Watergate Scandal

2017 Horrible Year Of Reversal, In Many Ways The Most Tragic Year For America Since 1968!

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In the past half century, since the tumultuous year of 1968, acknowledged by many scholars and experts as the most significant single year in American history since 1945 (the end of World War II), America has gone through much turmoil and tragedy. This includes Richard Nixon and Watergate; the end of the Vietnam War; the rise of terrorism in the 1990s, leading up to September 11, 2001; two other unwinnable wars in Afghanistan and Iraq; and the Great Recession of 2007-2009, which finally has led to full employment and an economic revival after nearly ten years, but with many Americans left behind.

It has also been a fifty year period of much progess toward civil and human rights amid massive social change , with the Barack Obama years being seen as a positive time in so many ways.

But now, 2017 has revealed that we are in a dramatic retreat from much of the reform and change that has gone on since 1968, and the nation and the world are in total chaos and anarchy, due to the rise of a truly Fascist wannabe, Donald Trump, who has clearly stolen the Presidential election of 2016 and is in process of destroying all of the positive changes of the past 50 years.

Domestic and foreign policy, and constitutional law is in revolution, and 2018 will likely be a continuation of the nightmare of 2017, but with the hope that at least Donald Trump will be forced out of office in some manner, not yet clear.

But the likelihood that Vice President Mike Pence will become the 46th President sometime in 2018, bodes ill for the future, with his extreme right wing evangelical conservative beliefs, which would make him more conservative and extremist than even the most conservative Presidents of the past century, Calvin Coolidge and Ronald Reagan.

So we who are progressives have a lot of work to do next year to attempt to bring America back from the brink of destruction perpetrated by a man who is the most evil President in American history; and a party which has tarnished the reputation historically of Abraham, Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and so many others who proudly carried the Republican mantle in the past 150 years until now.

It is time for progressives to fight with all their energy and strength to return this nation to the great advancements promoted by a century of Presidents and Congresses from the time of Theodore Roosevelt to Barack Obama.

Mike Pence And Spiro Agnew: Two Crooked Vice Presidents?

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It is seemingly a possibility that Vice President Mike Pence could be involved in coverup of Russian collusion in the 2016 Presidential Election, and that he has often lied about his involvement in that corrupt action.

Pence was the leader of the transition team for Donald Trump, and had to know about the illegal actions of Michael Flynn in that transition period, and in the 25 days that Flynn was National Security Adviser, before he was fired.

Pence is deeply enmeshed in the scandal that is being revealed by the investigation of Robert Mueller, and he may not survive to succeed Donald Trump, because he failed to keep himself separate from the emerging scandal.

This is very different than Gerald Ford, who insured by his words and actions that he could not be accused of any involvement in the Watergate Scandal under Richard Nixon.

Ford had replaced Spiro Agnew in the Vice Presidency under the 25th Amendment, with Agnew involved in conspiracy, bribery, extortion and tax fraud, having accepted payments from contractors during his time as Governor of Maryland and even the Vice Presidency itself, and resigned, having pleaded guilty to one felony charge of tax evasion.

So it could be that Mike Pence will go down in history as the second crooked Vice President forced out of office.

Pence is about to be interviewed by Robert Mueller, and Pence has had his own personal lawyer for months, so stay tuned as to what might happen that no one would ever have conceived when the Trump Presidency began.

Robert F. Kennedy, The “Un Trump”? Two Wealthy, Privileged People, And Their Diverse Evolution

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Two NBC/MSNBC anchors, Chris Matthews and Lawrence O’Donnell, have just published books on the life of Robert F. Kennedy, and on the Presidential Election of 1968, respectively.

Both books are well worth your attention, as they bring back a half century ago, when a wealthy, privileged person, Robert F. Kennedy, united white working class and minority working class people together in a time of tumult, making him a rare political leader.

He also attracted the support of wealthier liberals, and had the capability to unite the country in a time of the civil rights movement and the war in Vietnam.

Had he not been assassinated, RFK would likely have been the Democratic Party nominee, instead of Hubert Humphrey, and would have likely defeated Richard Nixon, and there would have been no Watergate scandal.

No one is saying that RFK would have been God, but certainly, the history of the United States would have been better with him than with Richard Nixon.

Now we have a leader of similar wealth and privilege, but with a totally different bent on every issue imaginable.

Donald Trump revels in dividing people, and using race, religion, and ethnicity to cause tumult and turmoil.

Donald Trump does not have a decent bone in his body, and sees everything in terms of the dollar sign.

Donald Trump has no concern for the average American’s life and future, and instead, promotes demagoguery and hate.

The damage he has done in the year since his election tomorrow, November 8, is so long lasting, that despite no legislative accomplishments, he has set back the nation in so many ways, often to before the years of the New Deal in the 1930s.

It is as if we are in a time warp, and back in the 1920s before the Great Depression and World War II.

And it is highly likely that the damage he has perpetrated in one year will lead to another Great Depression, social turmoil, and World War III, since he has no clue or understanding of domestic or foreign affairs, and only the top one percent will benefit from his destructive agenda.

So Robert F. Kennedy is indeed the “Un Trump”, but sadly, we have no one on the horizon at this moment who seems capable of emerging with the image and agenda of Robert F. Kennedy.

If we did find such a person, we would have optimism about the long range future of the nation, so the goal must be to find the right individual to lead the Democratic Party into the future, and return to the RFK commitment to social, economic, and political change.

Mueller Investigation Will End The Trump Presidency

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Special Counsel Robert Mueller is an exceptional prosecutor, a Republican, and someone not any smart person would want to tussle with.

Donald Trump’s Presidency will end as a result of the revelations that are forthcoming, including the unknown, obscure George Papadopoulos, who has pleaded guilty, and agreed to help the prosecution on Russian collusion and obstruction of justice.

It is always the unknown factor that reveals crimes, and Trump is already attacking Papadopoulos as a minor figure, insignificant, and a “liar’.

Imagine, the most magnificent liar in American Presidential history calls someone else a “liar”, a term he loves to use against everyone imaginable, instead of looking in the mirror at himself.

Trump is cracking up in the White House, ranting and raving, furious that he cannot get away with this as he has with his business dealings throughout his privileged life.

Mike Pence could also be in trouble, however, as he remained very close to Paul Manafort, even after Manafort left the Fall campaign months before the election, and could be implicated in lying, along with his running of the transition period, and should have known about the Russian collusion of General Michael Flynn.

This scandal will dwarf the Nixon Watergate and related scandals, and will make Trump perceived as the most corrupt President in American history by far!

Constitution Day: 230 Years And In Danger From Donald Trump In 2017, But The Constitution Will Survive!

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Tomorrow, September 17, is the 230th Anniversary of the signing of the Constitution by 39 delegates at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.

The so called “Founding Fathers” brought about a document that was not perfect, but has survived through the crises of the Civil War; the Great Depression; the two World Wars; the Watergate Crisis; and now faces the challenge of the most dangerous Chief Executive in American history bar none!

By comparison to Donald Trump, Richard Nixon was a choirboy, dangerous in many ways, but also accomplished in many ways.

Nixon contributed some real positive developments in his five and a half years as President from January 20, 1969 to August 9, 1974, while Donald Trump has accomplished essentially nothing, other than the adding of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court.

Trump has threatened constitutional norms, with his attacks on civil rights, civil liberties, the news media, the judiciary, the intelligence community, and the basic institutions of government, including the government agencies themselves, which he is trying to decimate in their effectiveness and even in their numbers, when more is needed in a growing nation with 325 million people.

Trump has threatened the security and safety of millions of Americans of minority religious and racial groups, and he has had the support of white supremacists, Neo Nazis, Neo Confederates, and the Ku Klux Klan, which he tries to equate with those opposed to these groups.

Trump has undermined our relations with our allies in Europe and Asia, and the tensions with North Korea have been increased by his reckless tweets and rhetoric, and the same goes for Cuba, Iran, Venezuela, adding to the potential for military intervention everywhere.

Our relations with our direct neighbors, Mexico and Canada, are at the worst in many decades, and our closest ally, the United Kingdom (Great Britain), is becoming more exasperated by Trump’s utterances. The same situation exists with Germany, France, South Korea, and Japan, and our major rivals, China and Russia are perplexed with Trump as well.France

There is great concern that Trump might use nuclear weapons, which no official other than the Secretary of State can even discuss with him directly under present policy, and Trump has the final say on that.

There is also concern that Trump could attempt to declare martial law if there was another September 11 type of attack by terrorists, suspending the Constitution and Bill of Rights.

And to top it off, Trump seems to many to have a form of dementia, maybe Alzheimers, or just mental instability that is often a problem with aging seniors, but having him in a position which could provoke world wide war and disaster is an alarming circumstance of massive proportions.

Trump is a danger, but we must have confidence that the Constitution will survive his threat, but we must all be vigilant, and be ready to react if any threat seems evident as imminent.

The worst thing we could all do is trust Donald Trump, and sit back and just accept whatever he does, so thank goodness for the free, independent news media!

Gerald Ford, The Right Person To Succeed Richard Nixon, But Is Mike Pence The Right Person To Succeed Donald Trump? NO!

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On this day in 1974, the nation was fortunate that Richard Nixon resigned, and Gerald Ford became President of the United States.

We needed someone like Gerald Ford to heal the nation after the Watergate Scandal, and Ford fit the situation very well.

A respectable member of the House of Representatives for 25 years, House Minority Leader for the last nine of those years, and Vice President by appointment for eight months under the 25th Amendment to the Constitution, we were fortunate that he was next in line for the Presidency, instead of corrupt Vice President Spiro Agnew, who would have been a disaster in the Presidency, dividing the nation even more than Richard Nixon.

Ford was controversial for pardoning Nixon one month into his Presidency, and it helped to cause his defeat, along with the strong right wing conservative challenge of former California Governor Ronald Reagan, but he had the right personality and instincts, and as a moderate conservative, was able to work with both parties, considering that the opposition Democrats controlled both houses.

Ford was an honest, decent man, and his wife Betty was arguably the most accessible and decent modern Republican First Lady, sharing her private turmoil with alcohol and breast cancer with the nation.

Gerald Ford lost a very close race to Jimmy Carter in 1976, so was the fifth Vice President not to be elected President, the first since Chester Alan Arthur in 1884, but he came to be admired and loved as he aged, and he ended up as the longest living President, when he died at age 93 years and 165 days on December 26, 2006, the same day of the year as Harry Truman died in 1972.

The longevity of Ford will be surpassed by George H. W. Bush if he lives to November 25, just three and a half months from now, and Jimmy Carter will pass Ford’s age on March 15, 2018, although if Bush continues to be alive, it will not break the record of longevity.

Now, however, Mike Pence would be the successor if Donald Trump is impeached and removed, or resigns from office, but Mike Pence is no Gerald Ford. Pence is much more extreme right wing conservative, unlike Ford, and is a religious extremist, promoting church and state combination in government, which is against the spirit of the Constitution and Bill of Rights. The policies and programs under Pence, while certainly likely to be somewhat different than Trump, would be dramatically different from those of Gerald Ford.

So one could wish that Gerald Ford could come back from the dead to be available to succeed Donald Trump, but sadly we are going to have to live with a President Pence at some point in the near future.

We can wish him luck, but be prepared to oppose him vigorously in the promotion of his right wing agenda, with less chaos, anarchy, and craziness, but still out of the mainstream of the American people and what they want the policies of our government to be in the future.

Donald Trump: The Liar Of All Liars, The Most In Presidential History!

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It is true that it is part of human nature that all of us lie in our daily lives.

We lie when we do not want to be honest about someone’s clothes, appearance or our private thoughts about them, when we are in their presence.

We lie at work, to get along with fellow employees, and to avoid antagonizing our supervisors, as we wish to avoid tension, and danger to our livelihood.

We lie, when we try to influence our teachers and professors, hoping to gain a better grade in a class.

We lie when we deal with relatives in order to keep the peace.

We lie when we have friends we do not wish to lose over minor disagreements.

In many other situations, we lie, as we pursue romantic interests.

So it is “normal” to lie, but hopefully, none of this lying is serious lying that undermines our protection of ourselves in society.

Hopefully, we are not lying to the extent that others can see right through our lies, and where our moral and ethical standing is compromised to our detriment.

Hopefully, we are not lying where it causes harm or even more to anyone, in the name of our own ambition.

But then there is Donald Trump, who is, the liar of all liars, the most in Presidential history by far!

Dwight D. Eisenhower lied about the U-2 Spy Plane Incident in 1960.

Lyndon B. Johnson lied about the Vietnam War in 1967.

Richard Nixon lied about the Watergate Scandal in 1973-1974.

Bill Clinton lied about the Monica Lewinsky Affair in 1998.

George W. Bush lied about Weapons of Mass Destruction in 2003.

All of these lies were horrendous, and undermined the record and reputation of the Presidents involved.

But none of these Presidents lied so early in his term, and not at the rate of five lies per day as an average, as shown by an analysis done by the New York Times of the first six months.

Donald Trump has lied about just about everything imaginable, much of it where he knows that we know he is lying, but he is incorrigible.

Donald Trump has made an art of lying, and carries along with him one third of the American people, who seem not to care, or simply be ignorant enough that they do not understand he is lying.

And this lying is going on with no major crisis having yet arisen, but much going on internally which we do not know about, due to national security, but will undermine our nation once we become aware of what Trump and his advisers are perpetrating that will cost American lives, and make the lives of millions of others worsen dramatically, due to the disease of lying excessively.

With only 24 percent trusting him, and 73 percent not trusting him in the latest CNN poll, Donald Trump has lost all credibility.

Donald Trump has become a massive liar, the liar of all liars, a chronic and habitual liar, a disease that undermines any possibility of success in his Presidency.

The Donald Trump Jr. Email Explosive Revelations Hastens The End Of The Trump Presidency On Accelerated Pace

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The Donald Trump Jr email scandal keeps evolving, and now it is up to EIGHT participants in the meeting, despite the fact that Trump’s son wanted to be “transparent” and provide all of the facts, but instead we have new revelations daily about the Russian participation in the meeting in June 2016, designed to undermine Hillary Clinton’s Presidential campaign.

Trump Jr comes across as a deceitful and massive liar, just like his father, and Jared Kushner, Jr’s brother in law and son in law of Donald Trump, looks more and more like a sleazy character, who now has changed his security clearance forms three times, and revealed he had contact with more than 100 Russians, many of them connected to Vladimir Putin.

It is becoming evident that this is a far greater and more dangerous scandal than Watergate, and one can imagine that Richard Nixon, in the after life, is watching, shaking his head, and wondering how Trump gets away with it, when he was unable to do so.

But it is also clear that the Trump Presidency is on an accelerated pace to its demise, with the likelihood of a resignation sooner, rather than later.

Trump cannot be enjoying being President, as he is under constant attack and criticism, rightfully so, but something he is not accustomed to in his privileged life span.

Now that the scandal is directly affecting his family, and the possibility of future indictments as a result, one can assume that while Trump is willing to throw any of his staff or cabinet “under the bus”, that is not true of his family.

In theory, Trump could pardon his son or son in law if they were in legal danger, as Bill Clinton pardoned his half brother, Roger Clinton, of drug charges on his record, right before Clinton left office.

Trump’s mental and physical state is eroding, as he looks drained and older in appearance after just six months in the White House, and his erratic emotional behavior is truly alarming, as he undermines the reputation of the Presidency every single day.

So I can see a scenario where Trump decides he has had enough, that no one can take away the fact that he has been the 45th President of the United States, and that he will always have his followers who will believe in him.

He will wish to fight another day from the sidelines, dividing America for the rest of his life, continuing his obnoxious public persona, making him the most divisive President ever in American history.

And I can foresee that Trump would use his pardon power to protect his family and a few close associates from legal jeopardy, resign after that, and then Mike Pence, likely, despite controversy, would pardon Trump from any judicial or legal action, copying the Gerald Ford model with Richard Nixon.

Of course this would insure that Mike Pence would finish the term, much under a cloud of his own involvement in the Russian collusion, but he could be facing investigation for his own possible statements and actions, and would be challenged for the nomination within the Republican Party. The Democratic Party would be the odds on favorite to win both houses of Congress in 2020, as well as the White House, ending this “national nightmare”, as Ford declared it after Nixon’s resignation in 1974!

Chaos, Anarchy, Tumult, Disarray, Fury, And Sniping In The White House: Unseen In All Of American History

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The Trump White House is in crisis, with chaos, anarchy, tumult, disarray, fury, and sniping going on constantly, unseen in all of American history, not even in the darkest days of Richard Nixon and the Watergate Scandal!

The Trump White House is fortunate that no major domestic or foreign crisis has emerged, because if it did, the reaction would be hard to predict, as there is total distraction, as the survival of the Presidency is at stake, with fighting among staff members, and even family members quite evident.

The Cabinet and top staff know they will be contradicted by their boss’s tweets, as he is very willing to “throw anyone under the bus”, as his own ego and narcissism rule over loyalty to hard working, committed staff, who if they were smart enough and considered their own survival and happiness, would resign en masse, leaving him in the lurch.

Trump does not deserve the loyalty or commitment of his appointees, and the split between his son Donald Trump Jr. and his son in law Jared Kushner is testing family loyalties too.

Donald Jr has caused a total crisis in the White House, with his decision to meet in June 2016 with Russians, who supposedly had “dirt” on Hillary Clinton, and brought along his brother in law with him, along with then campaign manager Paul Manafort.

The Russian “collusion” is clear, and could lead to charges of treason, along with other charges against the President, his son and son in law, and many others around the Trump circle.

Many are seeing the six month anniversary of the Trump Presidency a week from now, as a marker, and with a steady down hill descent in the next six months, if Trump even lasts that long.

And apparently, Vice President Mike Pence is trying cautiously to separate himself from the disaster, as he could be realizing that a Pence Presidency is more possible sooner, rather than later.

One scenario is that Trump would pardon his family members before resigning, and that Pence would then pardon him, a la Gerald Ford pardoning Richard Nixon in 1974.

How that would affect public opinion is hard to predict, including the Trump loyalists, who continue to live in a “parallel universe” of their own making, demonstrating how dangerous such ignorance and stupidity can undermine American democracy!

Good Fortune That Many Watergate Scandal Journalists And Investigators Are Still Alive And Able To Assist With Insight Into Trump Scandals

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It has been 45 years since the Watergate Scandal started to erupt, leading to the resignation of Richard Nixon 43 years ago.

Now that we are in the most dangerous constitutional crisis since Watergate, and actually more dangerous than that one was, it is good that many Watergate Scandal journalists and investigators are still alive, and able to assist with their insights and expertise into the Donald Trump scandals.

It is encouraging that Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, who exposed the facts about the Watergate break in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters, are still actively engaged in pursuing the truth.

Also, Dan Rather, formerly the CBS News anchor from 1981-2005, and Ted Koppel of ABC News and “Nightline”, are both still pursuing the facts, and providing their brilliant analysis on what they see as more concerning than even the Nixon scandals.

Several individuals who helped in the prosecution case. led by Archibald Cox and Leon Jaworksi, 35 years ago, also are still alive and well, and able to give their expertise on comparing Watergate to the Trump scandals, with the general conclusion that this present scandal is more dangerous, constitutionally, than what Nixon represented.

Most observers believe that were Nixon alive today, he would be shocked at what Donald Trump has said and done, wondering how he has been able to accomplish so much in his corruption, and how he must be held accountable for his transgressions.