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Donald Trump

Republican Party versus the Trumpican Party: The 2020 Elections

May 9, 2019
by Peter Feinman
"Thank you Istanbul": A victory poster shows Mr Erdogan (R) and mayoral candidate Binali Yildirim (BBC.com)

When did you first know that Individual #1 would not honor the 2020 election results if he lost?

DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE WINS POPULAR VOTE

Technically, that headline is not really a news item. In the baby-boomer era of the American presidency, the Democratic candidate routinely wins the popular vote. The lone exception is the post-9/11 election in 2004. Otherwise the Democratic victory in this facet of the electoral process can almost be taken for granted. Obviously winning the popular vote is not enough to win the presidency.

Nonetheless, the Democratic popular vote victory in 2016 while expected also should generate questions. Consider two commonly asserted claims that combined should have undermined the Democratic popular vote margin:

1. The turnout of black voters in support of the Democratic candidate declined from 2012
2. White Obama voters switched parties especially non-college educated ones.

One might think therefore the chances of a Democratic candidate prevailing in the popular vote would be correspondingly reduced. So if the margin was still nearly 3 million votes, then imagine what it would have been if Democrats had been able to retain these 2012 voters in 2016.

But there is a piece missing. It is not one that has garnered a lot of attention. It is not one that I recall hearing on the talk shows or reading about on blogs or in newspapers or magazines. I am not saying it has not been discussed, only that it seems to have done so minimally at best.

To begin with, although Trump is president whereas Mitt Romney lost in 2012, look at the vote totals.  Trump actually received a slightly smaller share of the vote than Romney did — 45.95 percent for Trump versus 47.15 percent for Romney.

Let’s look at Wisconsin as an example to determine what was going on. This is the state that one candidate famously never visited while it is alleged the Russian violation of the United States may have made a difference. The vote totals tell a more complete story.

In 2012 the Democratic candidate received 1,620,985 votes. In 2016 that number declined substantially to 1,382,536. One might think a 238,000 drop would result in big gain for the other side. Think again.

In 2012 the losing Republican candidate received 1,407,966 votes while in 2016 the winning candidate received 1,405,284, also a decline but of only 2700. However this roughly comparable total to 2012 was enough to win the state in 2016 due to the precipitous Democratic drop-off.

As it turns out, there is more to the story than the presidential election alone. In the Senate election, the Republican candidate won with over 50% and over 3% margin compared to the miniscule presidential margin of .7%. This winning candidate had 1,479,471 votes, over 74,000 more than the presidential tally. That means 74,000 people went to the polls voted for the Republican senatorial candidate but did not vote for the Republican presidential candidate. By contrast the Democratic presidential candidate had about 2000 more votes than the Democratic senate candidate.  When the Democrats went to the polls they voted for both the Democratic presidential and senate candidates; when Republicans went to the polls they did not. Where did the missing Republican presidential votes go?

The issue of the missing Republican voters was addressed in an article entitled “Trump Is Driving Out Precious Voters” (NYT 2/17/19 printed edition). The authors are:

Sean McElwee, Data for Progress
Brian F. Schaffer, Tufts University, political scientist
Jesse H. Rhodes, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, political scientist
Bernard L. Fraga, Indiana University, political scientist.

The article opens with the well-known commonly accepted truths noted above: the Democratic problem with the Obama-to-Trump voters and the loss of popular vote by the Republicans in six of the last seven elections.  The authors then state a caution:

It has flown under the radar a bit [EXACTLY!!!], masked perhaps by the switch of millions of Barack Obama voters into Mr. Trump’s column, but in 2016 Mr. Trump did not receive support from a large segment of voters who pulled the lever for Mitt Romney in 2012.

In fact, the Wisconsin example reported above shows even people who went to the polls and voted for a Republican senator did not vote for the Republican presidential candidate.

The authors suggest based on their data that 5 percent of the Romney vote in 2012 stayed home in 2016. Another 5 percent voted Democratic. They provide no figures for people who voted Republican for some offices but abstained from voting for a presidential candidate. The implication of the numbers the authors provided is the 10% drop-off in Republican voters from 2012 to 2016 was compensated for by the better-known Obama-to-Trump shift by uneducated whites.

Are these shifts temporary or do they reflect the beginning of a permanent realignment. The congressional elections of 2018 witnessed a nearly 9% difference between the total house vote of the two parties. That is a huge amount if extended to the presidential election in 2020. According to the analysis, the authors hypothesize that based on the 2016 and 2018 elections, the Republican Party may have lost more than 40% of the Romney voters born after 1976. Ironically given the front runner status of Joe Biden and the continuing popularity of Bernie Sanders, it is the Republican Party that increasingly becoming the party of old white males!

The authors then ask: “Can Republicans solve their demographic problem?”

They express some doubt. They do so by comparing the political positions of the lost Romney voters with the 2016 and 2018 voters and detect a gap that probably cannot be bridged. Such people might still vote for Republicans at the local level as indicated in the Wisconsin Senate vote but even that becomes problematic when at the federal level all, or almost all, Republicans have abandoned being Republican.

Which of the following actions since the 2018 elections seem likely to win back the missing Republican voters in 2020?

Trump’s shut down of the government.
Trump’s obstruction of justice at least 10 times according to the Mueller report.
Trump’s nullification of checks and balances and assertion of rule above the law.
Trump’s exposure as the biggest financial loser in American history.
Trump’s North Korean lover building more bombs and firing more missiles.
Trump’s claim that winning trade wars is easy is exposed as fraudulent.
Trump’s thriving in insulting and demeaning people.
Trump’s laughter at the “joke” of shooting illegal immigrants.

The Panhandle has replaced Peoria. The old claim of as goes Peoria so goes nation has become as goes Panhandle so goes just enough of the nation to win in the Electoral College without winning the popular vote. In 2000 and 2016, it was not the intention of the Electoral College winners to lose the popular vote. In fact, in 2016 the winning candidate was just in it for narcissistic marketing reasons and did not expect to win at all. The circumstances have changed. Now for the first time in American history, a candidate in a two-major-party election is not even seeking to win a majority of the popular vote or even a plurality. Instead the focus is on the Electoral College. Individual #1 has no interest in winning back the lost Republican voters. That’s because at the federal level, there is no Republican Party, just the Trumpicans.

 

When Did You First Know Individual #1 Would Reject the 2020 Results If He Lost?

May 6, 2019
by Peter Feinman
Will Robert Mueller Be Our John HancocK? (Image via Everett Historical / Shutterstock)

Eight months ago on September 7, 2018, I posted:

Suppose the very stable genius is wrong about the red wave. Suppose the Democrats win control of the House. Suppose the Democrats act on that basis and investigate all the items on the Republican hit list of potential problems where they are at risk. Will the President honor the election results? If a blue wave puts Democrats in charge will the President of the United States honor the results or will he demand a full investigation into the rigged results?

Suppose the very stable genius is wrong about 2020 (assuming he is still in office and chooses to run again)? Will the President honor the election results? Will the President leave the White House voluntarily? Will he demand a full investigation into the rigged results? Will he remain in the White House until the investigation by his Attorney General (not a stupid Southerner) is completed?

The big change since that prediction has been the replacement of the Attorney General with His Roy Cohn (HRC). With HRC in position, the chances of an aggressive assault on the rule of law increased substantially (Rule of Law: George Washington, Nimrod, and Today).

Then on March 17, 2019, I posted the following after the testimony of Michael Cohen (with a change to “Individual #1):

INDIVIDUAL #1 WON’T LEAVE THE WHITE HOUSE VOLUNTARILY

Back on September 7, 2018, I wrote [see above]

Those of you who read this blog, may I have thought I was off my rocker. I am pleased to note that five months later the Fixer, who well knows the personality of Individual #1 and what he is capable of, raised the exact same concerns in his Congressional testimony. There was not the chance to resolve this issue in the 2018 elections since the Democratic tidal wave was so huge. Even for someone living in an alternate reality there are limits as to how many Congressional districts can be contested. The situation is quite different at the presidential level.

Suppose in 2020, the Democratic candidate wins by the same small margin as the 306 electoral vote landslide in 2016? How many states would need to be contested to switch the national results? At this point it is impossible to know. Indeed we may never know if the margin is comparable to the Congressional vote in 2018. An almost 9% spread is difficult to finesse to an Electoral College victory.

There may be a preview of the 2020 crisis with his tax returns. Individual #1 will not voluntarily release his tax returns. It does not matter how the Democrats submit their requisition, he will not honor it. If his court rules in his favor, then the issue ends there. If the Supreme Court also has a traitor and the ruling is against Individual #1 he will not honor it. Instead he will claim Executive Privilege and that the Court has no authority over him. What will the Supreme Court do then? Or to update Andrew Jackson: “John Roberts has made his decision; now let him enforce it.”

Now we have the May 4, 2019, interview of Nancy Pelosi with the New York Times. It’s déjà vue September 7, 2018, all over again.

Let’s begin with the Congressional election. Pelosi’s concerns mirror what I had written.

Few people outside Ms. Pelosi’s inner circle were aware of how worried she was that Mr. Trump would try to stop the opposition party from taking control of the House unless the Democrats’ victory was emphatic enough to be indisputable.

It is mind-boggling that everyone in the Democratic Party and all their talking-head spokespeople could not figure this out for themselves. This failure to recognize what should have been taken for granted exposes that the Democrats still did not understand their adversary.

“If we win by four seats, by a thousand votes each, he’s not going to respect the election. He would poison the public mind. He would challenge each of the races; he would say you can’t seat those people.”

Exactly. If you do not understand this then you do not understand Individual #1. This realization should have been a no-brainer.

The same issues apply to the 2020 elections.

In recent weeks, Ms. Pelosi has told associates that she does not automatically trust the president to respect the results of any election short of an overwhelming defeat.

She said the victory in 2020 needed to be by a margin so “big” that it cannot reasonably be challenged.

“We have to inoculate against that, we have to be prepared for that,” as she discussed her concern that Mr. Trump would not give up power voluntarily if he lost re-election by a slim margin.

As it turns out, even with the 9% spread in the 2018 Congressional elections, the margin is quite thin. If those Congressional votes had been presidential votes then the Electoral College results would have been 329-206. Those numbers are deceiving. While Democrats won the House vote in Florida, they lost the state votes for Governor and Senator. That shift leaves an electoral vote even less than the landslide vote in 2016. It is reasonable then to anticipate the possibility of legal challenges in Florida, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan and any other states the Democrats manage to flip including those with Republican governors in control.

Pelosi may only be thinking of the legal challenge. With HRC going full-speed to deny the validity of any such election results, we should recognize that the danger is far more than legal. Certainly HRC will drag out the challenges well beyond what happened in 2000. We can see now in Venezuela what can happen when there are two claimants to the presidency. In Venezuela, the military stands with the loser who rigged the game against democracy. In America, the military should not be expected to act on American soil against Americans. That still leaves open who will physically remove him from the White House, take back the nuclear codes, and prevent him from doing something really dangerous during the interim.

I also wrote on March 17,

Will Individual #1 unleash his muscle in his militias, military, police, and Second Amendment people to protect him from the greatest threat to the United States ever?

How long would it take the Supreme Court to adjudicate all the legal claims filed?

If his Supreme Court betrayed him, would Individual #1 honor its ruling?

Who would actually extract Individual # from the White House?

At that time, I thought his income taxes would be the moment of truth. In anticipation of the refusal to turn them over, I expected the legal battle to reveal whether or not the rule of law prevailed in the nation’s capital or not. Now it seems we may have a quicker example. Will Individual #1 order HRC to refuse to let Mueller testify? We may know the answer fairly soon. If Mueller is ordered not to testify what will he do? We may know that answer fairly soon as well. If Mueller disobeys a direct order from HRC will there be additional civil disobedience?

So exactly how will America celebrate the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution? What will the legacy of our birth be in the present? Who will favor the Patriots? Who will favor the Loyalists? After all, there were mighty fine people on both sides. Will We the People have the experience of directly participating in the revolt against King George III by having one of our own starting May 15 with Robert Mueller in the role of John Hancock? What will happen in 2020? Who knows for sure? But as Pelosi said we have to be prepared.

Rule of Law: George Washington, Nimrod, the Tower of Babel and Today

April 29, 2019
by Peter Feinman
Common Sense by Thomas Paine (http://www.booktryst.com)

On April 10, 2019, Politico posted an article entitled “Trump’s ‘truly bizarre’ visit to Mt. Vernon.” The article recounted a visit on April 23, 2018, by the French and American Presidents to Mount Vernon, home of George Washington, the first President of the United States.

According to Mount Vernon president and CEO Doug Bradburn, the tour guide for the Presidents, the Macrons were far more knowledgeable about the history of the property than the American President. France, of course, contributed to America’s victory in the American Revolution with the assistance of Marquis de Lafayette and Count Rochambeau, the first but not the last time foreign intervention helped elect an American President.

By contrast, the American President is renowned for not reading a book and being historically ignorant (Canada burned the White House, the Baltic States were responsible for the dissolution of Yugoslavia, and 306 electoral votes is a landslide). It was easy for the trained guide to rapidly discern that the American President was completely bored. Drawing on his experience with school visitors who similarly had no interest in the Father of the Country, Bradburn attempted to engage the person before him. As reported by Politico, the former history professor with a Ph.D, “was desperately trying to get [Trump] interested in” Washington’s house. So he drew on his bag of tricks and informed the uninformed President that Washington had been a real-estate developer.

That approach did the trick. Now the guide had the President’s attention. Not only was Washington a real-estate developer, but for his times, he was one of the richest people in the United States. In today’s terms, he could be compared to Gates, Buffet, and Bezos and not to a comparative pauper like the President. (No, Bradburn did not say that!)  Again according to Politico, “That is what Trump was really the most excited about” said a source.

At that point, our narcissistic President responded to the news in the way that defines him as a person

[H]e couldn’t understand why America’s first president didn’t name his historic Virginia compound or any of the other property he acquired after himself. “If he was smart, he would’ve put his name on it,” Trump said, according to three sources briefed on the exchange. “You’ve got to put your name on stuff or no one remembers you.”

In other words, unless you make your name great, you are not great and will be forgotten.

The concept of making your name great is familiar to biblical students referring to another book he has not read.

Genesis 12:1 Now Yahweh said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.

In the biblical tradition, a person does not make his name great, the Lord does.

It should be noted that in ancient times the people who made their name great were kings. Lost in translation is the recognition that the way one made one’s name great in ancient times was by the king building something. To the deep regret of biblical archaeologists, ancient Israel did not partake of this royal tradition of kings building things with their name on it.

By contrast, Ramses II, the traditional Pharaoh of the Exodus of Passover fame, did make his name great. He built extensively. And when he had not built it, he still carved his name into it. It would be a little like our having the Trumpire State Building or Mount Vertrump. And Ramses did achieve lasting fame. By having approximately 100 children, a condom was named after him so his name is remembered all the time.

Mesopotamian kings followed a generally similarly path. Kings built stairways to heaven (ziggurats) at the cosmic center (the capital) where they ruled the universe from sea to shining sea (the Upper Sea or Mediterranean to the Lower Sea or Persian/Arab Gulf; there maps are oriented at a 90 degree rotation from ours). The baked bricks used in these constructions bore the name of the king.

Nimrod is the first king mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. He is the first king mentioned before Abraham encounters various kings. To understand what he is doing there one must put aside what the name means colloquially today and in rabbinic tradition and focus on the biblical text itself. In the original version of the story:

Genesis 10:8 Cush became the father of Nimrod; he was the first on earth to be a mighty man. 9 He was a mighty hunter before Yahweh; therefore it is said, “Like Nimrod a mighty hunter before Yahweh.” 10 The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, and Accad, and Calneh [Calah] in the land of Shinar.

These verses are descriptive, not accusatory. Nimrod is to be praised for his achievements not condemned. Indeed, he is a figure to be emulated given his success as mighty man or warrior before the Lord. He was the ruler of the Mesopotamian universe.

As biblical archaeologists and Assyriologists eventually learned, Nimrod was not an individual but an exemplar. He was not Sumerian Gilgamesh of Uruk (Erech) as had been originally thought. He was not Akkadian Sargon the Great of Accad, he was not Amorite Hammurabi of Babylon, and he was not Assyrian Tukulti-Ninurta of Calah to name other candidates. Instead he was all of them; he represented that Mesopotamian way of life.

To understand the Nimrod story, it is necessary, I think, to connect this story of the four cities with the inserts of the four rivers in the garden (Gen, 2) and the four kings of the east (Gen.14). A single author supplemented an existing narrative with these episodes. This author thought globally as he also did in transforming local flood songs (Songs of Miriam and Deborah) into a global one. That action undermined the Egyptian-based perspective of the Exodus story and the Canaanites who became Israelites. Having Nimrod be a Yahweh-worshipper long before Moses at the burning bush also undermined the position of Moses and therefore of his priesthood.

I suggest that the author the Nimrod story and these supplements was a Benjaminite/Yaminite Aaronid priest. He wrote not as a scribe or priest but as a player in the political arena. He ended the first cycle of stories (aka the primeval cycle) with Nimrod and a table of nations leading to Abram leaving Ur to start the second cycle. The torch had been passed to a new location. The temple in Jerusalem was now the cosmic center. The Israelite king in Jerusalem was advised to rule like a Mesopotamian king at the new cosmic center. He was to make his name great as Solomon did in building the temple.

So at least claimed one political party in ancient Israel. However, there was another political party, the Levites or Mushites who claimed the law came first. They objected to the claim that Yahweh had sanctioned the royal way of life in Mesopotamia as the Nimrod author had written. Yahweh had first appeared at Sinai to Moses and the law was revealed there. They mocked the Mesopotamian way of life by writing the Tower of Babel story. Look at those mighty stairways to heaven! They all were built for naught. All those mighty and grandiose empires crumbled into dust, lost to history until recovered by archaeologists. It was the law which endured and ruled even when kings and temples were no more.

Exodus 1817 Moses’ father-in-law said to him…19”Listen now to my voice; I will give you counsel, and God be with you! You shall represent the people before God, and bring their cases to God; 20 and you shall teach them the statutes and the decisions, and make them know the way in which they must walk and what they must do. 21 Moreover choose able men from all the people, such as fear God, men who are trustworthy and who hate a bribe; and place such men over the people as rulers of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. 22 And let them judge the people at all times; every great matter they shall bring to you, but any small matter they shall decide themselves; so it will be easier for you, and they will bear the burden with you. 23 If you do this, and God so commands you, then you will be able to endure, and all this people also will go to their place in peace.”

The Babel author highlighted the folly of the Nimrod story ambitions. This author was anti-Aaronid (golden calf story) and anti-monarchy (the Jethro constitution).

Jethro and Nimrod offer two different models of political organization: the rule of law and the king who makes his name great. Two political parties offered two different versions of how society should be organized: one based on the rule by a king and one based on the rule of law. The result was an original narrative now separated into two narratives with different endings to the first cycle of stories. Nimrod and Babel are inconsistent because they originally part of two different narratives based on a common core. Only when they were combined centuries later were the inconsistencies juxtaposed. Imagine having to combine Confederate and Union descriptions of Lincoln and Lee in a single narrative! Again, that was a political process and not a scribal one.

For the first centuries of Israel’s existence, it had had no king. Therefore no one was in a position to abuse power. Only when Israel had a king could someone be a law unto himself. We will never know if ancient Egypt or Mesopotamia debated the powers of a king when he first ascended to the throne in Egypt and descended to the throne in Mesopotamia. But we do know the debates ancient Israel had on the powers of the king. It decided there should be checks and balances on the power of the king. No one was above the law. Even David could be called to task: “Thou art the man.” And when he was confronted he repented.

The best time for the initial battle over whether Jerusalem had replaced Mesopotamia as the cosmic center occurred when Israel could if it were so inclined think of itself it such grandiose terms. This happened when Egypt and Mesopotamia were weak (and Pharaoh’s daughter was an Israelite queen). It happened before the time of Sheshonq and Assurnasirpal II.

This approach is based on the stories originating in a political context as Levites, Aaronids, and Jebusites battled for power. Even stories set elsewhere were always about internal politics. Obviously this scenario is speculative and cannot be proven but it does illustrate how a political approach can produce a different historical reconstruction.

This ancient Israelite dialog on the rule of law and the rule by the king continues on in the United States. In 1776, Thomas Paine wrote in Common Sense:

…that in America the law is king. For as in absolute governments the King is law, so in free countries the law ought to be king; and there ought to be no other.

Once again as in ancient Israel and during the American Revolution, the issue of the rule of law versus the rule by king is being played out. Will the United States be governed by the Constitution or a Nimrod?

 

For more on the stories of Nimrod and the Tower of Babel see my book Jerusalem Throne Games: The Battle of Bible Stories after the Death of David.

Rule of Law: George Washington, Nimrod, and Today

April 25, 2019
by Peter Feinman

On April 10, 2019, Politico posted an article entitled “Trump’s ‘truly bizarre’ visit to Mt. Vernon.” The article recounted a visit on April 23, 2018, by the French and American Presidents to Mount Vernon, home of George Washington, the first President of the United States.

According to Mount Vernon president and CEO Doug Bradburn, the tour guide for the Presidents, the Macrons were far more knowledgeable about the history of the property than the American President. France, of course, contributed to America’s victory with Marquis de Lafayette and Count Rochambeau, the first but not the last time foreign intervention helped elect an American President.

By contrast, our President is renowned for being incapable of reading of book and being historically ignorant (unless he saw a movie). It was easy for the trained guide to rapidly discern that the American President was completely bored. Drawing on his experience with 7th graders who similarly had no interest in the Father of the Country, Bradburn attempted to engage the person before him. As reported by Politico, a former history professor with a PhD, Bradburn “was desperately trying to get [Trump] interested in” Washington’s house. So he draw on his bag of tricks and informed the uninformed President that Washington had been a real-estate developer.

That approach did the trick. Now the guide had the President’s attention. Not only was Washington a real-estate developer, but for his times, he was one of the richest people in the United States. In today’s terms, he could be compared to Gates, Buffet, and Bezos and not to a comparative pauper like the fake billionaire President. (No, Bradburn did not say that! At least not the last part.)  Again according to Politico, “That is what Trump was really the most excited about” said a source.

At that point, our narcissistic President responded to the news in the way that defines him as a person

[H]e couldn’t understand why America’s first president didn’t name his historic Virginia compound or any of the other property he acquired after himself. “If he was smart, he would’ve put his name on it,” Trump said, according to three sources briefed on the exchange. “You’ve got to put your name on stuff or no one remembers you.”

In other words, unless you make your name great, you are not great and will be forgotten.

The concept of making your name great is familiar to biblical students referring to another book he has not read.

Genesis 12:1 Now Yahweh said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.

In the biblical tradition, a person does not make his name great, the Lord does.

It should be noted that in ancient times the people who made their name great were kings. Lost in translation is the recognition that the way one made one’s name great in ancient times was by the king building something. To the deep regret of biblical archaeologists, ancient Israel did not partake of this royal tradition of kings building things with their name on it.

By contrast, Ramses II, the traditional Pharaoh of the Exodus of Passover fame, did make his name great. He built extensively. And when he had not built it, he still carved his name into it. It would be a little like our having the Trumpire State Building or Mount Vertrump. And he did achieve lasting fame. By having approximately 100 children, a condom was named after him so his name is remembered all the time.

Mesopotamian kings followed a generally similarly path. Kings build stairways to heaven (ziggurats) at the cosmic center (the capital) where they ruled the universe from sea to shining sea (the Upper Sea or Mediterranean to the Lower Sea or Persian/Arab Gulf; there maps are oriented at a 90 degree rotation from ours). The baked bricks used in these constructions bore the name of the king.

Nimrod is the first king mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. He is the first king mentioned before Abraham encounters various kings. To understand what he is doing there one must put aside what the name means colloquially today and in rabbinic tradition and focus on the biblical text itself. In the original version of the story:

Genesis 10:8 Cush became the father of Nimrod; he was the first on earth to be a mighty man. 9 He was a mighty hunter before Yahweh; therefore it is said, “Like Nimrod a mighty hunter before Yahweh.” 10 The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, and Accad, and Calneh [Calah] in the land of Shinar.

These verses are descriptive, not accusatory. Nimrod is to be praised for his achievements not condemned. Indeed, he is a figure to be emulated given his success as mighty man or warrior before the Lord. He was the ruler of the Mesopotamian universe.

As biblical archaeologists and Assyriologists eventually learned, Nimrod was not an individual but an exemplar. He was not Sumerian Gilgamesh of Uruk (Erech) as had been originally thought. He was not Akkadian Sargon the Great of Accad, he was not Amorite Hammurabi of Babylon, and he was not Assyrian Tukulti-Ninurta of Calah. Instead he was all of them; he represented that Mesopotamian life. Now with Abraham leaving Ur and settling near Hebron (David’s first royal capital), the torch had been passed to a new location. The Israelite king in Jerusalem was advised to rule like a Mesopotamian king at the new cosmic center. He was to make his name great as Solomon did in building the temple.

So at least claimed one political party in ancient Israel. However, there was another political party, the Levites or Mushites who claimed the law came first. They objected to the claim that Yahweh had sanctioned the royal way of life in Mesopotamia as the Nimrod author had written. Yahweh had first appeared at Sinai to Moses and the law was revealed there. They mocked the Mesopotamian way of life by writing the Tower of Babel story. Look at those mighty stairways to heaven! They all were built for naught. All those mighty and grandiose empires crumbled into dust, lost to history until recovered by archaeologists. It was the law which endured and ruled even when kings and temples were no more.

Exodus 18:17 Moses’ father-in-law said to him…19”Listen now to my voice; I will give you counsel, and God be with you! You shall represent the people before God, and bring their cases to God; 20 and you shall teach them the statutes and the decisions, and make them know the way in which they must walk and what they must do. 21 Moreover choose able men from all the people, such as fear God, men who are trustworthy and who hate a bribe; and place such men over the people as rulers of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. 22 And let them judge the people at all times; every great matter they shall bring to you, but any small matter they shall decide themselves; so it will be easier for you, and they will bear the burden with you. 23 If you do this, and God so commands you, then you will be able to endure, and all this people also will go to their place in peace.”

Jethro and Nimrod offer two different models of political organization: the rule of law and the king who makes his name great. Two political parties in ancient Israel offered two different versions of how society should be organized: one based on the rule by a king and one based on the rule of law.

For the first centuries of Israel’s existence, it had had no king. Therefore no one was in a position to abuse power. Only when Israel had a king could someone be a law unto himself. We will never know if ancient Egypt or Mesopotamia debated the powers of a king when he first ascended to the throne in Egypt and descended to the throne in Mesopotamia. But we do know the debates ancient Israel had on the powers of the king. It decided there should be checks and balances on the power of the king. No one was above the law. Even David could be called to task: “Thou art the man.” And when he was confronted he repented.

Bonespur Boy is no David. He is no George Washington either who also is remembered for having left the presidency voluntarily. And even though he is no mighty man and is not before the Lord, he still is a Nimrod.

 

For more on the stories of Nimrod and the Tower of Babel see my book Jerusalem Throne Games: The Battle of Bible Stories after the Death of David.

 

Game Not Over: Flying Monkey Barr versus Dorothy Democrat

April 23, 2019
by Peter Feinman
Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men

Remember the good old days of Matthew Whitaker? He does not seem so bad in retrospect.

As it turns out, I was completely wrong about William Barr. I had written (The Mueller Report: Paula Duncan, William Barr, and the American People):

We know how Paula Duncan reacted when she was exposed to the truth. What will Barr do when he has his OMG moment?  What will Barr do when he learns that the slimiest and sleaziest real estate developer in New York operated and operates identically when he moved his business to the White House? Barr is a career officer of the court who will have taken an oath to the Constitution to serve the American people. He knows that he will not have taken an oath to be loyal to the President. So when he has his OMG moment will he like Paula Duncan vote to convict, that is, release the report or will he put the wishes of the President first? There is no way to know for sure but I suggest that it is quite likely that when the OMG moment occurs justice will trump loyalty.

It would be hard to have been more wrong about William Barr and his moment of truth although he did release the Mueller report.

So far the reaction has tended to focus on how he let the American people down. There has been little attention directed towards how he blindsided the President. One wonders if it ever occurred to him how he will be remembered in history for his decision not to tell either the American people or Individual #1 the truth.

Consider the situation before the report went public. At that point, it is reasonable to conclude that Barr had read the entire 448-page report with no redactions. That means he know what the report contained.

That Individual #1 never told the truth.

That Individual #1 instructed others not to tell the truth.

That for Individual #1 t law is irrelevant in his decision-making process.

That the White House was dysfunctional.

That White House staff and “friends” of Individual #1 routinely disobeyed instructions from “the Boss” or simply ignored such instructions.

That there were at least 10 examples of obstruction of justice by Individual #1.

That the only reason Individual #1 had not been indicted on obstruction or specifically charged with obstruction in the Mueller report was because of department policy.

That the Mueller report invites Congress to do what it could not do and charge Individual #1 with obstruction.

That there are multiple additional investigations (unidentified to the public but not to Barr) underway that guarantee a steady stream of bad news for Individual #1 for months to come possibly right through to the election.

Finally, that We the People shortly would know all of the above after the report was released.

So how did Individual #1 learn about the contents of the Mueller report?

He did not learn about it from reading the report itself.

He did not learn about it from just reading the summaries.

He apparently did not learn about the devastatingly negative portrayal of himself for his lack of character, morality, and management skills from Fox.

His actions and words during the morning and into the early afternoon were those of a person who had won, who had been completely vindicated, and who was having once of the best days of his presidency.

Then while basking in the glow of his complete and total triumph, he began to watch the Fake News shows.

SURPISE! SURPISE! SURPISE!

Suddenly and without any warning and preparation, he was exposed to the truth of the Mueller report. Since that moment of revelation, he has not attacked the Fake News stations or the Fake News reporters or analysts who have appeared on those shows. Even though he himself has not and will not read the actual report, he takes for granted that Fake News outlets like CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times and the Washington Post have accurately reported what is in the Mueller report even though it contradicts what William Barr had told him.

Barr knew the truth of what the Mueller report contained and he chose not to inform the President of the United States about it. Forget about how he misled the American public and concentrate on that shirking of his duty and responsibility. He chose to spin the President. He chose not to disclose what the report really said about him. He chose not to prepare the President for the firestorm to come once the report was made public. He chose to allow Individual #1 to bask in the sun for hours enjoying the glory of his triumph while knowing that at some point later that same day, the truth of report would become known. In so doing, he failed the President.

For a subordinate to bring bad news to a boss always is difficult. It is particularly difficult with our immature child-president who inhabits an alternate reality. One can easily understand and indeed sympathize with the challenge Barr faced with he became aware of the truth of the Mueller report. Even in the best of times, it would not have been easy to inform a boss of such a report. It was a report about to go public and become part of the historical record. It was a report that documented that Individual #1 was a dishonest, immoral, and incompetent person who was saved (for now) from removal from office and jail time because his staff and friends refused to follow his instructions and department policy prohibited indicting a sitting President (but might indict him once he left office!).

Putting aside all the political polemics, Barr was not in an envious position. While he never will be a profile in courage it is understandable why he would throw the President under the bus and not tell him the truth about what the Mueller report contained. Better to let CNN and MSNBC be the bearer of bad news than for him to be. Barr correctly gauged that when the truth came out, Individual #1 would direct his ire towards the people he knew who had told the truth to Mueller rather than be loyal to him. And, of course, to the 18 angry Democrats engaged in a witch hunt who should have been investigating Crooked Hillary and the cover-up of her collusion with the enemy… not that asking for information from the Russians is wrong, mind you. Better to be a coward and deceive the boss then be the one to tell him the truth.

Barr’s CYA helped himself but did not do Individual #1 much good. True, it allowed Fox and its Congressional Friends to demand an apology for the witch hunt and call for moving on. That would work if the Republicans were still the majority in the House and Nunez the Clown was still in charge. But Individual #1 did a superb job in helping Democrats take back control of the House. The result is a guaranteed steady beat of bad news. There will be public testimony by people Individual #1 does not control, new evidence, and new charges. The immature child will fixate on all these goings on and never move on.

I am not suggesting that Barr could have prevented this from happening. The only way he might have was to suppress the report in its entirety. I am saying that given the release of the Mueller report, he failed the President of the United States by not informing him of the truth. All this makes one wonder how often government people choose not to tell the President the truth out of fear he can’t handle the truth except to have a tantrum.

Now is the moment for Congress to demonstrate it can handle the truth. The eyes of the world are still upon us.

At a polling station in central Jakarta, Trianasari Arief… said the ex-general [Prabowo], known for his quick temper and unpredictable behavior, reminded her of President Trump and his upset victory in 2016. “I don’t want what happened in the United States to happen in Indonesia…and [we] get the orange-skin guy into office.” (Richard C. Paddock and Muktit Suhartono, “President of Indonesia Re-elected, Polls Indicate,” NYT 4/18/19)

Republicans: Mueller Report Confirms Putin Deserves Congressional Medal of Honor

April 17, 2019
by Peter Feinman

In an unexpected development, Republicans today unequivocally declared that the Mueller report conclusively proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that Vladimir Putin deserves the Congressional Medal of Honor for service above and beyond the call of duty on behalf of the United States of America. The Mueller report documents Putin’s sustained, systematic, and comprehensive violation of the United States of America presidential election on behalf of the Republican candidate. His relentless attack on Crooked Hillary helped to save America from a fate worse than death. All true Americans owe Putin a debt of thanks for his efforts. We the People are grateful to Robert Mueller for showing to the American People what Putin did on behalf of this country. It is altogether fitting that in return we award him with highest medal we are capable of bestowing on a true hero of this country.

PERSON #1 CALLS FOR REPUDIATION OF THE 22nd  AMENDMENT

As everyone knows, FDR was elected 4 times to the office of President and served 16 years. Now Person #1 has had the greatest first two years of a presidency in the history of the United States. Why then should he be denied the opportunity to serve for 16 years as well? It’s not as if the proposed amendment would enable someone to be president for life like his autocratic cronies. After all Person #1 might is still likely to be alive at age 84 despite being clinically obese. The extra time will provide Person #1 with the opportunity to groom Madam President for her position as his successor. She will then be the first female president and together they will be the first father-daughter presidents…and Person #1 won’t even have to leave the White House. Plus he can count on being pardoned if the statute of limitations has not expired and he is convicted of everything. Reversing the 22nd amendment is all part of God’s plan to save America.

PERSON #1 TO DISCLOSE HIS TAXES NOW THAT THE IRS AUDIT IS COMPLETE

At long last the IRS audit of the income taxes of Person #1 has been completed.  As a result, he is now free to disclose his taxes to the American public just as he was in favor of all along in the first place. Since he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue in broad daylight and not lose any of his supporters, he has no concerns about releasing his tax returns.

So what If they show he is not as wealthy as he claimed to be?

So what if they show he has not earned as much as he claimed to have earned?

So what if they show he has used every trick in the book and some that aren’t to minimize his taxes?

So what if they show his income comes from laundering funds from the Russian mob through banks on the sanctions list?

So what if New York State will now begin an audit of his taxes? Do you think he paid property taxes on the alleged value of his properties in New York State as claimed to insurance companies and banks? Think of how much he owes Cuomo!

His worshipers don’t care about process crimes. So what if he doesn’t pay his taxes and his income is criminally earned? It’s all part of God’s plan.

PERSON #1 TO REVEAL HIS SAT SCORES AND GRADES

Person #1 is the smartest person in the room when in a morgue. He is a very stable genius. Remember how he figured that the solution to the forest fires in California was to MAKE AMERICA RAKE AGAIN. All those experts with all their degrees and experience could not figure out what he could. Only he can solve our problems. He is finally tired of people making fun of him for being a stupid ignorant moron. How many Americans know the difference between the Balkans and the Baltics anyway? Canada, England, what’s the difference. The White House was burned. It’s hard enough keeping track of where his father was born so how can be expected to know that 306 electoral votes is not a landslide? The time has come once and for all to prove that he is not the bozo SNL portrays him as being and so many foreign leaders, elected officials, former cabinet and administrative officials, and real estate developers in New York know first-hand from their working with him. Person #1 will now razzle dazzle us with his SAT scores and his grades. He will show us that Daddy Dear did not have to buy his child’s way into Wharton like those La La land Democrat parents did so their loser children could get into college. In fact, Person #1 will even deliver a 30-minute speech on a single topic without saying “Lock her up,” “Build a Wall,” or “Who is going to pay for it.”  He will deliver a coherent 30-minute talk thereby proving he is at least as well-spoken, intelligent, and thoughtful as a porn star or a Playmate and is not some 7th grade smart-aleck dumb aleck. And he will do that on Fox as soon as his network stops giving time of old socialists. He will do this soon, very soon, you’ll see.

PERSON #1 TO SUE ALL THE WOMEN WHO CLAIM HE HARASSED THEM

During the 2016 campaign, Person #1 promised to sue each and every single woman who had falsely accused him of improper behavior. As we all know, he is a stickler for keeping his campaign promises. Since he has not sued anyone so far it must either be because none of the accusations are false so there is no one to sue or else he has been too busy with the Russher thing to have the time. Now that he has been completely exonerated, he has so much free time he is even bored watching TV all day or playing golf.  Person #1 finally has the time and lawyers with nothing else to do so he sue all these women.

PERSON #1 EAGER TO ANSWER ALL QUESTIONS, TELLS NADLER TO BRING IT ON

With this President, everyday is April 1. It’s his Groundhog Day.

 

Judas and the 12 Traitors Betray America’s Lord and Savior to the Pagan Authorities

March 17, 2019
by Peter Feinman
https://imgflip.com/i/2by402

In a stunning replay of history, the Fixer betrayed the master he had obediently served for a decade. In shocking public testimony and apparently even more shocking private testimony, he gave witness to the sleaziest, slimiest, most corrupt real estate developer in the history of New York City. More to come.

This brazen display of disloyalty was followed mere days later when the gang of 12 abandoned ship. Their action forced Person #1, the smartest person in room whose father did not pay a bribe to colleges like the Hollywood elitists did for their children, to issue his first veto.

WHAT DOES ALL THIS MEAN?

1. MORE DIRTY LAUNDRY WILL BE AIRED

Despite what people think about the wrapping up of the Mueller investigation, it would appear as decades of bull trump will be exposed to the American public. The charity and university scams are just the beginning into investigations into practically every facet of decades of deceptions, dishonesty, cons and criminality. The old saying about not being able to tell the players without a scorecard will apply in spades here. Websites will be devoted just to tracking the status of all the investigations. Entire newscasts can be devoted solely to the breaking news of the day regarding these investigations.

Regardless of what happens with the Mueller report, I predict the action in the 2020 election year (if not sooner) will be in New York. There will be a steady drip of criminal sleaze at the city, state, and federal level about Person #1.

2. IT WON’T MAKE A DIFFERENCE TO THE REPUBLICAN BASE

The Republican base could not care less about all these investigations. By now it should be clear that nothing moves the needle. No matter what Person #1 did or is accused of doing the true believers know that he is doing God’s work. As long as he is able to continue working to save America, nothing else matters. All this inside baseball nonsense about process crimes for petty regulations is irrelevant to the one and only requirement of a political leader since Pharaoh Narmer smited the enemies in 3150 BCE and became the first ruler of Egypt: to keep the people safe from foreign enemies, from outsiders, from the “other.” And who could be more foreign than the Politically Correct People (PCPs) and their minions.

3. PERSON #1 DOES NOT REALLY BELIEVE HE CAN SHOOT SOMEONE IN PUBLIC AND NOT LOSE SUPPORT, BUT HE SHOULD

Commentators often note Person #1’s claim that he could shoot Lady Liberty on Pennsylvania Avenue in broad daylight and not lose any support (well, maybe 12 traitor Senators). Apparently, he does not believe it. Why pay the hush money? Look at the trouble caused by paying it. The same with his taxes. So what if he is not as rich as he has claimed he is? So what if he has used every trick in the book and some that are not to reduce or eliminate his taxes? So what if his taxes show he has been bought and paid for by foreign agents? Who cares if his money comes from Russian oligarchs and banks on the banned list? The same applies with the Mueller report. His base will not desert him and everyone else already has. On the other hand, a good con artist knows there are limits to even what the most desperate person will accept. Perhaps Person #1 knows that if the truth is revealed, even some of his most fervent worshipers will abandon him.

4. PERSON #1 WON’T LEAVE THE WHITE HOUSE VOLUNTARILY

Back on September 7, 2018, I wrote:

Suppose the very stable genius is wrong about the red wave. Suppose the Democrats win control of the House. Suppose the Democrats act on that basis and investigate all the items on the Republican hit list of potential problems where they are at risk. Will the President honor the election results? If a blue wave puts Democrats in charge will the President of the United States honor the results or will he demand a full investigation into the rigged results?

 Suppose the very stable genius is wrong about 2020 (assuming he is still in office and chooses to run again)? Will the President honor the election results? Will the President leave the White House voluntarily? Will he demand a full investigation into the rigged results? Will he remain in the White House until the investigation by his Attorney General (not a stupid Southerner) is compelted?

Those of you who read this blog, may I have thought I was off my rocker. I am pleased to note that five months later the Fixer, who well knows the personality of Person #1 and what he is capable of, raised the exact same concerns in his Congressional testimony. There was not the chance to resolve this issue in the 2018 elections since the Democratic tidal wave was so huge. Even for someone living in an alternate reality there are limits as to how many Congressional districts can be contested. The situation is quite different at the presidential level.

Suppose in 2020, the Democratic candidate wins by the same small margin as the 306 electoral vote landslide in 2016? How many states would need to be contested to switch the national results? At this point it is impossible to know. Indeed we may never know if the margin is comparable to the Congressional vote in 2018. An almost 9% spread is difficult to finesse to an Electoral College victory.

But consider what we know from 2016.

We know that Person #1 did not expect to win and was running to make buck.

We know that Person #1 already had his excuses for defeat prepared way ahead of the election.

We can surmise that prior to the election, he did not even know he could lose the popular vote and still win the election.

How will this play out in 2020 when he is in the White House and not an outsider?

Will there be Trumpies strategically placed in electoral districts to film illegal aliens running around the voting area to change clothes and to vote again? Or will he just claim it happened. Millions of times?

Will ICE officials and other government officials be stationed at selected voting districts to demand ID from the people attempting to vote?

Will claims of hacking and computer fraud be levied against the Democrats?

Will enough doubt be raised on the Trump Propaganda Network (TPN) to call the election rigged and illegitimate as a desperate grasp by the Deep State to remain in power?

Will Person #1 unleash his muscle in his militias, military, police, and Second Amendment people to protect him from the greatest threat to the United States ever?

How long would it take the Supreme Court to adjudicate all the legal claims filed?

If his Supreme Court betrayed him, would Person #1 honor its ruling?

Who would actually extract Person # from the White House?

Fortunately he is not a fighter, he just plays one in the professional wrestling arenas. Still if the alternative to remaining in the White House is to be indicted, who knows what Person #1 would actually do? When the moment of truth arrives, will the Lord’s Chosen to save the country unleash his minions? Will they hear the call?

There may be a preview of the 2020 crisis with his tax returns. Person #1 will not voluntarily release his tax returns. It does not matter how the Democrats submit their requisition, he will not honor it. If his court rules in his favor, then the issue ends there. If the Supreme Court also has a traitor and the ruling is against Person #1 he will not honor it.  Instead he will claim Executive Privilege and that the Court has no authority over him. What will the Supreme Court do then? Or to update Andrew Jackson: “John Roberts has made his decision; now let him enforce it.”

For that matter, the same may be said if the Supreme Court rules against Person #1 on the national emergency. We may not have to wait for the 2020 elections to learn if he is above the law. Imagine the scene if he is forcibly removed from the White House. Imagine him doing the perp walk. How long would he last at Rikers? What would happen to his hair if he is jail as long as Paul Manafort has been so far?

On the other hand, who knew that the little child who will lead us to salvation was Little Donney Waney? As he said to the Republican traitors and would-be traitors: “Beware the wrath of God!”

Bullied by Ann, Stymied by Nancy: Deflating an Inflatable

January 29, 2019
by Peter Feinman
Credit: Trump Baby/Cover Images

The Twilight Zone nailed it. I have been waiting a long time to write about this episode. Now, finally, the time is right. Although the details are not an exact match, there is enough in common with the present situation to do so. It’s all about facing fears and then deflating a hot-air balloon.

The episode appropriately enough is entitled The Fear and was televised on May, 29, 1964. It was the second to last televised episode of the series. It has not ranked among the best of the Twilight Zone episodes but it still turns out to be useful today. (Information on The Fear from https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0734638/reviews?ref_=tt_ov_rt)

Opening Narration

The major ingredient for any recipe for fear is the unknown. And there are two characters about to partake of the meal: Miss Charlotte Scott, a fashion editor, and Mr. Robert Franklin, a state trooper. And the third member of the party: the unknown, that has just landed a few hundred yards away. This person or thing is soon to be met. This is a mountain cabin, but it is also a clearing in the shadows known as the Twilight Zone. 

A New York City fashion editor has sought refuge in the woods after suffering a nervous breakdown. She is full of anger and belittles the “hicks” that live in the area. She resents having to have any contact with these lesser beings but the necessities of food [drone delivery via online ordering had not yet been invented!] forces her to speak to them in person and exchange pleasantries. One such passing comment leads the state trooper out to the remote cabin 30 miles from the nearest village to investigate suspicious lights and sounds.

The conversation between the red-state male and blue-state female does not go well. But he manages to cut through her pretensions by quoting Shakespeare. Serling adds small details which are not essential to the storyline itself but have an importance in their own right. Even her accent is refined haughty. Just when it looks like there may be a communication breakthrough, the lights and sounds from the surrounding forest begin again this time even stronger. This one isolated patch of civilization in the midst the wilderness is about to have a close encounter of the first, second, and third kind.

The source of this disturbance to the cosmic is, WAIT FOR IT, WAIT FOR IT, WAIT FOR IT, ILLEGAL ALIENS.  They are not only illegal aliens to the United States, they are illegal aliens to the planet earth. During the course of the night they subject the puny humans to one fear-inducing moment after another. Communication with the civilized world is severed.  The illegal aliens seem to be everywhere even on the roof!

Somehow despite all this commotion, the two humans then go to sleep. When the state trooper awakes his clothes are unmussed and his face is clean-shaven. Her clothes similarly are unwrinkled and her makeup is still perfectly applied. Oh well, it is after all the Twilight Zone!

In the light of day, the two tiny humans go outside to confront their fears. As far as special effects, the illegal alien is not very special and not very effective…except in terms of the story. If you have been to or seen the Macys’ Thanksgiving parade you were not likely to have been frightened by the hot air balloon towering over you. Nonetheless, within the context of the story, we are to imagine these people in dread fear of the illegal alien standing before them.

Some of the dialog leaves a little to be desired.

He calls her a charter member of the insufferable snobs.

She replies that not only is a charter member she is founder of the society of frightened people who cannot face the world.

He responds that being frightened is a normal natural human function. It is how you react to fear that really counts.

Is that What You Were Afraid of? (https://m.media-amazon.com/images)

He reacts to seeing the illegal alien by firing his hand gun. He shoots the inflatable again and again and then is nearly blown away by the air rushing out of it.

It’s a balloon. It’s a balloon.

Is that what we have been frightened of?

The scene then shifts to the small alien saucer responsible for the hot-air balloon. Amazingly, even though the now larger humans tower over the spacecraft, they can now hear what is being said inside. And lo and behold, these illegal aliens speak English. They hear the illegal aliens reporting back to the home office on the failure of the entire operation. They were unsuccessful in getting the humans to be frightened. They request immediate permission to depart.

Saucer must report failure entire operation ended by earthman’s failure to be frightened. Request permission from Great Leader to depart from earth.

In fact there is a desperate urgency to their plea.

Oh please Great Leader, let us depart now.

And depart they do only to find jobs at the nearest Trump resort.

Closing Narration

Fear, of course, is extremely relative. It depends on who can look down and who must look up. It depends on other vagaries, like the time, the mood, the darkness. But it’s been said before, with great validity, that the worst thing there is to fear is fear itself. Tonight’s tale of terror and tiny people on the Twilight Zone.

No this episode is not about the illegal aliens from Central America in their caravans invading the United States. They are not the hot-air inflatable. The big bag of wind is THE DONALD, the professional wrestling persona Little Donnee Wanee created so people would think of him as a swaggering macho man, the world’s greatest negotiator, the world’s greatest deal maker, the world’s greatest manager, the smartest person in the room, a very stable genius, the only one who can solve our problems. And then Ann bullied him, Nancy stymied him, and the great lie was exposed. All the hot air dissipated until what was left a deflated balloon who had been exposed as Caveman.

There is a scene in Inherit the Wind where the William Jennings Bryan character experiences the same moment of comeuppance.  He had arrived in town to great fanfare and celebration. All the people praised him. Say Hallelujah! Then he faced something that never occurred during the Republican primary presidential debates or the presidential debates in 2016: a moment of truth when he had to go into the arena and battle 1:1 with an adult who knew his stuff. By the time the Clarence Darrow character was through with his cross-examination, the people in audience had laughed at him and then stood in shock as they witnessed their hero deflate. “They laughed at me. They laughed at me,” he said.

Can you imagine what would happen if Mueller cross-examined Person #1? By comparison Whittaker would seem prepared and polished.

The air has been let out of THE DONALD and all that is left is Little Donnee Wanee.

My prediction as I previously wrote was that the government Trumpdown would end when Republican Senators decided to end it by providing veto-proof legislation. In an interview (“Mitch McConnell Got Everything He Wanted,” by Charles Homans, New York Times Magazine, January 27, 2019), Homans

had asked him {McConnell] whether, if a hypothetical shutdown-ending compromise had landed on his desk that would command a veto-proof majority in both his Senate and Pelosi’s House, ending the standoff over the protests of Trump but without the need for his signature, he would bring it up for a vote. “No,” he said.

By the time the article was published that assertion had proven false. Six Republican Senators had voted to end the government Trumpdown and more were likely to. Game over.

Elected Republicans are starting to look ahead instead of over their shoulders. They know what another “red wave” and “great victory” as they just had in 2016 would mean for them in 2020. It’s no fun being in the minority in the House of Representatives. It’s no fun losing the Senate majority either. Every Republican candidate in 2020 will have the toxic Trump taint on them like a veritable mark of Cain. Even without Mueller, the deflated inflatable bullied by Ann and stymied by Nancy has been exposed as weak, as a loser. The world already laughed at him in the General Assembly; what happens if the Republican base catches on that it has been conned?

There is a narrow window of opportunity for the Republican Party to attempt to right the ship. A party based on Robert E. Lee will never become a national party. Nor will a party based on fear. The Republican Party came in second in the presidential races in 1992, 1996, 2000, 2008, 2012, and 2016. It is gearing up to do so again in 2020. Even with Obama voters shifting to Republicans in 2016, Russian assistance, and a subpar Democratic candidate, the Republicans still lost by 2.8 million votes in 2016. Since then it has made no effort to expand its support and every effort to reduce it. There was an almost 9% spread in the House vote in 2018. Based on the House vote in 2018, the Electoral College vote would be 329 to 206 in 2020.  That is too big a gap to overcome for a minority candidate. Their Lord and Savior has been bullied by Ann, stymied by Nancy, and exposed by the Republican Senators who ended the government Trumpdown. Even rats know better than to stay on a sinking ship. But my prediction now as it always has been is that the Republicans will remain onboard even though THE DONALD has been exposed to be the Little Donnee Wanee he really is.

Government Trumpdown Enters Second Month: A Self-Dug Hole Dividing America

January 22, 2019
by Peter Feinman
Dividing America (Berlin Wall by Thierry Noir, Wikipedia)

Before turning to the current topic, I would like to reprint my “So What” paragraph from “Rorschach Test: Exonerated or Did the Trump Hit the Fan?” posted on December 13, 2018

People anticipate more and more indictments and revelations of the tawdry life of this reprehensible person. So what? Assume every charge is true, a reasonable assumption given the past decades. So what? Decades ago Democratic Hannitys claimed “vast right wing conspiracy” launched a witch hunt against the legitimate duly-elected President to which there was no truth. When the truth became known, Democrats responded with “So what.” Republicans have already started this process. So what if the Republican President instead of knowing nothing about the payments masterminded everything?

Will Republicans will keep saying “so what” through every exposure of the violation of the law Mueller, the SDNY, and the D.C. prosecutors bring to light?

The answer should be obvious.

I now resume my regular scheduled post.

The government Trumpdown has now entered its second month. There is no end in sight. What the Day of Infamy was to Roosevelt, the Cuban Missile Crisis was to Kennedy, and 9/11 was to Bush, the government Trumpdown has become to this president. It will become the case study of “when you are in a hole stop digging.” It also will become the classic example of “be careful what you wish for.”

When comics go on the road, they test material. They see what works with an audience. If it does work, then they add it to their act as a regular feature. They may even expand on it, elaborate, and give it more and more prominence in their routine. The comedian may even be surprised at how well it is received but as long as it works, GO FOR IT.

Something similar happened in this case. “Build a wall” was a minor or negligent part of the campaign routine when the campaign began. Everything was “crooked Hillary” and “foreign-born president.” I do not recall exactly how “build a wall” was first introduced into the professional wrestling arena routine. There is no doubt that it was phenomenally successful. Why would it ever occur to anyone that if the United States built a wall on American soil then the people of Mexico would pay for it? It would be interesting to see a video of the first time that self-evident nonsense was uttered. Yet there was no doubt it was even more successful. The world’s greatest negotiator would convince Mexico to pay for the American-built wall on American soil. Eventually, he worked the crowd so successfully it eagerly shouted out the refrain to the question “Who’s going to pay for it?” I dare say for the immature child narcissist those moments in the professional wrestling arena where thousands of people chanted “Mexico” had to have been some of the most pleasurable moments of his life.

It is also important to remember that at that point he had no expectation of winning. He entered the race not to win but to build his brand so he could make money and be the center of attention. He was as amazed as anyone when the Republican Party caved and did not demand to see his tax returns. That may have been his first glimpse into how easy it would be to roll the Republican Party. It had no backbone.

Since he had no expectation of winning, he had no expectation of having to build the wall or get Mexico to pay. Then he won. Now what.

For nearly two years nothing happened. Then the Democrats won the House back. Time was running out on getting the House yet alone the Senate to authorize American taxpayers to foot the bill. One interesting sidenote to this government Trumpdown is that apparently the infamous Republican base never expected Mexico to pay in the first place. Once in a while someone on a talk show or in an op-ed piece will raise the issue of why all this fuss about Americans paying for the wall when the campaign promise was for Mexico to pay. Such protestations garner zero traction. This suggests that for all the hootin’ and hollering by the Republican base, it knew that Americans and not Mexicans were going to pay for the wall. It still wanted the wall. In the meantime, it was just fun to chant “Mexico.”

What has happened since the government Trumpdown began?

1. The world’s worst negotiator remains absolutely clueless about what to do. He is in a bind due to the government Trumpdown and keeps digging the hole deeper because he does not what else to do.

2. There are no Howard Bakers in the Republican Party. A few senators up for re-election in Democrat-leaning states are calling for action but so far almost all the Republican Senators are content to do nothing since they do not feel threatened in 2020. As more and people have problems flying, visiting a National Park, or just plain making ends meet, that situation may change. But as of the time of this post, there is insufficient grassroots action in Republican states to cause Republicans to act. On the Democratic side, it seems as if almost every Senator wants to be President; by contrast on the Republican side there is no one with vision, ambition, or leadership.

3. Perhaps there is an expectation that bleeding heart liberals will cave because it is their fellow Democratic workers are suffering. Here is where being a person with no sympathy and no empathy who only cares about his winning and your losing especially if you are woman helps him endure the crisis.

4. The negotiation over the government Trumpdown has come down to a showdown between Ann Coulter and Nancy Pelosi. Each one is dug in for the duration. Coulter has unleashed the supreme insult in the Republican Party now that John McCain has died: we did not elect Jeb so stop acting like him! Coulter and Pelosi each have grabbed onto the Presidential “wishbones” and are pulling for all they are worth. Who will yank harder and win the day?

5. The apocalyptic rhetoric during the 2018 election worked. It did not work in the election itself. Despite all the talk about a red wave, no such tsunami appeared. Instead Republicans were wiped out across the board from New England to California leaving the hard-core RHINO Freedom Caucus and a weak remnant of the party of Lincoln. Instead the wall has become Armageddon with each side dug in for the duration.

Where does this leave the country? There is no end in sight for the government Trumpdown. There is no “come let us reason together.” There are no Howard Bakers. There is no nothing. The proposed wall dividing the United States and Mexico is a proxy fight or symbol for the existing division in America. The wall has become a battle for America. If Lincoln is still right that a house divided cannot stand, then the wall is our firing on Fort Sumter and the tensions are more likely to ratchet up than calm down. Forget about America’s pulling out of NATO, the government Trumpdown may become Russia’s greatest triumph.

National Emergency Crisis: The Howard Baker Moment Is Now

January 11, 2019
by Peter Feinman
Canadian Terrorist Burning of the White House during the War of 1812 (Columbia Pictures)

During the course of American history, the country has faced many national emergency crises.

During the War of 1812, Canada burned the White House and the Pentagon in its terrorist assault on the country. To pour fuel on the fire, almost two centuries later Canada imposed on its weaker southern neighbor the worst economic treaty in American history. It is only when our Lord and Savior ascended to the Oval Office, that he rectified the wrong with the greatest economic treaty in American history….although he had to shut down the government to get Congress to pass NAFTA II.

Turning now from the alternate reality to the real world, there have been national emergency crises that tested the mettle of the Oval Office occupant.

The Day of Infamy.

The Cuban Missile Crisis.

9/11.

Each of one these events became a defining moment for the American President. They became the events through which the American people saw whether the President had the right stuff to rise to the occasion and safely steer the ship of state. They became the events historians would study and school kids would learn in districts where American history is still taught. What they all had in common was that the threat to the country came from outside, the crisis was foreign-generated.

Sometimes the crisis could be economic in nature:

“We have nothing to fear but fear itself.”

Sometimes the crisis could be in nature:

“Heckuva job, Brownie.”

For better and for worse these events also became defining ones of the President. Who can forget the picture of the President of the United States having fun tossing rolls of paper towels in Puerto Rico?

“Wee. I’m having fun. It’s all about me. Wee!”

Through this photo-op, We the People had the opportunity to see for ourselves how the current occupant proved he was an A+ president with this heroic display of leadership.

Now we come to the current national emergency crisis. At this point, it is no secret that “Build a Wall!” was a great campaign gimmick to shout in professional wrestling arenas. The call and response of who was going to pay for the Great Wall of Trump was an added bonus. The audience really got into the show that was being presented just as it does at a real professional wrestling match only this time they apparently thought it was real.

One of in the indelible images of the campaign, at least for me although I have not seen it replayed on the cable talk shows, occurred after the Mexican President stated that Mexico would not, in fact, pay for the wall. At the professional wrestling arena campaign event, the immature child responded to Mexico in true hissy fit fashion:

Oh yeah.
Oh yeah.
Oh yeah.
You are going to pay and the wall is going to be ten feet higher!

Many people have forgotten that campaign promise to build the wall ten feet higher. What made the moment indelible was the young white man sitting behind him and to his right. When Little Donnee Wannee declared that Mexico not only would pay for the wall but that it would be ten feet higher, this young white man leaped to his feet and thrust his arm to the heavens. It was a great display of the perfect con at work. One wonders how this individual feels now knowing that there never was any expectation that Mexico would pay for the wall and it would be the expense of the American taxpayer if built.

What began as a fraudulent con now has become real. Back in December, the wall looked like it would slide into the abyss never to be constructed. Nothing had happened in two years. The route had not been documented the way the Alaskan Pipeline was before it had been constructed. Eminent domain proceedings had not been initiated to seize the private property along the planned route. Environmental plans had not been filed. I don’t even know if a final design had been selected yet alone one that was ten feet higher. All in all, the world’s worst manager had demonstrated how he had been a serial failure in business by doing nothing to prepare for the construction of the wall in event Congress did approve it.

Following the 2018 election, it looked like time was running out. December was the last opportunity to pass a spending bill with a Republican majority in the House. When the weeny President caved, Ann Coulter was there to provide him the “backbone” that he lacked. Now it was an issue. The line had been drawn in the sand and he would not back down.

There is a saying that when you are in a hole, stop digging. That adage does not apply to this President. After all, he is a winner, He never loses. He won the election in 2016 including the popular vote since all the illegal votes for Crooked Hillary should not have been counted. He won the election in 2018 since he added two seats in the Senate and loss fewer seats in the House than Obama had. That was true on Election night when the losses were only in the 20s and remained true as they creeped up and reached 40. Hannity told him so.

The talking heads often talk about how he needs to show his Republican base that he is fighting for them. That misses the point.

The talking heads often talk about how he needs to placate Fox, Ann, and Rush. That misses the point.

The reason why this truly is a national emergency crisis is because he has to show to himself that he is a winner and not a loser. Even though the wall started as a campaign gimmick it now has become the measure of whether he is a winner or not.  If the wall is not built then NanChuck won and he lost. That is unacceptable. Therefore the wall will be built no matter what, no matter what it takes for him to build it even if the government remains shut down months or years or he has the military build it. NanChuck have left him no other choice but to play the national emergency card.

On one level, the national emergency crisis provides an easy way to end the government shutdown. The Senate could immediate pass all the funding bills submitted by the House or the one it passed in December with no funding for the wall. After, the funding is being taken care of through the military due to the national emergency crisis. Therefore the spending bills to reopen the government could be passed and signed into law right away.

Lawsuits would gum up this process. We know that the military is not ready to build the wall. We know that despite all the fuss about their being a crisis RIGHT NOW, nothing would happen right now. We know that Captain Chaotica does not have the mental necessities to manage such a construction project. But at least if it appeared that the national emergency crisis was underway with the military charged with building it, the justification for shutting down the government would be over. A lawsuit stopping that process also would continue the shutdown of the government since no spending bill would be signed if no building was authorized.

Now we come to the Howard Baker moment. Mitch McConnell is no Howard Baker. Mitch McConnell will never be a profile in courage. Mitch McConnell will never rise to the occasion. But the Howard Baker moment is not about a Senator or Senators going to the President, it is about Republican Senators going to Mitch McConnell. It is about Republican Senators going to Mitch McConnell and saying enough is enough. It is about Republican Senators going to Mitch McConnell and saying the needs of the country come first. It is about Republican Senators going to Mitch McConnell and saying the Republican Party cannot afford another victory like the one in 2018. It is about the Republican Senators going to Mitch McConnell and saying we must pass veto-proof spending bills with no spending for the wall and PASS IT RIGHT NOW BECAUSE THERE IS A NATIONAL EMERGENCY CRISIS AND IT IS THE GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN.

Will the Republican Senators rise to the occasion and provide the leadership We the People need?