In Trump's America - Who Needs that Pesky First Amendment?

Apparently, free speech in America is only that which is approved by Donald Trump. Trump thinks people should be punished and even deported for showing a "lack of patriotism" by refusing to do something that has always been voluntary in our country regarding the flag. Where was all of Trump’s patriotism when he invented that bone spur in his foot to avoid military service during the fighting in Vietnam? Shouldn’t that be a punishable or deporting offense? How about it, Trump?

When the First Amendment was adopted in 1791, our Founding Father’s apparently needed to include “This article is not subject to re-interpretation by any future president or official” to protect coming generations from the whims of some dictator who managed to attain the White House. One of its provisions was to allow unpopular views to be spoken or written…like, say, when writers in the mid-1700s vented about King George III or British actions. The writers and speakers were to be allowed and encouraged to disagree with mainstream thought so public debate could determine what course of action was best for the colonies. That’s why we had people arguing in favor of, and against, the British. It’s why we allowed many different religious practices (although hindsight has shown that the tolerance was primarily limited to Christian-style religions). It’s why newspapers were not subject to censorship by the government. It protects you from the government punishing or censoring or oppressing your speech. Symbolic speech is protected by the constitution, too. Simply put, you have the right to not speak. You have the right to silence. So if you were to be fined or punished by your employer for not standing during the national anthem, that’s a major First Amendment issue. But now, Trump has redefined what that amendment really means. Stand, or get out of the country.

Here we are trying to contend with major issues around the nation and the world, including powerful hurricanes, earthquakes, erupting volcanoes, unprecedented flooding, rising sectarian violence, record droughts, suicide bombings, health care, tax reform, and threats of nuclear war (thanks to our president acting like a third grader taunting the second grade bully in North Korea, and then unzipping his pants and flipping out his tiny member at Iran to taunt them as well)...and what does Trump want to address? He decides to escalate a non-issue by attacking the NFL, calling on fans to boycott NFL games until players who refuse to stand for the national anthem are suspended or cut from the team.

So which is it...do fans stop going to games, or are the team owners supposed to fire the players? 

On ABC TV’s “This Week,” Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin defended Trump’s attack on NFL players. “You know, the NFL has all different types of rules.You can’t have stickers on your helmet. You have to have your jerseys tucked in. I think what the president is saying (Mnuchin doesn't really know, he just made this up on the spot) is that the owners should have a rule that players should have to stand in respect for the national anthem. This isn’t about Democrats, it’s not about Republicans, it’s not about race, it’s not about free speech. They can do free speech on their own time.”

Mnuchin (who never served in the military or as a first responder) needs a thorough lesson on the creation of the First Amendment. He makes the same mistake so many others do about the intent of the amendment - and what the NFL players kneeling represents - by erroneously claiming “This is about respect for the military and so many people who put their lives at risk and what the country stands for, and the owners should meet and they should decide on this rule the way they decide on any other rule.”

Incredulous, ABC’s Martha Raddatz immediately asked: “Is it not about their first amendment rights? Is it not about the first amendment?”

“No, it’s not,” Mnuchin replied. “They have the right to have the first amendment off the field.”

Free speech is only to be enjoyed in private, on your own time, away from everyone and everything. So voluntary standing, voluntary putting a hand over your heart, voluntary singing of the anthem is no longer acceptable. Now it must be coerced and if the NFL players don’t like it, they should be penalized or thrown out of work - or out of the country.

When former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick initially knelt rather than stand at games in 2016, He was NOT disrespecting the flag, the military, or our nation. He was protesting racial injustice and police brutality. That’s all.  He recognized the U.S. as his country too and he knew his First Amendment rights. In his display, he was calling attention to the increase in the number of police shootings of unarmed blacks as well as more overt discrimination against non-whites - yet there seemed to be no concern for it by government officials. There's even less under the Trump administration.

Thanks to Trump’s ignorant tweet and Mnuchin’s failure to understand what was the intent of the First Amendment, protest events and comments were commonplace at NFL games this weekend. At the day’s very first contest, a London showdown between the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Baltimore Ravens, more than two dozen players knelt, as did Ravens owner Ray Lewis. Jaguars’ owner Shad Khan, who had been a Trump supporter, locked arms with his team in a show of unity. So did Ravens coach John Harbaugh. Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers posted a photo on Instagram of him kneeling with several of his teammates. The Pittsburgh Steelers sidestepped the anthem entirely by staying in their locker room to demonstrate unity. (Only Alejandro Villanueva broke with them and went out to stand on the field.) LA Rams owner Stan Kroenke, a Trump supporter, released a statement affirming the players’ “freedom to peacefully express themselves”  as did the Tampa Bay Buccaneers owner. Over half of the Denver Broncos kneeled on the sideline at their game while numerous members of the New Orleans Saints remained sitting. The Houston Texans locked arms in a show of unity...the New York Giants locked arms too as several players took a knee. Yes, there were boos from the stands, but that is the fan’s First Amendment right. No one said they can’t do it because it might offend someone.

What Trump is calling for is a new interpretation of the First Amendment. If you live or work in the U.S., you must stand when the national anthem is played. You must stand and face the flag. You must show respect no matter what. And only Trump gets to interpret what “respect” means. When just one man gets that kind of power, it’s called a dictatorship.

So what the hell have we become?

Doomsday...AGAIN!

In September 2015 I posted an End-of-the-World blog at this link: http://warnepiece.blogspot.com/2015/09/end-of-world-september-23-2015.html. It was about Christians saying God has had enough, the end was nigh, and all the proof was pointing to September 23, 2015. They claimed that innumerable cosmic events, news stories, and weather-related phenomenon were the key. But when September 23^rd came to pass the believers were left stunned.

Turns out they just got the last digit wrong; it was supposed to be September 23, 2017. Now we have something to look forward to.

 “We’ll all die then” according to David Meade, author of Planet X: the 2017 Arrival “by the collision with death planet Nibiru which is going to kill us all. It’s written in both the Bible and the Pyramids.” Meade says, ‘It is very strange that Revelations 12 and the Great Pyramid of Giza both point to one precise moment in time – September 20 to 23, 2017.”  Yes…sometime between 12:00 AM September 20^th up to midnight on September 23^rd. How’s that for precision?

To back Meade up, from the website The Catholic Astronomer, comes this: “A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of 12 stars. She was with child and wailed aloud in pain as she labored to give birth … She gave birth to a son, a male child, destined to rule all the nations with an iron rod.” On September 23, 2017, the sun will be in the zodiac constellation Virgo — “a woman clothed with the sun”. The moon will be at the feet of Virgo — “with the moon under her feet”. The ‘nine’ stars of the zodiac constellation Leo, plus three planets (Mercury, Venus, and Mars), will be at the head of Virgo — “on her head a crown of 12 stars”. The planet Jupiter will be in the center of Virgo, and, as the weeks pass after September 23, Jupiter will exit Virgo to the east, past her feet, so to speak — “She was with child and wailed aloud in pain as she labored to give birth”. Jupiter is the largest of the planets, the “king” of the planets, so to speak — “She gave birth to a son, a male child, destined to rule all the nations with an iron rod”. 
Astrological boogah-boogah should convince everybody!

          Then we have self-professed seer Pamela Banda who wrote in a blog on August 29, 2016, that she saw a vision of Houston the previous May. In it, she said that two floods and two storms would hit the city. Harvey did it starting on August 25, 2017, and Hurricane Katia is forming up in the southern Gulf of Mexico, churning northward as of September 8th. However, Ms. Banda gave no indication of the date this would happen after she had her “vision.” It’s her followers and those who subscribe to her nonsense that came up with the date…right now, they say. Harvey and Katia are the proof. How do we know Ms. Banda is right? Because she said “Since I was a little girl, I have had dreams and visions, so seeing things is not new for me, but hearing words from the Lord is. I first started hearing words from Him in 2011.” Yep, until then, God couldn't be bothered with telling Pamela anything.

But maybe those aren’t the only signs that Yahweh, Jehovah, Allah, or Elohim have sent to prove he means it this time. For example, doomsayers claim…

…the solar eclipse that was visible across a broad swath of the US on August 21st was a sign…because the Supreme Being can only let us know of his presence by normal celestial events over the United States. Christian websites claim it was proof of God’s coming judgment. (Hey, thanks for nailing that down for us!)

              By the massive 8.1 earthquake along the Mexican Pacific coast on September 7^th, that killed at least 90 people. It produced strange and eerie bluish-green flashes in the skies offshore as the tremors rocked…literally…western Mexico. End times interpreters were having a field day claiming the lights were another sign of God’s presence.

             The gargantuan solar flares on the sun the past few days…the size of which has never been recorded. Active Region 2673 (AR 2673), seen in the short clip above, blasted out another solar flare early on the morning of Sept. 8th, its sixth intense burst of high-energy radiation since Monday, Sept. 4th. Two of the six recent flares from AR 2673 were X-class — including Wednesday the 6th's monster X9.3, which was the most powerful solar flare since 2005.

             The approaching giant Hurricane Irma that has leveled several small Caribbean island nations including Puerto Rico, and is now heading for Florida. It has Hurricane Jose following in its wake.

             The huge wildfires that have burned hundreds of thousands of acres in the states of California, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, and Montana. They are the worst fires in more than a decade.

So, some God is mad...and rather than show himself or provide concrete evidence of what is the reason is for all this…that Being thought it would be more impressive to continue hiding but use naturally occurring events - just on a bigger, broader scale - to prove His existence. That way, there’d be no doubt who or what we’re dealing with.

And through it all, climate expert Rush Limbaugh, who has a Ph.D. in Meteorology from Trump University, says the global climate change appearing in real time by trendsetting hurricanes, is a liberal hoax that’s being used to advance a socialist agenda, sell products, and whip up negative press toward President Trump. Yet, ironically, even though hurricanes are a liberal hoax, he’s not willing to put his money where his mouth is and stay put in West Palm Beach. No. He headed for the exits so he doesn’t have to face that gigantic bag of hot air bearing down on the state.

          As I stated last time, when September 23^rd comes and goes and the end of the world hasn’t happened, it will just strengthen the Christian and Doomsday proponent’s beliefs…and we’ll be off to the races toward the next end of the world prediction.

          Count on it.

(Update September 27, 2017 - Author David Meade has now clarified that Sept. 23rd was the date of a “historical event” in the skies that would signal the oncoming rapture. He claims it DID happen. It just wasn't Planet X or Nibiru slamming into Earth. But he says doomsday itself will begin on October 15th...or October 21st...or maybe even later. It's fascinating how "precise" Meade's predictions are. And you know you can trust him...because he's gotten it wrong three time in a row now. How did he forget to mention any of this post-Sept.23rd information in his original doomsday prophecy?)

Trump Threatens to Unleash a Nuclear War - After all, why else do we have nuclear weapons?

“President Fire and fury” Donald Trump is still in office because he thinks he has support from the Republicans, the very party most of his own supporters hate almost as much as they hate liberals and Democrats. Those supporters consider the GOP a “do nothing” party. After all, it’s a party that only has a 24% approval rating. The GOP is part of the swamp Trump was supposed to drain, a party that only looks out for its own self-interests, only helps big business, only passes tax cut legislation to aid the richest people…etc.

But why do these Trump supporters continue to cling to Trump? Why do they still support him? Apart from lying incessantly to them, he has done nothing for them. He has passed no legislation that helps them. He has saved no jobs or gotten jobs returned from overseas. He hasn’t built the useless southern border wall. He hasn’t repealed the ACA. He has his own state-run TV news on his Facebook page to spread Trump-approved propaganda, but it doesn’t appear to be changing anyone’s mind. So what do Trump’s supporters see in a Trump presidency? Are they going to jump up and down and cheer when Trump orders our military into action in a backwater, out-of-the-way, piss-ant little country like North Korea? Place your money on it. The whole “North Korea is a rogue state and deserves our wrath” is a smoke screen. Trump is hiding something else. But his supporters will say it shows he’s a strong, tough man that won’t blink before Kim Jong Un.

Trump is going to get us into a war…a war that will involve nuclear weapons. Trump doesn’t understand nuclear weapons. He thinks of them as “well if they are in our arsenal, then we must use them like they are aircraft carriers, armored vehicles, or bombers.” That’s as deep as Trump has thought about the issue. He did not study the Second World War. He does not understand the use of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He knows nothing about our nuclear triad. He only knows he has the power to launch them and soon he will find a reason or will be provoked or goaded into using them.
           Since the 1950s the Kims have been trying to stay in the public eye. They refused to sign a treaty ending the Korean War. They have been launching missiles of one sort or another since 1988 when Reagan was in office. They developed a nuclear weapon in 2006 when Bush was in charge so Obama cannot be blamed for this. The current threat is nothing new from the North Koreans. Even our latest satellite reconnaissance photographs of North Korea show no preparation for war. South Korean intelligence has indicated there have been no changes made anywhere along the border. It’s the same thing North Korea has done since the 1950s, make meaningless gestures while blowing off hot air. But this is the first time they’ve dealt with Trump and Trump knows nothing about North Korea or how to react so he thinks putting on his tough guy act is the correct course.

On July 31^st  Trump said he wasn’t worried about a possible nuclear threat. “We’ll handle North Korea,” Trump told assembled reporters “We’re going to be able to handle them. It will be handled.” The president offered no specifics about how he would “handle” North Korea. It seems he has no game plan and thinks that if he says “handled” three times it will solve the issue as if it’s Beetlejuice.

On August 5^th National Security Adviser H. R. McMaster ratcheted up the heat by saying “The United States is preparing for all options to counter the growing threat from North Korea, including launching a “preventive war. It’s impossible to overstate the danger associated with a rogue, brutal regime." How ironic that McMaster could also be talking about the Trump regime.,

On August 7^th, from his Bedminster Golf Club, Trump threatened to unleash “fire and fury” against North Korea if it continues to threaten the US as tensions grow. The White House and Defense Dept. are caught completely off guard by Trump’s comments and so far have not issued clarifying statements, just support for Trump's bombastic idiocy.

And then, as Trump does repeatedly because he is a complete amateur or nitwit, on August 8^th he gives away more classified information when he tweeted out a link to a Fox News report about North Korea that contained what U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley said was confidential information regarding North Korea mounting anti-ship missiles onto their patrol boats.

Our military forces are already fighting in Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Somalia, the Philippines, and naval forces are ready to strike off the coast of Iran, in the South China Sea against China, and our navy and air force reconnaissance aircraft are being challenged repeatedly over the Black Sea by the Russians. How many hair-triggers do we need? Now Trump wants to add the volatile North Koreans to the mix.

Will General Mattis (known colloquially as “Mad Dog”) challenge Trump not to launch nuclear weapons? He is the one who used the Massive Ordinance Air Blast bomb in Afghanistan for no apparent reason, and Trump approved it after the fact. Will General H. R. McMaster? Will new Chief of Staff Kelly? Will NSA Director Admiral Rogers? Will Director of Intelligence Dan Coats? Or even CIA director Pompeo? These men are all sycophants who have pledged their loyalty to Trump…not to the country or to the Constitution…but to Trump. Therein lies our problem, as if Trump’s lying isn’t enough. These men are confusing loyalty to Trump with loyalty to the country and its Constitution. Those could not be more different. And that misguided loyalty will get us into a war “the likes of which the world has never seen” to use Trump’s own words.

Trump supporters need to come to the realization that Trump will get them - and/or their sons and daughters - killed in a war he’ll launch strictly to stroke his ego. He’ll blame it on the North Koreans as though he alone finally has to do something about them obtaining nuclear weapons. But we didn’t launch a war to stop the Soviet Union from obtaining theirs…or China...or India...or Pakistan...or South Africa...or Israel...or anyone else.

Keep Trump away from the nuclear codes. Resist this man. Fight this man, Remove this man from office. Our future as a species depends on it.

Enough Pandering to the Handicapped, Too.

        

         It’s about time. We’ve been indulging another minority for a few decades and thanks to Trump it should now stop too.

A new era [actually an old era, but one that Trump and his supporters remember fondly] is here. We have returned to a time of rugged individualism, of pulling ourselves up by our own bootstraps and learning to live without the government doing anything for us…a time when whiners, crybabies, and the disabled weren’t tolerated. They were rightly shunned. What do the namby-pamby, sniveling fuss buckets, and the disabled give back to society? Nothing. They just take, take, and take. And the American taxpayer has to foot the bill as well as put up with their bitching about equal opportunity. Not in Trump's America. All that has changed.

President Trump has courageously tweeted that transgender people can no longer serve in our military…because of the cost and the disruption…which doesn’t actually exist, but why let facts get in the way…so now it’s time to address the cost and disruption of handicapped ramps, handicapped stalls, and handicapped parking spaces. Handicapped people make up a small portion of our population, maybe even less than the transgender population, so why do we have to use our tax dollars to appease them?

          If we don’t need those 15,000 or so transgenders serving and defending the country, then we sure as hell don’t need to accommodate people in a wheelchair or have some disability where they think they should get special treatment. Maybe those transgender servicemen and women are performing a valuable service, but Trump has made it abundantly clear he doesn’t want their service. So what are the wheelchair-bound and other handicapped people providing? Short answer, it's not any recognizable service…it's obstruction, excessive use of parking and bathroom space, a drain on the economy, and causing others the discomfort of having to see them in public. That's just for starters. We don't want their 'service' either. If Trump can ban transgenders, he can ban these mooches too.

When the wheelchair-bound and disabled are out in public and need a bathroom, they’ll have to use it like everyone else. (Stop and think about it. What did the disabled do 50 years ago? Well, just do that again and stop whining to the government to make things easier for you!) Or just stay home and do your business. By banning transgenders, Trump is saying he wants to make the country great again where you didn't have to see them, so it’s a logical step toward not having to see the handicapped either. Make America Great Again by not making us uncomfortable. Trump is indicating that if it makes us uncomfortable, then it needs to go. Besides, it’s healthier and builds character if we use the stairs rather than a wheelchair ramp anyway. Only about 10% of the population needs them. Why should the other 90% have to be inconvenienced?

If you catch a handicapped person whining about their disability, you know what to do. That’s another way to make America great again.

Unless you, unfortunately, happen to develop a bone spur in your foot...or just make up that disability Then the system needs to be restructured to your wants, needs, and desires, especially if it helps to avoid military service. But…and this is a very important but…this only applies to an extraordinary man. A man who was born into a wealthy family and had been given everything by his father in order to make millions of dollars, who then goes bankrupt four times, loses three casinos, is sued over 360 times by the people he has cheated in business - or because he set up a phony university or something like that, is repeatedly unfaithful to and divorces his first two wives and marries a third (who within two months the man is bragging on an Access Hollywood bus that he might cheat on her and boasts about grabbing other women by the pussy). That kind of man deserves respect, deference, sympathy, loyalty….and is entirely above reproach.

After all, he set the bar on how much respect these disabled people deserve.

Trump Finally Chalks Up a Victory - He Saved a Hat

What a courageous, unprecedented and outstanding service Trump has provided the nation. On Saturday Trump retrieved a Marine's hat after it was blown off his head by a gust of wind. It's something any 5-year old would do but naturally with the bar set so low for Trump, conservatives are celebrating and treating it like Trump just won the World Series. 

A jackass trifecta

Sarah Palin tweeted “Thank you President Trump.” Former game show host Chuck Woolery added his two cents with “NOT AT ALL SURPRISED IT’S WHO HE IS…” in all CAPS no less - so we know how proud he is of Trump's hat rescue.  In case Chuck Woolery forgot, this is ALSO who Trump is...

Trump leaves Melania to fend for herself when they meet the Obamas at the White House on inauguration day.

        Fox News used the hat incident to blast Obama because at a rainy Rose Garden news conference in 2013 (yes, they had to dig back through 4 years of video) Obama’s umbrella was being held by his Marine guard, rather than Obama holding it. So Trump was praised for rescuing a Marine’s cover while Obama is chastised for rudely allowing a Marine to do what he was supposed to be doing when the Commander-in-Chief is speaking in the rain. (How dare Obama allow the president's Marine Escort to do exactly what they are supposed to be doing?) This is worthy of scorn, but if your name is Trump and you bend down to get a hat, that's presidential.

Obama thanks the Marine for holding the umbrella - how unethical is that?

A Virginia Wesleyan University student wrote about the hat pickup “It shows respect and it goes a long way when it's a president showing respect.” How about all the respect Trump showed our intelligence services over the past year, even comparing them to Nazis just a week prior to his inauguration? Or the respect he showed CPO William Ryan Owens when Trump ordered his SEAL Team 6 into Yemen on January 28^th which caused the death of Owens and Trump couldn’t even bother to be in the situation room while the mission was underway? Did Trump show any of that respect when he invented his “bone spur in the foot” excuse to get out of military service in the late 1960s? 

Trump's official "Medal of Honor" photograph.

The video of Trump went viral on Saturday at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland as Trump was boarding a helicopter to return to the White House. Walking along the tarmac, a Marine's hat flew into the air, prompting Trump to grab the hat, pick it up, and place it back on the Marine's head. Trump then patted the Marine's arm like he was a good dog. But the deed was short-lived. Moments later, the hat is seen once again flying into the air, sending Trump after it for a second time. This time Trump gave it to another official and then boarded the helicopter.

The second time Trump just picks it up and hands it to someone else.

             Is picking up a Marine's cover somehow akin to moral purity or upstanding citizenship? Does this compensate for his grabbing women by the genitals? Is this how the conservatives offset Trump’s less-than-stellar G-20 European visit? Will it cause Kim Jong Un to re-think developing a North Korean nuclear ICBM? Does it equate to passing meaningful legislation or coming up with health care to benefit all Americans? Does it trump (pun intended) months and months of Russian-collusion-denial that his son Jr. just admitted to on Tuesday? 

             Like father, like son...a lie is a perfect band-aid.

              So a hat flies off - 'predisent' Trump picks it up and returns it. Most children do that. When you have nothing better to rally around, picking up a wind-blown hat must be as good as conservatives can hope for to show how Trump is Making America Great Again.

               Or you could say it is exactly two letters and a period too long.

A Farewell to the American Experiment - How it was lost

After listening to the testimony, or more accurately, the lack thereof, from Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, Assistant AG Rod Rosenstein, NSA Director Mike Rogers and National Intelligence Director Dan Coats on Wednesday, June 7^th, there is an unwitting, unprecedented, and unnerving thread implied from their non-answers. And that is; they don’t have to account for anything. They don’t have to explain anything. Even though there is no “executive privilege” that prevents them from answering the oversight committee’s questions, they tacitly told the American people “Go screw yourselves. We don’t work for you. We work for the guy in the White House, and anything to do with Russia is none of your damned business." So they give the impression they owe no allegiance to anyone…except for Trump. They must protect Trump at all costs. Why?

From now on, it's Trump first.

At this point, with a lack of any concrete information or even any useful tidbits, one must extrapolate the reason for those refusals from what we do know. Here is the rundown on Trump and his associates’ inexplicable actions, false statements involving the Russians, and Russian efforts to subvert our election:

·        Mike Flynn is fired after lying about his discussions with Sergey Kislyak about sanctions against Russia. He also was paid $43,000 by Russia Today TV in spring 2016 for a speaking engagement in Moscow and is seated right next to Putin, even leading the standing ovation for Putin. He conveniently forgot to mention that when vetted. Trump still defends him.

·        Jeff Sessions lied to Congress during his Senate confirmation hearings to become Attorney General about his two, and now possibly three, unreported meetings with Kislyak before the election. He just forgot about those meetings.

·        Jared Kushner fails to mention a dozen secret meetings with Kislyak on his high-security clearance SF86 form, as well as with sanctioned Russian bank president and KGB college graduate Sergey Gorkov in November and December 2016. Kushner's lawyers claim he just forgot. He even went to extraordinary lengths in December to establish a secret line of communication between the Trump administration and Russia, using secure facilities at the Russian Embassy.

·        Roger Stone, who admits contacting Guccifer 2.0, identified by US and European intelligence agencies as the go-between to the Russian military’s GRU and WikiLeaks, and aided in the release of the DNC hacked emails. He says there's nothing wrong with that.

·        Carter Page, identified by Trump as a key member of his foreign policy team who was discovered in transcripts between Russian intelligence agents as an unwitting dupe for them, admits on MSNBC that he met with Kislyak during the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Trump claims he barely knows Page.

·        Paul Manafort, who made millions helping pro-Russian Ukrainian officials for almost 10 years, and who was instrumental in having the only item changed in the Republican platform at the Convention - denying aid to Ukrainian forces fighting the Russians - is made Trump's campaign chairman and appears with him on stage at many rallies. Trump later claims he hardly knows him.

·        Rex Tillerson, former head of Exxon/Mobil who personally received the Russian's highest civilian award, the Order of Friendship medal from Vladimir Putin, and who was working on a $500 billion oil deal in the Arctic above Siberia until the Obama sanctions against Russia for taking Crimea away from Ukraine stops it, is made Secretary of State by Trump. Until December 6, 2016, Trump had never met or talked with Tillerson at all. Why did he choose Tillerson?

·        The Congressional investigation into Russian meddling in the election has expanded to include Michael Cohen, personal attorney and close confidant to Trump. Cohen told ABC News that House and Senate investigators have requested “information and testimony” about any contacts he had with Russians officials.

·        When Trump held his very first foreign policy speech April 27, 2016, at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington DC, unbidden, he went up to Sergey Kislyak and greeted him warmly, indicating he had met him previously. He greeted no other ambassador in that manner. Also in attendance, Jeff Sessions.

In just the last month alone, there are these additional Russia-related items:

May 9, 2017, Trump fires FBI Director James Comey. Trump goes on TV later that week and tells Lester Holt of NBC News that he fired him because of “this Russia thing.” It is then revealed he brags to Ambassador Kislyak and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov who meet with him in the Oval Office that Comey is “a real nut job” and “I faced great pressure because of Russia. That’s taken off.”
             May 18, 2017, it is revealed by former CIA Director John Brennan that Trump’s advisers, including Michael Flynn, contacted Russian officials at least 18 times in phone calls and emails between April and November 2016.

May 22, 2017, it is reported that Trump called Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and NSA Director Michael Rogers to request that they deny in public any evidence of collusion between his campaign and the Russian government during the 2016 election.

May 31, 2017, President Vladimir Putin acknowledges that some “patriotic” Russian individuals may have engaged in hacking but insisted Russia as a country has never done it.

June 1, 2017, the Wall Street Journal reports that from the earliest days of the Trump administration, they attempted to have the State Dept. lift sanctions against Russia. These are the very sanctions put in place from Russian tampering with our election. The White House does not deny it.

June 5, 2017, an NSA report, dated May 5, is leaked to Intercept, an online news site, by Reality Winner, an NSA contractor in Georgia, who is then arrested by the FBI. The report provides details of a 2016 Russian military intelligence cyberattack on a US voting software supplier. A US official confirmed to CNN that The Intercept's document is a genuine, classified NSA document. The FBI does not arrest people for releasing fake documents, only real ones.

June 9, 2017, the Trump administration says they are considering easing some punishments the Obama administration levied against Russia for election interference abuses, even returning two compounds that were closed in December because they were being used by Russian intelligence. The Trump administration asks for nothing in return.

You notice these instances never involve the Brazilians, the North Koreans, or the ambassador from Sri Lanka. It is always the Russians. Always. But hey, maybe they are ALL just coincidences.

It appears the Russians hold some kind of sway or power over Trump, something so damaging, that our highest intelligence and law enforcement officials; Rogers, Coats, Rosenstein, and McCabe, are willing to cover up for and protect Trump. They refused to answer any questions in any way, even so far as refusing to just answer yes or no to simple procedural questions about the investigation or what Trump asked of them. These are our TOP INTELLIGENCE PEOPLE. The people who were overseeing our security and matters related to intelligence gathering for the US. Yet on their watch, our election was hacked…even Trump admitted it at his first post-election press conference on December 11th.

Two of our most incompetent "intelligence" officers - McCabe (L) and Rogers (R)

McCabe and Rogers failed at their one and only job at the time. They failed to prevent Russian hacking of US computers - and that most likely aided Trump. Trump publicly asked the Russians to do it so why does he still insist the whole Russian hacking story is fake news? It is more and more likely that the Christopher Steele dossier is valid and fully factual. What must the Russians have on Trump that our intelligence and justice officials are willing to risk their integrity, their public perception and their loyalty to this country? How harmful must this information be? It appears if this information was revealed, it would be so damaging that our Constitutional Republic would be brought to an end. Is it the alleged hookers and pee tape? Is it the billions of dollars Trump owes to Russian-controlled banks? So much money that it could cause massive damage to the US economy now that Trump is president? Are there illegal deals the Russians can prove that Trump is involved in, like money laundering through the Bank of Cyprus, where our new Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross Jr. was Vice President?  

The subterfuge and “shiny metal object” distractions Trump’s surrogates throw up is reminiscent to what was palmed off on Americans immediately after the assassination of JFK. What had happened in Dallas was initially considered so potentially detrimental that a lie had to be created to prevent the US from launching a war against the Soviet Union - a war that would leave at least 100 million people (40 million of which would have been American) dead from a nuclear exchange. This is what Lyndon Johnson used as leverage against Earl Warren to force him to form the committee to gather information on the assassination but find Oswald guilty at all costs. Americans must be deflected from thinking the Soviets were in any way involved. So it seemed strange that the Dallas Police immediately began saying Oswald was a communist. (He wasn’t, he was a Marxist.) And the FBI revealed they knew of his ties to Russia as he had just returned from defecting to the Soviet Union. But the Warren Commission whitewashed everything down to claiming that while Oswald was a communist sympathizer, he was a lone nut who just wanted his place in the sun, so he killed Kennedy but wouldn’t admit to it. Two days later Jack Ruby just happened to be in the right place at the right time to silence him. See, it’s all just coincidence.

One further point that needs to be made. Trump’s lawyer, Marc Kasowitz was the lead attorney for the Russian state-owned bank sanctioned by the US - and that same bank’s CEO is the one who met with Jared Kushner during and after the campaign that Jared failed to disclose on his security clearance application. Defending Russia's illegal activities and Trump and his family's treasonous actions seem to be Kasowitz’ only business.

Throughout all this, Trump has downplayed Russian tampering while exhibiting diminished mental acuity, moral ineptitude, complete fabrications, vicious acrimony, and a disdain for common decency. Yet his supporters and intelligence officers like McCabe and Rogers don’t give a damn about it. Russia can meddle anytime they like. Our highest ranking intelligence people condone the interference and give Trump a pass on it. This is now just the way the presidency works. It's the end of our Constitutional Republic.

If this goes on unchecked, then we are no longer a free people. We are now pawns of a hostile foreign power, and Trump, Mike Flynn, Jared Kushner, Jeff Sessions, Rex Tillerson, Carter Page, Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, J.D. Gordon, Mike Rogers, Dan Coats, Rod Rosenstein and Daniel McCabe are all traitors to this nation.
        It’s hard not to come to that conclusion.