Month: January 2019

“Pampered, Spoiled Brat” Ready To Commit Symbolic “Reichstag Fire” Action Of Declaring National Emergency That Does Not Exist To Seize Power: Beginning Of End Of Trump Presidency

Donald Trump is about to abuse power in a way that no one can doubt the danger and the threat that he represents.

A non-existent national emergency at the US-Mexico border is about to be used as the excuse for committing a “Reichstag Fire” action by a man who inherited $200 million from his father, and is as Joe Scarborough said this morning, a “pampered, spoiled brat” who acts like a toddler in office, and is clearly mentally deranged and demented, and is a threat to the United States population and the Constitution.

Complicit in this abuse are Republicans in Congress, including Lindsey Graham, Mitch McConnell, Kevin McCarthy, Steve King, and all of the House Freedom Caucus members, as well as Fox News Channel and its talk show hosts, including Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Judge Jeanine Pirro, and Michelle Malkin, and talk radio hosts, including Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin, Michael Savage, and rabble rousers such as Ann Coulter.

It is clear that Donald Trump is out to destroy the federal government and its agencies, after setting out to destroy the news media, law enforcement and intelligence and national security agencies, and undermining the judiciary with unqualified, incompetent and corrupt appointees to the federal courts. He will not be satisfied until he has finished the job of helping Vladimir Putin destroy America’s relationship with its allies, and undermine America’s domestic policy, and sow racial, religious, and ethnic hatred, and promote anti women and anti gay policies, in the name of white male supremacy.

At a time when federal workers are struggling to survive without paychecks; when people in Puerto Rico and in California are in need of national emergency support for natural disasters in the name of hurricanes and forest fires; when we have dire need for promotion of infrastructure spending, health care, education, and so many other needs, Donald Trump is declaring war on American democracy.

Donald Trump must be stopped from his abuse of power, and it is assured that the courts will rule against him, and the Congress will expose his human rights crimes against immigrants and children, and his nasty, mean spirited lack of empathy for human suffering.

The man is a cancer on the American system of government, and the crime of collusion with Russia will be further exposed when Michael Cohen testifies before Congress in February.

Meanwhile, if Donald Trump declares the equivalent of martial law to protect himself, mass demonstrations and demands for his removal from office must begin, as we face the greatest constitutional crisis since the Civil War, much worse than the Watergate Crisis under Richard Nixon.

May responsible conservative writers and commentators have joined liberals in denouncing the authoritarian bent of Donald Trump, much closer to Fascism than many realize.

We are likely to see crises arise, in such agencies as air traffic control, Transportation Security Administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Secret Service, the Federal Courts, the Internal Revenue Service, the Food and Drug Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, and many other agencies. All are part of the protective nature of our federal agencies which are now crippled, as we have a longer government shutdown than ever before in American history.

The office of the American Presidency has reached a stage of being an Imperial Presidency run amuck, much worse than Richard Nixon represented, and Donald Trump must be stopped in his abuse of power for the survival of constitutional government, and sooner, rather than later.

Fox News Channel’s Speakers For The Truth: Shepard Smith And Chris Wallace

Liberals and progressives have long pilloried Fox News Channel for its distorted, biased, and misleading coverage of the news, particularly now about Donald Trump.

However, while it is true that many of their journalists, and particularly their talk show hosts (including Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Tucker Carlson, Judge Jeanine Pirro), are constantly engaged in this malpractice, it is important to salute two speakers for the truth, who are not intimidated one iota by the propagandists up high.

These are Shepard Smith, who is on at the 3 pm daily hour Monday to Friday, and Chris Wallace, who has a weekly show on Sunday mornings on Fox.

They have both been honorable and courageous, and have not caved in to Donald Trump, and they are both refreshing, and give some hope that their honesty and decency might permeate Fox News, and make them aware of the dangers Donald Trump presents to the Constitution, and to our domestic and foreign policy.

Donald Trump Border Wall Oval Office Speech Accomplishes Nothing

Donald Trump is claiming a national emergency on the southern border with Mexico, even though there is no crisis of terrorists trying to cross the border, based on government statistics.

In fact, only SIX people were picked up at the border with Mexico in the first six months of 2018.

This “national emergency” is about Donald Trump wanting to please his 35 percent base of supporters on the building of a wall which is impractical, ineffective, and will cause a tremendous government expense in the tens of billions of dollars of taxpayer money, when Trump said Mexico would pay for the Wall.

Rightfully, Mexico has refused, so now Trump wants Americans to bear the burden of a wall, which in many areas, would not logistically be possible, in areas of desert, mountains, and waterways.

Rather, the answer is technology, drones, and more personnel on the boundary.

Meanwhile, government workers are being victimized by having no pay during the government shutdown, and many vendors at government sites are being put out of business, Meanwhile, native Americans and the poor are being denied food stamps and health care, and we will see a rise in deaths due to this government shutdown, soon to be the longest in American history, and totally unnecessary and outrageous.

It is time for the Republicans in the Senate to move to open up the government, as closing the government is a disaster that accomplishes nothing, and the only way the GOP has any chance to keep the Senate majority in 2020 is by demonstrating independence from the President, who likely will be gone before the year 2020 arrives.

Already, discontent with the stalemate has been voiced by Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, Cory Gardner of Colorado, and Thom Tillis of North Carolina.

Female Sycophants For Donald Trump

Donald Trump has a group of women who are willing to lie, deceive, and promote his wicked agenda of dividing the American people, and undermine American foreign policy, environmental policy, and the protection of the middle class and the poor.

They are massive liars who have no ethics, morals, or scruples, and are ready and willing to tolerate the outrageous misogyny that Donald Trump has promoted his entire life.

Who are these villains?

Among them are the following:

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders

Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen

White House Counselor Kelly Anne Conway, whose own husband, George, has constantly contradicted his wife in public on Twitter, and denounced Donald Trump

Also, females on Fox News Channel and or on talk radio, including

Ann Coulter

Laura Ingraham

Judge Jeanine Pirro

Michelle Malkin

Joyce Kaufman ( a local talk show host in South Florida, where the author lives)

These women are a total disgrace, worthy of everyone’s enmity.

The Most Diverse Congress In American History

The 116th Congress, which opened on Wednesday, is the most diverse in American history.

It contains the following in the House of Representatives, “the people’s branch”:

102 women

52 African Americans

39 Hispanic-Latino Americans

20 Asian Americans

34 Jewish Americans

2 Native Americans

2 Muslim Americans

Most of these groups are Democrats, with only a scattering of Republicans among them.

So we have a very diverse Democratic Party, and a heavily white Christian male Republican Party.

The future is in the hands of the Democrats long term, and if the Republican Party does not become more diverse and back away from the cancer of Donald Trump, the party of Lincoln, TR, Ike, Reagan, and Bush will end up in the dustbin of history, to be replaced by a moderate conservative party under a different banner and agenda.



The Centennial Of The Death Of Theodore Roosevelt

Today marks the Centennial of the death of the 26th President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt.

Although TR passed away at the young age of 60, he had led a life few people, and few Presidents, had led.

He had run for Mayor of New York City at the young age of 28 in 1886. He had been the head of the NYC Police Board in 1895-1897, the equivalent in modern terms of being Police Commissioner. He had been Assistant Secretary of the Navy in 1897-1898, and then at age 39 had led troops into battle (The Rough Riders) in the Spanish American War in the spring and summer of 1898, becoming a war hero. He had then, immediately after his war service, been elected Governor of New York in the fall of 1898, followed by becoming Vice President at the young age of 42 in 1901.

And then, fate would have it that President William McKinley would be assassinated in September 1901, making TR our youngest President at 42 years and 10 and a half months, with TR being a path breaking President for the next seven and a half years. He would expand the authority and scope of the Presidency, and become a model for many future Presidents.

TR would become the greatest environmental President, and promote the growing role of the federal government in American life, and advocating “progressivism”, proclaiming he was proud to call himself a “progressive”, and ushering in what has become known in American history as the “Progressive Era” years from 1900-1917.

TR would bring America also into world diplomacy and naval supremacy, with his winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906 for negotiating the end of the Russo Japanese War at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and his manipulation that led to the building of the Panama Canal.

TR was larger than life, and promoted newspapers and periodicals across the nation to send White House correspondents to follow the statements, actions, and antics of the 26th President. He was always the center of attention, in and out of office, as he craved public adulation. He has been regarded by historians and political scientists, on a consistent basis, as a “Near Great” President, as number 4 in scholarly polls over the long haul, just behind three “Great” Presidents–Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, and Franklin D. Roosevelt.

TR’s impact on the nation has been massive and will continue to be so, and only Lincoln is rated higher as a Republican President in American history. And it is clear that TR would be shocked, were he to return and see the conservative swing of the party in the past four decades since Ronald Reagan, and the extremist and dangerous trend of Donald Trump in the past two years. It seems certain that TR would be on the barricades protesting the great damage done to the Presidency by the 45th President, who has set out to destroy everything the 26th President brought about in the early 20th century.

Walter Mondale 91 Years Old, And Adds To Record Of Longest Surviving Retired Vice President, With Longest Surviving Retired President, Jimmy Carter

Today is former Vice President Walter Mondale’s 91st birthday, and he adds to the record daily as the longest surviving retired Vice President, sharing that with the longest surviving retired President, Jimmy Carter. Both will have been out of office for 38 years on January 20.

Mondale is at this point the 5th oldest Vice President in American history, with John Nance Garner (under Franklin D. Roosevelt) having reached the age of 98; Levi Morton (under Benjamin Harrison) dying on his 96th birthday; George H. W. Bush (under Ronald Reagan) reaching the age of 94; and Gerald Ford (under Richard Nixon) reaching the age of 93. Only John Adams (under George Washington) otherwise reached the age of 90, surpassed by Mondale a few months ago.

Mondale also goes down as, in many ways, the most active, involved, and engaged Vice President we have ever had, although it does seem as if Joe Biden may have been as intimately involved with Barack Obama during their two terms of office, with more information on that involvement to follow with future research.

Happy 91st Birthday, Vice President Mondale, and many more, and the same for President Jimmy Carter, who will become the longest lived President on March 22 of this year; will reach 95 on October 1; and will have the longest Presidential marriage on October 17, with his beloved wife, Rosalynn.

The Continuing Outrage Of Donald Trump’s Endless Government Shutdown

President Donald Trump has thrown down the gauntlet, that he will NOT sign any bill to fund the government, unless $5 billion is added to the budget for his planned Mexico Wall.

This is a massive waste of money, and the Democrats have made it clear they will NEVER agree to this.

Meanwhile, what has Donald Trump wrought, with two weeks and counting of this endless federal government shutdown?

800,000 federal workers will not be paid in the interim, despite their having rent and mortgage payments, health care insurance premiums, food and other basic needs to meet.

About half of this group of federal workers must report to work despite no pay, and the other half are furloughed, and may never get paid for what they have lost in work days.

Contract workers who do not work for the federal government, and vendors who service federal institutions, have no work or pay, and will not get recompensed for their loss of income, putting many already impoverished into a disastrous situation, which could lead to expulsion from their housing, and inability to afford food, medicine, health care, utilities and credit payments.

Federal facilities,including national parks and monuments, and such locations as the Smithsonian Institution museums, the Library of Congress, the National Archives, and the Internal Revenue Service, Social Security Administration, and so many other agencies are shut down and deny basic services to Americans, and will cause the loss of tourism and planned vacations and school trips for many Americans.

Garbage, basic cleaning of restroom facilities, and protection of the basic environment is set back by the shutdown.

Indian reservations will be harmed in a dramatic way, and poor people and sick people and the elderly and disabled will be harmed as the shutdown continues. One can be sure some people will lose job interviews and opportunities, and some lives will be lost as the shutdown continues.

The national economy will be harmed as economic output declines, and it will undermine our defenses as well, as many military people in the Coast Guard and other military locations are put under the restrictions of the government shutdown, and this includes the TSA, the Immigration and Custsoms Enforcement agencies, border guards, and even federal courts which will be held up in pursuit of justice, including investigation of the Trump scandals.

Does Donald Trump give a whit about any of this? The answer is NO, as he is a totally self centered, selfish, mean spirited, ego maniac with authoritarian tendencies, and he is holding the government hostage until and when the Republican Party puts the nation ahead of themselves, which might never happen.

So the constitutional crisis is accelerated, and yet, the question is what is the ultimate way out of this mess, without caving in to Trump, emboldening him, and wasting money on a wall that undermines our reputation and image, and will not resolve the issue of drugs or undocumented immigration. Only modern technology and drones can do that.

The Biggest Villains Contributing To The Present Political Stalemate: Newt Gingrich, Rudy Giuliani, Ted Cruz, Mitch McConnell

With a new year beginning, and a new Congress with Democratic control of the House of Representatives, we need to look back and understand who the biggest villains are who have contributed to the present political stalemate that is undermining America in both domestic and foreign policy.

The biggest villain of all is former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who set out nearly 30 years ago to create turmoil, disarray, division, and enrich the ruling class at the expense of ordinary Americans. He declared open warfare on civility and cooperation between the parties across the aisle, which had existed much of the time from the Lyndon B. Johnson-Everett Dirksen cooperation in the 1960s through Ronald Reagan–Thomas “Tip” O’Neill cooperation in the 1980s. Gingrich continues to sow hate and guerrilla warfare in the present time.

Rudy Giuliani was seen as a “liberal Republican” as recently as his early campaign for the Presidency in 2007-2008, but now has become a total liar and the epitome of hypocrisy and erratic behavior as the so called “lawyer” for the authoritarian oriented Fascist who is setting out to destroy our domestic and foreign policy. Giuliani was once an honorable spokesman for the law, and now has become totally lawless and violating of all sense of truth and decency.

Ted Cruz was perceived by intelligent, decent people as the biggest threat to American values, even more in many ways than Donald Trump, in the Presidential campaign of 2016. The depth of his sickening persona is shown by the fact that Lindsey Graham once said that if Ted Cruz were to die, none of his colleagues in his own party would mourn him. Another such piece of evidence of his hypocrisy and despicable nature is that Trump trashed Cruz’s own father and wife, and then he and his wife chose to overlook that fact and agreed to have dinner at the White House, a total sellout that only a Ted Cruz could manage.

And then, there is Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who is a totally amoral leader, who would do anything to avoid confronting Donald Trump, with the reality that McConnell lacks all ethics by the fact that his wife, Elaine Chao, is Secretary of Transportation for Trump. On that fact alone, McConnell should be forced to resign as Majority Leader, or have his wife resign from the Cabinet.

But these four men above have no morals, ethics, scruples or common decency as part of their character. All four should face public disgrace, and all four should face legal prosecution for the damage they have done to the American political system.

New US Senators In 116th Congress (2019-2020)

Arizona–Kyrsten Sinema (D) and Martha McSally (R)

Florida–Rick Scott (R)

Indiana–Mike Braun (R)

Missouri–Josh Hawley (R)

Nevada–Jacky Rosen (D)

North Dakota–Kevin Cramer (R)

Tennessee–Marsha Blackburn (R)

Utah–Mitt Romney (R)

These 9 Senators (2 Democrats and 7 Republicans) will be added to the all time list, which will reach 1,983 people who have served in the US Senate in the 232 years from 1789 to 2021.