelicals encourage Trump to approve of and endorse murder, most especially by a foreign government from which Trump is personally making millions of dollars. White Christians claim God put Trump in the White House. Who are we to question what God does? Sure it throws into question their whole anti-abortion stance, but Trump needs to just be Trump, and if murder is alright, then that’s alright with Christians. They approved of Trump saying “I could shoot somebody in the middle of Fifth Avenue and not lose any votes.” And he meant it.

As was predicted in mid-October, when solid evidence established that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman not only knew of Jamal Khashoggi’s torture and murder at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey on October 2nd but actually orchestrated it, Trump would simply ignore it and defend the Saudis. Tuesday, November 20^th, Trump said the U.S. will not levy additional punitive measures at this time against Saudi Arabia over the killing of Khashoggi. And not just that, in a statement released today claiming that while the U.S. does not condone the killing of the U.S-based Saudi columnist, Trump reiterated that "foolishly" canceling $110 billion in arms sales would only mean that Saudi Arabia would go to other countries to acquire them. See, money is always more important than murder. If Trump stands to lose even a dollar, then murder by necessity must be condoned.

Is any of this really surprising?

Trump, of course, defended Vladimir Putin and validated his interference in the 2016 U.S. election guaranteeing Trump’s victory - even after our intelligence agencies had proof that Putin had ordered the killing of Denis Voronenkov, Boris Nemtsov, Boris Berezovsky, Stanislav Markelov, Anastasia Baburova, Sergei Magnitsky, and Anna Politkovskaya, to name just a few. What are a few murders between bosom buddies?

He’s the same man who defended Nazis and Nazi sympathizers in Charlottesville, Va. in August 2017…even after one of them used his car to kill Heather Heyer and badly injured 19 others.

He also defended Xi Jinping who grabbed absolute power in China by abolishing term limits which now means he can serve as the country’s president for life. So whatever Xi says or does has the authority of supreme law in China. It means anyone challenging Xi can now be charged with committing a political crime. Political crimes in China are considered capital offenses. As recently as April 2018, Trump demanded that White House counsel Don McGahn order the Justice Department to criminally prosecute Hillary Clinton and James Comey. Is it any wonder why Trump approves of what Xi has done?

Trump’s repeated pissing on the military included him scoffing at retired Admiral William McRaven who led the raid that killed Osama bin Laden and tracked down Saddam Hussein in the second Gulf War. Why? For not killing them soon enough. Trump clearly has no issue with killing in any form, but he has to be able to make a buck off of it.

Maybe now Trump supporters can come to understand where their willingness to vote him into office - with an extra nudge from Putin - has led us. We have a president who not only mocks the word of the Biblical God’s commandment but thumbs his nose at common sense and decency as well. Approving of the killing of someone gets Trump another “mulligan” from his evangelical base and the Republican Party.

Because ignoring murder = $$$...and GOP votes.

Here is the key question his supporters now have to answer. If Trump says murder is okay, what is NOT okay?

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?

Do Not Be Silent - Do Not be Fooled - Resist traitorous Donald Trump

Our Constitutional Republic is in danger due to this man. Trump is drawing closer and closer to invalidating our Founding Father’s experiment in self-government. He violated his oath of office and no one who can do anything about it in Congress or on his Cabinet is holding him accountable.
        Trump sided with Vladimir Putin against all of our intelligence gathering agencies filled with men and women who quietly defend this nation against foreign intrusion. Men and women who just want a president that has their back...not stabs them in it.
Trump does nothing to preserve, protect and defend the United States or the people who serve it.

That is not incompetence.

That is not ignorance.

THAT IS TREASON.

DON'T SUPPORT TRAITORS - BECAUSE THOSE WHO SUPPORT TRAITORS ARE THEMSELVES TRAITORS.

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

Stupidity - Trump and his twitter feeds

According to reporting from the Boston Globe, West Wing staffers say they intentionally insert grammatical errors into messages they draft for Trump's Twitter account, trying to mimic the president's peculiar style. Two staffers who talked with a Boston Globe reporter said Trump’s online voice at @realDonaldTrump, highlighted by his boorish language and broken syntax, “emphasizes his rejection of the elites” …and that helps him appeal to his low-information loyal base.

Stupid is as stupid does

While Trump appears to, with some embarrassment, delete earlier tweets that were originally posted with strange wording or child-like spelling errors — the most well-known is the bizarre "covfefe" tweet — he seems proud of the vast majority of them filled with capitalization of random words, quirky grammatical inaccuracies, and an overuse of exclamation points and ellipsis’. They all fall into a subterranean-level stratum that his predecessors stayed far away from. Prior presidents using Twitter and other social media strove to come across as intelligent, enlightened, thoughtful and appeared to be fully aware of the awesome and extraordinary responsibilities of the office of the president.

Trump does not.

British comedian and actor John Cleese nails it

          Nor does Trump attempt to appear presidential. As long as he appeals to his base at a simpleton’s level, with no understanding of governance, civic duty, or the dignity usually displayed by high office holders, they will support him. They think of him as the juvenile delinquent sitting in detention hall with them, and that makes Trump admirable. The Trump team likes to employ a strategy seen among other conservative trolls on Twitter: they intentionally screw up to, from their point of view, ‘own the liberals.’ They think if liberals - or educated people - point out the unprofessional, coarse, and childish nature of Trump’s tweets, it means those people have been ‘owned’ by Trump. He outwitted them by tweeting like a dolt. How exactly that is accomplished is never explained but it doesn’t matter so long as his base BELIEVES that’s what Trump has done. Style trumps substance. Fiction trumps fact.

The mind of Trump

Some White House staff members even take a perverse pleasure in the scoldings Trump gets from better-educated readers who are stunned by the Trumpian language the staffers have attempted to imitate, believing that debates over Trump’s grade school errors and typos fortify the belief in his base that he has the common touch. To put it bluntly, the base approves of his being an ignoramus…because it’s just like them.

Thoroughly Pathetic

So you have to be a dum-dum who likes misspelled words, overuse of exclamation points, random capitalization, broken syntax, and made up stories from the dum-dum who sits in the Oval Office claiming to be ‘presidential.’ And those dum-dums cheer on that kind of ignorance. They see it as an asset.

It makes sense that Trump and his team would be obvious about his lack of understanding and his appeal to the lowest expectations of his base. Since Trump’s presidential style, if you can call it that, revolves around grievance politics, he and his handlers like to metaphorically poke a stick in the eye of anyone with more than a fourth-grade education – you know, to put them in their place.

Trump Loves Stupidity

          Trump and his twitter enablers spend more energy inventing fractured posts complete with deliberately misspelled words and nonsensical capitalizations than working on a comprehensive strategy for dealing with North Korea. That would take real work, and as we have seen, Trump is allergic to real work. It cuts into his golf time.