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Donald Trump

Trumpican Senators Expose Fox Fraud: So What!

February 5, 2020
by Peter Feinman
You Can Fool Some of the People All of the Time...and That's Enough

The vote to exonerate the Impeached One will reverberate throughout the election period and beyond in ways too big to address in a single post.

What will the effect be when a President of the United States who thinks Article II gives him permission to do whatever he wants is unleashed with no adult supervision and no checks and balances?

What will be the effect as additional information is revealed documenting the abuse of power?

What impact will those actions have on the voting public?

If you work in the White House and observe additional violations of the law and abuses of power would you become a whistle blower?

When will John Bolton be arrested and muzzled?

How will America celebrate the American Revolution 250th when half the country is Loyalist and welcomes having a king as President? (See “You’ll Be Back”: Hamilton’s King George III Got It Right.)

Pity the poor people in history museums who attempt to explain to the audience that impeaching King George III and removing him from office to rule over us was a good thing.

Compared to the caucus chaos, a coronation has a strong appeal.

In this blog, I wish to focus on one small slice of the story: the exposure of Fox as a fraud y the Trumpican Senators combined with the recognition that it doesn’t make any difference.

Consider the following.

So-Called Whistle Blower

If I had a dollar for every time the whistle blower was called the “so-called whistle blower” by the Fox Frauds and Friends, I could retire a wealthy person. Over and over again, they referred to him with this pejorative coupled with the insistent demand that he testify. The fact that everything he asserted had been substantiated by witnesses was irrelevant. It was deemed absolutely critical that the so-called whistle blower appear in public. Why?

The answer is straightforward. The Fox Frauds and Friends wanted to assault the whistle blower as a Deep State operative. This person was out to betray our Lord and Savior, the Chosen one, Blessed Be his Name, right from the start. Now finally this person had acted on those beliefs and concocted a story about an abuse of power involving the Ukraine and an attempt to cover it up.

In the end, the Trumpican Senators accepted the description of events by the whistle blower as accurate. There was no truth to the accusations by the Fox Frauds and Friends. They didn’t necessarily agree with the actions of the Impeached One and would not have done it themselves. But such deplorable and despicable actions did not rise to the level of high crimes and misdemeanors warranting removal from office. How did they know that? The OJ lawyer said so.

Read the Transcript

Who can forget the mantra of “read the transcript”? Again and again the Fox Frauds and Friends recited these words. Sometimes they even held up to the camera a copy of the “perfect call.” These words were printed on T-shirts. It was a perfect call. Even to this very day, the Impeached One declares it to be a “perfect call.” The Fox Frauds and Friends echoed that description. It was a perfect call. The whole impeachment thing is a hoax. There is no “there” there because it was a perfect call.

Although…in the end, the Trumpican Senators accepted the perception that the call was not a perfect call. There was no truth to the accusations by the Fox Frauds and Friends. Instead it was a call whereby the President of the United States sought to extort a foreign government to assist in his re-election by launching an investigation of his leading opponent. The Trumpican Senators didn’t necessarily agree with the actions of the Impeached One and would not have done it themselves. But such deplorable and despicable actions did not rise to the level of high crimes and misdemeanors warranting removal from office. How did they know that? The OJ lawyer said so.

Shifty Schiff Congenital Liar

Here is another pet phrase of the Fox Frauds and Friends. They loved to call Adam Schiff a “congenital liar.” They loved to mock him for his height. They loved to mock him for his deranged psychological mental state. They loved to mock him for being incapable of telling the truth. In fact sometimes the virulent attacks by our seventh-grade-smart-aleck-dumb-aleck president sounded as if he were describing himself. In any event, the nightly vilification of Adam Schiff was a source of great fun for the supremely mean and nasty Fox Frauds and Friends.

Meanwhile in the real world, the Trumpican Senators exposed this train of attack as bogus. They accepted that the Impeached One had done all that he was accused of doing. They accepted that the witnesses had accurately testified to what the Impeached One had done. And they did so because they acknowledged that Schiff had done a masterful job in laying out the case against the Impeached One.

Suppose instead of voting up-or-down on the two counts, the Senators had been asked to vote on the specific actions taken by the Impeached One. Suppose they had been asked on this date did this person do this? Or did he say that? Suppose they had been asked to vote on the facts of the case instead of their interpretation of the seriousness of those facts. In that case, the Trumpican Senators would have voted that, yes, the events transpired exactly as Adam Schiff had presented them. The Trumpican Senators would have voted that Schiff was neither deranged nor shifty but had nailed it [with a few exceptions for those believing Senators who drank the Kool Aid].

In the end, the Trumpican Senators accepted that Adam Schiff had done his job. There was no truth to the accusations by the Fox Frauds and Friends.  The President of the United States had sought to extort a foreign government to assist in his re-election by launching an investigation of his leading opponent. The Trumpican Senators didn’t necessarily agree with the actions of the Impeached One and would not have done it themselves. But such deplorable and despicable actions did not rise to the level of high crimes and misdemeanors warranting removal from office. How did they know that? The OJ lawyer said so.

Traitor Alexander Vindman

And then there was the traitor Alexander Vindman. This symbol of the American Dream who had escaped the Soviet Union to build a life in the United States when it was still a beacon of light to huddled masses yearning to be free was in fact loyal to another country. He was not submissive to Vladimir Putin on a personal level; instead he was working in service of a foreign government. The attacks by the Fox Frauds and Friends escalated to the extent that it was necessary for the Department of Defense to vouch for his safety. The change from Bob Corker to Marsha Blackburn as the Senator from Tennessee reveals the degeneration of the Republican Party and its replacement by the Trumpican Party.

However, in the end the Trumpican Senators accepted that Alexander Vindman was a patriotic American who had done his job. There was no truth to the accusations by Fox Frauds and Friends. The President of the United States had sought to extort a foreign government to assist in his re-election by launching an investigation of his leading opponent. The Trumpican Senators didn’t necessarily agree with the actions of the Impeached One and would not have done it themselves. But such deplorable and despicable actions did not rise to the level of high crimes and misdemeanors warranting removal from office. How did they know that? The OJ lawyer said so.

In effect, the Trumpican Senators declared every show by Fox Frauds and Friends over the past few months to have been completely bogus. Every charge they levied, every insult they made, every person they demeaned and insulted all were bogus. The Trumpican Senators said contrary to the Fox Frauds and Friends everything the whistle blower said was true, the phone call was attempted extortion, Adam Schiff did his job well, and Alexander Vindman was a loyal, patriotic, and honest American. The Fox Frauds and Friends were wrong about everything.

So what? Does the Fox Frauds and Friends even realize that the Trumpican Senators have exposed them as frauds? Do their viewers? Does their One Viewer of Importance even realize what the Trumpican Senators have acknowledged he did since he still thinks it was a perfect call? As additional emails, documents, and testimony, and possible indictments in New York come to light during the election cycle, the attempted extortion and cover up by the President of the United States will remain in the news.

And what happens if some non-Trumpican IRS clerks think they are above the law too?

This time, the inaugural attendance at the coronation of the Impeached One really is likely to be bigger.

Destroying Cultural Sites: Babylonia, Persia, and America

January 9, 2020
by Peter Feinman
(pyramidanalytics.com)

When you come to the fork in the road, take it.

These words of wisdom from the Great Yogi apply to the decision raised by the President of the United States in the conduct of war. What sites are legitimate targets and what sites are not? A commanding officer has options as to what will be destroyed and what will be spared. Such choices have been part of the human experience as long as there have been material objects which could be destroyed. In the actions of Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylonia in modern Iraq and Cyrus the Great of Persia in modern Iran, we have two contrasting examples.

Nebuchadnezzar II

Nebuchadnezzar II was the king of Babylon in the seventh to sixth centuries BCE. During his life he created a Babylonian Empire from the ashes of the Assyrian Empire. He is a figure of study in the secular academic world for his exploits. But his chief claim to fame lies in the biblical world for his actions in Jerusalem.

2 Kings 25:8 In the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month — which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon — Nebuzaradan, the captain of the bodyguard, a servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. 9 And he burned the house of the LORD, and the king’s house and all the houses of Jerusalem; every great house he burned down.

The destruction of the temple became a day of infamy in Jewish tradition remembered to this very day. Babylon also has been remembered in Christian tradition as a result of this action as well.

Revelation 17:1 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who is seated upon many waters, 2 with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and with the wine of whose fornication the dwellers on earth have become drunk.” 3 And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of blasphemous names, and it had seven heads and ten horns. 4 The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and bedecked with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her fornication; 5 and on her forehead was written a name of mystery: “Babylon the great, mother of harlots and of earth’s abominations.”

Lo, the whore of Babylon. So while on one hand, one may view the treasures in museums of this mighty civilization, on the other hand, it has earned a reputation of disrepute for the destruction of cultural sites.

Cyrus the Great

A few decades later, Cyrus the Great brought the Babylonian Empire to an end. For his actions, he earned a biblical reputation diametrically opposed to one attained by Babylon. By contrast, he was remembered as a messiah, an anointed one of the Lord, even though he was not of Davidic descent or even Jewish.

Isaiah 44:28 who says of Cyrus, `He is my shepherd, and he shall fulfil all my purpose’; saying of Jerusalem, `She shall be built,’ and of the temple, `Your foundation shall be laid.'” 45:1 Thus says the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped, to subdue nations before him…

What is that Cyrus did that garnered such biblical praise?

Ezra 1:1 In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing: 2 “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. (See also II Chronicles 36:22-23.)

In effect, the biblical account portrays Cyrus the Great as the un-Nebuchadnezzar. He reverses what the Babylonian king has done. He allows the Jews in exile to return home and to rebuild the temple. Whereas Babylon is remembered as the mother of harlots, the Persian King Ahasuerus marries Esther. Even if you reject the story of Esther as being biologically literally true, it certainly is true from a storyteller’s perspective that an intermarriage between a Persian king and Jewess was believable.

So here we have two forks in the road based on mighty kings and cultural sites. The one who destroys and the one who rebuilds, the one remembered in a city that is the mother of harlots, the other as a messiah, anointed of the Lord, one leading to holiday of Tisha B’Av, the other Purim. How mighty kings treat cultural objects becomes part of their legacy.

Now we have an American version to add to the list. Should a President of the United States target cultural sites for destruction? Which path should he take?

The decision by an American President on whether or not to destroy cultural sites was not based on the careful analysis of an adult weighing the pros and cons of each option. Quite the contrary. The decision was made at the gut level based on what was best for him. Consider the claim that the decision to kill Suleimani was due to the threat of imminent attacks on Americans – it was to save lives. Certainly it is true that if Suleimani had lived a normal life span he would have killed additional Americans. That does not mean there was an imminent threat involving a significant number of Americans therefore warranting immediate action…or that killing him would eliminate the threat.

When the President of the United States decided to announce that he would bomb cultural sites, he did so because in his gut it was the right decision for him.

At no point did he consider whether or not such actions were legal under international law. The thought never occurred to him.

At no point did he consider what the consequences might be. The thought never occurred to him.

At no point did he realize that he would be giving our enemies the license to target our cultural sites. If Iran or Isis wants to target the Statue of Liberty it is a legitimate target but we will stop them. If Iran or Isis wants to target the Lincoln Memorial it is a legitimate target but we will stop them. If Iran or Isis wants to target the Alamo it is a legitimate target but we will stop them.

BUT IF IRAN OR ISIS WANTS TO TARGET A TRUMP PROPERTY THEN THEY WILL KNOW MY WRATH. IT’S ALWAYS ABOUT ME!

Strangely enough, there other overlooked considerations worth noting.

There actually were no cultural sites on the list of 52 targets that were given to him. So why did he act as if there were? Recall what he wanted the Ukraine to do in his extortion attempt. He wanted the country to announce that it was investigating Biden, not that it really had to do so. Similarly here, the skilled media manipulator simply was announcing that cultural sites were targets even though they were not on the list and he had no specific plans to destroy any. He does not even know what any of them are anyway. He was going strictly for the media impact of frightening Iran into thinking this President would destroy every site that is holy to them. Only afterwards did he learn about the law prohibiting it and that he would be a war criminal just like those dictators from Trump-hole countries in Africa.

But suppose he had given the order to destroy cultural sites in a briefing session and not in public. What would the military do? Would the military be loyal to the Constitution or to the individual? Would the Secretary of Defense degenerate to the level of the Attorney General, Acting Chief of Staff, Vice President, and Secretary of State? Think of all the stories and real-life events involving coups where the military seizes power from a civilian government. Ironically, in America, it is the military so far that is willing to defend the Constitution from the Commander in-chief. What will happen after the 2020 elections if that Commander in chief loses? What will the military do then?

Why Did He Wag His Finger Now? – It’s Always about Him

January 6, 2020
by Peter Feinman
America Alone: No One Wants to Play with THE DONALD

Why did he wag his finger now? What was the reason why the President of the United States chose this moment to kill Qassim Suleimani?

Most of this presidency has been what I have called play time. He got to play golf. He got to perform in political professional wrestling arenas. He got to issue hissy fit tweets. Rarely was he called upon to rise to the occasion and be presidential due to a crisis. He even loves to mock the presidential look with his penguin walk. When such crises arose, especially Charlottesville and Puerto Rico, he failed and didn’t care or even realize that he had. Fortunately, he had no Pearl Harbor, no Cuban Missile Crisis, no 9/11. There was no international crisis that demanded a response on the part of the American President. He was able to get away with being an immature child out of his league passing himself off as an adult. Then he created his own crisis. Now he has a real world adult problem. So why did he do it?

NO QASSIM SULEIMANI MANHUNT

Let’s keep in mind that the assassination of Suleimani was not the climax of an extended manhunt. The situation is not comparable to that with Osama bin Laden or Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. We are not dealing with a person who was in hiding. The issue for previous administrations was not how to find him but whether or not killing would improve or worsen the situation. Once the decision was made to kill Suleimani, it did not take long to find him.

IT’S ALWAYS ABOUT HIM

No matter what the situation and in ways no one else can accurately predict, he always makes it about himself. When 9/11 occurred, his reaction was he now had the tallest building in lower Manhattan. It’s always about him.

If you think his extortion attempt in the Ukraine was about his concern for corruption in the Ukraine, think again or think for the first time.

If you think his cover up and obstruction of the extortion attempt in the Ukraine is about his concern for preserving the rights of future Presidents, think again or think for the first time.

If you think his decision was based on reports from the intelligence services, think again or think for th first time.

If you think the assassination of Suleimani was about an imminent attack and to make the world safer for America, think again or think for the first time.

The challenge here is to try to determine why the assassination of Suleimani was important right now to this one person who happens to be the President of the United. There is no geo-political thinking involved. There is no strategy involved. There isn’t even much thinking involved in this impulsive decision. What was going on inside his brain?

MAN-UP

When he was 13 years old, his father placed him in military school in the vain hope that this immature child would man-up. It didn’t happen. It never will. But it was and continues to be important to convey the illusion that it did happen. THE DONALD is a character he created to express his manliness. He loves acting as THE DONALD. Consider how he defines manliness as so often expressed in his tweets and in the political professional wrestling arena shows.

It means insulting and demeaning women.

It means insulting and demeaning people with handicaps.

It means insulting and demeaning people who are smaller than him or who he can characterize as smaller.

It means mocking people like John McCain as a loser while championing Hollywood-cast brutal killers like Edward Gallagher as real men.

It means falsely claiming that ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi died whimpering and crying.

It means having Hollywood-cast “my generals” reporting to him until they dare to think for themselves and be more educated, disciplined, and dedicated to the Constitution than he is.

It means having a parade with his action toys.

In short, it means the seventh-grade smart-aleck dumb-aleck is in his element being THE DONALD. The only arena he enters is a fake one where the confrontation is scripted. Oh, yes, in the real world he would have been a great soldier if it hadn’t been for this bone spurs. How can you expect him to remember on which foot he faked having them?

So in determining why he chose this moment to have Qassim Suleimani, one needs to keep in mind that first, it was about him, and second, it is about his need to be THE DONALD.

THE REAL WORLD

In the real world of adults, things haven’t fared so well for THE DONALD. World leaders don’t watch Fox and don’t attend his political professional wrestling arena shows. In the real world, the adult world leaders caught on pretty quickly that THE DONALD is an act. They know he is an ignorant, impulsive, immature child. But he is also a dangerous one because of the power he commands as President of the United States. The surreptitious tape of European leaders mocking him at a NATO summit was not as easy to deny as the laughter in the General Assembly at him. That tape is hardly likely to have been the one and only time that adult world leaders mocked the American child…and he knows it. The boy from Queens who always wanted to be accepted by the civilized world across the river in Manhattan learned that at the global level he is still the outsider the adult people look down on. Even for someone as skilled as THE DONALD at avoiding reality, he must have simmered over the exposure of his diminutive status as a loser. But he’s the President of the United States, so he will show them who is boss. Here have some tariffs.

Remember, it always about him and that includes tariffs. Let see how these cultured high and mighty like having tariffs dumped on them by the rude, crude, outsider, whom they don’t want in their club. Maybe he will even destroy the club. George Bush, the father, rallied a Coalition of the Willing to join the war against Saddam Hussein. Now the American President who has alienated America’s allies stands alone and acts impulsively before a coalition could even be organized anyway.

IRAN EXPOSES THE DONALD AS A FRAUD

With Iran, the exposure of THE DONALD became even worse. When Iran challenged him with bombings of Saudi oil fields, he was all set to be THE DONALD in the real world. He’ll show those Iranians who is a real man. Then Tucker Carlson talked him out of it. How is that Tucker Carlson could talk him out of the bombing at the last minute while actual government officials could not convince him to release the funds to the Ukraine?

This time around Tucker Carlson’s admonitions did not work. Something else had happened. As a result of not acting against Iran, THE DONALD was exposed as a weenie. Even he realized that he looked weak. Iran did not fear him. Iran even mocked him in public. YOU CAN’T DO ANYTHING. WE ARE NEAR YOU. WE ARE THE MAN OF THIS ARENA, NOT YOU!

That was too much to take. After all his talk about how respected the United States is in the world as a result of his leadership, it turns out that the President of the United States was not respected at all. And unlike the European leaders who trash talk the American President behind his back, the Iranians did so to his face. That could not be tolerated. He could not risk a Libyan Embassy II. The image of THE DONALD had to be preserved. Kill Suleimani because I need him to die. It always about him.

PROVING HIS MANHOOD

As an example of his manliness, our Macho-Macho-Man President has announced he has selected 52 Iranian sites to be destroyed very fast and very hard if Iran tries anything. The 52 comes from the number of Americans held hostage by Iran beginning back in 1979. He is quite proud of making this connection. Remember when he said the father and son were both talking to Putin about ending the Russian freeze on American adoptions? He was so proud of himself for concocting that connection all by himself. He didn’t even need Hannity to do it for him! Now the targets included cultural sites which are protected by international agreement. What does he care about the rules? Why he is encouraging Iran to target American cultural sites is a mystery. Perhaps Iran should start with every Trump building or golf course anywhere and everywhere in the world. We are now at the 7th grade level of “OH YEAH! OH YEAH! OH YEAH!” negotiations. Maybe the adults in the room will stop him.

So what has this impulsive act to preserve the illusion of THE DONALD on the world stage and therefore to Trumpicans at home achieved. It is still too early to know how this self-imposed crisis will work. Some suggestions can be made.

1. The world is not safer for Americans.
2. North Korea will be more determined than ever to preserve and develop its nuclear arsenal.
3. Iran will move closer to Russia and to China, a prime oil customer.
4. The risk of Iraq dividing into multiple entities has increased.
5. America will not fight a land war in Iran.

Thanks to the anti-Obama President, Iran no longer has to observe the 15-year nuclear limit from the “worst deal ever.” What an accomplishment. It will probably be item #1 on the Trumpican Party platform to the cheers of all his fans and worshipers. Who knows what other surprises there will be as the immature child is forced to act in real world where he is out of his league.

Who Is a Real American?: Why the Needle Has Not Moved

December 29, 2019
by Peter Feinman
Who Is a real American? Who is not? (www.youtube.com)

As the year draws to a close, I end with a confession. I was as wrong anyone can be. I was so wrong that I am not even going to provide the link to the blog where I was so wrong. I really believed there would come a time when Republicans stared into the ugliness of Donald Trump and would be so repelled that they would abandon him in shock, revolted over having being conned by a scam artist of such minimal mental necessities who was incapable of telling the truth.

I share the feelings of Michelle Goldberg who wrote:

At the start of this administration, many who are horrified by Trump thought that at some point the Republican fever might break, leading to conservatives in Congress to check a dictator-worshipping buffoon for the sake of the Constitution. I’ve become ashamed of my naïveté… (The New York Times, December 22, print).

To be fair to Little Donee Waney calling him a “dictator-worshipping buffoon” ignores the reality that he is an immature child who never was able to man up but desperately wanted to. His worship and submissiveness is not based on any political beliefs or values. The explosion of hissy fits tweets during this current interlude between impeachment and trial is testament to the threat the immature child feels as the adult world closes in around him. He is not fit psychology to function as an adult and the more he his forced to operate in the adult world, the more off the rails he will act.

It should be noted that some Republicans have acted against the longtime Democrat and Clinton supporter who subsequently hijacked the Republican Party in a brilliant exploitation of Republican fears and insecurities. But the efforts of Rick Wilson and George Conway (in the world’s strangest marriage) are not likely to prove fruitful. The Republican Party died a long time ago [R.I.P. Party of Lincoln (1856-2016) from March 12, 2016]. It exists merely in name. Republicans have been transformed into Trumpicans, the path they were already on, before the con artist had the skill to exploit it for his own needs. [A case study on the Republican and Trumpican parties in New York will the subject of a future blog.]

So what then were Trumpicans concerned about? Eventually I did realize what Little Donee Waney knew in his gut. The answer is that Trumpicans see THE DONALD as America’s last best hope against the Politically Correct, the triumph of identity politics, and the control over Real Americans by, you know, those people.

Skeptical-about-Trump conservative radio talk show host Michael Savage asked his listeners about their support for Trump. Here is one response:

Dave in North Carolina asked how anyone could blame Mr. Trump when he is fighting so many enemies at once. “He’s not just fighting the Democrats. He’s fighting the deep state. He’s fighting the cabals. WITHOUT HIM, WE HAVE NOTHING (capitalization added).” (NYT, June 19, 2019).

The idea that Savage represented a “a small crack in the foundation of Trump loyalists” seems absurd over six months later. It’s like thinking an editorial in a Christian evangelical publication represents another small crack as well. [Will white evangelicals see the light will be the subject of a future blog as well.] The excited urgency and passion of the caller Dave speaks to belief in the LORD AND SAVIOR, THE CHOSEN ONE, BLESSED BE HIS NAME.

This past July 4 was not without a politically correct scandal either. It seems that Kate Smith in her pre-“God Bless America” day, sang popular songs on the vaudeville circuit that were demeaning to blacks. As a result she has been yanked by the Yankees. In response, the Kate Smith Commemorative Society (I did not know there was one) issued the following statement in opposition to an action it characterized as

yet another example of the harmful excesses of the questionable concept of ‘political correctness,’ and the unfair and all-too frequent tendencies to judge events of the past by the standards and sensibilities of the present. (NYT, July 4, 2019).

A few days later on July 7, The New York Times printed some responses to a survey taken of Trump voters as to their preferences in 2020. Here are some of the responses.

1. Based on the debates, Democrats have learned nothing in the last two years. Democrats believe that identity politics is a winner. Wrong.

2. I did hear (from the Democratic candidates) about decriminalizing lawlessness [meaning immigration] (and) a healthy dollop of identity politics.

3. The Democrats want to give illegals just about anything they want. What part of illegal do they not understand?

On the other hand, some Trump voters had seen the light.

1. Mr. Trump was preaching as if he supported populism and “draining the swamp.” He failed to live up to both miserably.

This person would support Sanders, Yang, Warren or Gabbard. The Democrats should be able to capitalize on Swampbuilder having the most corrupt and incompetent Cabinet in American history. [One should note that competent Secretaries may implement policies you detest but that does not make them corrupt or inept.]

2. I absolutely will not vote for Donald Trump again. I regretted it as soon as he started up with the inauguration nonsense. If his mouth is open, he’s telling lies….Our institutions and democracy are at stake, and four more years of Mr. Trump will be disastrous and ruinous. Mr. Trump has to go.

This response provides Democrats with two possible avenues of attack:

1. Can You Count? – Can you count the number of people in the inauguration parade? Can you count that 63 million is less than 66 million? Can you count that 306 Electoral College votes are not a landslide?

2. The American Revolution 250th – How can we celebrate the anniversary of removing a king from rule over us when we have a President who wants to rule over us as a king above the law and with no checks and balances?

Here’s what renowned Trumpican Maureen Dowd wrote on July 28, 2019, in an op-ed piece entitled “Spare Me the Purity Racket”:

The progressives are the modern Puritans. The Massachusetts Bay Colony is alive and well on the Potomac and Twitter.
They eviscerate their natural allies for not being pure enough…The politics of purism makes people stupid. And nasty.

In an article on “How Lying and Mistrust Could Take a Lasting Toll,” Robert Shiller wrote:

In talks with strong supporters of Mr. Trump, I have found that they are often willing to admit that he has “rough edges.” They suggest that all politicians have to play politics, and like Mick Mulvany, the acting White House chief of staff, they sometimes say we need to “get over” that. Being caught in lies seems to them to be no great shame. The greater picture, they say, is that the president has freed himself from the constraints of “political correctness” to state unpopular truths, and to fight for the interests of forgotten Americans. That view seems to show no diminution of a basic sense of the importance of honesty. (NYT 11/10/19)

My ongoing series of blogs on Columbus Day versus Indigenous Peoples’ Day are part of this same conflict. The weaponization of terms like “native” and “indigenous” by politically- corrected people were acts of war. Non-college-graduate whites were able to figure out that they were the target of this alternate vocabulary.

As long as the Trumpicans accept the con that Little Donee Waney is really THE DONALD fighting for them against the Politically Correct they will stand by their immature child president. Saudi Arabia knows that THE DONALD is an act but Trumpicans have not yet been exposed to that truth.

I was enlightened to the truth of the concerns of the Trumpicans in response to my recent blog on a “Prayer for America.” I have posted that blog before but this time I added “Prayer for Pelosi” to the title. Just prior to my posting and partly a cause of my resending it, Nancy Pelosi had stated she had prayed for the President. Subsequent to my posting it, he had responded disputing her claim to have prayed for him. Obviously Pelosi’s praying for the President does not mean she is a partisan of the President. Readers of my prayer blog sometimes were unable to understand that and/or did know Pelosi had said she had prayed for him. The mere appearance of “Pelosi” in the title with the word “Prayer” was enough to ignite Trumpicans.

Here is one response that I think goes to the heart of the divide in America:

Are you kidding me! What the hell is wrong with you sending out this email! Your prejudice is unbelievable. Do you realize 63 million people voted for President Trump. You are supposed to be a historical organization not a partisan hack org! I am going to post this email all over social media and expose your organization!

This reader opened the blog 39 times which I understand to mean it was forwarded 38 times to social media. A challenge to identify what in the prayer was partisan was unanswered.

Focus now on the use of the “63 million people who voted for President Trump.” Why mention a loser number? It was not the majority. It was not a plurality. So why call attention the loser number instead of the winner number of 306 Electoral College votes? The same may be asked of Congressional Trumpicans and Media Trumpicans who continually cite this number. What does this number mean to Trumpicans?

The answer in part goes back to Sarah Palin. She called on supporters to “take back the country.” To take it back from, you know, those people. In this scenario, who are the “we”? Who are the people for whom the country is being taken back? The answer is the 63 million in 2016 numbers. They are a minority of the voters but a majority of the Real Americans. It was at this point when longtime Democrat and Clinton supporter sensed an opportunity in his gut, a way to be the center of attention, a path to power. Barack Obama was a foreign-born Moslem. That claim rocketed the con artist to national standing. Real Americans were deeply afraid and emotionally distraught over the prospect of having their country being taken over…AND BY PEOPLE WHO WERE HERE ILLEGALLY BUT STILL TO BE TREATED AS IF THEY HAVE THE SAME IF NOT MORE RIGHTS THAN REAL AMERICANS. Real Americans needed a savior and Little Donne Waney was ready to fill that role. More than ready. And nothing that has happened since 2016 has changed that view because for these “Real Americans” the problem still exists and there still is no alternative to him.

The 306 Electoral College Vote Landslide: What Will Historians See through this Window into the Mind of a President?

December 19, 2019
by Peter Feinman
A Real Electoral College Landslide

As part of the impeachment process, the President of the United States released a six-page letter signed with [the Alabama?] Sharpie. Whether it was a rambling irate tirade or a demolishing of the impeachment effort as a hoax witch hunt is for another blog. The focus here is on how history will view this document. Of course, I cannot know the answer to that but I can note that the document was composed with history in mind.

First, everything signed by the President of the United become part of the historical record.

Second, the document displays a conscious awareness of history….

History will judge you harshly as you proceed with this impeachment.

It is time for you and the highly partisan Democrats in Congress to immediately cease this impeachment fantasy and get back to work for the American people. While I have no expectation that you will do so, I write this letter to you for the purpose of history and to put my thoughts on a permanent and indelible record.
One hundred years from now, when people look back at this affair, I want them to understand it, and learn from it, so that it can never happen to another President again.

This conclusion calls attention to the generally overlooked issue of what changes need to be made by the political parties in choosing a candidate and Congress needs to make in defining the powers of the Presidents and in establishing more effective checks and balances. That, too, is a topic for another blog.

In this blog, I wish to focus on one small item:

Your chosen candidate lost the election in 2016, in an Electoral College landslide (306-227).

What is this statement doing in this impeachment letter? Why add the concluding phrase “in an Electoral College landslide (306-227)”? What is the added value gained by making this assertion?

An historian analyzing this document will determine that this claim originated right after the election in 2016. The winner tweeted the claim on November 27, 2016. It was part of a tweet claiming that he also won the popular vote once all the illegal votes were deducted. The landslide claim was repeated the following day by Kellyanne Conway in a tweet:

3:35 PM – Nov 28, 2016
306. Landslide. Blowout. Historic.

This claim was months before her claim about the inaugural parade size. In these actions, the historian will begin to observe a pattern now characterized as “alternate reality.”

At this point, the historian analyzing just this one statement in the letter already will have multiple avenues of research to pursue:

1. What was the basis for the claim of millions of illegal votes other than wishful thinking? Why did the winning Electoral College candidate need to make this bogus claim?
2. Why did the Electoral College winner need to claim that 306 votes represented a landslide?
3. Why does he continue to do so to this very day?

The historian investigating this one sentence will know the following based on the historical record.

The final vote was 304 votes and not 306. This is a technical point. Based on the election results, the candidate was entitled to 306 Electoral College votes but there were two defectors. That does not invalidate the claim that he won 306 votes on Election Day.

The bigger question involves the non-legal term “landslide.” What constitutes a “landslide”? Is there legitimate reason for wiggle room to allow a candidate to declare 306 Electoral College votes to be a landslide?

As soon as the “landslide” victory was asserted, people checked the historical record. Here is an excerpt from my blog dated January 27, 2017 entitled “2020 Presidential Election: The Battle Is Engaged”

So let’s look at the presidential elections of the last century without compensating for Hawaii and Alaska becoming states.

Republicans with over 400 Electoral Votes

1984 Ronald Reagan 525
1972 Richard Nixon 520
1980 Ronald Reagan 489
1956 Dwight Eisenhower 457
1928 Herbert Hoover 444
1952 Dwight Eisenhower 432
1988 George Bush 426
1920 Warren Harding 404

Democrats with over 400 Electoral Votes

1936 Franklin Roosevelt 523
1964 Lyndon Johnson 486
1932 Franklin Roosevelt 472
1940 Franklin Roosevelt 449
1944 Franklin Roosevelt 432

Under the old math, the above elections were landslide; thanks to alternative math, 304 = 404. Pity the teachers who have students who embrace alternative math. Pity the people who buy products designed by people who embrace alternative math. Pity the passengers on a plane where the pilots embrace alternative math.

But there are other presidents who also won in landslides based on the Trump landslide.

1996 William Clinton 379
1992 William Clinton 370
2008 Barack Obama 365
2012 Barack Obama 332

Who knew that Donald Trump considered these Democrats to be landslide winners as well, even bigger winners than he was?

There are some results more comparable to the Electoral Votes totals for 2016.

1948 Harry Truman 303
1960 John Kennedy 303
1968 Richard Nixon 301
1976 Jimmy Carter 297
2004 George Bush 286
2000 George Bush 271

Some people have created similar lists based on the percentage of Electoral College votes received. Some people have created lists based on the spread between the top two candidates. Some people have created lists beginning with George Washington. No matter how one lists the vote totals, the 2016 election results were not even remotely close to being a landslide.

Historians will note that the 2016 winner was alive as an adult when some candidates won over 500 Electoral College votes.

Historians will note that the 2016 winner was alive as an adult or in college when some candidates won over 400 Electoral College votes.

Historians will note the 2016 winner predecessor whom he denounced often won more Electoral College votes than he did.

Historians will note that the longtime Democrat and Clinton supporter did significantly worse than did Clinton.

Historians will then ask how come the 2016 winner did not know any of this.

Here the historian will have to seek help elsewhere, from other areas of expertise. The historian/biographer will seek to understand whether or not this person is genuinely an ignorant human being and whether or not this person is genuinely capable of learning. The historian will also seek to know how come no one in the White House who worked on this letter suggested that this one phrase be removed…or did some suggest the bogus claim be deleted only to be overruled?

Ultimately, I think the historian/biographer will conclude that the 2016 Electoral College winner is a genuinely ignorant human being incapable of learning new information that undermines or invalidates his own view of himself. The perfect letter itself will provide the historian the proof. It was written for history. It was consciously written to be an historical document. It includes bogus information in a phrase that did not need to be included to deliver the same message. Yet the fact that the 2016 Electoral College winner and his supporters still make this bogus claim over three years later demonstrates the importance of the term “landslide” to them. And once the historian determines from this one phrase that the Electoral College winner is an ignorant person incapable of learning or leaving his alternate reality, all the other assertions made in the letter will be judged through that prism.

You may think I am putting too much emphasis on a single phrase. When I heard the future 2016 Electoral College winner say “Two Corinthians” and not “Second Corinthians,” that was all I needed to know: he was an ignorant con artist who would never man up and did not need to either. The inclusion of the claim that 306 Electoral College votes is a landslide in the impeachment letter for history is a window into the mind of the 2016 Electoral College winner. Looking into that window should frighten anybody who lives in the real world except Putin.

IMPEACHMENT POSTSCRIPTS

1. Democratic ineptitude – Where are the Democratic ads on Fox asking “Can you count?” with these Electoral College vote totals? Remember, Trumpicans like mainland Chinese get their news from the Government propaganda network.

2. The Dingells – My position is that Little Donee Waney is a seventh-grade smart-aleck dumb-aleck. I have said so many times. When the seventh-grade smart-aleck dumb-aleck wakes up in the morning, he does not know what disruptive and demeaning insulting remark he will make in class that day…but everyone knows that he will make one. Something in class will trigger him and off he will go. As his Press Secretary said:

It was a very, very supportive and wild crowd, and he was just riffing on some of the things that had been happening the past few days.

Exactly. The seventh-grade smart-aleck dumb-aleck goes with the flow and insults accordingly. Every opportunity he has. That’s who he is. That’s who he has been since he was a child. That’s who he will be until he dies. Nothing can change that.

3. Jonathan Turley – When the Republican witness said the House should wait for additional testimony, my immediate reaction was the House should vote for impeachment and delay sending the bill to the Senate until the additional witnesses have testified. Maybe something like that will happen after all.

Time Magazine Awards You May Have Missed

December 15, 2019
by Peter Feinman
Who Really Should Have Been the Person of the Year?

As the year draws to a close, it is the time of awards. While the Time Person of the Year garners a great deal of attention, other awards bestowed by the Magazine may go unnoticed. To rectify that shortcoming, here are some of awards you may have missed.

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ADULT AS A 13 YEAR OLD

The nominees are:

Tom Hanks in Big
Jennifer Garner in 13 Going on 30
Lindsay Lohan in Freaky Friday
Adam Sandler for practically everything
Little Donnee Waney for the past 60 years.

And the winner is

LITTLE DONNEE WANEY for the past 60 years.

The other nominees have filed a protest with the judges. While they were acting as thirteen year olds, the would-be winner actually is a thirteen year old. They have subpoenaed medical records of his brain scans which show that portions of his brain have never developed beyond that of a thirteen year old. Little Donnee Waney has refused to comply with the subpoena for his brain scans. The case is expected to go to the Supreme Court.

BEST FLYING MONKEY

The Flying Monkeys are people who have sworn to take a bullet in defending the Wicked Witch of the White House from attacks. The assaults from Dorothy, Nancy, and Mueller are to be resisted at all costs.

The nominees for the coveted Flying Monkey of the Year award are:

Nunes the Crooked Clown
Ridiculous Rudy, attack mutt
Clueless Jim Jordan, he never knows what is going on
Mattculate Conception Gaetz, house frat boy
Thank God He Was Passed Over Collins.

And the winner for locating the 400 pound Ukrainian who violated the American elections is

Ridiculous Rudy, attack mutt. He is the hero now just as he once was.

KING GEORGE III LOYALTY AWARD

The King George III Loyalty award goes to the person or people who place loyalty to the person above all else. The nominees for this coveted award are:

Trumpican members of the House of Representatives
Trumpican members of the Senate
Trumpican voters.

And the winner of the King George III Loyalty award is

IT’S A TIE. ALL THE TRUMPICANS ARE WINNERS OF THE LOYALTY TO KING GEORGE III AWARD. Bring back the good old days!

THE TRAITOR OF THE YEAR AWARD

The Traitor of the Year Award goes to the person or people who have been the most disloyal.

The nominees for the Traitor of the Year are:

The professional career staff of the State Department
Patrick Henry
Thomas Jefferson
Alexander Hamilton
George Washington
Adam Schiff
Nancy Pelosi
Whistleblower.

And the winner of the biggest traitor of the year award goes to George Washington. While the other candidates were all worthy of being traitors, Washington was the one in the group who really put his life on the line in defiance of the king. He showed the least loyalty. Therefore he wins the award.

THE VERY STUPID MORON OF THE YEAR AWARD

This award goes to the adult who demonstrates that he is the smartest person in the room as long as it is a morgue or a nursery school class with no adults present.

The nominees for the Very Stupid Moron of the year award are:

Little Donnee Waney for building a wall in Colorado
Little Donnee Waney for not finding North Korea on a map because he thought it was part of the ocean
Little Donnee Waney for attempting to close the border with Mexico the very next day
Little Donnee Waney for asserting that securing the Washington, D.C. airports was crucial to the disloyal traitors winning the American Revolution
Little Donnee Waney for thinking that Seoul, a metropolitan city of 25 million, was a small village
Little Donnee Waney for thinking that 306 Electoral College votes was a landslide
Little Donnee Waney for thinking that if he said to relocate Seoul that the South Koreans would do it or the Americans would do it for them.

And the winner of the Very Stupid Moron of the Year award is LITTLE DONNEE WANEY, if he were any dumber he would have to be institutionalized for his own safety.

BULLY OF THE YEAR AWARD

This award to the person who best exemplifies the characteristics the American people find repugnant unless it is being done their Lord and Savior, the Chosen One, Blessed be his name.

The nominees for the Bully of the Year are:

Little Donnee Waney for bullying the winner of the Time Person of the Year award since he should have won it
Little Donnee Waney for bullying a teenager
Little Donney Waney for bullying a girl half his size
Little Donney Waney for bullying person with Asperger’s Syndrome.

And the winner of the Bully of the Year award is

LITTLE DONNEE WANEY.

There is no award for most submissive to alpha males otherwise Little Donee Waney would have won that too.

MESSIAH OF THE YEAR AWARD

Who will be the anointed one? Who will be the lord and savior of the human race? Who will be the chosen one? Every year there is a lottery to choose the messiah of the year. The winner then chooses who in the community will be stoned to death. That is why the award is so coveted. The Lord and Savior, the Chosen One, Blessed be his Name, gets to select the person or people who will bear the brunt of the vitriol to be unleashed by him. That person or people will be attacked relentlessly without mercy for the coming year in every professional political wrestling arena throughout the land, on every show on Fox, and on as many social media sites as he can buy.

The winner of the Messiah of the year award naturally is Little Donnee Waney.

The person selected in his lottery is Joe Biden.

The most dangerous game for America’s future has begun.

A Tale of Two Countries: December 9, 2019

December 11, 2019
by Peter Feinman
A Tale of Two Countries (https://www.ancient-origins.net)

Report Debunks Anti-Trump Plot in Russia Inquiry (NYT, December 10, 2019)

Deep state in deep legal jeaopardy (sic) (Sean Hannity on Foxnews.com)

In which country do you live?

Do you live in the country that sees the Inspector General Report as one which asserts there is no Deep State and no political assault on Donald Trump? Or do you live in a country that sees the Inspector General Report as one which validates that every claim made against the Deep State is true and the perpetrators of the single biggest abuse of power in American history are in deep legal jeopardy?

Should Comey be taking a victory lap on the Fake News talk shows or is Duped-Again-by-Hannity right to warn him about doing exactly that?

There is only one Inspector General Report but according to the President of the United States the current Director of the FBI must have received a different one then he had. Putting aside the obvious fact that the President of the United States lacks the mental necessities to read the report and is relying on what his Attorney General told him, the comment nonetheless goes to the heart of the matter. The response to the Inspector General Report documents that we live in two countries within a single political entity. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that political entity or any political entity so conceived, and so dedicated, can long endure.

As I listened to the two factions in the Civil War, I was struck by the difference in tone. The Fake News talk shows were relatively measured in their tone. The word “debunk” frequently was used. The texts related to the lack of political bias were quoted often. Ironically, people in the past who have objected to how easily the FBI could open an investigation now deployed that shortcoming to solidify the argument that no political bias was involved. In this regard, the report confirmed what many already feared about the broad powers of the FBI to launch an investigation even as it showed the Trump investigation was a legitimate one.

Obviously, the cool, calm, and collected mature President was having none of it. Instead he launched a hissy fit tirade against the report, the very report that Duped-Again-by-Russia Hannity said vindicated everything he had said about the Deep State. In the show following his, the host practically had steam coming out of her ears such was her fury about the report. She demanded that action be taken so there could never be an abuse of power by the Deep State again.

The President’s new Michael Cohen promised to fix things. The new Michael Cohen declared that the conclusion of the report made clear that the FBI investigation into the candidate was fraudulent from the start and never should have occurred. The Trump-appointed Attorney vowed not to relent in his pursuit of the truth until he had a report he wanted. It would exonerate the President and indict the Deep State. No matter how long it takes as long as it is before the elections so the voters will see the truth, there would be a report. Nunes the crooked clown hadn’t produced the goods, Horowitz hadn’t produced the goods. The Durham Bull would.

What does this all mean for the Third Civil War? Right now the President is all-trash talk all the time. His seventh-grade smart-aleck dumb aleck self will be on display nonstop from now until the election if not afterwards. He will be joined by Duped-Again-by-Russia Hannity who cannot refer to Adam Schiff by name without adding the pejorative “compromised, corrupt, congenital liar.”

The needle will not move.

Minds will not be changed.

The intensity of emotions will ratchet up.

At some point it will boil over.

At this point, it is not exactly clear when the war of words will go to the next level. The question is not whether or not we will become Hong Kong, Lebanon, Iraq, or Iran but when. There are any number of potential explosive points.

Impeachment and the Senate trial will not be one of them. Everybody on both sides has known for weeks how it will end so there will be no surprise when it does end without removing this President from office. Therefore it will not be a catalyst for widespread demonstrations that lead to violence.

In case you think I am over-reacting, consider this line from The New York Times on December 8 written even earlier and therefore before the Inspector General Report or Articles of Impeachment:

…the poll also revealed that Americans feel deeply pessimistic about the nation’s future and fear that worse political conflict is coming. Some military analysts and historians agree and put the odds of a civil war breaking out in the United States frighteningly high.

What might trigger the demonstrations?

One possibility is the President of the United States will openly defy a Supreme Court ruling. So far he has only openly defied Congress and declared that check and balance void. There easily could come a time when he will do the same to the Supreme Court. It may not come to that, but it should be recognized as a possibility that such defiance will a flashpoint, the straw that breaks the camel’s back leading to demonstrations that result in violence that cannot be controlled or stopped.

For example suppose, the Court rules that Congressional subpoenas are valid and that people have to testify. If the current President of the United States defied that ruling how would the Supreme Court enforce it? Not much has changed in that regard since Andrew Jackson. Do you think any of the Trumpicans would testify in defiance of the President because their loyalty to the Constitution trumps their loyalty to this President? And then tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth? Are you serious?

Suppose instead the current President of the United States decided to comply with the Supreme Court ruling, what would his people say under oath? There are four possible responses to any questions posed to them.

1. I refuse to participate in this witch hunt.
2. I refuse to participate in this hoax.
3. I claim executive privilege.
4. I plead the 5th.

In fact they might even ask questions of their own.

1. Where’s Adam?
2. Where’s the whistleblower?
3. Where are the Bidens?

In short, Jonathan Turley was completely wrong. A delay in the impeachment vote would not produce any additional information from the co-conspirators.

Then what about the tax returns? Suppose the Court orders the tax returns to be released to Congress, would the current President comply? Obviously not. Would that lead to riots and demonstrations because the current President placed himself above the law? No.

Suppose in an act of civil disobedience, someone in the IRS releases the tax returns following the Court ruling and Presidential defiance? It would led to a fury of legal actions but probably not to any demonstrations.

Suppose the tax returns reveal that this President had been laundering money for the Russian mob? Would the Department of Justice take action against this President? Obviously not? Would Congress take up new articles of impeachment? Obviously not.

What all this means is the flashpoint for in-the street action will be the presidential election itself. At this point it is too early and uncertain to know how that will play out in the Electoral College, the popular vote, and in the legal proceedings following the election.  It will be an apocalyptic battle between the forces of light and darkness. It will lead to tens of millions of people being traumatized. It will be a time when people take matters into their own hands. It will be Putin’s finest moment.

Putin Declares Candidacy for 2020: “Make Russia Great Again”

December 3, 2019
by Peter Feinman
Little Donee Waney will never be a macho macho man

Vladimir Putin declared his candidacy for the American Presidential elections in 2020. His campaign theme is “Make Russia Great Again.” He is running for re-election in 2020 based on his success in his first administration. Putin cited as examples of his triumphs:

  1. the destabilization of NATO
  2. the destabilization of the American-European alliance
  3. the destabilization of the United States
  4. filling the vacuum left by the United States in Syria
  5. filling the vacuum left by the United States in Africa
  6. making the United States an unreliable ally who will only provide assistance if compensated
  7. the abandonment by the United States of its leadership position in the world
  8. the abandonment by the United States of its view of being a “city on a hill” and American Exceptionalism.
The Shining City on a Hill: Commentary on Reagan by Bryan Caplan
Quarantined

Putin champions the “American Alone” approach where the United States has no allies, provides no leadership, and takes no action. He is not there yet but he has made remarkable progress during his first term and is dedicated to completing the job in the second.

Open items include:

1. removal of the sanctions
2. occupation of the Baltics
3. return to the G-7
4. the withdrawal of the United States from the global arena except when it suits Putin’s purposes.

Despite having a weak hand, Putin has played it remarkably well. I do not mean to suggest that he has some carefully developed highly detailed plan worthy of a spy novel or a Hollywood movie. But he has stumbled into opportunities and taken advantage of them. So even with a second-tier economy he strides the world as if he is as significant a threat to the world order as mainland China is. At some point the gig will be up and he may even face a Russian spring. In the meantime, he can take advantage of the opportunities presented him by a weak America.

Putin foreshadowed his campaign platform in an op-ed piece “A Plea for Caution From Russia” in the New York Times printed September 12, 2013.  He wrote:

My working and personal relationship with President Obama is marked by growing trust. I appreciate this. I carefully studied his address to the nation on Tuesday. And I would rather disagree with a case he made on American exceptionalism, stating that the United States’ policy is “what makes America different. It’s what makes us exceptional.” It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation.

His candidacy is based on opposition to Obama, opposition to American Exceptionalism, and opposition to America thinking it is better than everyone else.

Putin is well aware that since he is not a native American, he cannot appear on the ballot. Technically, he cannot run for President of the United States. Therefore it is necessary for him to govern through someone who is eligible to be President but who will be submissive to him. In 2016, Putin was strongly against the Democratic candidate. Her “John McCain, Republican” attitude towards Russia was completely unacceptable to Putin. She was a threat to him politically and economically given the wealth he had accumulated running an oil-and-gas kleptocracy. While he knew little about her opponent, obviously he was not a “John McCain Republican.” Far from posing a threat to him, Putin soon learned that he was desperate to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. This person was someone Putin could work with.

Everything that has happened since then has only confirmed the unexpected bonus of the Trump presidency to the “Make Russia Great Again” theme that defines Putin’s agenda. It did not take long for skilled KGB agent to get the measure of the man, or rather the immature child, after meeting with him. Putin quickly realized that his American counterpart was a passive, ignorant, simpleminded child who could be manipulated to fulfill Putin’s “Make Russia Great Again” agenda.

How hard is to figure out that Putin is doing a superb job of dominating the weeny child desperate to be a macho macho man? Think of the real photograph of Putin riding a horse bare-chested compared to the weeny faking a photoshopped “Rocky” body. Bonespur boy loves to play with his soldiers, “win” rigged professional wrestling matches, insult people, and champion Hollywood-cast SEALs. He especially loves being a bully. Putin is well aware that Bonespur boy will never go into the arena in the real world. No matter how many times Little Donee Waney plays YMCA, he will never be a macho macho man in the real world.

His shortcomings as a man are hardly a secret. An American letter-writer to The New York Times wrote:

President Trump is Vladimir Putin’s patsy. Blinded by a compulsion to become the first American oligarch, Mr. Trump cannot see how expertly he is being played. The American president struts around attacking those he perceives as weak. Yet it is the bully who is vulnerable….

Meanwhile, Mr. Putin, the master manipulator, knows a bully’s ways and sees how he can exploit Mr. Trump’s desire to be an omnipotent ruler like himself.

While this Texan does not realize Little Donee Waney is an immature child, she is spot on in her assessment of the Putin-Trump dynamic. Is there anyone in the American intelligence services who lacks the mental necessities to have figured out what this ordinary American knows? How stupid a human being would you have to be not to know that Putin is the dominant male in the relationship?

In fact, Putin, himself, may have been astonishingly surprised at how easy it has been to manipulate the American President. The Ukrainian maneuver will be remembered as one of the great deceptions in American-Russian relations. Putin undoubtedly knew that Little Donee Waney would fall for this concoction. But he probably never anticipated how far the “Chosen One” was willing to go to act on this non-existent conspiracy. The subsequent wild goose chase led to Russia’s most valuable American asset being impeached. Surely that can be what Putin had in mind when he fed this bull-trump to the American President.

Still the Ukrainian maneuver has proved that Putin could control Congress through the simpleminded President. At least the Trumpican members. How long did it take for Congressional Trumpicans to start babbling about Ukrainian interference in the 2016 elections? Historians will compare the John Kennedy of the Cuban Missile Crisis and the John Kennedy who recites Russian talking points and wonder what happened to America. Remember when Fox angrily asserted the need for “due process” in the kangaroo-court so-called impeachment hearings sham? Yet what evidence did it take to convince Fox of the Ukrainian involvement in 2016?

Putin’s dominance extends then into the American people…or at least those who accept his Pence as their lord and savior. The polls showing that Trumpicans prefer him to Abraham Lincoln as the better president testifies to the complete subjugation of the Trumpicans. It also shows that that there is a residue of Republicans left in the Confederate-dominated party. Fortunately for the Trumpicans, the Democrats have no interest in reaching out to the Lincoln-admiring Republicans. If the Democrats had an alternative for whom Lincoln Republicans could vote, the 2020 election would be a Democratic landslide by even more than 306 Electoral College votes.

In the meantime, in the 2020 elections all roads lead to Putin, especially Pennsylvania Avenue.

 

P.S. In less than a week, Duped-by-Russia Hannity’s wait will be over and the Deep State, scared for its life, will be running for cover.

Deep State versus the Trump State: Will We Celebrate the 250th Anniversary of America?

November 17, 2019
by Peter Feinman
New York Times Magazine, November 10, 2019, by Paul Sahre

The 250th anniversary of the birth of this country is only a few years away. At this point, preparations are slight but there is an awareness that the time to start planning is now. If back in 1776, you had asked the Founding Fathers about the United States of America one day celebrating its 250th birthday, they would have looked at you as if you were nuts. They knew the country was an experiment. They knew the country was a work in progress. They knew the country might not last. When it reached its fiftieth birthday on the same day as the deaths of the second and third presidents and co-Declaration writers John Adams and Thomas Jefferson truly it was a sign from Divine Providence that this country was blessed.

Now we live in a time when it is reasonable to ask if we will survive another few years…or if so in what form.  Back in July, I wrote a blog about the “formal” commencement of the third civil war in the United States (July 14, 2019 = April 12, 1861 II: The Third Civil War Is Engaged). Previously I had written a blog about an earlier proposed date for the “formal” launching of the war (America’s Third Civil War: Kava-Noes versus Kava-Yeses). Occasionally, I wrote updates on the state of the ongoing culture wars since then.

Recently the intensity of the conflict appears to have escalated. While some news outlets would employ the war metaphor from time to time, such usage was not typical or routine. The declaration of war against Congressional subpoenas was one major exception. Now there have has been two rather dramatic expressions of the war terminology.  The Sunday Magazine of The New York Times on November 10 (print edition) has an image of a White House defended by tanks. The caption below reads: “What happens when the White House responds to Congress’s impeaching the president by declaring war on Congress?” Inside the magazine was an image I did not see online. It depicts a battle being fought between the White House and the Capital replete with images of Civil War charging cavalry, World War I trenches, propeller planes and paratroops, and more tanks. To the right of the image is the phrase “Impeachment Wars.”

The second example is the December issue of The Atlantic. The cover has a hand partially in red and partially in blue. The text reads “How to Stop a Civil War.”

The related articles in these two publications focus mainly on the culture wars. How are the Democrats doing in the impeachment and what are the stakes for the Republicans given the demographic changes which the country has and is continuing to experience? I certainly do not mean to diminish the importance of the culture wars that are dividing the country. My periodic blogs about Columbus Day versus Indigenous Peoples’ Day address that topic. I will continue to do so in forthcoming blogs.

But there is a second war that is being overlooked. This is the one between the Deep State and the Trump State. The confrontation is related to the culture wars but it is not one.  It is not about abortion, immigration or the politically correct – hot button culture war issues. Instead it is about the Trump State versus the Deep State, between people who are loyal to the person who happens to be president versus people who are loyal to the Constitution. I daresay given this individual president something like it was inevitable once he was elected. How come he was elected is a separate issue. It is important to recognize that the issues raised in this war are relevant no matter which party claims the presidency.

The recent events in the impeachment hearings have made clear what should have been obvious but which has received minimal attention compared to the culture wars.  In the Trump State, Article II means he can do whatever he wants. In the Trump State, it means he cannot be investigated yet alone indicted for anything he does including murdering someone in broad daylight in front of security cameras and a live TV audience on Fox & Friends. In the Trump State, Congress has no oversight power unless the President grants it. Is this really what Trumpicans want? Is this really what conservatives want? Is the President really above the law immune to any Constitutional restraints?

What we are learning now is that Deep State refers to the career professionals who place loyalty to the country and the oath they took to the Constitution to serve it first.  These people have disobeyed the Presidential order not to comply with the Congressional subpoenas or invitations at great risk to themselves. These people have been viciously attacked. The seventh-grade smart-aleck dumb-aleck cannot control himself and launched an attack on one career professional even while she was testifying.  He continues to lash out as the next witness prepares to testify. Would Trumpicans have enjoyed it more if he had intimidated the career diplomat into crying? He has no sense of decency. Do they?

Meanwhile, the seventh-grade smart-aleck dumb-aleck has surrounded himself with people who are equally vicious. His Mean Girl Press Secretary has been especially nasty and belittling. Duped-by-Russia Hannity erupts in tirades night after night about the psychotic individuals who are attempting to bring down the duly-elected President. Little Donee Dimwit exclaims that his father was elected to drain the swamp of precisely these people, the career bureaucrats who dedicate their lives to serving their country. Only someone living in an alternate reality could claim that the professional career employees are the swamp and the cabinet created by Swampbuilder represent the people we need in the military and the State Department.

By contrast the people who have obeyed the command of this President not to testify have been his political appointees. Anonymous has informed us that Little Donee Waney has meetings with his political appointees only and in secure quarters without any career officials loyal to the Constitution present.

Last December I wrote a blog about this exact situation: MAD DOG BANISHED TO THE CORNFIELDS: TWILIGHT ZONE EPISODE BECOMES REAL. The episode was It’s a Good Life first televised in 1961. In that story there is a six year old, not 13 like our President, who has extraordinary powers. He makes life a living hell for those around him subject to his whims and fancies. I will cut to chase and quote one portion of the blog relevant to the impeachment hearings today.

In that episode, one person, who is not anonymous, has had enough. He erupts:

You monster you, you dirty little monster…. maybe some man in this room; some Republican with guts, somebody who is so sick to death of living in this kind of a place and willing to take a chance will sneak up behind you and lay something heavy across your skull and end this once and for all.
Somebody sneak up behind him. Somebody end this now….
Will somebody take a lamp or a bottle or something and end this.

The printed word cannot capture the intensity of the anguish of this emotionally wrought person who can no longer endure the reign of the child. Aunt Amy tentatively reaches for a fireplace poker but refrains. She is past her prime. No one has the courage to act. The child banishes him to the cornfield. The adults are horrified at what he had done but no one does anything,

Then Thomas Friedman said, “I believe that the only responsible choice for the Republican Party today is an intervention with the president that makes clear that if there is not a radical change in how he conducts himself — and I think that is unlikely — the party’s leadership will have no choice but to press for his resignation or join calls for his impeachment.” But Friedman’s words were as flat as his world and everyone at Fox just laughed. There are no Republicans left.

The Trump State consists of the Flying Monkeys who have taken an oath of loyalty to the Wicked Witch of the White House. These are the people with first-hand knowledge who have declined to participate in the impeachment hearings. These ae the people who could become profiles in courage and do what did not happen in that Twilight Zone episode. Any day any one of these people could chose to tell the truth:

Vice President who does not defend his own staff
Acting Chief of Staff
Secretary of State who does not defend his own staff
Attorney General
National Security Chief

but none of them will. Even his personal lawyer who said in the end he would be the hero has the opportunity to save the country and really be the hero. We are still waiting.

The one possible exception is the millionaire donor who simply wanted a cushy job and the opportunity to show off that the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES calls him directly. His memory keeps improving and he is likely to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth now that he has seen what has happened to Roger Stone and heard what the other witnesses have said. Will that be enough?

Perhaps the straw that breaks the camel’s back has been placed. Perhaps the verbal assault on the former Ambassador to the Ukraine was the insult that forces the Trumpicans to face the truth. Perhaps at last the seventh-grade smart-aleck dumb aleck has crossed the line such that even Trumpicans are disgusted and are willing to become Republicans. Perhaps now they see that

Without their support he’s nothing.
The evil remains within him.
Look how ugly he really is.
Look at him after Kentucky and Louisiana and don’t be afraid.

It is time. It is time for the party of Lincoln to take back its party from ugliness.  It is time for non-elite heterosexual white males who love their country and are in pain to catch on that they are being slicked, conned, hustled, flim-flammed, bamboozled and lied to by a staggeringly ignorant narcissist who just as easily would rip them off at his phony university for their desire to live the American Dream as he would for their vote. It is time to realize that our weeny President is submissive to alpha males who are our enemies while abandoning our allies and attacking patriots who are loyal to the Constitution. It is time for loyalty to the Constitution to trump loyalty to the president if we want to celebrate the 250th anniversary of this country as a constitutional republic. Now is the time for first-hand witnesses to rise to the occasion. Now is the time for Trumpicans to regain their decency. Don’t hold your breath.

No One to Throw Under the Bus

November 12, 2019
by Peter Feinman
Who Are you Going to Blame?

The Wicked Witch of the White House and his Flying Monkeys are at the proverbial fork in the road with no Yogi Berra to guide them. On one hand, there is

NO EXTORTION, NO EXTORTION, NO EXTORTION.

On the other hand, there is

SOMEONE ELSE DID IT, SOMEONE ELSE DID IT, SOMEONE ELSE DID IT.

On the other other hand,

EVEN IF HE DID IT, IT IS NOT IMPEACHABLE.

On the other other other hand

THE DEEP STATE, THE DEEP STATE, THE DEPT STATE IS THE CORRUPT ONE.

Of course, sometimes the Flying Monkeys babble all the scenarios at once. This approach is based on the old standby: run it up the flagpole and see what sticks when you throw it against the wall!

NO COLLUSION TO NO EXTORTION

The phone call was perfect. Never in the history of the United States has there been a more perfect phone call between the President of the United States and a foreign leader. In fact, the only more perfect call is the one about to be released this week when the witch hunt hoax hearings begin.

No president comparable to Lincoln and Washington should be impeached.

The first thing every former Republican now Trumpican representative should do when they get up in the morning is to check and see what tweets have been issued since Fox & Friends began. Your loyalty is to the President and not to the Constitution. No collusion. No extortion. Read the transcript.

EVEN IF HE DID IT, IT IS NOT IMPEACHABLE

The Democrats took this approach the last time around. In January of that impeachment year all the Democratic talk was about the vast rightwing conspiracy. There was no truth to any of the charges. It was all bogus. Nine months later, it was “Yeah, he did it. So what? Get over it.” While there are closet Republicans who would like to take this approach, as Trumpicans they cannot. It will be fun in a tragic sort of way to watch former decent people wrestle with having to sell their soul to show their loyalty.  No collusion. No extortion. Read the transcript. Remain loyal or else. The threat of “or else” may not work on Republicans who are retiring and/or who have a conscience.

THE DEEP STATE, THE DEEP STATE, THE DEPT STATE   

This approach seeks to duplicate the success against the Mueller report now against Schifty Schiff. The subtext of the counterattack against the Mueller report was that the real collusion was by the Democrats with their bought and paid for Steele Dossier. It was really the Democrats who were in collusion with the Russians and the Democrats who should be investigated and charged.

But the Russian never interfered in the 2016 election as Putin publicly declared in a joint conference with the beneficiary of the actual interference siting right beside him. But the Democrats should be investigated and charged anyway even though it was not Russia but the Ukraine which interfered. Are you following this? I am having trouble doing so even as I type it!

The counternarrative believed by all Trumpicans was that the Deep State has instigated the effort to remove the duly elected and legitimate President by any means possible. Duped-by-Russia Hannity has identified the perpetrators of this covert operation. He has been salivating since the summer in expectation of the Inspector General Report that will nail these traitors to the wall. He is still drooling in anticipation as winter approaches

Once the whistleblower is exposed, the truth of the Deep State operation in the Ukrainian hoax will be revealed. The Flying Monkeys are just waiting for the opportunity to trash that person. We witnessed their assault on a decorated soldier who dared to tell the truth who really was a double agent. The Flying Monkeys do not want the whistleblower to testify so they can question this person. They want this person outed so they can destroy this person just as they will do to Anonymous once they discover that author’s name.

Meanwhile Bill Barred-for-Life apparently actually has limits to what he will do on behalf of his client. This shocking development raises some interesting questions. He was involved at some level in the extortion attempt. That means he knows first-hand at some least some of what happened. This is a different situation from the Mueller report. Suppose his global gallivanting to discover the truth of the Deep State Russian witch hunt has not turned up sufficient evidence for him to even go to a grand jury to indict Hannity’s hit list. What then? It is possible that he has a modicum of self-respect and decency to want to preserve what’s left of his integrity rather than turn into Vice President Brown Nose.

None of this will stop the Flying Monkeys in the House from launching a scorched earth assault on the Bidens. That effort will get full coverage on the Bull-Trump network and will be believed by Trumpicans. It will not stop the impeachment but it will provide an alternate reality scenario for Kellyanne Conway to live in.

As a result, there will be two televised hearings of the impeachment. One will be reported by the Fake News networks, newspapers, and websites and the other will be by the Bull-Trump counterparts. Since Trumpicans, like the mainland Chinese, only get their news from one source, the government propaganda network they will only see what Clueless Jim Jordan asks, Duped-by-Russia Hannity reports, and Little Donee Waney tweets.

WHO ARE YOUR GOING TO THROW UNDER THE BUS?

Yes, extortion did occur but it was a rogue operation conducted by people without the knowledge or approval of the world’s worst manager. He had no idea what was going on. Even the Ukrainians knew more about the extortion attempt than the President of the United States did. How could he be expected to know what his personal lawyer, chief of staff, or rich donor with no diplomatic experience were up to?

So will Man Overboard Mulvaney be the one thrown under the bus? Here is what I wrote about him last December:

Mick Mulvaney Parachutes onto a Ship in Chaos the Rats Are Abandoning

Back when Mulvaney was a normal human being, he made disparaging comments about the immature child candidate: he did not like him, he was an unfit role model for his children, and he was not a very good person. And this is from a conservative Republican….

Mulvaney considered the two candidates in 2016 to be the two of the most flawed human beings who had ever run for president in the history of the United States.

“Should either of these people be, be a role model for my 16-year-old triplets? No,” Mulvaney said on a South Carolina talk radio show in October 2016, CNN’s KFile reported. “In an ordinary universe, would both of these people’s past activities disqualify them for serving for office? Yes. But that’s not the world we live in today. The world we live in today, it’s either him or her and for me that’s still an easy choice.”

Then like so many other actual Republicans, he sold his soul and became a Trumpican. But even more than Bill Barred-for-Life, Manoverboard Mulvaney knows what really happened in the failed extortion attempt. He even said so. In public. Without a subpoena. Get over it. Now he has requested legal permission to testify before Congress and the American people. Presumably he is doing so because he intends to tell the truth once the Courts provide that permission. If he dares to tell the truth with first-hand information, what will happen to him? It will be too late to throw him under the bus if the Courts call upon him to tell the truth. But if he is thrown under the bus now, why would he even wait for the Courts to go public with the truth? Despite all the MAFIA talk and the admiration for Putin and Saudi OJ by the extortionist, it is unlikely that a hit will put on Manoverboard Mulvaney to prevent him from testifying honestly. Is there someone else close to him who can be threatened?

WHAT HAPPENS IF VICE PRESIDENT BROWN NOSE DISCOVERS THAT HE IS NOT THE HEIR APPARENT BUT NIKKI HALEY IS? WHAT HAPPENS IF HE REALIZES HE SOLD HIS SOUL IN VAIN? SUPPOSE HE LEARNS THAT NOW AND NOT SIX MONTHS FROM NOW? IS IT TOO RISKY TO THROW HIM UNDER THE BUS NOW? IT’S NOT AS IF HE WILL EVER BE A PROFILE IN COURAGE. (Will Mike Pence Become a Profile in Courage?)

Do you really think he will throw Ridiculous Ruddy, Attack Mutt, under the business? There really is not anyone who can be pinned for the blame except the person in charge. That’s why the message for all the Flying Monkeys, House Trumpicans, and Senate Trumpicans has to be NO EXTORTION, READ THE TRANSCRIPT, THE BIDENS AND THE UKRAINIANS ARE THE CORRUPT ONES.