When analyzing Trump and the DAMAGE he and his sycophants are doing to America both domestically and around the world it’s hard to keep the mind from spinning out of control. Today as I listened to Mike Pompeo speaking in Europe about America’s foreign policy and claiming Trump is attempting to “bring America back from the void created by previous administrations” due to their “retreating” on the world stage I honestly had to fight back the urge to vomit. Trump and his willing surrogates are either deluded or just a bunch of willful LIARS!
Pompeo’s words come just a few days after I watched Mohammad bin Salman (MBS) and Vladimir Putin giving each other a “high five” at the G-20 Summit in Argentina as if to be laughing in the face of how they’re “playing” Trump and his willing bunch of LIARS. “We the people” continue to watch in dismay as one world leader after another “schools” Trump in world diplomacy as they publicly show they’ve figured out that, with Trump, “flattery will get you everywhere,” and Trump is the very “vehicle” they’re using to destroy America’s role in the world. Putin almost looked “giddy.”
If it wasn’t so disgusting it would be laughable listening to Pompeo suggest Trump and Co. are, essentially, filling the space created by President Obama and presumably his predecessors whom he accused of “retreating” on the world stage. My thoughts immediately went to the pulling out of the Paris Climate Accords, the pulling out of the TPP, the trashing of our traditional alliances, and the pulling out of the Iran Nuclear “deal” – for starters. These are issues that required much EXPERT diplomacy which is no longer an option for America’s government because, for example, the State Department has been purged of HUNDREDS of years of experienced EXPERT diplomats!
The idea that Trump’s “gut” is going to “Make America Great Again” would be even more laughable – again, if all this wasn’t so serious. Trump is, in reality “Making China Great Again,” he’s lifted up the status of Putin and Kim Jong un, he’s publicly “stained” himself over the MURDER of Jamal Khashoggi – clearly, stating to the world Saudi MONEY is more important than any human rights issue, and he’s still acting in ways that would suggest he is “owned” by Putin and, apparently, now also MBS. Personally, I’m anxious for Mueller to “follow the money” in regard to Trump’s ties to both Russia and Saudi Arabia and who knows where else. When “we the people” are OK with our “allies” going to diplomatic meetings with reporters carrying BONE SAWS, America has become anything but “great.”
Here’s what’s the most UNBELIEVABLE to me – as I ponder all this. Trump is so BRAZENLY violating on American LAW (and “norm”) after another that “we the people” are apparently numb to all this. Daily, it seems, Trump is committing some act of OBSTRUCTION of justice, witness tampering, or breaking some other law as if to say FU to “we the people” and OUR Justice Department. As this all progresses, the Justice Department is being directly challenged, our intelligence agencies are being directly challenged, and, of course, he’s calling the “media” “the enemy of the people” – all signs of someone who longs for autocratic power. It must really “gall” Trump knowing that Putin and MBS can laugh about how they take care of dissident reporters – right in Trump’s face on the “world stage” – and he’s “stuck” with simply calling them (the media) “the enemy of the people.”
So, Trump’s actions, which, as I said, are making “we the people” numb to the daily routine of one scandal after another is causing the “liberal media” (and, people like me) to spend a lot of time “chasing their/our tails.” It’s a never ending barrage of DISTRACTIONS designed to keep “we the people’s” minds off of things that are important. Over the next few years I believe we will slowly uncover – because of disasters that show up “after the fact” – a lot of the DAMAGE which is “flying under the radar.” As much as I appreciate our “liberal media” and support actual investigative journalism I believe this unending FOCUS on the Mueller investigation and the desire to see Trump INDICTED for his CRIMES (which is unlikely while he’s president – and, maybe after – which I’ll try to explain in a bit) is causing an untold amount of DAMAGE to go unreported – apparently, just the way people like Mitch McConnell like it! Republicans are getting judges and, I’m guessing, a lot more “stuff” we’ll only find out about LATER!
And, I do worry about what’s going to happen when Trump leaves office. Personally, I want Trump to have to answer for his BRAZEN disregard for our legal system. Instead of upholding it, he’s undermining it. So, is the next president, hopefully in 2020, going to do as President Obama did and “look forward instead of back?” I’ll get into the Obama fiasco later, but the past couple of days has seen our “liberal media” at what I consider it’s absolute worse. And, believe me, I understand how we have a history of honoring our “past presidents.” (In fact, Jimmy Carter is one of my favorite people in the world) And, while George HW Bush is lying in state in the rotunda of the nation’s capitol it’s probably the wrong time to “tell the truth about him.”
However, I watch MSNBC, and one host after another on their network is almost trying to turn HW Bush into a “saint.” Trust me, this man was no saint. He did manage, as many of the other members of Yale’s “Skull and Bones” secret society have done, to keep his true “history” pretty much to himself. (That “society,” by the way, has reportedly been the source of many of the stalwarts in the CIA) And, I admit, there was a lot about HW that I appreciated – especially after two years of Trump, it’s more apparent. But, here’s the reality – and, much of this is coming from the memory of a 71 year old man (me) who reads a lot of books and forgets a lot of “stuff.” (For reference, read “Family of Secrets” by Russ Baker if you want to get a more accurate “picture” of George HW Bush – and, for that matter, the Bush family, including “Bush 43.” I’ve read other books revealing the “secrets” of the Bush dynasty as well)
Bush, somehow, kept his long association with the CIA secret – less the time he served as the head of the CIA – and, to be fair, many who were there when he was the head of the agency give him credit for “saving it” – keep in mind the similarity with today – Bush took over the CIA right after Watergate. It was in disarray and it was always a bit curious why Nixon put Bush in charge. The CIA was, at the time, being accused by politicians “on both sides of the isle” of abusing it’s power. Some of the worst of their abuses were being exposed and, according to those who were on the inside, at the time, Bush began the rebuilding of the agency’s image. But, the reality is Bush was put at the CIA because, based on what I’ve read, Nixon wanted to get him “out of the way.” Nixon realized Bush had greater ambitions.
I’ll put it this way, Bush was a very ambitious person, and his road to the “White House” was “littered” with stuff no one’s talking about right now. According to Baker, HW became part of the CIA right out of college and he was part of the notorious “Phoenix” program in Viet Nam which was, essentially, a death squad program gone wild – similar to what happened years later in the Iran/Contra scandal – I believe in Nicaragua.
In “Family of Secrets,” Baker weaves an interesting “web” around HW Bush and how his activity, allegedly while working for the CIA, centered around the assassination of JFK. I won’t go into it all, but “Family of Secrets” is a VERY interesting book – I’ve read it twice and I’m feeling I need to read it again as I’m listening to all these so-called “liberal” commentators (like Chris Matthews and Chuck Todd) fawning over HW Bush. (I guess that’s what you do when a president dies, but………………..) At some point in America’s “history” “we the people” are going to examine history honestly.
HW Bush was also up to his ears in the Iran/Contra “episode” during the latter years of the Reagan administration (another republican reaching “saint hood” apparently because all republican presidents of previous years are now being compared to Trump – but, trust me, Reagan was no “saint” either – unless we’re just going to throw out our contention that “America is a country of laws.” I referred to the American tradition, earlier, where the new president allows the previous president to simply “go out to pasture” with all “transgressions” forgiven. Well, Clinton looked the other way regarding HW Bush who easily could have been prosecuted for his involvement in Iran/Contra – and, as I said, he had a lot of “non-saint” issues along the way to the “White House.” (Somehow, Reagan avoided true scrutiny as well) To HW Bush’s credit, he always acted like a statesman – which seems to be what the pundits are fawning over as they remember him.
Of course, for me, the most egregious example of a president overlooking ILLEGAL behavior by his predecessor would be President Obama (who I very much admire) actually BLOCKING any of the investigations which were ongoing as he took office into the WAR CRIMES of George W Bush and Dick Cheney. I listened the other day, again on MSNBC, how outgoing presidents “give space” to the incoming president and how GW Bush did so regarding President Obama. My first thought was Bush SHOULD have been giving Obama space in the hopes Obama would do exactly what he did; “Look forward instead of back.”
There’s a myriad of problems with that “approach” which I’ve gone over ad nauseum on this site – mostly during the first years of the Obama administration. The main point in my argument against “looking forward instead of back” is that each administration is setting “precedent” for the future and, sure enough, Trump was claiming “I’d do waterboarding and a whole lot more” if elected – during the 2016 campaign – EXACTLY what I had predicted a few years earlier would be the result of Obama’s choice to “look the other way” from REAL WAR CRIMES. “We the people” prosecuted adversaries after WW II for the same things Obama was “looking away from.” “We the people” were instrumental in founding the Geneva Conventions that were set up in order to STOP war crimes. And, OUR OWN LAWS were clear that both GW Bush and Dick Cheney had willfully authorized WAR CRIMES.
And, that doesn’t even get into the LYING that caused the Iraq fiasco which led to the loss of HUNDREDS of thousands of lives and is STILL to this day the cause of much of the destabilization in the Middle East and therefore, the WORLD. President Obama is the ONLY president since, you guessed it, Jimmy Carter to make it through a term in office without some kind of scandal that is clearly based in lack of respect for our system of laws. In addition to what I mentioned above, Bush/Cheney authorized illegal wiretapping – en masse – they “outed” a CIA agent to get “revenge” for someone attempting to expose one of their LIES, and, in general, they pushed boundaries everywhere. Now, especially with Trump in the “White House” many people – including a lot of republicans – are looking at GW Bush in a much better “light.”
My point is, the problem with allowing this lawbreaking by our “leaders” is that, just like the sixth graders I used to teach, they will keep pushing the boundaries until forced to stop. Now we have a so-called president who doesn’t believe there are ANY boundaries as far as his behavior is concerned. He’s running this country as if he’s the head of a crime syndicate and MILLIONS of Americans are OK with that because, generalizing, they are white nationalists to some degree or they’re happy getting right wing judges – no matter what Trump is “up to.”
As I’m watching virtually everyone in Washington DC giving their respects to George HW Bush and as I’m listening to the commentators I can’t help but wonder what are these people going to be saying after Trump has “met his maker.” Are they going to be rationalizing his behavior? Are they going to be making him out to be something he wasn’t – simply because he figured out a way – with the help of Vladimir Putin – to “win” an American election? (With 3 MILLION fewer votes than his opponent) Are we going to look the other way from ALL the misdeeds Trump is foisting on “We the people” and – as is likely to be uncovered – has been “doing” for the previous 30 years, or so.
I love studying history, but it’s often very frustrating when I learn the “truth” about stuff that has been “watered down” or worse in the mainstream history books. There’s a lot of historians heaping praise, for example, on George HW Bush – but, it comes across to me as people who didn’t look beyond the surface when doing their biography of him. Many people in America who write the history books have an aversion to the truth. It’s really a bad policy and I’m often reminded that “those who ignore history are destined to repeat it.” I’ve just turned off the TV so I don’t have to listen to all the “fawning” of HW Bush – and, he obviously was a kind and good man in the eyes of many – but, hiding the real truth about him will lead to the lost opportunity for “we the people” to learn. I guess my point here is, I really hope Donald Trump is not allowed to get away with his lawbreaking simply because he’s our so-called president!
Final Thought: I believe Nixon is the only president who faced any serious accountability for his lawbreaking – and, yet, by the time he was out of office for a few years all was forgotten and forgiven – he also acted somewhat (although less than Trump) as a mob boss. People have to look purposely to find the real truth about Ronald Reagan and most people have no idea what the truth is regarding the working life of George HW Bush. In my mind, America continues to flounder because we just can’t come to grips with the reality of our own history!