WANTED - DEAD OR ALIVE: Mitch McConnell - UPDATE Monday PM

UPDATE: Monday PM: Has anyone with credibility actually seen and/or talked with Mitch McConnell? There is no date stamp on the picture, and why didn't he make the newspaper's date obvious to clear the air. Still suspicious? See this: https://www.wlwt.com/article/sen-mitch-mcconnell-gives-update-on-health/71910759

Mitch McConnell is still a U.S. Senator and owes the people of this country, especially his constituents in the state of Kentucky, the consideration of letting them know whether he is dead or alive. Staff news releases won't do; they're all Republicans and their word cannot be trusted. We need it from the man's mouth in a dated video to make it believable; even then close scrutiny is advised. No, we don't trust the GOP, and rightfully so after the thousands of lies from Donald Trump and Republican congressional cowards who support him.

Most of us remember the confrontation between then President Obama and McConell when the Senator caused gridlock in the 2010s declaring his primary political goal was to make Obama a "one-term president. That didn't happen but this...

"resulted in an era characterized by routine filibuster usage, historic government shutdowns, and the unprecedented blockade of Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland in 2016."

McConnell opposed Obama with every move the President made and stonewalled an administration that could have put the U.S. on the right track for years. I called McConnell a racist, "The most despicable U.S. politician ever," back in June 2019, and I have never changed my mind. Lincoln Project co-founder Steve Schmidt, a longtime GOP insider who has served as a political strategist for George W. Bush and John McCain...

"declared Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) 'one of the greatest villains across America’s 250-year history.'”

He goes on to say...

"Americans cannot trust carefully curated assurances from political allies whose first instinct is to protect an institution, a party, or a reputation — particularly when those assurances come from people who have no credibility whatsoever."

Schmidt expands the above to include Scott Jenning, as well as Senate Majority Leader John

Thune and his number two John Barrasso from Wyoming. Each claimed to have spoken to Mitch McConnell by phone for 20 minutes each. But why should we be surprised that top Re3publicans are lying; the precedent comes from the top down, Donald Trump. The Lincoln Project co-fonder shows why we can't be sure any of the above three spoke to
McConnell...

"not only is it highly unlikely that McConnell was capable of having such a conversation, noting that “an 84-year-old who had CPR performed on him before being put in an ambulance has a roughly six percent chance of ever walking out of a hospital,” but Americans have no reason to believe leaders who are unwilling to give a straight answer to who won the 2020 election."

Kentucky’s Gov. Andy Beshear asked for the second time to release information on his hospital confinement that began on June 14, and hasn't been seen in public since. Beshear sounded like he was almost pleading...

“Let’s end the crazy speculation,” Beshear wrote on social media. “Just tell us what’s going on.”

Beshear, of course a Democrat, and is seen as a possible contender for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2028.

It has been weeks since Mitch McConnell's wife, Elaine Chao, has spoken out. Everyone, including Republicans, thought it was particularly strange that Chao flew to China just days after her husband went to the hospital. Even more so that she set up a meeting with China's Vice President during her visit. Marjorie Taylor Greene, as boisterous as ever, even without her congressional seat, labeled Chao a Chinese spy. Here's the scenario...

Elaine Chao meets with Chinese V.P.

In a statement, the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in the United States of America backed Chao’s unexpected trip. “Chao said maintaining stable U.S.-China relations serves the interests of all parties, and expressed the willingness to continue making efforts to promote practical cooperation and people-to-people exchanges between the United States and China.”

Apparently keeping China happy is more important that her husband's health. But there is a report from a medical source that appears to be credible...

Dr. Jeremy Faust, an emergency physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, appeared on CNN to discuss the situation. Asked what the June 14 EMS call indicates about how serious the episode was, Faust said: “When we hear that, we often get a call like that saying we have a patient coming to the hospital receiving CPR. And what that means is that their heart has stopped, and if CPR does not work, we will have to pronounce them dead.”

Faust noted that only about a quarter of people who experience cardiac arrest survive to the hospital. He was clear that he was not speaking to McConnell’s case specifically.

Faust and his hospital are located in Boston, which broaches the question, 'why don't we have a report from George Washington Hospital in Washington, D.C. where McConnell was admitted? And here is yet more mystery...

McConnell’s office provided its first meaningful update on his condition on June

 

22, saying he is “continuing his recovery,” “continues to improve,” and is well cared for, while declining to disclose the nature of his illness, name the hospital, or offer any time frame for his return. His staff waited eight days after the hospitalization to say even that much, and only confirmed he would not be voting that week.

There's more...

McConnell’s office would not even confirm whether he was conscious and would not say whether he was on life support. When pressed for clarification, a spokesperson pointed only to a statement released on July 2, saying: “Senator McConnell appreciates the outpouring of support he’s receiving while he continues his recovery in the hospital.”

Laura Loomer, a crackpot by most standards, but still close associate of Donald Trump, says, McConnell was “officially brain dead” and would not be returning to Congress. And, on Sunday, radical right Utah Sen. Mike Lee said that even members of Congress don't know the current condition of Mitch McConnell. As Yul Brynner would have said, "Tiz a puzzlement."

Just so you know where all this far-right domination is coming from, it stems from as far back as Newt Gingrich in 1994 when he was architect of "Contract with America," the beginning of Republicans' lust for power. After him came Karl Rove, spawned by Geo. W. Bush, followed by The Tea Party and finally MAGA, Donald Trump's gang of hoodlums that have attempted to take over all facets of the U.S. government. Mitch McConnell has been a key player in this movement during his control of the U.S. Senate

It has been a carefully planned strategy by the GOP that has overshadowed the efforts of Democrats for years, and continues to hamper their efforts to wrest control from the radical right.

 

 

Will Extremism Haunt The Republican Party To Self-Destruction?

New York Times columnist, Charles M. Blow, says, "Extremism Is on the Rise … Again." And here I thought it had never abated. But Blow, being the excellent journalist he is, qualifies his headline, written before the Nov. 8 elections, citing one startling fact...

"There are 291 election deniers on the ballot."

You can see the 291 deniers in the "on the ballot" link, above, with names you will recognize like Kevin McCarthy, Lauren Boebert, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Ron DeSantis, Kari Lake, Herschel Walker; you get the idea. But Blow reports...

In a major speech Wednesday night, President Biden described election denial as “the path to chaos in America.” “It’s unprecedented,” he said. “It’s unlawful. And it’s un-American.” But in truth, the extremism, racism and white nationalism are neither un-American nor unfamiliar.

There are comparisons with the William Howard Taft administration in 1908, later Woodrow Wilson, who campaigned on an “America First” platform, which soon became "associated not just with isolationism, but also with the Ku Klux Klan, xenophobia and fascism." Wilson was a racist from the South and is measured against Donald Trump who Blow says...

"is one of the worst presidents — if not the worst — that this country has ever had."

More matching between Wilson and Trump...

It was Wilson who screened “The Birth of a Nation” at the White House, a film that pushed the “Lost Cause” narrative and fueled the rebirth of the Klan.

 Assessing threats of political violence and rising extremism on the far-right...

Trump hosted a screening of “2,000 Mules” — a fact-checker-debunked documentary that purported to show widespread voter fraud carried out by “mules” who stuffed ballot boxes with harvested ballots during the last presidential election — at Mar-a-Lago, which Trump has called the Southern White House. That film has helped boost his followers’ belief in his lie about the 2020 election.

Civil war has been talked up by Republicans and now they are targeting their own with in-fighting over the upcoming Dec. 6, runoff between Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker. This is a must win for the GOP and it all boiled over recently between Mitch McConnell and Rick Scott of Florida...

"A long-simmering, mostly private tension between the two men and their allies came to a head this week as their respective political consultants resorted to publicly insulting each other, particularly over how each was approaching the upcoming Georgia election."

Democrats would welcome Republicans keeping their extremism internally as long

as there is no spillover to the rest of the country. Annihilating each other could be the answer to saving our democracy. Neither Trump nor Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has offered Walker help, and some say the GOP big guns are not so enthusiastic about Herschel Walker because his win will not give them control of the Senate. And finally, more talk of civil war, this time between Republicans...

"Marjorie Taylor Greene says she is ready [to] unleash a civil war in the Republican Party after its poor showing in the midterms.

"The Georgia congresswoman also indicated she would throw her support behind House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy in an interview with Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast."

Have you heard the talk recently from a past GOP congressman who said Kevin McCarthy will be Speaker of the House in name only? He said Marjorie Taylor Greene will be the actual Speaker.

Did anyone see that coming? 

Is racism still a dirty word, or...just accepted today?

Racism is worse than that old weather saying. People have been talking about it for years, but no one has seriously done anything about it...

My take is that it is definitely a dirty word, even many racists would agree with that, but it is like one of those rogue genes that are the basis for a particular kind of behavior which allows those who have it to justify what they do. I grew up in the South, fighting with racists all my life, even within my own family, and when I finally left in the 1960s, there were still lynchings of black people, their houses being burned to the ground, all orchestrated by the Ku Klux Klan.

Like the Mafia, the Klan slowly faded away, but as is the case for both, there is still evidence of their activity around. Here's a scenario from NPR...

"For the fourth year in a row, the Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights organization that tracks hate groups, reports that hate and domestic extremism are rising in an unabated trend. The center found a 30 percent increase in U.S. hate groups over the past four years and a 7 percent increase in hate groups in 2018 alone."

NPR adds, "The watchdog group blames President Trump, his administration, right-wing media outlets and the ease of spreading hate on social media platforms for the alarming increase." Trump has promoted and encouraged white nationalism since being inaugurated, hiring people like Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller, of which the latter is still on his staff. Heidi Beirich, director of the SPLC's Intelligence Project said...

"The numbers tell a striking story — that this president is not simply a polarizing figure but a radicalizing one."

Excellent video on the Trump-Miller relationship...

This added...

"Heidi Beirich, director of the SPLC's Intelligence Project, said in a statement. "Rather than trying to tamp down hate, as presidents of both parties have done, President Trump elevates it — with both his rhetoric and his policies. In doing so, he's given people across America the go-ahead to act on their worst instincts."

"Worst instincts," resulting from that rogue gene that wallows in racism. And here's more on Stephen Miller from the Daily Beast...

"Stephen Miller, the highly influential advisor to President Donald Trump, is the end result of a shadowy network made up of racist organizations and PAC’s designed to push a white nationalist worldview from the fringes into deep inside the White House."

The Confederate battle flag

Now there are even rumbles that Steve Bannon is attempting to work his way back into the White House. The combination of Miller and Bannon, especially should there be a Trump second term, God forbid, and with the White House maniac at his highest level of mental instability since entering office, could turn this country into a national Confederate States of America. What would a new flag look like? Would future elections even be allowed?

Miller was a close ally of John Tanton, an Ophthalmologist from Michigan, founder of the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), and considered by SPLC the "puppeteer" of the nativist movement and a man with deep racist roots. Stephen Miller, practicing Tanton's ideology, is considered the architect of Donald Trump's immigration policies. The Beast's Mark Potok reports...

"Miller is both a promoter and, to some extent, a product of a much wider racist network aimed at preventing non-white immigration into the United States.”

He also thinks there is little chance of Miller leaving the administration, able to now influence, as I stated earlier, a much more mentally unstable Donald Trump, who is already making the worst of bad decisions. I would surmise when the black community sees this rampant racism originate from the highest office in the land, they feel there is just no hope. And they may very well be right as long as Trump occupies the White House and Mitch McConnell controls the Senate.

Donald Trump starts war with Barack Obama

There is no doubt who started this war, but there is also no doubt who will finish it considering the two levels of mentality in the skirmish. The mentally confused, inarticulate Trump on one side, the educated, sophisticated and eloquent Obama on the other.

It's Joe Biden who is your competitor in the November election, you idiot, not Barack Obama. Obama is the guy who handily won two terms in spite of the dirty politics of Moscow Mitch McConnell. Obama is the guy who ran a class-act presidency in comparison with the lowlife, classless administration you have given us for almost four years. Obama is the guy who will help Joe Biden win back the White House for the left in November.

According to Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson this is Trump's reasoning...

"Noting that Trump has been presented with internal polls showing him losing to Biden, Robinson stated that Trump appears to have fallen back on the strategy that helped him win in 2016 — appealing to his follower’s racism. And that means going after Obama instead of Biden who is white."

Robinson, who is black, is not playing the race card since Donald Trump has been well steeped in racist activism during his entire administration. With Biden pretty much guaranteed the black vote in November, and with Trump's latest tirades of racism, he is hoping to get somewhere near Barack Obama's 2008 results where the "black turnout actually exceeded white turnout, 66.6 percent to 64.1 percent."

The Daily Show comedic remarks Trump's racism...

Robinson adds, and it is the most pathetic part, there is nothing tactical about these attacks, they are purely personal. Moving on to more personal immaturity on the part of the Oval Office lunatic, he has now refused to host the unveiling of Barack Obama's portrait in the White House. But the former president has publicly said, he would not appear there anyway as long as Donald Trump is still in the building. AlterNet says...

"The message they (the Obamas) want to send is the opposite. No one should try to play nice with this administration or behave as if things are okay. That will give others the courage to do the same."

Before Donald Trump entered the political scene, this kind of thinking would be unheard of. And as you know from me, the Washington Post's Jennifer Rubin always knows the right things to say about Donald Trump, although her less than complimentary comments are from a conservative columnist. How's this for starters?...

"It makes zero sense, you would think, for President Trump to attack his predecessor, since President Barack Obama is the most popular politician around (next to his wife) — someone who instills in Democrats a feeling of solidarity, of nostalgia for decent leadership and of hope. Even those critical of Obama’s presidency regard that era as akin to a Golden Age compared with the Trump calamity that brought us the Great Depression 2.0."

Obama criticizes Trump's handling of COVID-19...

Rubin doesn't think this is just to draw attention from "Trump’s meltdown or from the almost 90,000 deaths resulting from the pandemic." She has two other reasons...

ONE: "Trump has been in a juvenile competition with his predecessor since the day he took office. Trump insisted the economy was stronger under him than under Obama. (That was false then and is now, well, self-evidently ludicrous.) Trump tore up the Iran deal and backed out of the Paris accords in part because Obama was associated with them. " (There's more, read the article.)

TWO: "Trump seeks to make Obama out to be a criminal or unfit. It goes back to the original sin of Trump’s political career — birtherism — and to his campaign, which channeled cultural and racial animosity among whites against elites, nonwhites and immigrants."

And if you think the racism has been bad up until now, Rubin projects...

"Should Biden select an African American vice president (as I think he should), the grotesque racism that will ooze from the right will make birtherism seem innocuous. "

This country is doomed beyond comprehension if we don't get rid of Donald Trump, and soon. 

Donald Trump is completely obsessed with Barack Obama

David Smith of the Guardian says Donald Trump is being eaten alive inside by his manic compulsions with Barack Obama.

Barack Obama looked like a great president as he entered the White House in 2009, with the kind of enthusiasm, energy and capacity to get things done as John F. Kennedy. Kennedy was struck down by a bullet, Obama with a bullet of a different name, Moscow Mitch McConnell. President Obama had the overwhelming support of the American people as the racist McConnell began to spread his game plan of a one-term presidency.

That didn't work as Obama won with another landslide against Mitt Romney. But, as was the case in his first term, he was dogged by Moscow Mitch, who convinced his Republican colleagues to support him in keeping anything Obama from happening, actually anything Democrats. With the Dems, that hasn't changed. The Oval Office has changed and it is the startling difference between two men, Barack Obama and Donald Trump, that is the subject of this post.

Donald Trump's obsession with Barack Obama...

David Smith quotes journalist, Jon Karl, as he observed the then president and the one coming into office. He thought of Trump as actually "humbled," out of sorts, awed by the situation, and definitely not in control of the room. Obama was turning over the torch in the classy way he had conducted his presidency, to his predecessor, who “seemed a little dazed” and “a little freaked out.” These would be two of the earliest signs of Donald Trump's incompetency.

Then Smith comments...

"But what became clear in the next three and a half years is that Obama remains something of an obsession for Trump; the subject of a political and personal inferiority complex."

Here, the why...

"Observers point to a mix of anti-intellectualism, racism, vengeance and primitive envy over everything from Obama’s Nobel peace prize to the scale of his inauguration crowd and social media following."

Barack Obama criticizes Donald Trump's handling of coronavirus pandemic...

Obama criticizes Trump's handling of coronavirus...

CNN Politics says Trump has been backed into the corner on his incompetence with the COVID-19 pandemic, so he simply reverts to his favorite subject, Barack Obama...

"With the death count from the coronavirus rising and its economic fallout deepening, President Donald Trump is trying to fire up his base and divert the national conversation by promoting a baseless conspiracy that casts his predecessor, Barack Obama, as the architect of a plot to subvert his presidency."

And you can always depend on Jennifer Rubin, conservative columnist for the Washington Post, to zero in on Donald Trump's real intentions...

"It makes zero sense, you would think, for President Trump to attack his predecessor, since President Barack Obama is the most popular politician around (next to his wife) — someone who instills in Democrats a feeling of solidarity, of nostalgia for decent leadership and of hope. Even those critical of Obama’s presidency regard that era as akin to a Golden Age compared with the Trump calamity that brought us the Great Depression 2.0."

Donald Trump's absurd Obamagate conspiracy theory...

There's always a 'yeah, but'...

"And yet over the past week or so, Trump has rekindled “Obamagate,” a made-up scandal that has become a bumper sticker for Obama-haters. Trump’s claims are so thoroughly baseless and hopelessly convoluted that Trump cannot even explain it."

She also agrees with Jake Tapper's assessment...

"President Trump and his team are launching an unprecedented smear campaign against rivals, leveling wild and false allegations against critics in the media and politics, ranging from bizarre conspiracy theories to spreading lies about pedophilia and even murder."

Have we arrived at the pinnacle of Donald Trump's desperation, and are we dangerously close to the edge, or will this latest debacle simply fade away like all the others have because Republicans, plus an uncaring media, give him another free pass? Right now, I have to go with the latter.

80% of Black America labels Trump a racist

It is disconcerting enough when the bubbas out there use the N word, but when it is the President of the United States, well, it hurts a little more. And that is the understatement of the year. But were we ever at the point where racism was actually subsiding, or have these niceties over the year just been a facade for a deep seated nationwide racism? I think the latter, and although not an expert on the issue, I grew up in the deep South and can recognize signals.

The RawStory reports the optimism among blacks when Barack Obama was elected President in 2008 , rejoicing again when he was reelected in 2012. I felt the same about Obama's election as I did when John F. Kennedy went to the White House. Kennedy was stopped by an assassin's bullet, Obama by a political assassin by the name of Moscow Mitch McConnell. Moscow Mitch is as much of a racist as is Donald Trump and both need to go.  READ MORE...

Moscow Mitch digs hole to defeat deeper

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2019 NEWS BYTES

Moscow Mitch courts more trouble for 2020... 

Pathetic to the end

Did you know that "The diversion of military funds to pay for President Trump’s border wall obsession is taking money away from more than 100 military projects around the country?" This also shows just how low Moscow Mitch has stooped to "enable Trump’s corruption." Here's the scenario...

"The Senate majority leader has not only assisted and protected Trump in doing great damage to our democracy, for naked partisan purposes, though that’s a major stain. But McConnell also has in effect now prioritized the mission of enabling and defending Trump’s corruption over the interests of his own state and its constituents."

One of projects losing funding, a planned middle school at the Fort Campbell army base in Kentucky.

Hopefully Amy McGrath is listening to this in her fight to unseat McConnell. But she is tough becoming "the first woman to fly in a F/A-18 fighter jet in combat and took on 89 missions in the Middle East, fighting Al-Qaeda and Taliban insurgents." And there is flak coming from another direction, "Next to electing a Democratic president, the Democratic National Committee’s top goal for 2020 is achieving a majority in the U.S. Senate."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says that one of her major strategies is to get rid of Senate head, Mitch McConnell, better known as Moscow Mitch. Dumping Trump isn't enough, according to Pelosi, McConnell is almost as dangerous and underhanded. The Speaker is...

"planning to kick her anti-McConnell campaign into high gear in the fall — and she will be aggressively focused on 'his refusal to pass meaningful legislation.' Doing so, according to a Democratic congressional aide, enables House Democrats to 'tout the good they’ve done and also, helps show the importance of Dems taking back the Senate.'”

Here's a quick analysis of McConnell...

"The Kentucky Republican has been unpopular in his home state for years, but this summer has seen his approval rating plunge to 18 percent after MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough tarred and feathered him with the nickname “Moscow Mitch,” and he’s increasingly seen as 'the man who sold America,'" according to Rolling Stone.

Bob Moser in a magazine profile said...

“For so many years, McConnell has seemed maddeningly invincible. But now, just a few years after achieving his lifelong goal of becoming Senate majority leader, it appears that every political sin the man has committed on his relentless march to power is coming back to haunt him at once.”

Kentuckians say, DITCH MITCH...

Here's more for Amy McGrath's campaign...

"Moser catalogs the Senate majority leader’s political sins, dating back to his swiftly broken campaign promises to back abortion and collective bargaining rights in a 1977 race for Jefferson County judge executive, up to the shady deal earlier this year to lift sanctions on a Russian oligarch whose company Rusal announced a $200 million investment in Kentucky."

There is much more in between, as an example his comment that his goal, when Barack Obama was elected, to make him a one-term president. He didn't, but it clearly labeled Moscow Mitch a raging racist. A 47-year old Paducah resident has said it best,,,

"eventually [after initially voting for him] it dawned on me, like a lot of people, this guy really doesn’t give a crap about us. He’s all about stockpiling his own squirrel-nut factory for his winter. Public records are public records, and you can see how his trajectory has gone toward wealth. Back home, I’m still making the same amount of money I was making! I think he’s got a real good chance of being booted this time.”

We can only hope so.

And, as if to make up with all the greed and corruption of his career, Moscow Mitch has now decided to turn the lions on Donald Trump in the impeachment controversy. This means that he will definitely bring a decision for impeachment from the House to the Senate for a vote. First of all, this will not exonerate him for what he has done, and second, he actually has no choice if Speaker Pelosi can come up with the votes. Here's Mitchell's statement...

"During an interview with CNBC on Monday, McConnell confirmed that he wouldn’t pull any stunts to obstruct a trial in the Senate — neither the Senate rules nor the partisan split would allow for such a thing.

“I would have no choice but to take it up,” McConnell said. “How long you are on it is a different matter, but I would have no choice but to take it up based on a Senate rule on impeachment.”

 Nancy Pelosi quotes Lincoln, "Public sentiment is everything"...

The one phrase here that bothers me is, "How long you are on it is a different matter..." It may be irrelevant but if there is one thing we know for sure, Moscow Mitch cannot be trusted! Here's MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell's take...

"McConnell is panicking about 2020. 'This is a very, very big deal,' O’Donnell wrote on Twitter. 'First, McConnell agrees with Schumer’s unanimous consent request for whistleblower documents and now this. McConnell is doing exactly what he should be doing if he thinks he might need a different nominee for president.'”

But then we get Pence, and although Salon's Bob Cesca feels Mikey would be more "compliant" I feel he is a complete idiot. Cesca also thinks Trump could resign saying, "it wouldn’t shock me if Trump decided he’d rather quit than have his tax returns and other documents exposed like dick-pics on TMZ." But McConnell still isn't done with bringing impeachment it to the Senate. With...

"Chief Justice John Roberts as the presiding judge in Trump’s trial, McConnell could call votes, requiring only 51 senators to approve, to overrule the chief justice’s decisions on, say, what evidence is admissible or not. The upshot: Senate Republicans can write and pass new trial rules according to McConnell’s whimsy."

Is this what the slimy lowlife McConnell has up his sleeve? We'll soon know by observing his handling of the impeachment in the Senate. If he exudes bold confidence in the procedure, you can expect the wheels to come off. But Cesca also brings up the prosecution of Donald Trump after leaving office...

"The only legal way Trump can guarantee he won’t be prosecuted after he leaves office is to resign with a Gerald Ford-style pardon from Pence. That’s it. Someone should tell him, because I’m sure he hasn’t yet considered the Sophie’s Choice he faces. Resignation and a presidential pardon, taken together, are Trump’s only path to avoiding prison shy of pulling off another improbable election victory, which is no sure thing, whatever he may say."

I would hope that prosecutors are vigorously pursuing how to overcome this pardon and put Donald Trump in jail where he has belonged for years.

Dump Trump along with GOP in 2020

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2019 NEWS BYTES

Are we on the cusp of dumping the GOP along with Donald Trump?  

Veteran pollster Stanley B. Greenberg has predicted that 2020 will be a disaster for Republicans and in his new book, “R.I.P. GOP: How the New America Is Dooming the Republicans,” lays out the reasons why...

Dump the GOP along with Trump

"that the Republican Party — rather than building a broad coalition — has been defining itself in increasingly narrow terms. “McCain Republicans” and “moderates,” Greenberg stressed, have been “driven out” of the GOP — whose base, he stressed, now consists primarily of Trumpistas, Tea Party members and Christian fundamentalist white evangelicals."

In my opinion, Republicans can thank the fact that lowlife Moscow Mitch decided to latch on to the coattails of Donald Trump in the early stages of his administration and has ridden out the comet through the most egregious behavior of any president in history. Just so the Senate head could maintain his power and line his pockets and those of his Sec. of Transportation wife, Elaine Chao. Here's an example: "Mitch McConnell and Elaine Chao's empire of corruption."

Rachel Maddow illustrates Moscow Mitch/Elaine Chao corruption...

AlterNet's Alex Henderson says, the GOP is shrinking itself while Democrats are appealing to a much more diverse base. Another turnaround for Trump is that he "isn’t reaching female voters in sufficient numbers," unlike 2016. This I have never understood with the kind of rhetoric T-rump uses in describing women. Here's a scenario with the wife of one of the general's he had met with during his campaign...

We were on a river boat cruise and my wife and I happened to be at the dinner table with the pair when Donald Trump's candidacy came up. I quickly stated my position that I thought he was a lunatic, even this early in the campaign. The general's wife defended him and I asked how she could after the things he had said about women. I mentioned the Billy Bush "Access Hollywood" tape where Trump talks about grabbing women. Her reply was to skirt the issue by blaming it on "locker room talk." The general didn't sound much smarter so I gave up.

And here's a surprise from the Daily Beast on the current feelings of a particular group, working class white women. "It turns out the racism may actually be more distasteful than the numerous sexual assault allegations." WOW! That is a huge tribute to the women of this country, in a time when the person sitting in the White House is an avowed white nationalist racist bigot. This, at a time when the nation is experiencing a resurgence of racial bigotry, all because of Donald Trump.

New York Times columnist Frank Bruni said Trump voters turned to him in 2016 because they were tired of Washington politics. That's then. “I think people are tired of it [Trump's Twitter rants] and I think they realize that, however you align or don’t align with him ideologically, this is a degree of constant turmoil, that can’t be good for the country and is not good for themselves.” That's now. His campaign claim of "draining the swamp' has now become laughable.

One of the reasons women have turned on Trump bigotry...

The Hill reports, "The Democratic National Committee (DNC) has reportedly built a trove of opposition research against President Trump in advance of the 2020 election." This includes 7,000 lawsuits from all 50 states, plus "a comprehensive document of every time Trump told supporters when campaigning in 2016 that Mexico would pay for a wall along the southern border." It will be distributed according to Trump campaigning, as follows...

"Let’s say [Trump] goes to Youngstown, Ohio. We have everything he said, what he promised in 2016 to that community — maybe it’s 'that bridge will be fixed' — then we’ll show what’s actually happened since," a source told the news outlet.

That sounds like a plan, but you can bet the staunch double-digit supporters of the Oval Office lunatic will continue to grovel around their idol until he is finally run out of office. 

The chronicles of Moscow Mitch corruption

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2019 NEWS BYTES

Analyzing a corrupt Mitch McConnell a la Moscow Mitch  

Moscow Mitch: Money-power-corruption

The House hasn't yet given up on impeachment with 131 Democrats in favor. They need a majority of the House, 217 Democrats, plus independent Justin Amash. "Rep. Jerrold Nadler said an impeachment inquiry might begin in late fall, after hearings this month and next." The Daily Beast says there's a holdup because of "a faulty analysis of the politics of impeachment...

They’re still caught in the grips of myopic conventional wisdom about the way the whole thing would actually play out in a trial in the Senate.

Here's the scenario...

"Sen. Michael Bennet repeated the familiar argument that the Senate will not remove Trump from office. If the House impeaches him, Bennet said, Trump 'would be running saying that he had been acquitted by the United States Congress.'”

Julian Castro shot back: “If they don’t impeach him, he’s going to say, ‘You see? You see? The Democrats didn’t go after me on impeachment, and you know why? Because I didn’t do anything wrong.’”

"Conversely, Castro continued, if the House impeaches Trump, the public would conclude that 'his friend, Mitch McConnell, Moscow Mitch, let him off the hook.'”

The answer, dishonor "Trump by impeaching him, and blame McConnell when he is acquitted in the Senate." If this is done fast enough, it could lead to both T-rump and Moscow Mitch losing in 2020? The only other impeachment case, Bill Clinton, is not a good comparison, although it was during a Republican controlled Senate too. DB gives a good run-through that is worth reading, and of course there is a different SCOTUS Chief Justice, John Roberts.

Moscow Mitch blocking election security bill...

AlterNet says, "For most Democrats, beating Mitch McConnell in 2020 has become almost as important as defeating Donald Trump." Even non-Kentuckians probably feel this way about the tyrannical racist Moscow Mitch due to the way he has run the Senate as his own domain simply to thwart anything the Democrats try to accomplish. He has literally brought the U.S. Government to a standstill under his reign, starting with Barack Obama's administration.

Right now Moscow Mitch's approval ratings in his home state are 14%, and you wonder how anyone could win an election with numbers like that. Well, he did it in 2014 when he beat his challenger, Alison Lundgren Grimes, by over 15 points. Amy McGrath is running against McConnell in 2020 and you have to think, no matter how loyal these people are--a la Donald Trump supporters--they will too wake up and see what this moron is doing to our country.

Amy McGrath says Mitch McConnell must go...

The difference with Lundgren Grimes is that she was soft on everything Democrat like Obamacare, "even skirted answering a question about whether or not she had voted for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012." McGrath is coming on strong about just how bad Moscow Mitch has been for Kentucky and the country. As an example...

"McConnell blocked a measure that would have funded pensions and health care for coal miners in his home state of Kentucky, not long after steering almost the same Treasury Department funds to an aluminum plant linked to a Russian oligarch."

This is a clear connection between Mitch McConnell and the Russians, leading to more speculation he was involved with Vladimir Putin's hand in the 2016 elections to help Donald Trump win. Then you compound this with the fact that Moscow Mitch has fought and defeated all legislation to strengthen voting machine equipment across the country, and the charge that he is a Russian asset becomes the reality that it is.

We cannot afford another six years of the most corrupt politicians this country has ever experienced. Alongside Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell has brought the United States to the lowest point it has ever been, both domestically and internationally. But we can do something about both in just over a year, and if the current trend is any indication, the Democrats can expect the kind of results that will will rid us of the top two political scumbags.

Mitch McConnell in Amy McGrath's sights

PROGRESSIVE STREET...Where Liberals Walk  

July 12, 2019: ‘Everything that’s wrong with Washington started with him,’ a headline from Raw Story refers to Mitch McConnell. But now he has a credible candidate challenging him in 2020. It is Amy McGrath, "a former Marine Lieutenant Colonel fighter pilot with a Masters from Johns Hopkins. A BS in political science from the U.S. Naval Academy. She’s 44. A Democrat. The mother of three and married to a life-long Republican."

RS reports...

"McConnell is not liked in Kentucky. His average approval rating is just 25%, and his unfavorable is 46.7%, according to Real Clear Politics."

Here's a tweet from McGrath...

"I’m running to replace Mitch McConnell in the U.S. Senate. Everything that’s wrong with Washington had to start somewhere—it started with him. With your help, we can defeat Mitch and defend democracy. Join us: (link: http://www.AmyMcGrath.com) AmyMcGrath.com"

McGrath lost a close election for Congress in 2018, by less than 10,000 votes, 51% to 47.8%. But "McConnell is not liked in Kentucky. His average approval rating is just 25%, and his unfavorable is 46.7%, according to Real Clear Politics." Amy McGrath wrote McConnell a letter at age 13, which he never answered, provoking the comment, “I’ve often wondered how many other people did Mitch McConnell never take the time to write back, or even think about.”

Robert Reich exposes the loathsome Mitch McConnell...

In a Politico piece, McConnell is called  “Cocaine Mitch,” “Nuclear Mitch” or the steward of the “legislative graveyard,” admitting,  he’s the “Grim Reaper” anyway, so he’s loving every minute of it. Mitch the misrule mechanic, thinks all this is funny, stonewalling anything that comes from Democrats, no matter how good or important the legislation is. The racist in this lowlife proclaimed, "my number one priority is making sure president Obama’s a one-term president." He didn't.

If Kentucky voters dislike Mitch McConnell as the above figures would indicate, an approval of only 25%, unfavorable 46.7%, and Kentucky voters continue to reelect the man, then I would place these poor souls in the same category as the clueless, double-digit Donald Trump supporters. Amy McGrath raised $2.5 million in the first 24 hours of her campaign eclipsing presidential contenders Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris. Want to be beat Mitch McConnell? Make a contribution to Amy McGrath here.

The most despicable U.S. politician ever: Mitch McConnell

PROGRESSIVE STREET...Where Liberals Walk

And no less a U.S. Senator. Who would re-elect this sleazebag repeatedly? Could only be the same morons who vote for Donald Trump. Raw Story says, "Gallons of ink have been spilled about how he [Mitch McConnell] is a worse threat to democratic institutions than Trump." This pariah of politics has served as a concrete wall against anything the left has tried to accomplish, dating back to before the Obama administration.

One of my passions is reasonable gun control. In June of 2018, McConnell used his power to prevent legislation to prevent terrorists from buying guns. (It should be noted that he is one of the largest recipients of donations from the National Rifle Assn.) and as The Hill put it...

"provided cover for vulnerable Republicans who wanted to be seen as supporting the effort but did not want to cross the National Rifle Association."

It is all about power and that is what the man demands, no matter its expense to the American public and the country.

In an opinion piece for The Guardian this past April, Robert Reich wrote...

"No person has done more in living memory to undermine the functioning of the US government than the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell."

The sooner, the better

Now that's a pretty strong statement when you have Donald Trump in the White House in the process of using his corrupt administration to line his and his minions' pockets. "But McConnell is actively and willfully destroying the Senate," Reich says, resulting in the following...

"Last Wednesday he used his Republican majority to cut the time for debating Trump’s court appointees from 30 hours to two – thereby enabling Republicans to ram through even more Trump judges."

There's more from Reich...

"McConnell doesn’t give a fig about the Senate, or about democracy. He cares only about winning. On the eve of the 2010 midterm elections he famously declared that his top priority was for Barack Obama 'to be a one-term president.'”

Mitch McConnell, who was almost a single force in stonewalling anything Obama did in his two terms, is a confirmed racist who hated Barack Obama because he was black, and also since he was a Democrat. McConnell even vowed to make Obama a one-term president. He failed. Mitch McConnell is a complete fraud but as long as he gets things done for the GOP he'll stay head of the Senate. Unless...the people of Kentucky wise up and blow him away in 2020.

Here's an example of McConnell's stupidity, punctuated by racism...

Here's a headline that every Kentuckian should take into consideration before voting in 2020: "Mitch McConnell Will Not Act in Good Faith, Even When the Security of the Country Is at Stake." It refers to McConnell's blaming of Barack Obama for the Russians meddling in the 2016 election, thus prompting the Mueller Report. Although Obama may have been negligent in handling the intelligence, Mueller's Report clearly holds Donald Trump guilty of collusion.

And finally Mitch McConnell's dark side, in my estimation, the only side he has. Politico calls him,  “Cocaine Mitch,” “Nuclear Mitch” or the steward of the “legislative graveyard.” Would anyone question why Congress has such a low rating with the American public with a mad man like this in control of the Senate? I think not, and according to Raw Story, the Democrats should be able to use Mitch McConnell to sweep the 2020 elections. One can only hope!

Biden depends on unity to beat Trump's "divider in chief"

Joe Biden-Unity in 2020

It's not enough that Democrats are angry with Donald Trump's election and the direction he has taken the country in. There also has to be an influx of Republicans who have made a left turn and feel the same way. In a former blog I quoted a reliable source that said 20% of Trump's 2016 voters have soured on him. I closed the post saying, 'Hold that thought.' Joe Biden avoids the anger for Trump approach with an appeal for unity in America. Will it win in 2020?

Joe Biden doesn't believe anger will win in 2020, even when T-rump used " it to win over the Republican base in 2016, saying he gladly carries the 'mantle of anger.'" He's been mad ever since and just look at what shape he has put the country in. A good economy does not excuse the Oval Office lunatic's white nationalism, bigotry, blatant racism and women's abuse, to name only a few. I did a post yesterday that explains it: "Less than half of Trump supporters like him."

Rebecca Traister, author of the book "Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women's Anger," retorted, "Biden is 'deeply wrong' that 'Anger at injustice has catalyzed transformative change; 'unity' has not.'" Another voice...this a writer from Rolling Stone, Jamil Smith added, "Women, people of color, and other Democratic constituencies aren't angry like Trump and his followers. They've been pissed off in a whole different way. "She doesn't explain how.

Biden also mentions reaching across the aisle as an approach to unifying Congress, something that many Democrats have criticized. With people like Senate head, Mitch McConnell, sitting on the other side of the aisle, I can understand the reluctance of the Dems. And then there's Barack Obama, to back or not to back. To begin with, the former president hasn't offered and second is whether this would help or hurt Biden.

Lee Drutman of Vox speaks of the Joe Biden “epiphany” theory "that Republicans will have an epiphany about the power of bipartisanship once Trump is gone and start working with Democrats again." Drutman says no way, and I wholeheartedly agree, at least as long as the ogre of the Senate is still around. Drutman argues...

"The problem with Biden’s theory is that Republicans’ hostility to Democrats did not begin with Donald Trump (see, the Obama administration). 

Today, as in 2012, the partisan hostility is highly transferable. It is based neither in opposition to one president nor loyalty to another. It is based in the underlying zero-sum electoral logic that defines the American two-party system and the winner-take-all elections that make the two-party system possible."

Not said, but certainly not forgotten, is racist Mitch McConnell's hatred of President Barack Obama, with his vow that he would make Obama a one-term president if it was the last thing he ever did. He didn't, which shows what a lowlife this jerk is, and the fact that he may not be as powerful as he thinks he is, perhaps just a fat blowhard. Biden talks about Trump's divisiveness while we regularly see the maniac's favorability improve, still holding on to his loyalists.

In one case in Pennsylvania, Joe Biden jumps back and forth between his unity issue and the put-down of Donald Trump. This state is important to Biden in 2020, where Trump barely won in 2016; part of the "blue wall" of Democratic industrial states. The former V.P. is headquartered in Philadelphia and in rallies continued to call Trump the 'divider in chief.' Biden spent time on the issues, including climate change and health care, making comparisons with Obama.

If there is anything this country needs it is unity, something we haven't seen for years, back through many presidents. We need it on the local level, between states, and most of all in Washington. The U.S. Congress is in a complete state of diversity, inconsistency, division, discord, strife, disarray, hostility, almost all-out warfare. There aren't enough antonyms of unity to show the disunion of that body of outright incompetent morons. Maybe Joe has the right idea.
 

Senate lowlife at it again

McConnell-Pelosi

There will come a day when Senate head Mitch McConnell will do something that no one, Democrats or Republicans, can stomach. The Senate floor will open in a chasm that will devour this contemptible despot and the country will be rid of the worst politician it has ever experienced. McConnell is at it again, fully blocking everything House Speaker Nancy Pelosi brings to the floor. A health care package, proposals on gun safety, climate change and voting reforms.

“I’m not sure that anything we do is going to reach the floor of the Senate,” said House Budget Committee Chairman John Yarmuth (D-Ky.). “That’s the reality.”

McConnell is up for reelection in 2020--he barely made it last time--and I hope the people of Kentucky have the guts to force him out. This man has single-handedly wreaked more havoc in the Senate than any other politician has in years. As a confirmed racist, McConnell hated Barack Obama and blocked all of the programs he proposed. Maybe we won't have to wait for 2020, perhaps that Senate floor chasm is in the making as we speak.

Is Steve Bannon runnnig for President?

That's Steve Bannon

Steve Bannon appears to be on a breakneck path to the White House leaving leaving Republicans in more disarray, wondering what's going on. Trump's former top adviser, a white nationalist, anti-semitist and racist, seems intent on overthrowing the GOP. Who cares about the Republicans but not with this in their place. Mitch McConnell and his gang have declared open warfare on Bannon with a year before the 2018 elections. Right-wing billionaire Robert Mercer is Bannon's banker and the scary part of all this is many of Trump's supporters are also behind Bannon.



Steve Bannon on Oval Office highway...

Mitch McConnell says no to Steve Bannon...

What is a Steve Bannon?...

More about the white nationalist who would be President...

Is it possible Jeff Sessions is a bigger liar than Trump?

In the Senate hearings to confirm Jeff Sessions for Attorney general under the new Donald Trump administration, Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn) asked him a simple question of had he had contacts with the Russians. Sessions reply...

“I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and I didn't have — did not have communications with the Russians, and I'm unable to comment on it."

Not only was he in contact with a Russian, he met with the Russian ambassador. And more than once. Nancy Pelosi, the House's minority leader, says that Sessions lied to Congress and must resign. Chuck Schumer, the Senate Democratic leader also called for Sessions to resign. When Sessions did everything he could think of to change his story and rearrange the facts, all of which still didn't work, he recused himself...

"...from any and all investigations into the 2016 campaign by the Justice Department, a clear attempt to throw a bone to the howling pack in hopes that the controversy would die down."

It didn't, has only gotten worse, and Donald John was reportedly furious for his action, enough to start the maniac on another tirade accusing Barack Obama of ordering the wiretapping of the Trump Tower during the 2016 campaign. Completely unsubstantiated...nada...zip to back it up. But then, that's Donald Trump, a part of his formula to spread misinformation about anyone who crosses him or disagrees with him. The other part of his formula is outright lies, a technique he has employed from the first day of his presidential campaign, perhaps all his business life.

One can understand why Trump would be frantic over Jeff Sessions recusing himself since it is no doubt his Attorney General would have overseen an investigation of the Russian impact on Donald Trump's winning the election. And we all know from experience that Sessions is simply another of Donald John's yes men, ready to do his bidding no matter what. So, what's next? According to CNN...

"Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Thursday that Sessions' acting deputy attorney general, Dana Boente, should appoint a special prosecutor to oversee the investigation."

If they drag their feet...

"We will then urge (Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell) and (House Speaker Paul Ryan) to work with Democrats and create a new and improved version of the independent counsel law, which would give a three-judge panel the authority to appoint an independent counsel," Schumer said.

Yeah, lots of luck on that. Here's what PoliticusUSA had to say about a McConnell reaction...

"Given his support for Trump, expect Majority Leader McConnell to resist calls for an investigation, but when even he has to admit that there are unanswered questions, the President has big problems."

With trump's luck so far, his star will rise even higher because his numb nuts followers will scream their fried President is being persecuted. So, if Congress isn't going to do anything and his supporters will only glory in their man's "maltreatment," what's left? Well, it comes down to an anemic left that has been so disjointed in the past that they can't even help themselves, much less try to bring charges against the President. I want you to understand that I do not take pleasure in the fact that, the dozing Democrats under Debbie Wasserman Schultz were grossly outsmarted by the Republicans. Pathetic!

Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi calls for Jeff Sessions to resign have fallen on deaf ears in the Republican Congress and in the White House. The Washington Post's take on this says that, even as the democrats mount their opposition against Sessions, his own Party is faltering with some trying to dump him altogether, and others avoiding him in the cloak room. In politics, everyone knows the laws of survival and when you lie, especially in front of a Senate committee, your supporters have a tendency to shun any relationship with you. WP comments...

"If Sessions's response on Thursday morning was the best that he can offer to defend himself, you can expect that the few people sticking up for him right now will dwindle to his immediate family sometime very soon. And when you lose your friends while under heavy fire from your opponents in political Washington, it's almost always curtains."

Jeff Sessions and his spokeswoman have repeatedly tried to explain the whole thing away as a routine act of the Senator as a member of the Armed Services Committee. Sarah Isgur Flores, Sessions’s spokeswoman, said...

"Sessions last year had more than 25 conversations with foreign ambassadors as a senior member of the Armed Services Committee, including the British, Korean, Japanese, Polish, Indian, Chinese, Canadian, Australian and German ambassadors, in addition to Kislyak [the Russian ambassador]."

Neither the Russian ambassador, nor his spokesperson were available for comment but...

"The Washington Post contacted all 26 members of the 2016 Senate Armed Services Committee to see whether any lawmakers besides Sessions met with Kislyak in 2016. Of the 20 lawmakers who responded, every senator, including Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.), said they did not meet with the Russian ambassador last year."

Chuck Schumer said in the Daily Beast...

"...Sessions had tried to 'dramatically mislead' Congress. He stopped an inch or two short of calling his former Senate colleague a liar, but made it clear he thought Sessions had concealed the full truth from the Judiciary Committee at his confirmation hearing. “If there was nothing wrong” with meeting Ambassador Kislyak, Schumer asked, why didn’t he just come clean and tell the truth?'”

Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak with Jeff Sessions

Schumer talks about a special counsel to investigate Jeff Sessions and the Beast thinks that idea willIn 1999 he was a key proponent of prosecuting then-President Bill Clinton for allegedly lying under oath when Clinton was accused of perjury over statements he made regarding his relationship with Monica Lewinsky. Shoe on the other foot.
"avalanche" now, even with Senators that aren't in deep Red states. The downside of all this starts with Donald Trump who nominated this second-rate politician who is an avowed racist, and who has a past that should haunt him in this issue.

Lindsay Graham said in a tweet, "If Jeff Sessions spoke with Russian diplomat, then for sure you need a special prosecutor." Another republican Senator, Rob Portman, from Ohio joined in the call for a prosecutor. Here's a kick. Some thirty years ago, Sessions was too much of a racist to be a federal judge but now all of a sudden he has become Attorney General of the United States, which is on a higher level than the judgeship he wasn't qualified for. Just what happened in those thirty years to better  certify him for this job? I think nothing.

Steve Bannon scarier than ever with his statement : "darkness is good."

The term is in reference to keeping the liberals in the dark, but hits a familiar note when comparing Dick Cheney with darkness and in the same sentence, Satan. Bannon is "known for pushing nationalist policy positions, as well as conspiracy theories, and has been criticized as being racist, sexist and anti-Semitic." Speaking of Trump's potential ability to please the public, his comment is...

"...we'll get 60 percent of the white vote, and 40 percent of the black and Hispanic vote and we'll govern for 50 years."

 You'll notice the "we'll govern" in his rhetoric, indicating either Donald Trump has a twin or this presidency could be a doubleheader. If it is the latter, this is one of the points in Steve Bannon's agenda: Wants to replace Republican Party with "Trump's movement. I would have given anything to see the look on the faces of Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan, even Mike Pence, when Bannon said that. He even mentions Andrew Jackson's populism to create a new political movement.

And here's a statement that is downright laughable, the fact that Bannon thinks Trump really gets it. Gets what? There is no substance to the President elect's issues and his thin skin keeps him attacking anyone who criticizes him indicating to me a vein of insecurity. What he gets is the fact that he hornswoggled enough of the public to be elected President, and now he is in the process of figuring out just how to convert this into the future of his businesses.