OMG, the “stuff” just keeps coming.  Almost every day I have something to write about Trump and another unbelievable act or comment or LIE.  Here’s the bottom line as I’m absorbing this continuing fiasco – the republicans in Congress are bordering on pathetic.  And, Trump’s surrogates at the “White House” – maybe worse. (If that’s possible)  I’m having trouble getting the picture of Mitch McConnell sucking up to Trump the other day in the Rose Garden as Trump initiated the latest public relations DISASTER when he accused President Obama “and many other presidents” of not calling the families of fallen troops.  Of course, the SAD picture of McConnell standing next to Trump has been completely overshadowed by the ensuing controversy as Trump (and his chief of staff John Kelly and his press secretary Sarah Sanders) continued the verbal assault on the family of Sargent La David Johnson who was killed in Niger on October 4.

Then I’m reminded of the “round table” in the “White House” as Trump’s surrogates, a few months ago – one by one, with Reince Priebus the most pathetic – expressed their blubbering gratitude that Trump would allow them to ruin their personal reputations via their association with him and his “lying ways.”  At the time, I almost gagged.  Now we’re to the place where  EVERYONE who’s paying attention – and NOT watching Fox “news” – knows that Trump is a SERIAL LIAR along with being an incompetent president.  He’s a DISASTER and we all know it – including the republicans on Capital Hill.  Apparently, they’re afraid of him – despite knowing he’s a LIAR AND he’s violating the Emoluments clause of the constitution virtually DAILY, AND he’s creating a gulf between America and her traditional allies, AND he, or his campaign (or both) COLLUDED with the Russians to get elected, AND he’s OBSTRUCTED justice in the investigation of the “Russia thing” – all of this is not enough to get the attention of more than a handful of republicans in Congress.

Now, today, I saw a “presser” by Devon Nunez – the head of the House Intelligence Committee – yes, he who’s recused himself and then apparently “sort of” “unrecused” himself (“unrecused” is not a real word, because NO ONE’S ever done this before) from the Russia investigation – is now opening a NEW investigation of Hillary Clinton and the infamous sale of uranium interests from a Canadian company to a Russian company back in 2010.  Hillary Clinton’s State Department, at some level below Mrs. Clinton, along with 7 other agencies of the government approved the sale.  So, now in an apparent effort to take the focus of the media off of Trump’s COLLUSION with the Russians, the Russian ATTACK on our most basic fundamental value – voting – and whether or not they actually succeeded in flipping the 2016 elections (which the Russians believe they did) we’re going to have ANOTHER republican assault on Hillary Clinton.  Someone needs to tell them she’s not running for president again, it’s time for them to back off.

Somehow, these people continue to get elected.  They have no idea how to govern – they’re only good at using dirty lying tactics to win elections and they have the MONEY from people like Charles and David Koch – who care ONLY for more TAX CUTS and fewer environmental regulations – and, they have willing recipients of all their money – both Charles and David are worth MORE than $50 BILLION and their company, Koch Industries, generates OVER $100 BILLION annually – and, it’s a private family owned business.  Obviously, they’ve got a LOT of MONEY and they’re willing to spend it.  When Steve Bannon is threatening “moderate” republicans with “primary opponents who are well funded” you know who’s supplying the MONEY.  The Kochs have a network of rich people who participate in their buying of our government – and, interestingly (and, not surprisingly) some of them have ended up working for Trump.  For example, I have little doubt that the family (probably on both sides) of Betsy DeVoss – who’s busy trying to destroy public education in America – is an integral part of the Koch network.

So, I guess, if we’re all wondering why these republicans are looking so pathetic as they watch Donald Trump taking our nation down notch by notch day by day with his deplorable behavior, his incompetent actions, and his authoritarian tendencies and policy decisions that mirror a certain German Chancellor back in the thirties we can look at the money.  These republicans seem to be volunteering for a dark place in the American History books.  And, our media, including the so-called “liberal” media seems to be “tip toeing” around all this – with a few exceptions in a way that causes me to think Fox has more power than just on their own audience.  Our media doesn’t have an obligation to be “fair and balanced” – it’s got an obligation to be TRUTHFUL.  Many of them are working hard at finding out the TRUTH behind Trump’s unlikely election triumph – now that much of the Russian interference is becoming apparent.  But, many still are seemingly reluctant to call a Trump LIE a LIE.  Honestly, I’m really getting tired of comments using terms like “that was an untruth” or maybe “he misremembered” or “maybe he forgot.”

The other day when General John Kelly got in front of “we the people” and he spewed out a series of LIES about an African American Congress person who had essentially told the TRUTH about how Trump’s phone call to a grieving widow of a slain American soldier was received he showed his time next to Trump had created a stain on his own character.  Instead of Trump realizing he had offended this person – more than likely unintentional – this is another area where Trump has NO IDEA what to do and he was apparently coached by Kelly, who also has no idea what to do based on this episode – and calling this widow again and apologizing that his words were taken the wrong way from what he intended and this issue would have been resolved – plus, people would have been amazed that Trump could be compassionate – he chose to do his usual response to ANY criticism – launch a counter ATTACK! To me, just like those blubbering around the table in the “White House” their gratitude that Trump would allow them to work for him, this is ANOTHER episode which shows the degree he’s pathetic.  He’s GOT TO GO! (The most disappointing part of this episode, to me, was General Kelly’s behavior.  I had been fooled into believing the press reports of his integrity.  He not only came across as a LIAR, but also a racist)

Unfortunately, “we the people” are depending on republicans to IMPEACH  Trump and they’re either afraid of him OR they believe he’ll sign anything they can muster as a legislative victory no matter what the cost will be to “we the people.”  Right now, as I’m writing this there’s a group of Republican Senators speaking to the media and defending their “tax cut” legislation as something that will create jobs and stimulate the economy.  We’ve been hearing this same CRAP since the days of Ronald Reagan and it’s NEVER worked.  George HW Bush called it “Voodoo Economics” and he was the one republican who got it right.  In fact, HW Bush actually worked with Democrats to raise taxes in 1990 due to the high deficits and the Desert Storm war, ultimately costing himself his re-election in 1992.  There’s a lot to question about George HW Bush, but, in this instance he was a republican with the courage to do the right thing working with democrats.  These type of republicans are few and far between these days.

Here’s how deep the LYING goes in the republican party – Yes, no one compares to Trump – but, this group of republican senators trying to convince us all they can cut TRILLIONS of taxes from the top 1% which will create jobs for all us “minions” and will not further balloon the deficit are – well – a bunch of LIARS.  One of them stood there and actually said this, “We (meaning republicans) have created 1.7 MILLION jobs since last November’s election.  Of course, if he was telling the truth he’d be talking about the present budget deal and how it would improve the economy they inherited from Barack Obama.  That is, because virtually EVERY ONE of those 1.7 MILLION jobs (or, at a minimum –  a HUGE majority of them) are the results of the Obama administration.s economic policy which Trump inherited.  As I’ve said many times here, ANY new president is subject to the previous administration in regard to the economy for the FIRST YEAR.  Trump, and the republicans, are just getting around to passing their FIRST budget deal – if they can manage to actually do it – and, “we the people” can judge it based on the resulting job creation around this time next year.

Trump inherited an economy that was creating about 200,000 jobs per month and it’s continued to do so – despite the FACT Trump and the republicans have been UNABLE to do virtually ANYTHING so far in his administration (except continually taking credit for what President Obama’s administration left him).  They’re taking credit for Obama’s success is “par for the course” with republicans.  And, they BLAME democrats for ANYTHING that seems wrond or goes wrong.  If you remember, when President Obama took office, the economy was shedding jobs at the rate of almost 1 MILLION per month – due to the financial meltdown resulting from the Bush/Cheney decisions (which mirror some of what Trump is now trying to do) on the economy  – and, republicans were inexplicably blaming Obama for these jobs losses BEFORE he took the oath of office.  It took President Obama’s administration about one year to turn the disastrous job losses around.  And, more jobs were created than lost in EVERY month for the last 7 years of Obama’s administration – and still going strong!  (Sadly, it’s seems apparent Trump and the republicans are trying to outdo the Bush/Cheney DISASTROUS tax cuts which led to the last economic disaster and the HUGE budget deficits)

For President Obama’s entire two terms in office republicans were CONSTANTLY blaming him for the huge budget deficits.  Well, the reality is that during his two terms in the White House the deficits were cut by approximately two thirds.  The sad reality is that Obama inherited deficits in the neighborhood of $1.5 TRILLION per year and when he left office the deficit was somewhere close to $400 BILLION.  Republicans OBSTRUCTED every initiative Obama proposed to get the deficits down even more (ie an infrastructure program of over  $1 TRILLION in investments to our roads, bridges, railways, and more)  Republicans will continue LYING about all this and when their proposed tax cuts (aimed at the top 1% as usual) pick up “steam” the LYING will pick up steam right with it.  If they succeed, they’ll once again say “Reagan proved deficits don’t matter” and they’ll save their “deficit hawk” critiques for the next democratic president.  As I said above, this is all PATHETIC.

In a sinister way to dampen the effect on the deficit of the HUGE tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans – the “top 1%” – republicans are proposing cuts to Medicare and Medicaid in the neighborhood of $1.5 TRILLION and, trust me, Social Security will be next.  Paul Ryan’s had his eyes on these “socialist” programs since he entered the House of Representatives.  They attempted to make these cuts in their “health care” legislation which they couldn’t get the votes for in the Senate – mainly because there are still republican senators who understand the importance of these programs to “we the people.”  Despite Trump’s CLEAR promises in the campaign that “Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid will not be touched” I guarantee you he’ll WILLINGLY sign anything republicans can put on his desk that he can claim as a “victory.”  In the campaign he said, “we’ll have so many victories it will make your heads spin.” (or something to that affect)  The rich right wingers who don’t need the benefits of these programs NEVER STOP trying to destroy them – this has been going on since the days of FDR – although, for many years from the 50’s until the 80’s they were in the so-called fringe of American politics.

I’ve been writing for years about the need to purge this republican party as it presently exists.  Now, we’ve got Steve Bannon on the same bandwagon – the problem, as I see it, is he’s on the opposite side of the wagon than myself.  He’s wanting to push the entire party closer to the so-called “tea party” while I’d love to see the party headed back to the days of people like Mark Hatfield, Jacob Javitz, Bob Dole, Everett Dirksen, and others who, I’m imagining, would be disbelieving of what’s happened to the “party of Lincoln.”  Honestly, it turns my stomach every time I hear one of these present day republicans use that phrase.

Final thought:  In my next post, if you read it, you’ll find the words of a republican who “used those words” relating to the “party of Lincoln” who didn’t turn my stomach.  In fact, I found his words prescient and inspiring.  I hope you’ll read them, I published them in their entirety.