Thursday September 19, 2019
412 Days until the 2020 election and 494 days until the Inauguration
The week isn’t over and the crimes just keep coming. I think if our forefathers had any idea what would be wrought, they might have rethought a few things.
When Cornwallis surrendered to Washington the band played, “The World Turned Upsidedown.” It seems we are in a Midsummer’s Nightmare.
We have the second amendment being used to shield psychopaths and spread fear throughout our population.
We have an administration that ignores the law and Congress seems unable to do much about it.
We have a president who lurches from one self imposed disaster to the next without understanding or caring the consequences.
Every time one thinks it can’t get worse, it does.
The latest problem is a whistleblower whose report is not being turned over to the proper authorities. Big deal you say? Well, yeah, it is. In this case it appears that what the case is about is that the president promised Putin something. It is so outrageous, so treasonous that a career intelligence official put his career on the line. That’s saying something. But wait, it gets worse. And more perverse. (Worse – perverse? I should be a rapper.)
Such a whistle blower complaint should be turned over to Congress within seven days. That did not happen. The whistle blower then got the word to Congress and the head of the House Intelligence Committee asked the head of intelligence (the DNI) WTF? Guess what? The DNI said he’s not turning it over. Okay, why not? Well here’s where it gets perverse. A complaint has to be turned over within seven days if it is deemed credible and an immediate threat. It was so deemed. However, the head of DNI said he doesn’t think so, therefore he’s not turning it over. What makes this perverse is that the law is not subject to judicial review. This was put in so that the complaint had to be turned over without interference from the administration or agency involved. However, the Trump folks have taken it as an excuse not to turn over the complaint and now Congress will have to sue to get the complaint, but the admin can say, “No, no, no! No judicial review. Ha ha.”
It’s a similar game to what Corey Lewandoski and the Republicans tried to play this week at his hearing.
Well, how serious is this?
According to intelligence types, other than threatening our system of government, our democracy, …
Yeah, see, we have this system of “checks and balances.” That’s what allows our system of government to function and to not allow someone to run wild and do whatever they want without consequence. It turns out, we are discovering in a real life civics lesson, that it depends on people acting in good faith and respecting the ideas behind the laws and ideas that our nation was founded on. What do you do if you get a bull in the China shop situation where none of this is understood? It’s not clear if our democracy can withstand such a battering. If the president, in league with his party, decides to circumvent the rules and procedures what can the general population do?
In other countries this has led to revolution. How nasty it gets depends on how desperate the population is. However, violent revolution generally flames out and a strong man (or woman) comes to power and thing are worse than before.
Will this bring Trump down? Who knows. Typically, (or the words used often “in any other administration” ) the Attorney General would be given Contempt of Congress citations (or whatever they call it) and the AG would bring charges. But not this guy! He’s acting as the personal attorney for Donald Trump. Without that check in place what do we the people do? It’s not clear.
Moving on.
We are on the verge of war in the Middle East. A situation that was created by this president’s idiocy and bluster. Okay, neocons you got what you’ve been asking for, how’s it working out for ya?
Before we jump into the details let’s remind ourselves that the last time this kind of situation came up the neocon VP got us into a war in Iraq, which destroyed that country and put Iran at the throat of Saudi Arabia. We are still trying to clean up that mess.
But now? Well Obama and Hillary had what was considered the best ever negotiated and effective nuclear deal with Iran. Of course, the presidential candidates for the Republicans in 2016 puffed out their chests and said without anything to back it up, what a terrible deal it was, and how they would have been a lot tougher and they wouldn’t let Iran push the U.S. of A. around. So they got their wish. Trump pulled out of the deal. It’s not a treaty because Mitch McConnell and the rest of the Republicans in Congress wouldn’t vote for it. So it’s a deal, and as Mr. Art-of-the-Deal knows deals can be broken. So he broke it, about a year ago. So what’s happened?
We have no new deal with Iran, so Iran has started up it’s nuclear program again. The president and his lackeys have put sanctions on Iran. They are under some sort of delusion that Iran will come to the table and negotiate. The tough guys forget that Iran already came to the table and negotiated and that was what the Iran Nuclear Deal was all about. They aren’t coming to the table. Their economy is suffering big time. They seem to think they’ve got nothing to lose so they attacked tankers in the Persian Gulf, and now they’ve attacked Saudi Arabia’s oil facilities. Okay tough guys, “What ya gonna do?”
Well we know what Trump does. He backs down. He’s a bully and a chicken. He doesn’t have the guts to really do anything. He has no foreign policy. He has no national policy. He’s got nothing. He just caroms from one shelf of China to another in the shop. He twists his head this way and that, lots of plates fall and break. Then he charges off somewhere else. When asked about anything he uses the same set of adjectives to describe the situation, whatever it is. This situation is classified as “horrible.” (Women who disagree with him are “nasty.” Newspapers that disagree or say things he doesn’t like are “failing.” Actors that say things he doesn’t like “aren’t very good.” etc.)
Well Bunky, the analysis is you created it. You boxed yourself in. So what would happen in any other administration is the national security team would be convened and they would come up with assessments, options, and strategies for the president. But here? With this guy? First off, there is no national security team to convene. He’s either not appointed people and the slots are empty or they are filled with “acting” folks. And he’s shown he doesn’t care, know, read, believe anything he’s given from these folks preferring instead to learn from Ping, Putin, and Un.
So after months of Bolton and Fox News and whomever else puffing out their chests and talking tough the Iranians are calling the bluff.
Your choice Mr. president.
Uh, what choices do I have?
Beats the hell out of me sir.
Edward Kienholz was a sculpture back in the 60s. He did tableaus and installations. One of his famous ones was a reduced scale model of a famous trolley car restaurant called “Barney’s Beanery,” a well known little place in San Francisco. Much of his art was political or social statements. He did several pieces that had a similar theme. Look up “My Country ’Tis of Thee” and you will see politicians stepping around a barrel, dressed from the waist up, One hand is clutching an American flag, the other hand is reaching behind them to grab the man behind them’s scrotum and penis.
That’s kind of where we are right now. I mean it’s always been that way to some degree, but …
In other analysis, it seems that the election of Donald Trump can be considered not only a sign of the times but likely to happen again. In any close election the Republicans have an advantage, given the Electoral Collage, and they have a 65% chance of winning close elections. Not that this is really a surprise when you consider one county in California has more voters that all the empty states in the west.
This imbalance is not going to go away anytime soon.
To sum up this week so far we have seen two explicit reasons to impeach the president given the testimony of Mr. Lewindowski. Iran has attacked Saudi Arabia and basically put it out there as “What ya gonna do?” (Our president being so smart is waiting for the man that ordered the brutal assassination of a journalist to tell him whether we should go to war.) The administration in another ignoring of the law is refusing to turn over a whistle blower complaint that has been found to be credible to the Congress in direct violation of the law. Meanwhile more details of the military spending money at Trump’s failing golf course in Scotland are coming out, and more details about how much money the Saudis are spending at Trump hotels is also coming out.
So let’s see: 2 impeachable offenses via Lewindowski, Doorstep to war with Iran which would consume the whole Middle East, all of which was created by the president’s actions and he’s got nothing in the way of a solution. Ignoring the law. Foreign and domestic entities spending money at president’s businesses in direct violation of the Constitution. (Not the stay there, but the spending money there is the violation. The president is forbidden to enrich himself in any way from his office. He is only allowed to take a salary)
So many crimes. So little time.
412 Days until the 2020 election and 494 days until the Inauguration
PS Mud! (On the way to Dos Pilas)
Leave a Reply