History News Network

One Year Of Robert Mueller, And Future Of Worst Corruption Investigation Of Presidency In American History

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Today, it has been one year since Robert Mueller was appointed Special Counsel by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, and the investigation has moved forward with the gaining of massive evidence of corruption, including Russian Collusion, Obstruction of Justice, Abuse of Power, Violation of the Emoluments Clause, and much more.

The investigation has also led to five guilty pleas and 17 indictments so far.

We have seen how massive a conspiracy the Donald Trump campaign and election and Presidency has engaged in, and it is inevitable that the Trump time in office is limited, as the case is much stronger than it was under Richard Nixon 45 years ago.

The question that arises is whether Vice President Mike Pence will be one of the people going down, and even the issue of whether Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes, and others are also involved.

The fact that there has been refusal of most Congressional Republicans to speak out and act against the outrages of Donald Trump and his Presidency is going to have a long range effect on the party of Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford, and the two Bush Presidents, and also reputable Republicans in Congressional history.

This author had written on History News Network (and it had gone viral) that he thought Trump would leave office by this month of May, now reaching the third shortest Presidency, that of Zachary Taylor, but this clearly will not happen.

However, in another HNN article recently, this author set up the likelihood that the fourth shortest Presidency, that of Warren G. Harding, which will be reached on June 20, 2019, 13 months from now, is still a good measure of when Trump will have been forced out of the Presidency by some means, likely ultimate resignation to avoid prosecution of Trump’s son, daughter, and son in law.

Certainly, the nation would be well served to see a man who clearly won the Presidency by corruption, stealth, and collusion, pushed out of office by a nation which gave his opponent, Hillary Clinton, a nearly three million popular vote victory.

A reminder, that all articles published by this blogger on History News Network, are available on the right side of the blog, and total 83 so far since January 2016.

A Year Of Donald Trump: A Horror And A Nightmare!

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I published on Sunday a summary article on the first year of Donald Trump at History News Network–historynewsnetwork.org. I have published regularly on Donald Trump on History News Network, and some of those articles have been picked up also by Time Magazine and Newsweek Magazine, and all of those articles are on the right side of my blog.

A day before the anniversary of the inauguration, I will summarize here the points that I made in that article:

Donald Trump has been a nightmare, and his unpredictability, and the refusal of the Republican Party to come to grips with it, has created a constitutional crisis greater than the Watergate Scandal under Richard Nixon 45 years ago.

Donald Trump has demonstrated clear authoritarian leanings that endanger all Americans and their basic freedoms and national security.

Donald Trump has undermined the judicial branch of government. with his attacks on an independent judiciary, and his appointments of unqualified people to lifetime positions on the federal district courts and federal circuit courts.

Donald Trump has assaulted the Bill of Rights, and is a threat to the civil rights and civil liberties of African Americans, Latino Americans, Native Americans, women, gay and transgender Americans, and members of the news media who dare to investigate and question his white supremacist, nativist, racist, and misogynistic utterances and policies.

He has connected himself to dictators and authoritarians in nations like Russia, China, Turkey, Egypt, and the Philippines, and in the tradition of such past regimes as Nazi Germany , Fascist Italy, and the Soviet Union.

Donald Trump has pursued policies that threaten and undermine the domestic reforms of Presidents from both political parties from the time of Theodore Roosevelt onward, endangering the Social Safety Network of Social Security. Medicare, and Medicaid, and government regulation of industry and big business, and oversight of key problems involving the environment, consumer safety, labor protections, health care, and science and education.

Donald Trump has given us the most corrupt and incompetent cabinet and advisers , making the shortcomings of Ulysses S. Grant, Warren G. Harding, and Richard Nixon pale in comparison. There is no sense of ethics, commitment, scruples, or compassion on the part of Trump and his team, but only with the advancement of the top one percent, over the needs of millions of ordinary people.

Trump’s family has become in one year more controversial, and lacking in ethics and morals, than any Presidential family in history, with the aim seeming to be a family dynasty with no limit on their lust for money and power.

Donald Trump has undermined foreign policy and international relations, alienating our allies, and consorting with dictators all over the world. He has declared war on the diplomatic community, the national security apparatus, and the intelligence agencies that are out to protect American national security. He has been reckless in his dealings with North Korea, Iran, Pakistan, Cuba, Venezuela, Mexico, and with the Middle East cauldron. He has alienated our allies, including the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Canada, Australia, Japan, and South Korea with his weird, unpredictable behavior.

Donald Trump’s narcissism, ignorance of history and science, obnoxious behavior and incessant lying make him a terrible model for the future generation of Americans, who used to be able to look up the President of the United States as someone they could respect.

These reasons are justification for action to remove Donald Trump from the Presidency, whether by impeachment, use of the 25th Amendment, or forced resignation after indictments of family members and top advisers by Robert Mueller’s investigation.

Eight Months Of Donald Trump: Destabilization Of Domestic And Foreign Policy

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Today marks eight months of the Donald Trump Presidency, eight months of destabilization of domestic and foreign policy.

One wonders how much more of this America and the world can stand.

The good news is that Special Counsel Robert Mueller is steaming ahead in his investigation of the Trump scandals, including Russian collusion, obstruction of justice, abuse of power, and violation of the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution.

Mueller has his sights on Michael Flynn and Paul Manafort, and has gained a FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) wiretapping order that indicates evidence that can be used against many Trump associates and the President and family members as well.

This author published an article in February on HNN, picked up by Newsweek, that went viral, stating the belief that Trump would leave office between the James A. Garfield assassination death after 199 days and the Zachary Taylor natural cause of death after 492 days, which is matched on May 27, 2018.

Now this author would change the date to predict that by the Ides of March (March 15), the date of the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 BC, that we will see Trump leaving office, which would be 419 days.

The clock is definitely ticking for Donald Trump, but meanwhile, there is great concern that Trump could launch a nuclear attack or declare martial law, and it is essential for the military people around Trump–John Kelly, H. R. Mcmaster, and James Mattis–to work to prevent such actions as the investigation continues toward resolution.

Hard To Believe: The Worst Week Of The Trump Presidency, And Every Week Is Worse Than The One Before!

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Hard to believe, but this past week has been the worst week of the Trump Presidency and every week is worse than the one before!

Trump has gone after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the GOP Party Leader this week, alienating Republican Senators, and making for an awkward situation for McConnell’s wife, Elaine Chao, who is Trump’s Secretary of Transportation.

He has ratcheted up the possibility of nuclear war against North Korea if any danger comes to our territory of Guam, or the possibility of a conventional war which would bring great destruction and death to our ally, South Korea, where the capital, Seoul, is less than a hour from the Demilitarized Zone, and millions of people live, including hundreds of thousands of Americans, a few million foreigners, and 28,000 American soldiers and their dependents.

Trump has also brought up the possibility of military intervention in Venezuela, which is a major problem, but we do not worry about human rights in other nations around the world, and instead promote the image of America, the imperialist nation, throwing its weight around in Latin America.

The last thing we need is to have military intervention in northeast Asia and in South America, to add on to the wars in Afghanistan, and against ISIS (ISIL) in the Middle East, along with alienating China, which we need as a supporter to curb the ambitions of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.

Trump is out of control in foreign policy, and foreign leaders are shocked at his loose language, and building up the tensions on the Korean peninsula, something never witnessed with any other American President. Our allies in Europe, and in Canada, Australia, Mexico, Japan and South Korea are not quite sure how Trump can be contained in his dangerous rhetoric and impulsive actions.

And Trump also has ignored the mosque bombing in Minnesota, refusing to condemn it, and now the right wing White Supremacists (Neo Nazis, Ku Klux Klan, Alt Right) have provoked violence at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, leading to the death of one person and nineteen injured, and Trump refusing to condemn these groups, and acting as if all sides in the debate over the statue of Robert E. Lee being removed are equal, when that is the furthest from the truth. To compare left wing groups to the right wing as equals is totally preposterous, but Trump continues to refuse to repudiate the right wing extremists who promote racism, antisemitism, nativism, and misogyny, including such hate mongers as David Duke and Richard Spencer.

All this adds up to the reality that Donald Trump has been a disastrous President, is getting worse by the week, and the move ahead by Special Counsel Robert Mueller to question those who have worked in the West Wing of the White House is a major move toward bringing closer the end of the Trump Presidency, as grounds for impeachment are growing.

Many Republicans and conservatives have repudiated Trump in various ways, and my article on History News Network, just published on August 6, and on the right side of this blog, details the growing opposition to Trump, and makes clear the dangers he faces as we finish Month 7 of the Trump Presidency!

Donald Trump Declares War On Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, And Sean Hannity Calls On McConnell To Resign

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Donald Trump has declared war on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky on Twitter and in person, an unprecedented action for a President to break with the leader of his party in the US Senate. And his lackey, talk show host Sean Hannity of Fox News Channel, has called on McConnell to resign.

Trump is angry that McConnell was unable to “repeal and replace” ObamaCare, and has called upon him to resign or be replaced as leader of Republicans in the Senate, if he cannot get that accomplished, along with other priorities of Trump, including tax reform, and infrastructure spending, and getting the Mexico Wall built.

This is ironic, as Mitch McConnell’s wife, Elaine Chao, is Trump’s Secretary of Transportation, so one has to wonder how she feels about this attack on her husband by her boss.

It is clear that McConnell, for all his faults, and the strong dislike of progressives and Democrats for him, is still well respected, and fully supported by his Republican Senate colleagues. So this will not make Trump’s relations with the Senate Republicans improve, but rather will worsen them dramatically.

And this comes after Trump’s earlier criticisms of Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, who has been attacked by Trump, and even more viciously by the Alt Right faction led by Stephen Bannon, and his former home, Breitbart News.

Donald Trump seems to be moving toward severing his bonds with the party that elected him, and to declare himself an independent, unprecedented in American history, and if that happens, he will be a man without a party, who is attempting to grab more executive authority.

Two earlier Presidents, who had been Vice President and succeeded upon the death of the Presidents (William Henry Harrison and Abraham Lincoln) they served under, John Tyler and Andrew Johnson, also were Presidents without a party, when they alienated the Whig Party and Republican Party, respectively, by their policies, and Tyler faced impeachment, which was unsuccessful, while Johnson was impeached, and then found not guilty by the Senate by a margin of one vote. They had both been Democrats who agreed to run on a Fusion ticket in 1840 and 1864, and this blogger wrote about this on the History News Network on July 30, 2017, and can be found on the list of my published articles on the right side of the blog.

Trump has the makings of a Fascist dictator, and this will spur the move by Republicans to go after him, and impeach and remove him, as he is a menace to the party and to the nation.

9th Anniversary of “The Progressive Professor”, And 5,700 Entries!

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It has been nine years since my son David, knowing how I have always had a strong desire to express myself in writing about my views of history, politics, government, and public affairs, suggested I start a blog.

And now, on this 9th anniversary, I am proud to report that there have been exactly, with this article I am now writing, 5,700 entries over the past 3,287 days, which means an average of 1.734 entries per day.

In reality, in the beginning, I did not contribute entries on a regular, every day, basis, but in recent years, there have been very few days when I did not contribute at least one entry, and many days I contributed multiple entries, so have arrived today at 5,700 articles, an average of 633 entries per year.

Along the way, I have been blessed with many readers who have contributed their comments and their articles from various sources to this blog, and I have been fully appreciative of their loyalty and passion to the progressive causes I have long committed myself to over my career and life.

And I have been fortunate, being semi-retired from college teaching for six years, but still teaching part time, to have had the extra “free time”, to have had the opportunity to write my Presidential Assassinations book, now out in paperback, which came along as a query from Rowman Littlefield, a sudden blessing four years ago this month.

And the book has led to increased lectures locally in South Florida; the opportunity for interviews on the book and on American politics for numerous radio stations and C Span; and the fantastic opportunity to write at this timing 68 articles on History News Network.org, with four of them being picked up by Time Magazine and three by Newsweek Magazine for republication, with all of my contributions listed on the right side of the blog.

And also, I have listed many different sources that any reader can click on and go to important websites in history, politics, government, and public affairs, which I gather have been useful to many readers.

So on this 9th anniversary, I pledge myself to a continuation of my commitment to work on this as long as I am able to do so, and welcome all my readers along for the ride!

Notice To My Followers: All Of My Interviews And Articles Are Found On Right Side Of The Blog!

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Having just come off two radio interviews this week, one about my Assassinations book, and one on the Trump Presidency, I wanted to make sure my readers and followers are aware that all of my interviews and published articles are on the right side of the blog.

The most recent interview today on the Trump Presidency will be up in the next few days, and I have been fortunate enough to have found a few media outlets that have given me the opportunity to be on their shows multiple times, which I greatly appreciate.

I will continue to have interviews, and plan over time to have more articles, with 66 on History News Network in the past 18 months, and reprints on Time and Newsweek of some of these articles.

I greatly appreciate those who follow me and pay attention to these great opportunities I am blessed with, to share my views, along with my work on the blog itself!

I am also on Facebook and Twitter–under my name and the blog name and Assassinations name on Facebook,and under polithist on Twitter, so feel free to follow me and become a “friend” on Facebook.

Thank you very much!

45 Years Since The Watergate Scandal, And My Visit To The Richard Nixon Presidential Museum And Library, As Trump Scandal Metastasizes!

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I finally have made it to the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, California, while on my week long vacation in Los Angeles, California.

This blogger has spent his entire teaching career, beginning in 1972 when he started teaching his first class just eleven days before the Watergate break-in on June 17, 1972, surrounded by Nixon, who I despised at the time, and analyzing and evaluating Nixon over the rest of his life, and in the 23 years since his death in 1994. I also had a sabbatical period where I did a lot of reading and reflection on the 37th President.

It can be said that the half century from Nixon’s first election to Congress in 1946 to his death in 1994, is the Age of Nixon. One cannot fully understand American history since 1945 without addressing the positive and negative legacy of Richard Nixon.

Many would say that Nixon was the most significant and influential President of the years since World War II, and still has a role in our lives in 2017, with all of the accomplishments he had, often forgotten in the cloud of the Watergate Scandal.

And with Donald Trump facing likely removal from office due to scandal and abuse of power, it makes it incumbent upon us to compare Trump to Nixon, as I did before the election in an article on History News Network, found on the right side of my blog. Nixon shines in so many ways, as he was a very intelligent, perceptive, experienced political leader, unlike Donald Trump. But Nixon also had demons which undermined his ability to be successful, so he ranks in the mid 20s among our Presidents, and is seen by many as a failure, due to the fact that he faced certain impeachment and removal from the Presidency, if he had not resigned in disgrace in August 1974.

My impressions of the Nixon Library and Museum are that after much work to change the tone and exhibits of the museum, originally not accepted as legitimate, now the ability to recognize the truth of Richard Nixon’s life is possible, and I would highly recommend everyone visiting Southern California to visit and reflect on the Nixon historical role in our history. I would say that the Nixon Library has succeeded in presenting the complex aspects of Richard Nixon, both good and evil.

13 Years Since Ronald Reagan’s Death, And My Visit To The Reagan Museum And Library

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Yesterdat, June 5, was the 13th anniversary of the death of President Ronald Reagan, and guess where this blogger was!

I finally made it to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley, California, as part of my week long vacation to Los Angeles. I spent the entire day at the museum.

Ronald Reagan was certainly a very influential President, who everyone liked, even if one did not agree with his agenda and his policies.

Never a fan of Reagan in office, and believing that conservatives have distorted the reality of the Reagan Presidency, it was very revealing to visit the magnificent museum, which is the largest in total space of any Presidential library.

Of course, like any Presidential library and museum, the tendency is to glorify the life and historical record of such President. However, I wish to point out that I was surprised that the Reagan Museum and Library did not discuss any of the four Reagan children, from Reagan’s two marriages, and made no mention of actress Jane Wyman, Reagan’s first wife, with whom he had his first two children. I wonder how Reagan’s three surviving children, Michael from Wyman, and Patti and Ron Jr from Nancy, feel about that!

I can say that I have thoroughly enjoyed this visit, and that it has added to my understanding of Ronald Reagan, and that it will assist me in teaching and lecturing in the future on the 40th President. And as I write today, I also mark exactly 45 years since I walked into my first time teaching a class, on June 6, 1972, which turned out to be 11 days before the Watergate break in that brought down Richard Nixon, whose Presidential library and museum I am visting tomorrow, June 7!

And I wish to point out that I wrote an article on History News Network last year, comparing Reagan to Donald Trump, with Reagan coming out shining by comparison, and it can be found on the right side of the blog.

A Half Century Since The Six Day War Of Israel Against Arab Nations In 1967

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It is now a half century since the Six Day Arab-israeli War of June 5-10, 1967.

Israel was able to overcome Egypt, Jordan, and Syria, and gain control of East Jerusalem, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, the Sinai Desert, and the Golan Heights.

Israel has had to engage in war since, and lost territory to Egypt in the 18 day Yom Kippur war in October 1973.

It has also had to engage in conflict with the Palestinians and their engagement in terrorism and warfare over the past half century, with the creation of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) after the Six Day War.

The Sinai Desert, the Gaza Strip, and parts of the West Bank have been returned, but much of the West Bank, along with the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem remain under Israeli control, and the tensions in the area remain high.

This author wrote a study of the US-Israeli relationship from Harry Truman to Donald Trump, worthy of your attention, with the publication recently on History News Network, and then republished by Newsweek, and both versions are on the right side of my blog.