When Donald Trump was running for the office of President of the United States not many people were confused by his lack of “experience” as far as running a government. To many Americans, that seemed to be a good thing – mainly to the republican “puppet masters” who simply want someone who can sign his or her name on legislation AND to the right wing media world that wants America to be White again. What many didn’t understand, I believe, was how illiterate our new president was in reality. He doesn’t read or write virtually at all. As far as America and her history, he’s virtually ignorant. What he’s good at is BULLYING! Somehow, Trump has managed to get republicans in the House of Representatives (and, some in the Senate) to essentially disregard the investigation into the Russians’ cyber attack on America in an attempt to protect Trump from what they MUST believe are charges coming from Robert Mueller’s investigation. Are they afraid of him?
Devin Nunes has soiled himself during the past year as he’s taking the role of protector of Donald Trump and is now releasing a “memo” that the FBI considers “reckless” and includes the release of “classified information.” It was reported Trump, himself, ordered the release of this memo – thinking it would “help him.” Can you imagine if President Obama had done this? Was it Trump who, indirectly, forced Andrew McCabe out of the FBI? Evidently, his wife is a democrat who ran for office, is that a crime? What if Obama had done that to an FBI agent whose wife was a republican and ran for office? “We the people” are heading into uncharted territory. The nation’s 200+ year history is under siege. If the republicans decide to put Trump ahead of the “Russia investigation” there’s a sad day coming to this nation. I’ve said before Trump and Fox “news” are destined to end up next to Benedict Arnold in American history, but now we’ve got to put Nunes, and possibly a group of republicans, in the same place. Shame on them!
We watched the republicans through both terms of Barack Obama’s presidency put their attempt to make sure he “failed” ahead of the interests of the nation, so I guess it shouldn’t be so much of a surprise as they are looking away from the “Russia thing” in order to protect a corrupt president – a “republican” of course. If you’ve been on this site, it should be no surprise to you when I say Trump makes my stomach curl. Somehow, the “Christian right” in America has backed a mafia like character to be in the oval office. As Trump “pushes” his way through the institutions of America – destroying anything that threatens him or those that his supporters want destroyed to allow them to make more money without government oversight on their businesses. This all is getting very ugly.
Trump is treating the FBI and the Justice Department as if those who work there are his personal employees and their obligation is NOT to the constitution (which Trump gave an oath to uphold) but, instead, they are obligated to protect Trump. Their job is to investigate whoever Trump guides them to investigate in his mind. Kind of reminds me of how Trump’s idol, Vladimir Putin, works. Just yesterday we saw film of Putin’s number one opponent being DRAGGED from a demonstration and physically thrown into a police van and being carted to who knows where. Trump appears to be frustrated he doesn’t have the same POWER as Putin. But, he has succeeded in forcing Andrew McCabe out of the FBI and, apparently, this so-called “memo” is aimed at Rod Rosenstein. Let’s hope Rosenstein “holds the fort” to protect Robert Mueller’s investigation. Clearly, Trump is attempting to “get to” Mueller through Rosenstein.
If Rosenstein resigns or is fired, Trump would then attempt to put someone in his place who would either fire or restrict the Mueller investigation. Trump is HIDING something and republicans in the House are attempting to help him. Obviously, I’m no lawyer, but there appears NO doubt Trump has OBSTRUCTED justice but there appears to be much more. When someone keeps saying “No Collusion” you can almost be certain there was “collusion.” Sadly, the “collusion” part of all this SHOULD be the work of the Congressional investigations but it appears that republicans are willing to give the Russians a “free pass” to protect Trump. I’ve been warning about the direction of the republican party for over 15 years, but I could have NEVER imagined republicans attacking the FBI and the intelligence community and being OK with Russians interfering in our elections. I’ll say it again, this is SHAMEFUL!
Trump is preparing to give his “State of the Union” speech as I’m writing this and his LYING to the American people will continue. Sadly, (I keep saying that) our “liberal media” is likely to fall for whatever Trump might say – especially if he can manage to actually read the teleprompter for a WHOLE hour. There’s no way I could force myself to watch whatever he says – but, I can predict. MOST of his remarks will be aimed right at – HIMSELF. Trump will BRAG about the tax scam that will make him much richer – and, he’s likely to LIE about that. What he WON’T talk about is what the scam will do to the deficit or how much he’ll benefit. He will BRAG about the “jobs” “he’s” created – failing to point out the graph of the rise in the economy is following EXACTLY the path it was on when he inherited it from Barack Obama (kind of like how his real estate empire was built off an inheritance).
His tax scam will escort this economy back into issues like inflation and when the interest rates rise as a result and the money supply is contracted he’ll, next year, find a new way to blame Obama. But, for now, they only time you’ll hear Obama’s name it will be to blame him disingenuously for something that allows Trump to brag about “fixing” something that wasn’t “broke.” He’ll claim to be the smartest president whose accomplished the MOST any president has accomplished in his first year in AMERICAN HISTORY. His “uneducated voters” he loves so much will fall for it and, if he can keep his focus on the teleprompter people like Chris Matthews and Chuck Todd at MSNBC will fall for it – at least temporarily.
Trump will propose some kind of unrealistic (obviously, he won’t put it that way) plan to rebuild America’s infrastructure, but he won’t explain how the republican tax plan will make doing so much more expensive – and, that’s not even taking into consideration what rising interest rates will do to any projects. Projects that SHOULD have been undertaken in his first year in office. His obsession with undoing Obama “stuff” will backfire as he tries to put together an infrastructure bill without further exploding the deficit, a bill that SHOULD have been his first order of business last year. (had he done so, he would likely ACTUALLY be able to take credit for some job growth) And, there’s a plethora of other reasons why the infrastructure part of his speech will be unrealistic – Trump very likely won’t even understand why he’s LYING. Read this article that was published by Aaron Klein of the Brookings Institution which explains the issue well.
Trump will also come up with some kind of immigration proposal that will look better than what he’s willing to actually agree on. (neither will his most rabid supporters) The REALITY is there are many in the republican party – and their CORE base – who wouldn’t shed one tear watching “dreamers” – who are producing BILLIONS in support of our economy, not to mention the moral aspect of a “problem” that SHOULD NOT be a “problem” at all – watching them being deported. This would be an incredible renigging by our government – with the FAULT lying squarely at Trump’s “feet” if this happens – if the “Dream Act” is not passed on a “clean bill.” The “dreamers” should NOT be held hostage to a “wall” that “Mexico won’t pay for.” Holding the “dreamers” hostage to radical “stuff” that democrats will NOT be able to agree with is the most cynical example of right wing American politics I can remember (and, keep in mind, McConnell filibustered Obama nearly 700 times) – and, that’s saying something. These young people deserve better than this – most of them know more about America’s constitution than Trump ever will!
Trump will do some bragging about the military defeating ISIL somehow because of orders he gave. Of course, he again inherited a situation that was nearly accomplished and the credit, what there is of it, should belong with our men and women in the military. What he won’t talk about are the soldiers killed in Niger (a s@#thole country) on a mission “we the people” will likely NEVER understand because Trey Gowdy, who spent years and BILLIONS “investigating” Benghazi is curiously silent. And, he won’t talk about the soldiers killed in Yemen this year – because people may wonder about who ordered the mission.
Obviously, there’s little Trump could do to satisfy me – because, as a Christian his misogynist, racist, narcissistic, LYING behavior is just too much for me. I really don’t understand how people of faith can even tolerate having someone like Trump in the “Oval Office.” He came to the office with NO experience, he has no curiosity for government, he’s enriching himself at the expense of “we the people,” he’s undermining our most basic institutions in the FBI and the Justice Department, he’s got a history of sexual assault and abuse with women, and who knows what else will come out as Mueller’s investigation concludes sometime this year – and, by “conclude” I’m talking about the findings. I believe the court “fights” will be a part of the American scene until, at least, the 2020 election – when, if not before, “we the people” will have the opportunity to stop this nightmare.
In the State of the Union speech Trump will be trying to fool as many people and “pundits” as he can. If they fall for it – well, shame on them. (I keep saying the “S” word) It will be hard to calculate all the LIES in Trump’s SOTU speech, but there will be people closely monitoring. It’s just that I won’t be one of them. Before I retired I was a sixth grade teacher and one thing I was very strict with my students about was LYING. Teaching them, “your word is your bond.” I’ve tried watching Fox “news,” I’ve tried listening to people like Limbaugh and the other right wing “water carriers” on the radio airwaves, and I’ve tried listening to Trump. I rarely can stand to listen for more than a minute or two to any of them – but, after reading about Trump and Stormy Daniels and all the other stuff, I just don’t want to hear anything from him. (and, for all the Clinton haters, I can hardly stand to listen to Bill Clinton either) For anyone who “falls” for Trump’s shtick tonight, (here I go again) shame on you. Somebody else wrote it and it’s meaningless to him!
Final thought: As I often do, I’m publishing this without re-reading and editing – something I didn’t teach my sixth graders, so I apologize for any “foopahs.” Hopefully, I’ll have the energy (or I’ll remember) to edit the mistakes, but I want to publish before his speech to either massage my ego or cause me even more embarrassment than normal. Trying to follow politics and keeping engaged in what MY government is doing (yes, it’s OUR government) is fatiguing for an old man. However, I believe it’s my generation who’ve led us to this terrible place in American history – and, we all have an obligation to be informed. To me, when you do that, it takes the “cover” off of what republicans have been and are “up to” – and, it’s not in the best interest of “we the people.”