Election 2017 - The End of the Trump Presidency

            

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

WikiLeaks, Trump, and the Deep State

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

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

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

Now they know how the rest of us feel.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Enemy of the People

In order to be a successful authoritarian, totalitarian, dictator, or whatever you want to call it, you must have an enemy. Someone or something you define as evil for your supporters to focus on. That way, no matter what happens or how badly things might go, you can deflect them back to the real problem, the enemy.

For Hitler, it was the Jews. They were “outsiders", "an alien race", and "degenerates”. He added to their demonization by tossing in that they were the brains and the money behind the rise of Communism. Two enemies now rolled into one. It was the Jews who were to blame for Germany’s defeat in World War One, for the “stab in the back” to the German Army while in battle - by their government back in Berlin that ended the war, and for robbing the German people since the Jews supposedly controlled the nation’s financial institutions. First, it was just small attacks on Jews; bullies beating them up, smashing shop windows, and mocking the Jewish people thanks to a compliant press. Then, laws were passed to restrict where the Jews could work, shop, and live, synagogues were destroyed, and Jewish businesses burned down. Then the Jews were rounded up…it was for their own good, of course, to protect them from righteously angry Germans, put into work camps or banned from universities, hospitals, and any government function. And finally, when war came, which was again blamed on the Jews who now had no power at all in Germany, a Final Solution. At least six million paid with their lives.

For Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, it was teachers, college students, intellectuals, people who owned small businesses, anyone who was educated or successful. After the fall of the capital Phnom Penh, they wasted no time rounding them all up, putting them in horrific re-education camps that became killing grounds. By small groups, so as not to arouse suspicion, those prisoners were then taken out and executed. At least 2 million people, a quarter of Cambodia’s population, were slaughtered in this manner. That happened in the 1970s. The Khmer Rouge was forced into western Cambodia by the 1979 invasion by Vietnam and did not completely die out until 1999. Cambodia has STILL not recovered from it.

For Donald Trump, it is the American free press.

In a tweet he sent twice on Friday, February 17, 2017, Trump called the media “The enemy of the American people”. He is setting up the press so that criminal acts against them will be justified. Remember how easy it was for Trump to encourage violence against protesters at his rallies? Reporters at several rallies have already stated they have been harassed, pushed, spat upon, screamed at, and Trump supporters pointing their fingers like a gun and firing at them.Think it will be very long before someone actually carries that out?
          On February 16th, Trump had his first solo press conference. By all accounts, it was a wild, mind-boggling, grievance-filled rant. He spent his time justifying his election win…four months after winning, belittling the press over and over, making up statistics, showing his crass, bigoted side, and giving evidence that he has no understanding of what uranium is, the effects of nuclear weapons, or how government works. Others thought it was great entertainment and really put the press in its place. Right-wing radio commentators Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity sang his praises on the air. The media got what it deserved. (The irony was lost on both of them that they are the media too. It will only take a small point for them to run afoul of Trump and they will not be spared anything the other media is now suffering.) Less than a half an hour after the press conference ended, Trump tweeted out that he wanted his supporters to know how dishonest the press really was and that they would not tell the American people the truth about his press conference - even though anyone watching TV or listening to the radio could hear it live with no filter. How is that dishonest? 

The “dishonest media”, “the failing press”, “the fake news” "part of the problem" and "part of the corrupt system" are phrases Trump is using in his initial demonization of those who have a First Amendment right to ask him questions. Unless you agree with Trump 100%, you are the enemy. Trump has never read what one of our greatest presidents had to say about the press. "The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. But I should mean that every man should receive those papers and be capable of reading them." -The words of Thomas Jefferson to Edward Carrington in 1787.
         There will now be physical threats toward the media and violence is the next logical step. Trump will also pursue new and unique methods through the courts to close down or severely curtail the free press. And his supporters will willingly give up much of their First Amendment rights without a whimper.

The Wall              The Muslim Ban            Unregulated oil and gas pollution

Trump means what he says. He will do the things he has threatened to do. He is not concerned with other people's happiness or well-being, not even his supporters. He is concerned only with his own and to a lesser degree his family's. If his billionaire friends can enrich themselves off the corpse of the American economy, that’s okay too. But the lesson of Michael Flynn should give anyone who works for him pause. If someone makes Trump look bad, even if Trump is the cause of it, they will be thrown under the bus…or overboard with weights tied to their legs.

Those of you who don’t take Trump's words and actions seriously, keep in mind, in 1932, few people in Germany seriously thought that Adolf Hitler would become their chancellor. And when he did win constitutionally the next year, they deluded themselves into thinking various branches of government would keep him reigned in. Sound familiar?

When Trump Advisor Stephen Miller went on nationally televised shows last Sunday, and in his best Joseph Goebbels impersonation, warned the viewers that Trump’s authority “will not be questioned”, you can clearly see where things are headed.

Knowing what you know now - if you were Jewish in Germany in 1935, what would you do? 
         In 2017, what should Americans do?

We Hold These Truths to be Self-Evident: The US respects no border but its own

            

          In a brazen early morning assault, a special commando unit from what appears to be the PLA slipped into Silicon Valley, destroying a computer business employing several political refugees from the People’s Republic of China, killed over a dozen civilians in the building including six Americans, kidnapped one Taiwanese scientist, and stole high-tech hardware before withdrawing. The U.S. Western Military Command seemed unaware as to how the Special Forces-type group got into the country, although survivors of the attack state two large helicopters were seen lifting off shortly after the raid. The area has been cordoned off by Military Police while Army intelligence officers and FBI agents sift through the debris from the attack. One officer confirmed that two survivors heard Chinese commands being given to the soldiers involved in the assault.  

         In an unrelated report, a large Chinese Jin-class submarine was sighted yesterday 15 miles off the coast of California near Ano Nuevo State Park.

         China’s foreign minister Wang Yi said the U.S. was resorting to “alternative facts” in order to pin the blame on China. He also added that his country had the right to defend itself against American imperialism and intimidation wherever it occurs, and charged the U.S. with cyber-invasions of the PRC and conducting its own state-sponsored terrorism.     

Chinese Jin-Class Type 094 submarine

            If the above account had actually happened, what would be your reaction? Alright, then when is it okay for the United States to conduct Team America: World Police-like invasions of foreign countries?

           On January 25, 2017, President Trump, with son-in-law Jared Kushner and Steve Bannon urging him on, joined by Mike Pence, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, Michael Flynn, and Gen. Joseph Dunford Jr. at an informal dinner approved sending Navy SEAL Team 6 into Yemen on Sunday, the 29th, with a mission to seize cell phones and laptop computers used by Al Qaeda operatives. As it turned out, virtually everything that could go wrong did after inept planning and a series of misjudgments ended with the elite unit pinned down in a withering 50-minute gun battle that also wounded at least three other members of the squad and destroyed a $75 million dollar Osprey aircraft. Wednesday night the Pentagon acknowledged that the mission also killed over 20 Yemeni civilians, including many children. The account from Al Qaeda’s branch in Yemen, confirm the death of the 8-year-old daughter of Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born Al Qaeda leader who was killed in a 2011 drone strike. Chief Petty Officer William Owens was killed in the raid, the first member of the military to die on Trump’s watch. Of course, Trump hailed his first counterterrorism operation a huge success, claiming the commandos captured “important intelligence that will assist the U.S. in preventing terrorism against its citizens and people around the world.” A statement by the military’s Central Command Wednesday night said that the recovered materials may provide some initial information helpful to counterterrorism analysts. But the statement did not provide details, and they declined to characterize any discussions with Mr. Trump prior to the mission.

I will not let George Bush or Barak Obama off the hook either because when in office they both ordered raids into sovereign nations, including Syria, Libya, and Pakistan. The U.S.routinely violates the airspace of nations all over the world with Reaper, Predator, and Global Hawk UAVs or drones as they are most commonly known. Hundreds of innocent people have been killed in missile strikes that our CIA and military blithely refer to as "collateral damage." In other words, their lives don't matter. Yet we are not at war with those people or with the nations where they live.

Who gave the U.S. permission to flaunt the rules of war? To treat other countries as though they were nothing more than our doormat? And to send U.S. combat troops into harm’s way when there is no declaration of war against those nations?
         Does China have the right to do the same thing to us? Does Russia? Does Mexico?

This raid was conducted under the authority of a man who avoided military service in the mid-1960s by claiming he had a bone spur in his foot and when asked in 2015 which foot, he stammered and then said “It’s in the records. You’ll look it up in the records.” I still vividly recall breaking my left hand playing football when I was 15, but Trump can’t remember which foot had such a painful bone spur that he was able to use it as a reason to stay out of the military? He is also on record as claiming those who are captured in wartime are not heroes. He likes "people who weren’t captured, okay", that his Military School background gave him better military training than men and women serving in Iraq and Afghanistan,  that “no one is better at the military” than he is, and – a slap in the face to all veterans - on the Howard Stern show in 1997, compared his sexual escapades of the 1980s to a war experience and made him “.feel like a great and very brave soldier.”

What if Owens had been captured instead of killed? What would have been Trump's response? 
         This is what happens when you don't read intelligence briefings.
         Remember him; Chief Petty Officer William Ryan Owens. He is just the first to die due to Trump’s bumbling, amateurish and dangerous mishandling of our military.

We've been Trumped

Huge talent on tap at the Trump Inauguration

It is strange why the Trump inaugural team is still searching for top-flight talent to book for his inauguration, especially at this late date.

They already claim they’ve gotten the best in the world: Toby Keith, 3 Doors Down, Jackie Evancho, (as of 01-17 Sam Moore of the '60s soul duo Sam & Dave)  the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the Rockettes. The only way that could be topped would be to have the USA Freedom Girls perform. They were such a big hit last year in Pensacola and Trump had so many nice things to say about them, why not ask them for a command performance at his swearing in ceremony?

            Oh sure the Freedom Girls manager/creator Jeff Popick reported that neither he nor the girls were compensated by the Trump team for the kid's stage show in Pensacola on January 13, 2016, reimbursed for travel or even allowed to set up a table at a couple of rallies to sell their CDs and merchandise. But anyone who’s followed Donald Trump very long knows this is not the first time Trump has purportedly stiffed people for services rendered. It’s a price one has to pay if they deal with Donald Trump.

            Mr. Popick did file a lawsuit against the Trump campaign in July 2016 and it looked like he’d get his day in a South Florida court…until Trump won the election. Then, discretion being the better part of valor, he dropped the lawsuit on December 20, 2016. But don’t worry; he didn’t do it out of fear or concern for himself or the well-being of the girls.  Just like former MI6 agent Christopher Steele didn’t go into hiding out of any fear or concern after his unsubstantiated report on Trump’s activities in Moscow in 2013 was released.

            So here is a golden opportunity for Trump to show how magnanimous he can be by putting those cute little pre-teen girls doing their weirdly North Korean propaganda-like singing and dancing routine on the national stage. They could even have all the Rockettes dress up in those American flag outfits to dance along behind the USA Freedom Girls. How much more A-list talent can you get than that?

            Don’t forget they aren’t having some obscure band performing at the pre-inaugural event Thursday night, either. It will be the B Street Band…YES…the B STREET BAND, a tribute act that copies the music of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band like you were listening to a record. See, Bruce Springsteen and his band refused to have anything to do with Donald Trump, so hey, if you can't get the Boss, get someone who can sound like him. No one will know the difference. (Update Jan 17, 2017 - Singer Will Forte now says the B Street Band WILL NOT play at the pre-inaugural event out of respect to Bruce Springsteen's decision. So those who hired them will instead have to just play Springsteen records and the B Street Band won't need to worry about a potential lawsuit if the Trump team had stiffed them.) The pre-inaugural event people could replace the B Street Band with Tiffany Trump by having her sing her pop song “Like a Bird” for the crowd. No stone has been left unturned and no expense has been spared to make sure only the cream-of-the-crop, the biggest, most hhhuuuggge talent would be front and center at this event.

 If all else fails put the artist everyone loves and respects, old Mr. Wang-Dang-Sweet-Poontang rocker Ted Nugent, on stage. Like Trump, the guy who recorded Cat Scratch Fever knows plenty about manhandling pussies. I just hope those little USA Freedom Girls aren't anywhere around.

Trouble with a capital T

One of the most memorable songs from the 1957 Broadway hit “The Music Man” was Ya Got Trouble. As performed by huckster “Professor” Harold Hill, he sings to the townspeople in Iowa “…well, ya got trouble, my friend, right here, I say, trouble right here in River City…”

Fast-forward 60 years. Take out River City and put in America.

And we have a new huckster. Instead of a con artist salesman named Hill, we have one named Trump. He’s not here to sing about a problem…he IS the problem.

We are in deep, deep, trouble.

We are facing an economic downturn in the coming months, maybe even just a few weeks. It would have happened no matter who won the election. Our capital-based economic system goes through high and low cycles on an average of every five to seven years. Our last low cycle was 2008-2010 when Wall Street financial institutions brought our economy to its knees. (Look up Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, and Bear Stearns for greater understanding.) The economy slowly recovered and has been on an up cycle since then, but no one learned any lessons. The corporations that brought the economy down did not make any changes, nor were virtually any CEOs or officials punished in any way. The next drop is coming soon; as sure as the sun will rise from the east. When it comes, our president-elect is going to be way out of his depth, as he is on many other issues. Yes, he is successful. Of that, there is no doubt. He is a successful marketer of himself…that’s it. That’s all. He cannot cure financial woes. He cannot stimulate the economy. He cannot generate wealth. He cannot guide or command the military-industrial-legislative complex of the shadow government that holds the real reins of power in this nation. He made dozens, if not hundreds, of economic promises while campaigning, even claiming at one point that regarding taxes and our economy, only he“…alone can fix it.” No, he can’t. He said those things for only one reason...to get elected. And he got elected simply to enrich himself and his billionaire cabinet member friends and donors. He was good at hiding that from his supporters. They would never have thought that possible beforehand.

His economic plan goes something like this: get all his uber-wealthy friends into high cabinet positions, and then let them do whatever they want to bring more money into their personal accounts…only now use the federal system to clear an even bigger path from all the financial opportunities around straight into their piggy banks. Then, jobs will just magically appear. At least Trump pitched a simplistic version of that to his voters. The people he is putting in his cabinet are almost all donors who gave him millions of dollars in campaign contributions…even though he claimed he didn’t want anyone else’s money because that way no one would own him. And to top it all off, remember that name Goldman Sachs from the paragraph above? Trump put at least three Goldman Sachs executives…the same guys who helped torpedo and sink the U.S. economy in 2008…on the federal payroll as cabinet members.

     Gary Cohn   -  Steve Mnuchin  - Steve Bannon  - All Goldman Sachs privateers (As of 01-18-17 Trump has now put six people from Goldman Sachs on the payroll.)

Our economy will suffer and then crumble...after being gutted.

Then, when Donald Trump can’t fix the economy, he will look for a distraction or someone to blame…an enemy…possibly Iran, maybe an African nation, but most likely China…and we will be in a war. Wars always help the economy because someone has to build the weapons. But they are disastrous for people.

First question: how stupid do you have to be to start a war with the country that provides the U.S. with 60% of its goods? 

Question Two: What kind of sense does it make to close the U.S. to Chinese exports, and what impact will that have on the Chinese economy? What will be the Chinese reaction? One thing is for certain, it will NOT bring them to the negotiating table.

Question three: Can the U.S. in any way make up the 60% loss from doing that? How?

Our military and CIA have been taunting and provoking the Chinese for more than a decade; sending Navy EP-3 reconnaissance aircraft to fly near disputed air space along China’s coast, where one was struck by a Chinese jet fighter on April 1, 2001, and the EP-3 had to crash-land on China’s Hainan Island. In August 2014 and again in May of 2015 Navy P-8 Poseidon surveillance aircraft deliberately overflew the newly-constructed Chinese developments in the Spratly Islands and our military has sent U.S. warships to patrol the area around them forcing a Chinese response. The Chinese reaction has been to send their J-8 and J-11 jet fighters buzzing around the reconnaissance aircraft sometimes approaching to within 20 feet, risking another collision. The Chinese have upped the ante by introducing their very first carrier Liaoning in the area which can launch the versatile Shenyang J-15 Flying Shark interceptors..

The U.S. Navy has released underwater drones around the South China Sea, supposedly for innocent oceanic research, without asking China if they would care to help in the exploration. Earlier in December, a Chinese warship stopped and grabbed one out of the water right in front of the U.S. ship and took off with it. They offered to give the drone back three days later...but Trump, who missed the security briefing on it, tweeted for the Chinese to keep it.
However, here is the real issue. Imagine if the Chinese navy released an underwater drone between Key West and Pensacola somewhere off the Florida coast? Might our military not see that as a hostile act or a provocation to war?

China will have to weigh just how much to make of these provocative acts, but the U.S. defense industry, the military, and the CIA will be hoping and even praying for a hostile response. Because then the demonization of China will begin. We in the U.S. and around the world will be sold a fake bill of goods contrived to make the Chinese (or whoever Trump and his handlers of the shadow government decides the enemy-du-jour is) look really evil and deserving of whatever military response is conjured up. But in this coming war, we’re not going to get a coalition to help us in that fight...you can bet Mexico will not help, nor will the UK, Canada, France, Germany, Russia, Iraq, Vietnam, Australia, or even Tuvalu. We'll be on our own.

Trump will push for war because he will be told it is a boon to the economy. People won’t matter to Trump in the numbers-crunching equation except as worker bees in the defense industries, or as cannon-fodder. Plus, a war will mask just how badly the economy has done under his plunder, I mean leadership. Only this time, that war will escalate and involve weapons that are going to cause immeasurable damage to our planet. Remember Trump asking why, if we have nuclear weapons, don’t we use them, and how he wouldn’t take the nuclear option off the table? This is why. Our enemies know that Donald Trump is extraordinarily thin-skinned and can easily be provoked on Twitter. How simple will it be for an unfriendly government to initiate some kind of a nuclear response from Trump by baiting him with a fake news story or insulting tweet that appears to come from a country the American public has been told is the enemy? Any nuclear-armed countries Trump orders attacked are going to retaliate tenfold. 
Trump is okay with that because as long as he, his family, and a few friends are safely hidden away somewhere from the nuclear exchange he initiates, the rest of us can go to hell.

And speaking of hell, don’t be surprised when evangelicals encourage the war. They desperately want Jesus to come roaring out of the sky and launch Armageddon. It doesn't even matter to the evangelicals that most of them will be incinerated in a nuclear war.They truly believe Jesus will whisk them off the planet moments before Trump brings on what they have long interpreted in the Bible's Revelations. This is why they supported electing him, not because he showed any Christian qualities but because he would force God’s hand and initiate the End Times ™

We got trouble with a capital T and it stands for Trump.

IF WE SURVIVE...

It Ain't Trump, Babe

We’ve got less than 5 weeks to go until Donald J. Trump becomes the 45^th president of the United States and we all need to get used to a fact we’ll confront over and over for the next four years. When things go wrong, Donald Trump will not be responsible for anything.

His excuses are already being written, pundits and apologists are being prepped to offer “he didn’t do it, and if he did, he shouldn’t be held accountable” explanations, the guilty parties are already being lined up to take the blame for whatever mistakes are made, the closets are already being stuffed with videos, movies and social media content exonerating the president, Trump-friendly writers in the U.S. and Russia are already preparing drafts of stories justifying why whatever goes wrong is not Donald Trump’s fault. Don’t expect Trump to own up to ANYTHING, unless, by accident, something goes right. Then he will jump to the head of the parade and tell us all how only HE could have done it.

President Harry Truman was famous for the sign on his desk that read “The Buck Stops Here”. All the finger-pointing, hand-wringing, and assignment of guilt ended at Harry’s desk. He accepted responsibility because he believed the buck did stop with him. But president Trump is going to rip off the '60s rock band The Turtles because his motto is going to be “It Ain’t Me, Babe”.

Donald Trump will not be to blame for the missed signals from not attending security briefings, the coming conflict with China, the loss of NATO power to Russia, for even more damaging cyber-security breaches by foreign powers, about an economy that goes into a tailspin, about further damage to our water and air due to fracking, oil spills, gas explosions and ecological disasters from relaxing or removing environmental regulations, for the continued loss of jobs to automation and U.S. companies looking for cheaper labor outside our borders, for his wealthy buddies raking in even more cash at the expense of the very people that got Trump elected, at the continued erosion of American prestige around the world, at the worsening of relations between races, at the increased hostility of Islamic countries, at the exponential spread of hoaxes and fake news, and the massive increase in sexual assault from variations of pussy-grabbing incidents.

Americans used to joke about Ronald Reagan being a Teflon president because he made innumerable inaccurate statements yet the stigma of doing so did not stick to him. He was never held accountable for his missteps, fibs, and callous comments. But Reagan pales to amateur status compared to Trump. Donald Trump made numerous bigoted comments, threatening remarks, and malicious proclamations as a candidate. At some point, those will be acted on, but Trump will not hold himself accountable for inflaming the situation. Whatever happens will be someone else’s fault, not his. Bank on it.

President Trump will never own up to making a poor or disastrous decision. He will never be responsible for the divisiveness he created while campaigning. Any new story will be automatically dismissed because it’s from the “dishonest press,” And Trump’s supporters will never believe he is guilty of doing anything unconstitutional, unethical or corrupt no matter what it is. Even if it is proven that Trump was the cause or the instigator of something that harms our nation…he will simply tweet “It ain’t me, Babe”...and he will be cheered by his base for squarely confronting his accusers and for his “honesty”.

To the American Electorate: "KISS MY ASS!"

Trump’s denial of responsibility will be what one would expect only from a corrupt third world dictatorship. But when you campaign and tell voters you are the best or the greatest at everything, you leave no room to admit you might be wrong.
Time to send in the clowns....Oh, don't bother, he's here.

Jon Stewart discovered his real name is Fuckface Von Clownstick