Attorney General William Barr is one of the biggest failures of the Trump administration...READ MORE
Trump early response to the whistleblower complaint is incoherent...READ MORE
Trump will be hurt at least three ways by impeachment, even if the senate exonerates him...READ MORE
MSBC's Rachel Maddow on Trump impeachment...
Lowlife Mitch McConnell is with Trump all the way as he continues to undermine national security...READ MORE
Republicans look the other way, as usual, as Brett Kavanaugh lies under oath...READ MORE
John Bolton turning on Trump and apparently has info on whistleblower...READ MORE
In recent demonstrations over Climate Change, which brought out over 400,000 demonstrators, one sign commenting on Donald Trump's Cabinet read: "I've seen smarter cabinets at IKEA."...READ MORE
Climate change demonstrations...
Karen Pence turns to Twitter to lavish praise on Donald Trump; it was a failure like everything this family does. Something like a religious Cheney family...READ MORE
More indecipherable Trump over Ukraine allegations; call in the white coats...READ MORE
Donald Trump resorts to more lies when asked about impeachment; if T-rump didn't lie, he wouldn't say anything at all...READ MORE
Hard data show economic program Donald Trump said would help average Americans has "actually imposed substantial costs on about 70 percent of Americans."...READ MORE
READ THIS Goldman Sachs 34-page analysis of the impact of climate change. The results are reported as "terrifying."...READ MORE
Would Donald Trump throw Mike Pence under the bus to save himself? Hell yes!...READ MORE
The Ukrainegate complaint on Donald Trump's unethical and illegal conversation with Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has been released. It is as damning as it is a reflection on perhaps the worst abuse of executive power this country has ever seen. It should be noted here that the document was stored in the Nat'l Security Council (NSC) computer servers, not for reasons of security, but for the purpose of hiding it from the public.
This mongrel in the White House keeps demonstrating that he will do anything to get what he wants, and it is obvious that he wants a second term in office. The complaint letter's first sentence, "I am reporting an 'urgent concern...'" The letter continues recounting that he had...
"received information from multiple U.S. Government officials that the President of the United States is using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 U.S. election."
The complainant admits he was...
"not a direct witness to most of the events described. However, I found my colleagues' accounts of these events to be credible because, in almost all cases, multiple officials recounted fact patterns that were consistent with one another. In addition, a variety of information consistent with these private accounts has been reported publicly."
Trump completely coming off the spool over whistleblower complaint...
The complaint states emphatically...
"I am deeply concerned that the actions described below constitute "a serious or flagrant problem, abuse, or violation of law or Executive Order" that "does not include differences of opinions concerning public policy matters," consistent with the definition of an"urgent concern" in 50 U.S.C. §3033(k)(5)(G). I am therefore fulfilling my duty to report this information, through proper legal channels, to the relevant authorities."
The complainant goes on to provide a timeline of the impending damage this could do the country in relation to the possibility of national security. If T-rump is willing to withhold $400 million in aid from Ukraine for cooperation in his 2020 election win, what might he offer if it was necessary to give up more? We have witnessed this kind of breach in the past. Rudy Giuliani, Trump's personal atty. and U.S. AG Bill Barr were also implicated.
Giuliani is a loose cannon that seems to have lost at least as many marbles as Donald Trump, but Bill Barr is supposed to be the attorney for the American people. However, the Oval Office lunatic has turned him into the great protector of the Trump brand, another abuse of executive power.
The best break the Democratic Party has had for months, perhaps years, is the recent Ukrainegate telephone conversation Donald Trump had with that country's president, Volodymyr Zelensky. T-rump asked the new leader to dig up dirt on his 2020 opponent Joe Biden. Although not adding pressure at the time, the Oval Office lunatic had withheld $400 million in aid just a week before. All hell broke loose and now Dem Speaker Nancy Pelosi is proceeding with impeachment.
If history repeats itself, the Democrats could screw it up somehow. Today, when they are faced with a fascist in the White House, the inability still persists according to Salon...
"the Democratic Party has a historic opportunity — and a historic responsibility. It has repeatedly proven itself to be unequal to the task, to a comic and pathetic degree."
My favorite word to describe Republicans, pathetic, and I can't really disagree with the above assessment. Here's an opinion by AlterNet's Alex Henderson...
"Despite his anemic approval ratings, President Donald Trump could nonetheless win reelection in 2020 if he aggressively turns out his base and Democrats don’t do enough to get out the vote."
With these numbers, hard to see how Dems will lose...
I wish someone could explain to me why it is that Republicans are able to get their voters to the polls in larger numbers than Democrats. The Dems have the edge from the get-go with 42 million voters compared to 30 million Republicans. There are also 24 million Independents. With 12 million more people at the polls, the Democrats should be controlling this county. But apparently they have been sitting at home on their butts when it's time to do their patriotic duty.
But not so when there was a record turnout for 2018 when the Democrats took over the House flipping the most seats since the Watergate election of 1974, and gained measurably in the Senate. According to The Nation, they also took more than 335 state legislative seats in an election that saw the party gain control of at least eight new legislative chambers. Here's the scenario...
"In 2018, according to The Washington Post, “Democrats outvoted Republicans by more than 4 million. And, the data dive explained, Democratic votes were high, even compared with the 2016 presidential election."
An example of the Democrats trouble...
But are 2016 and 2018 foreboding another sweep by the left in 2020? I mean they do seem to be on a roll and Ukrainegate is certainly a nice surprise they can capitalize on. If they are smart. And they haven't been so many times. This is how Republican strategist Stuart Stevens sees it...
"Democratic ideas are much more popular than Trump’s. Taxing multi-millionaires is far more popular than a border wall. Medicare for all is more popular than a border wall. Free trade is more popular than a trade war, (and) somehow, R’s have granted that advantage to D’s. There are no new conservative solutions, only victim shopping.”
Finally, Stevens said...
“Companies that sell old products lose market share” and fail —and the GOP has become an analog party in a digital world.”
It is entirely possible that Donald Trump has lifted the curse from the Democrats and if they steer the right course in the next several months, then years they will bring this country's position of prominence back where it was before Donald Trump.
While we wait for the White House to release the transcript of the whistleblower complaint, there may be a bump in the road reported by Fox News, always a questionable news source. Fox says "the intelligence community inspector general found the whistleblower had 'political bias in favor of 'a rival candidate' of the president." First, the report come from the unreliable Fox News, second, Donald Trump appointed Michael Atkinson ICSG.
The above, which started out as today's post, has been left with strikethrough because it makes two important points. One is the fact that Fox News is mostly unreliable if you're looking for facts, and second, the guy who determined the whistleblower was biased in his statement was a Trump appointee. That said, the L A Times reports it would appear that not only did T-rump ask Ukraine's Zelensky...
"to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, he also urged the foreign leader to look into CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity firm that did work for the Democrats in the 2016 election."
Here's coverage of the transcript...
Trump pushed it even further by adding to congratulations for the new Ukrainian leader that he should "speak with U.S. Atty. Gen. William Barr and Rudolph W. Giuliani, Trump’s personal attorney, who was leading Trump’s efforts in urging Ukraine to investigate Biden and his son, Hunter." Here's the scenario...
"Trump has insisted he has done nothing wrong. But the transcript shows Trump urged a foreign government to intervene in the 2020 election against his rival..."
"Trump had already acknowledged that he asked Zelensky to investigate Biden, whose son Hunter had a contract with a Ukrainian gas company. Trump also acknowledged this week that he held up military aid intended for the Ukrainian government in the same period. He has denied that the delay in releasing the aid money was a form of pressure to prompt the investigation."
The Democrats aren't satisfied and say there are more questions to be answered. To begin with, the document released Wednesday was only a memorandum of the Zelensky conversation, according to The Washington Post, not a verbatim account. BINGO! There was a cautionary note with the memorandum warning...
"that the text reflects the notes and memories of officials in the Situation Room and that a number of factors 'can affect the accuracy of the record.'”
BINGO! again. The WP piece goes on to point out some background on the call and specifics that relate to the conversation. It all boils down to the fact that the American president, who is running for a second term, asks the president of a foreign nation to investigate what he thinks is wrongdoing by his opponent in the election. Although the $400 million in aid promised, but withdrawn just prior to the call to Zelensky, isn't mentioned, at least as far as we know, the implication was always there.
Trump response to transcript: If you want dumb here's dumb...
Is there a transcript of the actual recording? If so, why wasn't that made available instead of the "notes and memories " of those in the Situation Room? This is just a continuation of the ambiguous Donald Trump the American people have had to live with since he entered the White House. So far Speaker Pelosi is moving ahead with impeachment but dealing with such an enigmatic administration will continue to make the effort look like madness at times.
"Trump says he has authorized release of transcript of call with the Ukrainian president" is the headline in The Washington Post where T-rump was also quoted as saying, “I am currently at the United Nations representing our Country." Earlier he had condemned globalism--at the UN no less--and commented further, nationalism is the only answer. Only Donald dunderhead could insult the whole world and come away thinking he had done a good thing.
He immediately backs up with assurances t5hat he did nothing wrong in the conversation where one week prior he had instructed his minion Mulvaney to hold $400 million in aide to Ukraine. His complaint was that "the United States was contributing more to Ukraine than were European countries." This is what Ivo Daalder, a former U.S. ambassador to NATO under President Barack Obama said...
Trump’s claim that he withheld the funds from Ukraine because Europe was not paying its fair share is “laughable. The U.S. has provided military aid, but so have many of the Europeans.”
"15 billion euros ($16.5 billion) in grants and loans to Ukraine, according to an E.U. fact sheet on relations with Ukraine.
Just another lie to cover up the Oval Office lunatic's meddling in the 2020 election, after getting caught colluding with the Russians in 2016. Apparently there is no end to what this maniac will do the appease his ego and have his way. Bur maybe there is another reason Donald Trump feels he can release the comment of the whistleblower. He has the AG Bill Barr as his second defense of cover up. This twerp sinks almost as low as T-rump.
Republican Kevin McCarthy's stupid reply to Speaker Pelosi...
"During normal times, Donald Trump’s attempted extortion of the Ukrainian government, aimed at forcing an investigation against one of his chief political opponents would almost immediately become the purview of the attorney general, who would — again, during normal times — appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the allegations.
But these are not normal times and the people we are dealing with are far from normal. How many times have we heard, if the Ukraine incident doesn't justify impeachment, nothing does. Well, apparently Speaker Pelosi agrees, finally, plus 165 Democrats and one Republican, Justin Amash. There are 235 democrats in the House. It takes 218 votes to impeach, then it goes to the Senate. But wait, as they say in the TV commercials...
"Trump has literally confessed to the charges on several occasions, while staring directly into video cameras, daring the rest of us to finally cuff him."
Trump says did nothing wrong, "beautiful" Ukrainian conversation...
RawStory says...
Bill Barr is "Trump’s personal fixer — Trump’s personal Tom Hagen (in the visage of Tom Bosley) whose barely four pages of hastily-authored misinformation last March effectively suffocated the Trump-Russia saga in the press, while cloaking Trump in layers and layers of government-issued bubble wrap.
The fact that a voting public along with the media let all of this occur right in front of them in the most blatant way with only a meager cry for Donald Trump's head is hard to comprehend. Apathetics I call them, the do-nothings who bitch and moan about what's wrong with our country, but never step up to the plate to voice their opinions and/or vote. Keep an eye on Barr. Once he's in the Ukraine situation, the next thing you know is Donald Trump is completely off the hook.
Speaker Pelosi now says it's time to dump Trump...
The time is NOW
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has now decided enough is enough, the Ukraine incident did it, and she is moving ahead with impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump in the House. My take, is T-rump looking for a confrontation, or is this just more of his warped mind in further degeneration?...
"Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is expected to announce a 'formal impeachment inquiry' into President Donald Trump 'this afternoon,' according to NBC and MSNBC news analyst Howard Fineman."
Pelosi demands whistleblower statement by Thursday...
Pelosi will meet with her chairmen, leadership and caucus at 4PM today. A vote on impeachment is expected “in weeks not months.”
'Be a clown...Be a clown...' Donald Trump takes this literally...
Clowns weren't meant to be corrupt
It happens daily, sometimes hourly. Donald Trump makes a fool out of himself and, because of where he sits in the White House, he makes a fool of America. It has been going on starting with his 2016 campaign and has been on a non-stop rampage since then. Senate leader Republicans and Mitch McConnell have chosen to do nothing, in fact have joined with T-rump in his corruption. The Democrats are in such disarray so is there hope there? And, the Oval Office clown continues to do his thing.
In the most recent stupid gesture, Trump finally admitted talking to the Ukraine President by phone to enlist his help in finding dirt on Joe Biden, namely on his son, Hunter. So proud of what he had done, he reinforces the move with another boastful announcement admitting guilt. It should be noted here that T-rump withheld $250 million in military aid to fight Russia from Ukraine. The whole thing screams impeachment. Read more...
Donald Trump admits corruption...
But can you believe, this idiot wonders why he has not received the Nobel Prize? While at the UN, "President Donald Trump asserted on Monday that the Nobel Peace Prize process is unfair because he should get one 'for a lot of things.'” Would that be for Stormy Daniels, or Jeffrey Epstein or his interview with Billy Bush? Now this statement on the Nobel Prize is clear indication that this man has lost complete touch with reality and is mentally unbalanced. Read more...
Still at the UN, Trump veers away from the business at hand and heaps praises on the religious bigot, evangelical, Franklin Graham. Graham has made it clear how he feels about Muslims and the LGBTQ community. Graham regularly defends trump as if they are soul buddies, and maybe they are. His father, Billy Graham, must have kicked the dirt off his grave by now. Read more...
NYT Opinion Columnist David Leonhardt says it is “Donald Trump vs. the United States of America,” documenting the Oval Office lunatic's "lawlessness, self-dealing, un-American behavior." Here are just a few...
“He launched his political career by falsely claiming that the first black president was not really American.”
“He publicly undermined American intelligence agents while standing next to a hostile foreign autocrat.”
“He is the president of the United States, and he is a threat to virtually everything that the United States should stand for.”
And what if this mentally disturbed despot refuses to leave the White house when he loses the 2020 election? Georgetown Law professor Josh Geltzer, who served as senior director for counterterrorism at the National Security Council and, prior to that, as deputy legal adviser to the NSC and counsel to the assistant attorney general for national security, thinks Donald Trump has thumbed his nose at the U.S. Constitution enough to be worried about him in 2020. Read more...
Congress may talk to Stormy Daniels...
Stormy Daniels offers to speak to Congress and The Daily Beast says, ‘Sh*t is about to hit the fan again.’ The adult film actress apparently needs the go ahead from congressional investigators who say they may not call the actress to speak. It was actually Daniels that said, “Things are in a lull, but shit is about to hit the fan again.” DB says this is fodder for Democrats after the Mueller investigation fizzled, but could be more harassment for Daniels and 8-year-old daughter. Rad more...
Former Sec. of State Rex Tillerson said that "Netanyahu and the Israelis 'played' Trump." Trump and Netanyahu were good buddies, just like Trump and Putin and Kim Jong -un. It is associations like this that the U.S. intelligence community has always been worried about due to T-rump's big mouth and willingness to give away U.S. confidential information. Netanyahu may be gone now and it remains to be seen if his opponent, Benny Gantz, can get along with Trump. Read more...
The Atlantic says the U.S. has now arrived in "the Hot Zone for Impeachment." What did it? "The fresh details about Trump’s apparent effort to strong-arm Ukraine into investigating his political rival Joe Biden may have irreversibly pushed the president into the impeachment hot zone." Speaker Pelosi is finally rethinking her position on the move leaving many wondering what the hell took so long. But Trump can't shock us anymore? Don't count on it. Read more...
And finally to cap off a laughing stock's warped mindset, the ego-laden maniac says he "is immune from all criminal investigations in a new federal lawsuit seeking to block New York prosecutors from obtaining his tax returns." Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance on Thursday asked for eight years of T-rump’s personal and corporate tax returns. Based on the high level of corruption we have experienced so far, the tax returns should be a circus.
Donald Trump went so far during the Robert Mueller investigation by demanding that former Attorney General Jeff Sessions act more like [Roy] Cohn in assertively defending him. When you scrape the bottom of the barrel, you come up with loathsome individuals like Cohn. So why the admiration? "For decades he got away with remorselessly breaking the law." A key word here is "remorselessly," something that is emphasized in T-rump's playbook.
“What Cohn could, and did, get away with was the very engine of his existence,” Kruse writes. “Cohn was indicted four times from the mid-’60s to the early ’70s—for stock-swindling and obstructing justice and perjury and bribery and conspiracy and extortion and blackmail and filing false reports. And three times he was acquitted — the fourth ended in a mistrial — giving him a kind of sneering, sinister sheen of invulnerability.”
It's like the Oval Office lunatic looking in a mirror. You might remember Roy Cohn as Joe McCarthy's go-to man in the 1950s anti-communist conspiracy investigation. Lives were ruined and McCarthy was eventually disgraced and sent home to mow the lawn. Roy Cohn was there for McCarthy, and as Vanity Fair reports Donald Trump...
"With the ruthless attorney as a guide, Trump propelled himself into the city’s power circles and learned many of the tactics that would inexplicably lead him to the White House years later."
Roy Cohn was evil...
There are close similarities between Donald Trump and Joe McCarthy in the strategy tactics of intimidation. Beat down the opponent until they almost think you are right then close the deal. Vanity Fair writer Marie Brenner reports...
"Donald calls me 15 to 20 times a day,” Roy Cohn told me on the day we met. “He is always asking, ‘What is the status of this . . . and that?’”
Brenner had been assigned to write a story on the up-and-comer Donald Trump and decided that Roy Cohn was the man to talk to. At the time Trump was married to Ivana so Brenner also approached her for input to her story. She said...
"The tabloids couldn’t get enough of the Trumps’ theatrics. And as Donald Trump’s Hyatt [Trump's NY Grand Hyatt Hotel] rose, so too did the hidden hand of his attorney Roy Cohn, always there to help with the shady tax abatements, the zoning variances, the sweetheart deals, and the threats to those who might stand in the project’s way."
Donald Trump Roy Cohn association...
Brenner quotes attorney Victor A. Kovner who had known Cohn for years, “You knew when you were in Cohn’s presence you were in the presence of pure evil.” Are we beginning to draw distinct parallels between the mentor and Donald Trump? And if that's not enough, here's another example of Donald Trump's treatment of women...
"In 1991, Donald Trump poured a glass of wine down her [Marie Brenner] back during a dinner gala, after she’d written an unflattering piece about him and his then-wife Ivana."
Not clear if he learned this from Roy Cohn, but wherever T-rump picked it up, he has certainly refined and developed it over the years. It is beyond me how any woman could vote for Donald Trump but there are those out there in double-digit land that are, well, pathetic. Politico's Michael Kruse says, “Cohn did not, in the end, elude the consequences of his actions. He could not, it turned out, get away with everything forever.”
Roy Cohn died of Aids in 1986. Donald Trump's finale has yet to be decided.
Another Trump mishandling of classified information...
A security risk in the Oval Office
Not only is Donald Trump sabotaging the U.S. economy, but now has "made a 'promise' to an unidentified world leader that prompted an official in the U.S. intelligence community to file a formal whistleblower complaint with the inspector general for the intelligence community,” according to CNN's John Avlon.These are the five foreign leaders Trump spoke to recently...
Russia's Vladimir Putin, North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad al Thani.
John Avlon "noted that the whistleblower is a Trump appointee which makes formal complaint all that much more alarming," explaining it this way...
“A Trump appointee thinks this is of such concern that Congress needs to know,” Berman began. “The question is: what was the promise, to whom, and what does it say about the president’s notion of intelligence?”
“What it says about the president is that the president of the United States appears to be a security risk and the intelligence community is concerned that the president can’t be trusted with classified information.”
Now that is unbelievably pathetic when you are talking about the supposed leader of the leading country in the world. Although many foreign nations might question that position these days. Remember when the Oval Office lunatic disclosed classified information to the Russian foreign minister sending everyone ballistic over whether this idiot could be trusted with any secrets. What're you going to do when the Dir. of Nat'l Intelligence covers up the whistleblower?
"In a five-hour closed-door hearing on Thursday, the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community reportedly refused to hand over information about a whistleblower, who allegedly felt a duty to report on President Donald Trump’s connections with a foreign leader."
But it was "The Office of Legal Counsel advised the acting director of national intelligence [Joseph Maguire] not to share a whistleblower complaint with Congress, according to a new report." Have you ever noticed how many Trump appointees are "acting?" That's because Donald dufus fires them so fast, they never have the chance to become permanent. And we don't know yet whether Attorney General William Barr was directly involved in the Maguire decision.
DNI protecting T-rump...
There is no precedent for this, said national security attorney Bradley Moss commenting...
"he was amazed that not only would an intelligence official file a whistleblower complaint against the president but that Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson would deem it credible."
There's more...
“We’re in uncharted territory here,” he [Moss] said. “As far as I’m concerned and aware, there has never been a whistleblower complaint brought to the inspector general of the IC that was verified as credible and urgent concern that the [director of national intelligence] has refused to forward on to the relevant intelligence committees and certainly… this is the first time it’s involved the president.”
Moss finishes with, “This is something related to a serious, flagrant violation of law concerning an operation of an intelligence activity. This whistleblower did everything right. They went through the process properly.” So, what happened? Most everyone will agree it is more White House cover up to protect the blithering idiot that sits in the oval Office.
The above is a Slate headline and it's not from two months ago, it is from last Thursday, September 12. In the Ben Mathis-Lilley piece, there is a sub-headline, "It’s time to start focusing on serious candidates—like the socialist." We are, of course, talking about "Bernard “Bernie” Sanders, the Brooklyn-Vermont 'democratic socialist,'” who is still one of the leading candidates in the crowded Democratic Primary. Here's Mathis-Lilley's comments on the debates...
"Given that debate performances are scrutinized for how they shape the primary “narrative,” Sanders is at a disadvantage. He’s not the Establishment Favorite—that would be Joe Biden—and he’s not the Surging Insurgent, Elizabeth Warren. He’s not An Inspiring Resistance Leader Who Might Appeal to Centrists (Kamala Harris), and he is certainly not An Uncannily Articulate 14-Year-Old Mayor Who Likes Radiohead (that would be Pete Buttigieg)."
Okay, before going any further with Slate, here's my take on Bernie. There would be no Democratic Primary without Bernie Sanders, no ideas, no substantive issues, no meaningful direction for the left. Sanders is a Progressive and a Democratic Socialist, which makes him the candidate of the people. I am having trouble understanding why a voting public cannot see this clearly. The other Democratic aspirants would have nothing to say if not for the Bern paving the way.
Bernie compares 2020 with 2016'''
Have been wanting to get that off my chest for some time; if anything needed to be said right now, that did. Here's more from Slate...
"He [Bernie Sanders] is, instead, The Exact Same Guy He Was Last Time—a fiery leftist who has a substantial, if not primary-majority-size, base of committed supporters who believe in his ambitious plans to bring justice to a “rigged” society by sticking it to the damn fat cats. A Sanders presidency would, guaranteed, involve an attempt to raise taxes on top earners in order to institute single-payer universal health coverage and make college free."
Although Elizabeth Warren has made strides in the polls, and being in the same ideological ballpark as Sanders, the latter seems to still be hanging around his standing from last May. Granted, Biden leads the race but I am not convinced he really wants to run. Maybe his number one position has made him too secure and he needs some polling competition to wake him up. Bernie has always been a charging contender with a philosophy that dates back to his early days in politics.
Bernie in Denver recently...
But there are additions to his traditional issues, notably "changing his rhetoric and his platform since 2016 to acknowledge and decry the role that race plays in economic disparities, he’s done so in a way that fills out, rather than erases and redraws, his public meaning." Bernie Sanders as a candidate...
"He hasn’t done anything, since the last time he ran for, and did not win, the nomination, to radically change the public’s established impression of who he is, what he believes, and how he would behave as president. If you liked him in 2016, you probably still do; if not, you still don’t."
In other words, the Bern is consistent with substantive issues, has been and most likely always will. It all starts with the first four states to hold primaries or caucuses which are Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina. From Nate Silver's 538, Sanders is second to Joe Biden in the area of electability to beat Trump: Biden 68%, Sanders 56%, Warren 51%. Bernie is also well off financially with $27 million in cash on hand and a "deep e-Rolodex of small donors."
I believe many of Bernie Sanders supporters have faltered over time, especially with Joe Biden's lead and Elizabeth Warren's recent surge, myself included, but Slate has some excellent points which could rally the Bern's base. On to the White House.
Impeachment would be a great stain on Donald Trump's political record, one that would send him into a flurry of tweets like we have never seen before. With his mental instability clock clicking faster than ever, it may well push him over the edge with the guys in the white coats taking him away. But the best chance we are likely to get is the 2020 election where we can officially elect him out of office. Since there's evidence he won't leave, bring in the men in the white coats.
And there may be trouble for the Oval Office lunatic from the get-go with former Illinois representative Joe Walsh declaring his candidacy. Walsh said...
“I’m running because he’s [Donald Trump] unfit; somebody needs to step up and there needs to be an alternative. The country is sick of this guy’s tantrum—he’s a child.”
That kind of rhetoric gives you an idea what kind of campaign Walsh has planned. His opinion on 2020...
He "called the GOP a "cult" and the president a "would-be dictator" as he denounced the decision to scrap primaries in some states."
“I’ve given up on the Republican Party, the Republican Party is a cult, right. They no longer stand for ideals. The Republican Party right now is all about washing their leaders' feet every day, that’s what they do.”
Joe Walsh feels responsible for Donald Trump?...
Hopefully T-rump won't interpret that as if Walsh is comparing him with Christ. We've already been through that one. Here are the candidate's plans...
“We’re going to take our campaign directly to Republican voters — and I’ll add in all 50 states. We’re gonna campaign in all 50 states, we’re gonna campaign in South Carolina, Arizona, Nevada and Kansas, because I believe if we let these Republican voters know that the president of the United States just took away their right to vote they’ll march on the headquarters of their state parties to get that right to vote back.”
The Daily Beat found declining polls for Trump amid all his ranting over how much Republicans love him....
"a growing number of Republicans are finally starting to admit to themselves that Trump shouldn’t be running a Best Buy, let alone the country. A Monmouth poll last week found him at 84 percent among Republicans, and an AP-NORC survey put him at 79 percent."
All contenders in 2020 GOP Primary...
And Walsh says, "the canceled primaries are different this time 'because it's never been done when there's been primary challengers.'" Joe Walsh has company challenging Trump: South Carolina Rep. Mark Sanford and former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld. Together the three published an op-ed in the Washington Post starting with...
“cowards run from fights.” “The saying 'may the best man win' is a quintessential value that the Republican Party must honor if we are to command the respect of the American people.”
My gut tells me that the Republican Party long ago last the respect of the American people.
There is new information that millennials are leaving the deep blue states and spreading out nationwide in Republican red states. As of 2017, 59 percent of millennial registered voters either were Democrats or leaned toward the Democratic Party, and only 32 percent were Republicans or Republican-leaners, according to the Pew Research Center in the Washington Post. This is how it looks...
“The five fastest-growing metros of the past few years — Dallas, Phoenix, Houston, Atlanta, and Orlando, Florida — are in states won by Trump,” he writes. “The other metro areas with a population of at least 1 million that grew by at least 1.5 percent last year were Las Vegas; Austin, Texas; Orlando, Florida; Raleigh, North Carolina; Jacksonville, Florida; Charlotte, North Carolina; San Antonio; Tampa, Florida; and Nashville, Tennessee. All of those metros are in red or purple states.”
They are also moving into metro areas in key states such as Arizona, Georgia and Texas. And this is likely the reason that many political pundits feel that even Texas could go blue in 2020...
“Democrats’ advantage in the five counties representing Houston, Dallas–Fort Worth, San Antonio, and Austin… grew from 130,000 in the 2012 presidential election to nearly 800,000 in the 2018 Senate election.”
Obviously, the figures above have to take into consideration the party break of 59% Democrats/Progressives and 32% Republican. Pew Research has recent figures that Millennials will soon overtake Boomers growing to 73 million while the latter shrinks to 72 million. In 2016, the Millennial vote was Democrats 55%, Republicans 37%, other 8%. The conclusion, "Texas, Arizona, and Georgia could be toss-ups quite soon,”
The Millennial age group is 23 to 38 and it is clear that "The Democratic Party tends to be more in sync with the priorities of young voters than the GOP, and perhaps as a result, Democratic candidates tend to get more young people’s votes." This was apparent in Bernie Sanders surge in the 2016 election. Today...
"Democrats believe these young voters will eventually turn out to the polls at higher rates, replace the baby boomers and the Silent Generation, and give the blue team an unending string of victories."
What millennials are thinking...
On the other hand, Republicans continue to wait for the youngsters to mature into conservatism and move over to the right in their political philosophy. Not only is this not happening, but as recounted above, what established red territories they have are being invaded by Democrats/Progressives that continue to turn their backs on the radical right. However, this is the scenario...
"Both these Democratic hopes and Republican fears have a basis in reality. Democrats have won millennials and other young voters by wide margins in recent elections, and there’s no guarantee that they’ll drift right as they age. But many young voters are skeptical of the Democratic establishment, and this wouldn’t be the first prediction of a demographically guaranteed permanent Democratic majority that hasn’t come to pass."
This is the reason that Progressives must take the upper hand in the 2020 election and show Democrats how to do it.
Elaine Chao cut from same pattern as Moscow Mitch and Donald Trump...
Looks like the Mitch McConnell/Elaine Chao family have the same DNA as the Donald Trump family when it comes to corruption. They just can't resist taking advantage of their positions of power to fill their pockets and screw the American public...
"The House Oversight Committee is investigating whether Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao used her official position to benefit her family's shipping company."
"The committee sent Chao a letter today [Monday] asking her for all communications since President Donald Trump‘s inauguration between DOT and her family business, the Foremost Group, as well as related documentation."
Rachel Maddow report on Elaine Chao blatant corruption...
Politico reports Chao accepted the letter and later "disparaged" its intent exclaiming her shining service to her country in public office. So much bullshit like that spewed from her husband, Moscow Mitch McConnell, who is solely interested in the power his position in the Senate gives him to terrorize Democrats while lining his pockets. Chao's family company, Foremost Group, is in question as well as Chao's failure to divest from the Vulcan Materials Company.
Here's a paragraph from the congressional letter...
“Several reports indicate that you have used your official position to benefit Foremost Group, a shipping company owned by your father and sisters that is headquartered in New York and operates a fleet that transports materials to and from China."
And while the House goes after Elaine Chao, House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, is attacking Senate head, Moscow Mitch, just one factor in turning that chamber blue. Along with ridding the White House of the Oval Office maniac, a majority in the Senate must be accomplished for the left to get anything done. Here's the scenario...
"A Democratic aide, quoted anonymously, told Axios that vilifying McConnell 'is something even the more moderate Democrats can glom onto' because 'he’s seen as the face of obstruction and Trump’s enabler in the Senate. It’s easy to message against him.'”
New York Times says Elaine Chao did help family business...
Pelosi's campaign is due to start in the fall with“refusal to pass meaningful legislation,” by Moscow Mitch a priority. And back to Chao...
"POLITICO has also reported on the amount of time she spent early in her tenure engaged in 'private meetings,' as well as the access she granted to Kentucky officials, including tasking one of her inner circle with being a special liaison between Chao and Kentucky issues."
It would seem that there is no end to the corruption associated with the Trump administration. My post yesterday spoke of former judge Maryanne Trump-Barry's benefiting financially from the family's tax schemes. And there is no doubt that Moscow Mitch has contributed to the furthering of T-rump's fraud while sitting as president of the United States. But it is absolutely clear that Both Donald Trump and a GOP Senate must go in 2020.
Donald Trump's sister now the target of corruption...
Maryanne Trump-Barry and her mentor
Like brother, like sister, and in the Trump family that includes T-rump's two sons and daughter, plus outsider Jared Kushner. It apparently is in the DNA because Trump's father was also corrupt. So it just comes natural, what you do in life is to prey on other folks to build your fortune. Donald Trump's older sister, Maryanne Trump-Barry apparently joined the family of thieves at least by the 1990s when she “benefited financially” from her family’s “tax schemes.”
Now 82, Trump-Barry then “was also in a position [ as a federal judge] to influence the actions taken by her family.” Now, Sen. Elizabeth Warren has made Trump-Barry a target of her anti-corruption campaign, according to the Daily Beast. It is the first shot any Democratic candidate has taken that has serious implications for the accused. This is all a part of Warren's investigations into "ethics policy" concentrating on federal judges, lobbyists and members of Congress.
Maryanne Trump-Barry corruption charges a year ago...
The DB's Gideon Resnick says that Sen. Elizabeth Warren has made Trump-Barry a target of her anti-corruption campaign also proposing...
"banning lobbyists “from making political contributions” or “from bundling donations or hosting fundraisers for political candidates. Warren also proposes banning members of Congress from serving on for-profit boards."
Here's another example of Fred Trump's corruption...
"The most overt fraud was All County Building Supply & Maintenance, a company formed by the Trump family in 1992. All County’s ostensible purpose was to be the purchasing agent for Fred Trump’s buildings, buying everything from boilers to cleaning supplies. It did no such thing, records and interviews show. Instead All County siphoned millions of dollars from Fred Trump’s empire by simply marking up purchases already made by his employees. Those millions, effectively untaxed gifts, then flowed to All County’s owners — Donald Trump, his siblings and a cousin. Fred Trump then used the padded All County receipts to justify bigger rent increases for thousands of tenants."
Elizabeth Warren on Donald Trump corruption...
You would assume in the above, "Donald Trump, his siblings," that Judge Maryanne Trump-Barry is included. Matt Levine of Bloomberg says he is kind of impressed with the Trump family clever shenanigans...
"It is two scams at once: By transforming the gift into a business expense, you both avoid gift taxes and justify raising rents for rent-stabilized tenants. It really uses every part of the sham purchasing company. On the other hand, it’s not that clever. There is a bit of an unregulated-emerging-markets feel to it; interposing wealthy friends and family as middlemen, giving them large cuts of the business as unjustified markups, and then passing the costs on to the much less wealthy general public, is all out of a fairly standard playbook of corruption."
If Elizabeth Warren plans to make Maryanne Trump-Barry the focus of her anti-corruption campaign, that is just one more avenue in which law enforcement can navigate to get at the fraudulent activities encompassed by the Trump brand. It is obvious why Donald Trump craves a second term, now even a third, because he knows that once he is out of office, he is fair game for a host of prosecutors. The 2020 election can't come soon enough for most of us, but particularly the law.
"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."
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.
Jamil Smith of Rolling Stone contends that 2020 will end up being a fight to determine which side of racism will win the election. Will it be the white nationalist racist bigot Donald Trump, or the candidate on the left who truly believes that people of different colors can live happily together? Smith does not think Joe Biden is the latter and that he should drop out of the race now, although Biden seems to be garnering the black vote.
That last part doesn't make sense to me and Politico's Maya King substantiates that idea, but with additional input to Bernie Sanders recent growth in black American support...
"Joe Biden has amassed a staggering lead among older African Americans, commanding nearly two-thirds support of black voters 65 and older in the most recent Morning Consult poll. Bernie Sanders is the favorite of black millennials, though his margin with that group is much smaller. Among all black voters, Biden is leading Sanders, 41 percent to 20 percent."
The RollingStone article covers what it considers a multitude of gaffes by Biden on the racial issue after it trashes former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Smith started with a question on the coddling of Biden when he was attacked by Julian Castro...
"Treating the 76-year-old front-runner so delicately is arguably more insulting than questioning his mental fitness, especially considering the incumbent whom he is preparing to run against."
Joe Biden on no responsibility for 300 years ago...
Could it come down to Joe Biden's meandering in a debate against the sheer lunacy in Donald Trump's rhetoric? In T-rump's state of deteriorating mental acuity, who knows where he'll be by the time they face each other. The Oval Office lunatic might even be in a strait jacket by then. The one thing that is clear is that Trump's racial bigotry will have to be faced head-on, and just hope that this country has not stooped so low as to fully support this ideology.
“I don’t feel responsible for the sins of my father and grandfather, I feel responsible for what the situation is today, for the sins of my own generation, and I’ll be damned if I feel responsible to pay for what happened 300 years ago.”
Another Biden racist gaffe...
Biden said that "teacher raises are the first step to undoing the legacy of slavery," then rambled on with this...
"Number two, make sure that we bring in to help the teachers deal with the problems that come from home. The problems that come from home, we need — we have one school psychologist for every 1,500 kids in America today. It’s crazy.
"The teachers are — I’m married to a teacher. My deceased wife is a teacher. They have every problem coming to them. We have — make sure that every single child does, in fact, have 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds go to school. School. Not daycare. School. We bring social workers into homes and parents to help them deal with how to raise their children.
"It’s not that they don’t want to help. They don’t — they don’t know quite what to do. Play the radio, make sure the television — excuse me, make sure you have the record player on at night, the — the — make sure that kids hear words. A kid coming from a very poor school — a very poor background will hear 4 million words fewer spoken by the time they get there."
Jamil Smith exclaimed with some shadowed doubt that this is the front-runner of the Democratic Party, talking as if this should be a surprise. My take is that Joe Biden has absolutely nothing for Progressives so it's on to Bernie and Warren as far as I am concerned. There's more and this article is well worth the read.
How many times have you heard similar headlines? "Trump
Is Not Well." This is from the latest coverage by The Atlantic magazine.
There is actually not much in the piece we haven't heard but it is the thorough
comprehensive approach used by Peter Wehner, a Republican who has worked for
Ronald Reagan and both H.W. and G.W. Bush. He opposed Donald Trump in 2016 for
several reasons...
"first, I think he is temperamentally unfit to be president. I think he’s erratic, I think he’s unprincipled, I think he’s unstable, and I think that he has a personality disorder; I think he’s obsessive. And at the end of the day, having served in the White House for seven years in three administrations and worked for three presidents, one closely, and read a lot of history, I think the main requirement for president of the United States … is temperament, and disposition … whether you have wisdom and judgment and prudence.”
Whew! That pretty much nails Donald Trump to the wall, with comparisons to past presidents who may have had their faults but stood eons taller than T-rump. Wehner continues...
In the above you can explore Peter Wehner's research on all the bizarre behavior coming from the Oval Office lunatic. "Trump Is Not Well" is a must read for anyone who wants to understand what's going on in the maniac mind that is running the most powerful nation in the world. There's more...
And the tragic thing here is that there's not a damn thing we can do until he is elected out of office in 2020 with lowlife Mitch McConnell controlling the Senate and loving everything Trump does because that means Moscow Mitch can do anything he wants to do. As an Independent, I am afraid my confidence in the current state of the Democratic Party isn't such that I feel they, alone, could win the election. It will take Progressives like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.
Yale's Dr. Brandy Lee on Trump's mental state...
Wehner uses the NOAA/Alabama fiasco as a recent example of Donald Trump's slippage. T-rump used his marking pen--something he turned into a campaign favor--to point out on a map that Dorian would probably impact the state of Alabama. The U.S. Weather Service said no way. NOAA disputed the Weather Service, then put out an order to never contradict Trump. First, that was blamed on Sec. Commerce Wilbur Ross.
But later it was thought to come from Trump's Chief of Staff, Mick Mulvaney. Finally, we learn the order to never question Donald Trump came from, you guessed it, Donald Trump himself. Wehner makes an interesting point, "It’s said that speculating on Trump’s mental health is inappropriate and unwise, especially for those who are not formally trained in the field of psychiatry or psychology." He qualifies that with obvious observations of Donald Trump's insane actions.
"Whether or not his disorders are diagnosable, the president’s psychological flaws are all too apparent. They were alarming when he took the oath of office; they are worse now. Every day Donald Trump is president is a day of disgrace. And a day of danger."
