Every day I learn something else that causes me to yearn for the day individual 1 is no longer destroying (what’s left of) our democratic republic. I can’t remember who said it but I still remember when I was young (likely High School age in the 60’s) hearing someone (maybe JFK) warning “we the people” that the only way our republic could be “defeated” was from “the inside out.” Well, that’s exactly what is happening with individual 1 and his (deplorable – Hillary Clinton was correct) supporters who put their TOTAL power ahead of our nation’s best interests and the constitution. Make no mistake, individual 1 is a “White Nationalist” and many of his supporters are “White Nationalists.” I’ve personally seen several images of people connected directly to his administration brandishing the “White Nationalist” hand signal.
Individual 1 has placed people into various traditional government institutions with the intent to destroy the very institutions they have taken an OATH to protect and defend. Today I read where the former head of the VA’s office of Accountability and Whistleblower protection, Peter O’Rourke, actually was using his office to retaliate against whistleblowers (does that sound familiar?) and stifle their claims. This came out in an Inspector General report which said, “the office’s first executive director, Peter O’Rourke, ‘leveraged his power as head of the whistleblower office to end investigations into allies and failed to provide basic reports to Congress on the office’s operations.'” Of course, O’Rourke has now “moved on” and is now the executive director of the Florida Republican party. Yikes!!!
The article (in “The Daily Kos”) went on to say, “In its first two years of operation, the [office] acted in ways that were inconsistent with its statutory authority, while it simultaneously floundered in its mission to protect whistleblowers,” the report said. It didn’t provide adequate training for the investigators it hired and “did not have an approach that ensured comprehensive and impartial investigations,” it concluded. “The [office] itself engaged in actions that could be considered retaliatory.” What a racket for Trumpers—a perfect “catch and kill” system to hide corruption within the administration. “The report’s findings of failings in all these areas help explain the significant challenges [the office’s] leaders face today in establishing trust and achieving its intended goals,” said Michael Missal, the department’s inspector general.”
A couple things – first, this appears to be individual 1’s way of preventing any of the problems which appear to be rampant in the VA system – as “we the people” have an OBLIGATION to support MILLIONS of military veterans who have returned home from duty in places like Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, various places in Africa, and more – with many of them desperately needing medical treatment which is not readily forthcoming – preventing the shortcomings from becoming public. During Obama’s terms as president there were issues publicized but I don’t remember a concerted attempt to block whistleblowers – although, it’s been no secret that whistleblowers have (and do) face/faced peril by coming forward. This is/has been a problem. As far as I could tell, Obama was no “saint” in dealing with whistleblowers.
Which leads to my other point. Now individual 1’s time in office has been credibly threatened because there is one person in the government who had the courage to file a whistleblower complaint regarding our so-called president and his minions (Giuliani, Sondland, Pompeo, Pense, Barr, and likely others) attempting to EXTORT political favors from Ukraine while suspending military assistance which the country’s existence depended. Now we’re (unsurprisingly) hearing attempts by individual 1 and his sycophants to force this whistleblower to “testify in public.” They feel the (so-called) president should have the right to cross examine this person. (Of course they do – but, if the “shoe were on the other foot” they’d be claiming “foul” at a level which would make your ears twinge) The point of the whistleblower protection law is to (surprise) PROTECT the identity of the whistleblower so there’s NO retaliation!
Well, in both instances it’s clear individual 1 doesn’t like the idea of “whistleblowers.” To him, we’re talking about “rats.” (Do you remember that’s what he called Michael Cohen when Cohen said he was going to cooperate with the government and tell the truth?) I’ve been pointing out since year one of individual 1’s destruction of the office of the president that he comes across to me as a mafia boss. Of course, as time has gone by (and, I’ve read a bunch of books on him AND Vladimir Putin) it’s become clearer and clearer that individual 1 would like to transform our “government” into something that resembles the Kremlin. And, sadly, almost EVERY republican “still standing” in our Congress has shown the kind of fear I can only imagine those in government in Russia have for Vladimir Putin.
In Russia the dissident political figures and journalists find themselves either in prison or falling out of high rise buildings or ingesting poisons that make their deaths excruciatingly horrible. And, Putin has a way of finding those “dissidents” who manage to flee the country and find refuge elsewhere – like, for example, the “father and daughter” who were poisoned while living in England. They use poisons that make it clear who did it which is also a message to anyone else who might “cross” Putin. It’s always a slow death!
Poor individual 1 is left with blithering tweets showing his outrage at anyone who says something about him which is not a compliment. He has received “reinforcement” in the form of his new Attorney General William Barr who has made individual 1 even more dangerous. (Although, at some point, I believe members of the FBI and Justice Department may very well revolt on what Barr is “up to.”) In line with his (individual 1’s) attempt to MALR (Make America Like Russia) Barr is now leading an “investigation” into the “investigators” – ie the origins of the Mueller investigation that now has the ability to charge people with crimes.
It’s not apparent, at least to me, who they think they can charge with a crime regarding the investigation into individual 1’s COLLUSION with the Russians during the 2016 election. I’ve read from many different sources the so-called “Russia investigation” began when George Papadopolous decided to get drunk in a London Pub and BRAG to some guy who’s a diplomat from Australian that the Russians had “Hillary Clinton’s emails” which were going to be released to help individual 1. The guy from Australia passed this “information” on to the FBI (as Papadopolous SHOULD have). That is what started the so-called “Russia investigation.” (Mueller clearly lays it out in his report – which maybe even Barr did NOT read)
Keep in mind, while individual 1, Giuliani, Barr and others are trying to “prove” it wasn’t the Russians who got individual 1 elected in 2016 the Russians are still at it as I’m writing this. Add to that, those who are part of individual 1’s campaign are using the same “active measures” strategy of the Russians as they unfold their 2020 campaign. They are using Facebook as kind of a “home base” for their LIES. And, of course, if you’ve been paying attention, Facebook recently publicized their decision to allow dishonest political advertising on their platform with NO boundaries. When you think of the amount of people on Facebook (which, by the way, doesn’t include ME) you can see the potential POWER of LIARS like individual 1 on a platform like Facebook. Plus individual 1’s campaign STILL has all the STOLEN data they received via “Cambridge Analytica” during the previous “fake news” campaign.
For over three years now it’s been hard to NOT see individual 1 using Twitter as another platform for his LYING. And, clearly, just like Facebook, Twitter has no compunction in regards to self regulation regarding all the LYING. (Again, I don’t use Twitter, but in today’s world you can escape all of individual 1’s LIES Twitter routinely allows to be published. Twitter and Facebook, by all accounts, is how individual 1 keeps his “minions” in line. But, occasionally, there’s a sign of hope “out there.”
Just the other day, at the fifth game of the World Series where the Washington (DC) Nationals were playing baseball against the team from Houston, individual 1 decided to give the “fans” a treat by attending the game – actually going to an event which wasn’t pre-programmed with a bunch of “MAGA” hat wearing “deplorables” who are always warned to “drown out” anyone who might be a protestor until “security” can remove them from the site. At the game, individual 1, his wife, and the rest of his entourage were pictured on the “big screen” at the stadium (and these screens are huge) while the public address announcer pointed out the (so-called – that’s just me) “president is at the game.”
With big smiles on their faces all the people in individual 1’s “box” including our so-called president himself stood waving to what they imagined would be an adoring audience. (Not sure who suggested to him this was a good idea) Earlier in the day individual 1 had announced the killing of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in Northern Syria earlier that day. I’m sure individual 1 was expecting cheering from his adoring public after spending the morning BRAGGING about something which was reported happened in spite of him instead of because of him. (The decision to abandon the Kurds in Northern Syria – the same Kurds who provided the intelligence required to locate al-Baghdadi – caused our special forces to re-calibrate the timeline of the attack due to the changing nature of the Kurds being forced from their territory by the Turks and Russians – who, by the way, individual 1 curiously thanked in regard to the raid)
So, the look on individual 1’s face and that of his wife quickly changed from ear to ear smiles when the crowd in unison began BOOING. This wasn’t like a few BOOS, but a chorus of BOOS that permeated the entire stadium. But, it got worse for our so-called president. The BOOS soon changed to a chorus of chanting: “lock him up” reminiscent of the chanting individual 1 has encouraged at his rallies (it started at the 2016 Republican Convention) in regard to Hillary Clinton in regard for her “missing” emails. Apparently, the very emails which are LIKELY to get him IMPEACHED.
Yes, this whole saga regarding the so-called “quid pro quo” in the Ukraine scandal – where individual 1 is EXTORTING the Ukrainians to investigate the “origins of the 2016 investigation into Russian interference in our election” where individual 1 has bought into the crazy conspiracy theory there’s a server in Ukraine with all the missing emails and it was the Ukrainians who were “meddling” in the 2016 election to help Mrs. Clinton and NOT the Russians helping individual 1 – despite ALL the evidence to the contrary! (What’s worse – while individual 1 is focused on Ukraine – the Russians are “at it again” – with, apparently, no orders to stop them coming from “the top”)
All the BOOING at the World Series game along with the chanting: “Lock him up” confirms to me I’m not the only one who doesn’t believe individual 1 is a “stable genius.” This republican party has been headed for the right wing “cliff” for years and, I believe, it’s about to go over the edge. They fear this (so-called) president from one side of Capital hill to the other. After he’s been IMPEACHED it’s very unlikely the Senate will remove him from office, but they will ALL be forced to vote on whether or not they believe it’s OK to EXTORT political favors from other nations in return for things like foreign aid (or who knows what – individual 1’s “acting” chief of staff admitted on camera “we do this all the time.” What are the other examples of EXTORTION coming from this (so-called) president in mafioso clothing? (Again) Yikes!!!!
Final Thought: Speaking of the crowd chanting “Lock him up” – I believe a clear majority of Americans want individual 1 to “face the music” – regarding all the criminal activity – once he’s out of office. (Of course, his avid supporters think the criminal activity is OK because of various reasons – things they are willing to trade their morality for) Here’s the question I have. I’ve heard (and read of) individual 1 claiming he has the right to pardon himself. I’ve also heard discussions by legal experts about whether or not he’s correct in that assertions. Most say it’s not clear because NO ONE has ever broached the subject before – meaning we’ve NEVER had anyone in the Oval Office as CORRUPT as individual 1. So, I have to wonder, will he be able to avoid prosecution for his crimes – both before his “election” (with 3 MILLION less votes than Mrs. Clinton) and after by PARDONING himself on the way out? Seems like there’s something new EVERY day!
One more question: If somehow the Senate voted to remove him from office would that mean he no longer had the power to pardon? At that instant would he no longer be our (so-called) president and be unable to PARDON anyone? Stay tuned!