Trump

Have you ever heard of a Koenigsegg?

It’s a Swedish “super car.” Street legal in the U.S., tops out at a little over 241 miles per hour, and costs $2.1M ( that’s “two point one million.”) There’s one owned by the son of the President of Equatorial Guinea. He has a $35M mansion in California and numerous other cars like Ferraris. He bought Michael Jackson’s glove. He’s got money. How did he and the family get their money? Oil. Who paid them? Exxon Mobil. At his confirmation hearings Rex Tillerson said that they hand a check over to the heads of lots of states, what they do with the money after that is up to them. Kind of like a block grant program, I guess. Well the Mbasogo family, the ruling family of Equatorial Guinea, what they have done for decades is to keep it. Meanwhile the general population lives in squalor. We’re talking tin roofs, cardboard or scrap wood siding and mud streets, if you can even call them streets.

The father of this playboy kid is well known for the use of imprisonment, torture, kidnappings, and arbitrary arrests, etc. Nice guy. Their constitution said he had to step down in 2011. He didn’t.

In an effort to curb such abuses of money not going to the people of a nation, groups have worked to have governments around the world pass laws that require extraction companies to reveal their payments to such individuals and nations. You’ll be surprised to know that extraction companies: oil, gas, and coal are rated the most corrupt in the world, cause ya know, ya gotta grease a few palms to get things done and then turn a blind eye to other things going on – that’s reality. Right? Come on. Everybody knows that.

Well, you’ll be happy to know that our Republican legislators yesterday were busy with their repeal efforts to lift the undue burden on corporations so the companies can get back to business without government interference by voting to get rid of our law that requires companies to reveal what they pay folks like Mr. Mbasogo and his son. It now goes to the Senate for passage.

Also Rex Tillerson was sworn in as Secretary of State. He couldn’t be a better pick for Vladimir Putin. Yes, he’s supposedly divested himself of his holdings or put them in a blind trust, do you think that he’s forgotten the five hundred billion dollar deal he did with Russia for his old company ExxonMobil? When it comes to keeping sanctions on Russia, which keep them in need of money from the west, do you think letting ExxonMobil drill in Russia and hand over a ton of money will make America Great Again? Just asking.

Oh yes, there are reports that Putin is again on the move in Ukraine.

Also, the Democrats did not show up for the committee votes for two of Trump’s cabinet nominees. This means that their nominations can’t go forward. What to do? Why suspend the rules and push them through to a full Senate vote. So Lying Steve Mnuchin and Double-Dealing Tom Price go to the Senate for a full vote. Okay, he’s not really lying is he? Just because he admitted for the record that he forgot to disclose $100M in Cayman Island accounts and that he wasn’t “completely truthful” about who owned that money he oversaw. Oh wait. That is lying? Who knew? And Tom Price didn’t double deal, not really, he just bought stock in companies days before he introduced legislation that directly helped those companies. Maybe that’s called insider trading? Maybe, he didn’t know that he was going to introduce that legislation? Maybe, he didn’t know that the legislation was going to directly help those companies? So many unknowns.

Meanwhile, Betsy DeVos, perhaps the most unqualified candidate for any cabinet position ever in the history of our country might get approved. She’s one vote away from not making it, which means she has at least one vote necessary to make it. Good times.

Meanwhile, Iran fired a ballistic missile, Michael Flynn had a press conference where he said Iran was “put on notice.” Then he left the room without taking questions. Questions like, “What does that mean?” Tough guy. One thing it doesn’t mean is that our military command in that area has gotten any change of status orders. Maybe, the White House doesn’t know we have a command center out there? Hard to say.

Trump has been busy. Yesterday, he threatened to invade Mexico, and hung up on the Australian Prime Minister. That will show them.

A CNN reporter contacted a department for comment on how some order would affect that agency. Sorry, I can’t remember which one at the moment. The order would directly affect that agency. CNN asked the typical “How?” and “Why?” type questions a reporter would ask to learn more. The department asked “What?” Apparently, they hadn’t been told. The “Who?” was obvious. That would be the White House. I think those folks should be fired (“You’re Fired!) because they didn’t tow the line. Kinda reminds me of the stories of James Brown who would change a routine in the middle of a performance and if a dancer didn’t pick up on it he’d fire them. Ow. Hold me back, Mr. Funky President, it’s Getting’ Too Hot in Here! Yeah. What I say!

It seems more and more clear that Bannon is tightening his control over the president and the levers of power. In a positive note, apparently there’s a law that specifies who has to be on the National Security Committee. It includes some of the people kicked off. It remains to be seen if the president will abide by the law or if like President Mbasogo will ignore it.

As far as the Supreme Court nominee goes, Democrats are divided how to respond. Some say this is a stolen seat and unless the Republicans give Merrick Garland a hearing and vote then they intend to hold the seat open. Other Dems say two wrongs don’t make a right, but give us someone we can vote for. Trump says he told McConnell to suspend the rules of the Senate on the 60 vote threshold and go with a simple majority, known as the nuclear option. This will be an interesting test for the majority leader of the Senate, a place where he has spent most to his life. Will he screw over the tradition and rules of the Senate to get a nominee through or not?

He might be looking at the political landscape and how quickly it is changing. Protests in every state: red and blue, cold and warm, and in cities and towns: big and small. Political representatives are finding their local offices besieged by numbers they have never seen before. There are now polls that show the effect of all this as compared to the Tea Party at its height. The Tea Party at the time of its rise compared to the Women’s March both get about a 60 percent awareness of each movement in the general population with a few percentage points going in favor of the Women’s March. However, when you ask if you are in favor of each movement you get 29% for the Tea Party at its height compared to an over 60% favorability rating for the Women’s March and we are just seeing the beginning of this movement. It hasn’t reached its peak. There are questions of how long can this go on, will people get exhausted protesting? etc. It remains to be seen.

Meanwhile, Rex Tillerson will have his hands full when he gets to the Department of State. Over 1000 State Department personnel have registered their dissent through the official channel for doing so. The point of the dissent channel is that they are guaranteed no retribution. The White House has weighed in – Fire Them! Good luck Rex. At least he has experience with running a large organization.

In Saudi Arabia there’s a music video out with a very catchy tune. Women in burkas are singing, then they are doing all kinds of activities: like riding bikes and wearing day glo colored clothes. What are they singing? Something about “Men are the sickness” and “they are causing us pain” or something like that. The video has taken off around the Mid-East.

There is hope.
Don’t give up the fight.
Stay Vigilant.

1446 days to go

1449 days to go

So far we’ve had one or two Constitutional Crises depending on how you want to count. In fiction writing you always want to increase the stakes and the tension and this administration has been doing that, but in reality.

We’ve also had a selection of cabinet nominees who are by just about any measure the most unqualified group that’s ever been put forward by a president. Makes me wonder when “the really good people” are going to be put forward. Most of the nominees have a history of not liking the missions of the departments they’ve been asked to head and have in the past sworn to oppose them, dismantle them, and have actually fought against them. One nominee, Rick Perry, seemed to not understand what his department does. Most of these nominees have ties to businesses that would benefit if those departments didn’t demand that they do things. Things that improve the well being of this country. Things like not destroying our air, water, land and the planet. But they got to make a profit right?

So much for the really terrific people pledge.

This is a review of what happened yesterday and I wish yesterday had been Monday, not Tuesday, because then I could have called it Mangled Metaphor Monday, which has a nice assonant ring to it. Unfortunately, I’m Left with Mangled Metaphor Tuesday (MMT) or Terrible Analogy Tuesday (TAT) one sounds like a designer drug made from bath crystals and the other from an odd sexual practice, but that’s what we’re stuck with.

Yesterday was breathtaking. Not as in “beautiful” but as in “OMG can you believe this sh*t! ???” It was kind of subtle at first, but when you sit back and consider the entirety of it, “It blows your mind, Man.” (Thanks Cheech.)

I was sitting in the car dealership while getting the cars inspected and I was watching the committee considering Betsy DeVos for Education Secretary. When I first started listening the Democratic senators were making their arguments as to why they found her wanting. I’ll leave their reasons alone for a bit while I go to Richard Burr (R-NC) and his thoughts on why her nomination should go forward. He, to me, epitomizes what is wrong with Washington. Years ago, when he was my senator and the Dems were in charge. The Senate Armed Forces Committee was meeting. Apparently, if you go past 2 o’clock or within two hours of quitting time (not sure which it is but it has something to do with two hours.) The chairperson, in this case Lisa Murkowski, has to ask if the members of the committee would mind staying. In other words Do you mind working a full day? On this day a front line general fighting in either Iraq or Afghanistan was on the docket to testify. He needed to get back to the war effort, you know to keep America safe and all that.

What do you think Senator Burr’s response was? “I don’t have any objection personally, but some in my party do, so I must object.”

I usually try to stay away from ad hominem arguments (i.e. personal attacks) but I make an exception for this person, because as I said he represents what is wrong in Washington: a mealy mouthed, spineless hunk of protoplasm doing his masters’ bidding. I hope he never visits Russia because Putin would make him his lap dog.

Burr needed to stay in the good graces of Mitch “The Turtle” McConnell so he could stay on the Veterans Affairs Committee and do the good work of blocking every bill trying to provide aid to veterans with his wimpy reasoning of “Gee, I’d love to but we can’t afford it” response. War? oh sure no problem.

Let’s listen to Senator Burr’s response to the Democrats’ objections to DeVos. Here’s the basic shuck and jive, “Gosh, here’s a woman who saw a problem (Detroit schools) and tried, really tried, and you don’t want to give her a chance? She even contributed some of her own money, and Senator Franken I find it unconscionable that you went on The Rachel Maddow Show and said you Democrats had been on a retreat and came up with a strategy to block her nomination and all the nominees.”

Pretty devastating right?

If you’re going to take on one of the best comedy writers of one of the most successful satirical comedy TV shows of all time I’d advise you to at least have your facts straight. But before we get to Senator Franken’s response let’s hear from Senator Johnny Isakson (R-GA). Take it away Johnny!!!

“Ya know, a person coming into a new job can’t be expected to know every little thing about that job. My wife’s been a teacher for 48 years and I pledge that I will personally help Ms. DeVos with whatever she needs to learn.”

Well isn’t that special? (to quote Church Lady) The Democrats’ main problem with Ms. DeVos was that she knew nothing: nothing about the job. So old Johnny would be mighty busy. He’d have to object to staying a full day because he’d have to run over and explain to Betsy what was what and we have no idea what he knows about education. Was he offering to run between his teacher wife and Ms. DeVos with whatever he had learned? Hard to say.

Somewhere along the line the Democrats must have been accused of not liking charter schools because Ms. DeVos was a big advocate of them. At least if they were Christian and she had a stake in the business, and if it drained money from the public schools.

Here were the Democrats concerns:

• Warren: DeVos has no public school experience, She didn’t answer any of the questions satisfactorily. She has no loan experience and the Department of Education oversees a one trillion dollar student loan program.
• Franken: Echoed Warren’s concerns and elaborated that not only could DeVos not answer a single question competently but she showed no understanding of the basic education issues facing the country.
• Murphy: (I think it was Murphy) Yes, DeVos had done some charter school work in Detroit, which had funneled money out of the Detroit public schools leaving them worse off, and which he believed she had a financial interest in those charter schools. Those schools performed more poorly than the Detroit Public Schools. (That’s saying something if you are doing worse than one of the worst public school systems in the country btw imho.)
• Murray: Wanted to change the committee rules to come in line with other similar committees and demand three years of tax returns of any nominee. DeVos had not been properly vetted by the Ethics Committee and they still didn’t know the extent of her finances, especially in regards to for profit charter schools. (Republican chairman Alexander said she had given the committee some paper with numbers on it that were her stated income etc. so he was satisfied.)

Another Democratic Senator whose name I didn’t catch has a son with special needs. She said she was shocked to learn that DeVos didn’t know much, if anything, about the Child with Disabilities Act.

Several of the Democratic Senators made a point of saying they weren’t opposed to charter schools as the Republicans had suggested. Some had some very good well functioning ones in their states. DeVos had drained money out of the public school system to put money into religiously based charter schools that didn’t do a good job. Also, the senator with the special needs child pointed out that if you were forced to enroll in a charter school because the public school didn’t have the facilities for your child you had to give up your rights for that child to get the care they needed from the public school, and if you couldn’t afford the charter school because the voucher you got didn’t cover the tuition completely and you were poor and couldn’t make up the difference – too bad, so sad.

Then Senator Franken responded to Senator Burr. (This was the only sort of discussion that I saw. Otherwise, it was Senators talking into microphones with no response from the other side.) What did Al have to say to Richard? Well, yes he had been on The Rachel Maddow Show, and he was asked a specific question and he has the transcript if the senator would like to see it. The question he was asked was had the Democrats decided on a strategy to block all the nominees? He had told her, “No.” In fact, as evidence he had already voted for three of the nominees. The problem with DeVos was she not only knew nothing about the job, what it entailed, or how to deal with it, she had a demonstrable record of failure in the area of education. As far as Democrats going on a retreat and coming up with a strategy. Yes, they had done that. He asked, “Have you ever done that?” This was the only time I heard laughter and it came from the peanut gallery.

I was wondering if they were laughing thinking about the time Obama, early in his Presidency, went to a Republican retreat in Baltimore to try and work with them, to get their support. This is where I first saw the work of Paul Ryan. He was praised as one of the up and coming stars of the Republican party, the boy wonder. He had created a budget, and that was printed up and on display at this retreat. I remember Boehner holding it up to his chest like he was carrying a holy book, or maybe he wanted to make sure it would catch any bullets to the chest. Obama shows up and says, “Let’s work together.” Okay, fine. They’ve got this budget. Fox News is covering it live. What was it 440 Republicans to 1 Democrat? Obama says, “Great you got a budget. Let’s see it.” He flips to a page and reads. It says something like “We want to reduce the cost of government.” Obama says, “You can’t govern from this.” There’s silence. Fox News all of a sudden has something else to do and cuts away. It turns out Ryan didn’t include any numbers in his budget other than page numbers. This is the boy wonder who’s going to save the Republican party? God help them. Or was the laughter because they were thinking about the famous steakhouse conference before Obama got inaugurated where the leadership of the Republican party decided they would block and obstruct everything Obama tried to do? Screw the people. It’s hard to say. Franken went on to say, “If you don’t (have a strategy) you better.” It was left unsaid that the orange one was in the White House signing Executive Orders like he’s an emperor, not consulting with anyone.

This brings up the question of who actually wrote the executive orders?

Had the president seen them before he signed them? Why was he reading part of them out loud before signing?

Could he even see them? It had been reported that he has a fear of stairs, but that might be explained by poor eyesight. He had to grab hold of the British Prime Minister at one point when walking down a flight of stairs.

Now we get to the Muslim ban. It’s not a Muslim ban it’s an immigration order, remember? I love boy wonder Ryan’s statement, “We need to pause to get it right.” Get what right? What plans do you have to do that? You know to get it right?

There is, was, no problem. (Except and until the mind of Donald Trump said there was and lo there was a problem. And the Donald said there was a problem and the minions said Yes, there is a problem. What they asked “is the problem?”)

So I’m betting after a pause they’ll announce they’ve solved the problem or they’ll double down and put us on red alert or some such and throw a few more countries on the list (but none where Trump has business ties.)

Then it came out that Republican staffers has volunteered to work on the immigration ban and they had signed non-disclosures. According to a lawyer who had actually read the EO (Executive Order) and argued against it in court, he said the order was vague and it wasn’t clear whether it applied to green card holders or not. See, this is the funny thing about lawyers, they read. Then based on what they read they go into court and say, “According to what I read.” Strange huh? If there was a team of Republican staff volunteers working on this EO and the best they can do is come up with a vague statement that a judge, and all the lawyers in the room aren’t sure of its meaning then I’d say they need to go back to law school or something. Wait? What? They didn’t actually write the order they just advised? Maybe, Steve Bannon is getting a little OJT? (On the Job Training) Who knows. The one person I’m sure didn’t write the order was the president.

It will be interesting to see how the new temporary Attorney General (AG) has his lawyers argue the ban, and even more interesting how Jeff Sessions would argue it, if he gets appointed, because there is now a tape of Sessions questioning the woman who was fired if she had to choose between backing the President or following the law, which would she do? She said she’d follow the law. She did and got fired.

Here’s another interesting tidbit. Usually, executive orders are created within a department and sent to the President. Typically, the President and the departments talk about how to word something and how they, the department, will carry out the order. Not now. Not this White House. I’m guessing Bannon writes it up, Trump has a big ceremony and signs it and then they give it to the department. If the department says, “What is this?” They’re fired. Yeah, run the White House like the reality show you used to host. And what’s up with that weird gold giant star medallion with green bunting behind the president when he’s doing his little signing ceremonies? It looks like Kremlin throwaway stage props.

It’s interesting how the right wing talking heads and websites say if she couldn’t do the job she should have resigned. What she did, was her job. She showed courage, moral fortitude, and backbone. Something oddly missing in most of the Republicans elected to Congress. (Speaking of which where is “Make ‘em Squeal” Jodi Ernst? I haven’t heard a peep or a squeal out of her.)

It’s frightening to think that perhaps our best chance to save our democracy lies in the hands of “sane Republicans.” I’m not sure there are many. I’ve never thought much of Lindsey Graham until recently, but he’s leading the way in decency with humor, conviction, and spinal strength.

Supreme Court Nominee, anyone?

Trump was given 21 names of folks from a religious right wing radical Christian group. All willing to overturn Roe vs Wade.

In a stage setting reminiscent of the Apprentice or the NFL Draft night Donald picked Gorsuch. The argument given for why we should support him was, “He’s the best of the bunch.” i.e. He’s not as bad as . . . But he’s still bad!

Then there’s the laughable statement from Mitch “The Turtle” McConnell that “the American people won’t stand for” (in this case) holding the seat open for four years. Really Turtle Man? You were willing to hold it open for almost a year, and pledged that if Hillary Clinton was elected you’d hold it open for another four. There’s a term for what you are; something about a sack of excrement lying on the floor. No wait, that’s not quite right.

Gorsuch is the son of Anne Grouch Buford, former director of the EPA under Reagan. Nixon signed the EPA into law with the purpose of cleaning up our air, water, and toxic waste sites. If you need to know why this was a priority look at pictures of downtown LA or the NYC skyline in the 1970s. They were clouded in a brown haze. Reagan came in on a wave of “too much regulation” and Anne Buford was put in charge of the EPA to do something about it. She proposed cutting the budget by 45% and gutting as much of the agency as she could. I’ll bet that made for interesting dinner table conversation for little Neil. But that’s not him. What’s he done? In a single word – Hobby Lobby. (How many of you picked up on the fact that it was two words?)

You know Hobby Lobby? Those nice Christian folks who have been on the forefront of pushing a radical Christian agenda? They had been paying their employees health care for years, decades, and then came that devil incarnate, muslim black man and his right wing Heritage Foundation based health care system and all of a sudden they dug deep and found even more religiosity.

“Certainly, you can’t expect us to trample on our new found religious principles because of the law?” Gorsuch agreed and it went to the Supreme Court where they won and the American people lost.

(I’m sick and tired of these deeply religious people of whatever stripe who think because they deeply believe something they have a moral duty to inflict it on the rest of us. There was an internet meme with one of the Downton Abbey ladies pictured and it said, “Religions are like penises. It’s all right to have one, but don’t go waving it around in public.”) I might add don’t hit me over the head with it or slap my cheeks with it and try and make me swallow it. This does make me think that there could be a new line of work: Religious Porn. Wow, think of the ad in the church bulletin, “Have you considered being a religious porn star? Immediate openings for our full length feature movie . . .” But I digress.

Let’s quickly review the recent history of Supreme Court nominees. There’s been lots of talk about good olde Anthony Scalia. What an affable guy he was. How he and Ruth Bader Ginsberg were buds, etc. Have people forgotten “Argle Bargle” and other quotes?

I suggest folks go to the Supreme Court website and read the Heller decision. That’s the D.C. gun law case. The decision starts with the dissenting opinion, which is clearly written. It gives a good history of gun laws, not only in this country but in other countries at the time of the writing of the Second Amendment. It makes several cogent arguments for upholding the D.C. law. Then comes Scalia’s majority opinion. It starts by disagreeing and arguing with the dissenting opinion. It wanders into some of the most tortured grammar and sentence structure I’ve come across and then it winds up with “It is so ordered.” Talk about “Argle Bargle” What is so ordered? What does it refer to? I went back and reread but ultimately gave up.

Recent Supreme Court appointees include:

• Roberts – asked by W to find a good nominee and ta da he came up with himself (in the Cheney school of appointments.)
• Alito – known as a great legal mind. He gave W legal cover saying that he could make signing orders that contradicted the laws he was signing because there were areas of this that had never been legally examined. Boom, on the court.
• Thomas – Papa Bush wanted a black man. He got one. One that was accused of sexual misconduct. There was a woman waiting to testify to them about this but somehow the Senate didn’t know about her and confirmed him. What? This is when I learned we the people may have better intel than our elected officials. (Remember Papa Bush being stunned by the use of barcodes? Years and years after they had been in use?)

Many have pointed out that Scalia was an “originalist” that is he tried to ferret out the original intent of the Founding Fathers. So I suggest that if we want to keep his flame alive we got back to original intent and only have six justices or if you want to get radical move to seven as the court did a little later on.

There’s so much more but how much can you or I take in a day?

As a cheap sci-fi movie would no doubt say, “We must remain vigilant!” Or would that be a greek fictionalized drama?

Still to come, but it will have to wait: McConnell’s wife. We haven’t heard from her since Enron. There’s also Munchkin or however you spell his name. He admitted he wasn’t completely truthful at his confirmation hearings. That money in the Cayman Islands? The ones that were almost all for non-profits and churches? Yeah, well not exactly true. There’s a lot of foreign money in there. Hum. There’s a word for not being truthful, completely or otherwise. It escapes me at the moment. When a person isn’t being truthful they are said to be … What’s the word?

Oh boy, I don’t know where to begin. I remember civics lessons in grade school and citizenship merit badges as a Boy Scout. The grade school class was every other Friday for one period and the merit badges were boring and something you had to get through to advance. I learned there was a house and a senate and each state had two senators and a bill needed to pass both houses of congress. That was about it. I grew up in a strongly Republican right wing town. I didn’t know it was right wing until much later but they had the strongest chapter of the John Birch Society, which at the time boasted a fancy copier machine that could also collate as it copied. The head of the society was Robert Welch of Welch’s jam and grape juice. He called Eisenhower a Communist and I’ve never bought anything named Welch’s since that time. Boy oh boy, how times have changed.

We’ve still got those folks screaming they are patriots and that if you’re not with ‘em they’re agin you. They’ve gotten much better organized and their efforts are better directed by the same hidden money interests. Not different, the same, although there are some new players, but the old guard is still there in the form of the sons and daughters of the original ones.

I’ve learned more about the Constitution, my rights, and how our democracy was formed and how it is designed to work in the last few decades then I ever thought I’d need to know. But yesterday I learned a very disturbing thing – how Trump won. I posted the article but to recap: big money and big data combined to create profiles of 200 million Americans, down to psychological profiles, and political likes and dislikes. They used that information to individually target voters and sent them specifically designed messages framing those messages in carefully crafted words, pictures, videos, headlines and even colors to elicit the response they wanted. If you drive an American car you’re more likely to vote for Trump. In Little Havana in Miami they sent out a video showing Hillary saying something that those folks wouldn’t like in an effort to cause doubt and keep them away from the polls. They targeted 17 states in their efforts, and you know what? It worked. Before they were on Trump’s campaign they were on Cruz’s. People wondered why Cruz did so well in rural Wisconsin. Well, wonder no more. Those folks got targeted messages that fired them up.

People running a traditional get out the vote campaign were caught flat footed as is evidenced by the sweeping victories of people who stand for things most voters don’s agree with.

Okay, so that’s one thing, and if it isn’t countered in kind by the next election cycle we are in deep do-do.

Moving on, did anything else happen yesterday? Oh yeah, ten days into his presidency Mr. Trump has managed to create a Constitutional crisis of his own making, one that could have been easily avoided. The question for many is “Did he choose to do this, or was he unaware, or is this all part of the grand scheme of Bannon to destroy our government as he pledge in 2013 that he wanted to do?” It’s unclear at this point in time.

As most of you probably know by now Team Trump fired the acting Attorney General because she issued a directive to her attorneys not to defend his Muslim ban because she thought it unconstitutional and asked for clarification from the president. Instead of explaining their position they fired her, which left a gap in some important legal stuff. Apparently, she was the only person who could sign a certain kind of wire tap request. Trump got another person to step in temporarily until his AG nomination is approved, which is severely in doubt, but as I understand it to be able to issue these wire tap requests you have to be approved by the Senate. Some have said there are ways around this, I don’t know.

Immediately, historians and constitutional scholars were roused to the phone to explain, enlighten and clarify. Parallels were drawn to Nixon’s “Saturday Night Massacre,” which I remember in my early 20s as happening but didn’t really pay much attention to. Nixon’s original AG, John Mitchell, had been relieved of his duties and a new AG was appointed whom Nixon told to fire the Special Watergate Prosecutor because the prosecutor had demanded the Watergate tapes and Nixon knew if they came to light he was guilty and would be impeached. That AG, Elliot Richardson refused, was fired and replaced by another who refused and was fired and replaced by Robert Borke who did the dirty deed. All on one Saturday night. Ah, Robert Borke and I thought all that happened to him was he didn’t get appointed to the Supreme Court.

So the historians filled us in on the history but the Constitutional scholars helped with the meaning and consequence. The significant thing is that this was brought about, whether intentionally or not, by actions in the White House. The Attorney General is charged with upholding the law not doing the bidding of the politician who appointed them. A point that seems to be lost on the White House. Additionally, it was noted that the State Department has a special dissent procedure which states that you can dissent via this process and that there will be no repercussions. If for instance you don’t think you can carry out a request because you think it’s illegal, like say waterboarding. However, you have to sign your name so they can respond. This request goes directly to the secretary of state skipping the whole chain of command. One hundred people have filed dissents since this President was elected, very unusual. So when Mr. Spicer said if people in the State Department can’t do their bidding they should quit. He obvious is oblivious or unknowing of how things work. Maybe they want everyone in the government to swear loyalty to Mr. Trump?

The people who have left the Department of State, career diplomats, which has been described as a purge, and if you look at the organizational chart the top three levels appear to be gone. They are getting down to the level that the people who issue passports and visa will be next to go.

Back to the Constitutional crisis, historians used the word unprecedented. Yes, there are similarities to The Saturday Night Massacre but that was a situation brought on by circumstances outside of the White House. This was created by the White House, whether intentional or not. (I already said that didn’t I? Oh well.) There is a fascinating thing to consider: do Trump and Bannon want chaos, or is it just incompetence and naivety? Hard to know at this point. Is this all a grand plan to install Pence as president, and if so don’t you wish Kaisich had stepped up to the plate when asked? I think both governors are sneaky and deceitful when it comes to the ways they shut down women’s clinics in their states but at least Kaisch seems rational and not imbued with religious zealotry.

All this happened before 10 pm last night, and then . . . and then . . . Trump fired the head of immigration, the guy in charge of airport security. If they thought everything was going so well at the airports as they professed why fire this guy and put in someone three levels down, a junior assistant something or other? Oh wait, he’s in charge of the deportation and enforcement? Oh maybe he doesn’t have any qualms about locking up citizens and sending them to black sites or other countries, stay tuned.

Lastly, there was a lawyer who was part of the team that argued for a stay on the Muslim ban. BTW if you are keeping score, as of last night the White House is 0 for 5 on court appearances about the Muslim ban. (That makes the WH Losers!!!) This lawyer, a young fellow, was part of the team that argued in New York about the ban. He said that the lawyers for the government offered no reasons for the ban because they hadn’t been informed about it. Surprise, surprise, the White House issued an executive order and didn’t consult the people who would have to defend it in court. Nor did they consult with the people who would have to enforce it. Apparently the head of Homeland Security was asked about it while it was being announced, when he was on a helicopter. So I guess you could say he heard about it, but had no input.

Additionally that lawyer said that the wording was so vague that it was not clear if it applied to Green Card holders or not, as well as other individuals with other statuses. This despite Reince Pribus told Chuck Todd in his Sunday morning “if you’d just stop talking and listen” statement (or Steven Bannon’s “shut up and listen” to the press because you lost and you’re the opposition. Really? The press is the opposition party? Apparently,lawyers reading the words from the White House on this order couldn’t figure out exactly who it applied to, but the intent was clear, and that is apparently an important part of interpretation. This because of Mr. Trump’s statement both as president and as candidate, and because of his actions as president.

One of the constitutional folks asked about this said that this was “an unforced error” on the part of the White House. The last time such a thing happened in our history, ten months later the President resigned. Things move faster now.

I remember a Peter Sellers’ movie where he played a detective. It might have been one of the Pink Panther, Inspector Cloiseau movies, but whatever it was there came the final big scene where everyone is gathered in the drawing room and Peter as the old detective recounts what has gone on and who said what. After relating what three people said they did Sellers gets visibly angry and emphatically asks, “Why are they lying?” The hitherto fore genial detective is enraged. He is obviously being lied to, why? Up until that point in the movie I doubt anyone realized they were lying. It’s not so subtle in today’s world. Mr. Putin, who has been accused of many ham handed killings of his opponents, has asked that if there is any evidence of Russia interfering with the U.S. elections then they should come forward. At the time of that statement people brought up the fact that revealing exactly how we knew about this interference would play into Russia’s hand because they could figure out who told us and the Russians could eliminate him. Well, the other day a guy was sitting in a high level Russian meeting. The former MI6 agent who said his source was close to a Russian deputy. Well, this guy sitting in that high level Russian meeting was close to this Russian deputy. Folks came in threw a bag over his head and dragged him out of the meeting. The next day he was found dead in the back of his car. Authorities report that he died of a heart attack. You gotta be some kind of stupid to believe that. (Why are they lying to me?)

Sunday, yesterday, Reince Priebus (who names their kid Reince anyway?) was on both Meet the Press (MTP), and Face the Nation (FTN). In both interviews he was sitting in an office that had behind him a bronze sculpture of which I could only see the back half of the animal. It was a herbivore with a little tiny tail twisting up in the air. I’m guessing it was a buffalo, a bull buffalo, which is appropriate given what he went on to say in both interviews. Both Chuck Todd and John Dickerson wanted to know about the Muslin ban that held up people at U.S. airports and prevented some people from even getting on planes to come here. Well, first off it’s not a Muslim ban said Priebus. Really? says I. Hum, the president ran on putting in place a Muslim ban, issued statements wanting a Muslim ban, asked Rudy Guiliani how to legally do a Muslim ban and you say this isn’t a Muslim ban? Go on.

According to Priebus 326 thousand people entered the U.S. on that day and only 109 were detained for further questioning. On the next interview that number dropped to 324, no accounting for what happened to those 2,000 people, but 109 were held for further questioning and wouldn’t we, the American people want that? Apparently not, because apparently that isn’t what was happening. Priebus went on to say this was narrowly focused, which if it was then why make a big splashy seemingly wide net announcement? Why have agents not say if they are holding people? Why are they lying? Then the issue came up of holding up Green Card citizens. Well, that had nothing to do with the Muslim ban, excuse me not the Muslim ban ban. Holding up Green Card citizens can be done at the discretion of Customs officers if they see or suspect anything suspicious. Really? So all of a sudden they got suspicious? Why are you lying?

Oh and all those thousands of people who showed up spontaneously at airports to protest weren’t a big deal and Trump said everything was going really well in regard to this and Priebus said that they had been working on this ban for weeks (Really? When you’ve only been in office nine days!) So how could that be? How could they have been working on it for weeks, unless of course the racist who had worked in Jeff Sessions office (the one who is buds with the racist that got sucker punched while spouting hateful racist stuff and has been shown over and over on the internet), who now works in the White House happened to offer up this ban that apparently olde Jeffy has wanted to do for years. Remember it is Sessions who gave Trump his first immigration policy position when he first started running for Pres. But why would I think a senator from Alabama might be a racist just because he has said racist things in the past, acted as an AG to deprive black people of their rights, and been denied a Federal judgeship based on his record of racism?

If you are only holding people to ask them a few more questions why are your agents denying and or being silent on holding them? Why aren’t you allowing them access to lawyers that have gone to the airports to represent them? Why are your agents saying things like We’re not holding anyone in the U.S. because they are in Customs arrivals and that isn’t technically U.S. soil. Why?

Why are there reports of people at Dulles being cuffed and taken to a secret location?

Why are you saying this ban isn’t a religious ban if you are specifically giving special status to certain religious groups?

The gaslight is indeed bright.

Let’s move onto health care. A congressman has been nominated for Health and Human Services. He’s a doctor. He’s also been involved in what looks like to anyone who can read one plus one is two that he has been involved in very shady stock trading. Namely, the fact that he has bought stock in a company then introduced legislation that would directly help that company. So based on those two facts: he’s a doctor, and he does unethical stock trades, isn’t he a perfect choice to come up with a health care plan? Not sure. Gotta think about that one.

Meanwhile a tape surfaced from the recent Republican retreat where the pols were concerned that they didn’t have anything to replace Obamacare with. It was interesting to watch one of the round table discussions where a woman from Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal said well it’s early in the process and they’ve got lots of good ideas how to do this. (Shades of Paul Ryan, “We’ve got lots of good ideas.”) To which former RNC chairman Michael Steele said that’s not the problem. The problem is they’ve had six years to come up with a replacement and they’ve got nothing.

That leaked tape seems to be the only honest thing these Republicans have said that is honest.

When I last wrote a post about the glories of the Trump administration it was the beginning of day seven. Little did I know what would transpire, There are three areas I wish to discuss: what has happened, what some thoughts and reactions are, and lastly, a definition of terms of: liberal, progressive, conservative, right-wing, and alt-right.

Where to begin?

After my last post I went and watched to some the news shows. Wow. The commentary was unlike anything I’ve ever heard when it came to describing the President and his behavior. Words that I always hope would be used to describe the President of the United States like: mature, reasonable, cautious, adult and the like were absent. David Brooks, a conservative commentator whom I think is smart but is annoying because he tends to talk down to people, observed that the president seemed to either be like a whirling dervish atop the government signing meaningless executive orders and actions ( a la Berlusconi) or he was a petulant child. Brooks believed he was more the petulant child whose ego needed to be continually stroked and feed.

Rachel Maddow, a person that many feel the way I do about David Brooks, but whom I like especially for her often very informative and fact filled opening segments, had a most interesting Thursday show where she reported two top Russian officials were arrested, One was hauled out of a meeting by putting a bag over his head and has not been seen since. Why, she asked would this happen? The only reasoned explanation she could conclude was that in fact some or all of what the former M6 agent had reported about Trump must be true and the release of the actual report gave the Kremlin the specific information they needed to find the mole and take them out. This would then be proof that the Russians did in fact tamper with our elections, based no the idea of “look at what they do, not what they say.”

Since last report the administration has walked back, denied and gaslighted their gag orders on various government agencies. At first it was “No, no, we didn’t mean you couldn’t talk to the people, the press, and Congress” when in fact that is exactly what they meant. Also, website pages that had disappeared were re-instated, most dealt with climate change. Not sure how they explained that one, if they even tried. At one point, they (the administration) actually used the word “rescinded.”

Much of the speculation around all this was termed “Trump being Trump”, or the new way “we” were going to be running the government, or this is the way to negotiate, etc. The idea being that so much was going on some would leak through. or as some call it “moving the frame.” Whatever and however one wishes to characterize it the U.S. government is careening off into uncharted waters.

By day 8, an order to deny entry to people from seven countries was in place, and some people were kicked out of the country, notably a professor at Clemson University who had been here for years. This order caused people to be detained at airports, even U.S. citizens. It is astounding, and disheartening. A judge finally put a stop to it – temporarily.

One thing all this activity and this election has done is to galvanize people, mainly in opposition, but not entirely. In Richmond where I live on the outskirts a resistance meeting was scheduled in someone home. It had to be moved to a local church because 324 people sent and RSVP. Realize I live in the district that Eric Canter was from, and he got ousted by a tea party conservative named David Brat. So even in this bastion of Trump conservatism there is a huge and growing resistance to these actions. There was also the huge Women’s March on the Saturday after the Inauguration, but that was followed a few days later by a large anti-abortion march. The anti-abortion march has been held for 44 years. One report talked about regardless of what you feel about abortion it is the single most enduring galvanizing issue of the last four decades. For me, I can’t abide by people thinking they can tell other people what they can or can’t do with their own body.

This brings me to conversations I’ve had with some people. Actually, they aren’t conversations as much as someone makes a declaration stating something about me, or at least what they think about what my political views are. It usually goes like this “You’re more liberal than me.” This quickly devolves into my being instructed why I’m wrong, or at least don’t understand some issue. Sometimes the word liberal is used, sometimes it’s progressive. Usually, it’s used in opposition to the word “conservative.” I give the same explanation each time, which is: I don’t consider myself liberal or progressive but some have characterized me that way. I consider myself a “What works” type of person. If there’s a conservative idea that works I’m all for it. I can’t think of one that does work. I believe in the idea that a rising tide floats all boats so I look for political and economic solutions that help the most people. I find conservative economic ideas don’t do that, in fact they do just the opposite.

I believe that people should be free. That they should have the right to freedom of the press, assembly, religion, speech and that they should be entitled to clean air, water, food, land, ocean, streams, etc. I think the whole clean grouping needs to be stated because it’s been under such relentless attack. I also believe that people have the right, if they choose, to be prejudice, hateful, narrow minded and delusional. However, there are limits to that sort of thing. I don’t think one should be allowed to yell fire in a crowded theater when there isn’t a fire. I don’t think one’s prejudice should be allowed to take action against others based on their prejudice, that’s discrimination. I don’t think ones hate, or delusions should be translated into actions. Nazi Germany comes to mind, but we tend to forget that many of the attitudes that let the behavior in Germany at that time, were prevalent in other countries too. There’s been the picture of the ship that was refused to let Jewish passengers from Europe to emigrate here or to South America early in WWII and had to return to Europe. Or that Anne Frank’s family was denied asylum here. What people forget is that there was deep distrust of the Jewish people in the U.S. at the time. I received an alumni magazine last year from my university where they were lauding a well-known professor. They showed a copy of a letter of recommendation for him that was written in that era that said something along the lines of “Well, even though he is a Jew, if you can look past that …” France has had a long history of discrimination and hatred against Jewish people from the trial of Alfred Dreyfus in 1894 to the magazine Charlie Hedbo, which if it has been noted that if published in the U.S. would probably be considered both racist and antisemitic. Not that the Israelis are without blame. Their attitude toward the Palestinian people is deplorable and what they claim to hate that is done to them they practice on their Palestinian brethren.

So where does this leave us? Mikhail Gorbachev has this week said that it looks like the world is preparing for war. The folks who keep the clock that tries to guess if we are getting closer to nuclear holocaust has moved the clock closer to that.

These are dangerous times.

A comment that is being repeated now with more and more regularity is that this is exhausting. The question is being raised as to how long can this be kept up. How long can the President keep making these pronouncements and how long can people march, resist, and demonstrate? At what point an time does it move in another direction? Will this resistance movement last until the next election cycle and will they be able to get more reasonable people installed? Or will the crowd erupt, grab their pitchforks and lanterns and march on the palace and throw the rich out. How long will it be before building with the name Trump on them be desecrated? I don’t think we are far off.
Some say Trump won’t last, that he’ll be impeached. Then we get Pence, a political operative that has a deep seated religious belief that he says instructs him. Instructs him to force his beliefs on the rest of us. Not what this country was founded on or for, but that hasn’t stopped him, not in Indiana and certainly it won’t if he gets the power.

These are not only dangerous but scary times. There is no reason to believe that a democracy will or can survive.