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Impeachment

Seven Days in January: Impeached Again

January 12, 2021
by Peter Feinman
Freedom of Speech for Real Americans and Patriots

It was only 10 days ago when I wrote a blog on Seven Days in January: This Time It Is Not a Movie. Little did I know what would happen just four days later on January 6 or what would happen afterwards. Now seven days later history will be made with the second impeachment of single President. Time moves very quickly now. What you write can be obsolete before you are done [Mitch McConnell believes impeaching Trump will help! Mitch McConnell: Howard Baker (Time to Go) vs Stay the Course (Go Down with the Ship) June 8, 2020]. Has hell frozen over? Has he seen the light?

There are issues to be considered which I didn’t address in my blog about political thrillers from the early 1960s and the world today.

PRESIDENTIAL SUCCESSION

There has been a lot of discussion about the 25th Amendment but very little about Presidential succession. The Vice President is necessary to activate the removal process. The Vice President also was a target of the insurrection. The phrase “Hang Mike Pence” was heard and a functioning gallows had been constructed as if its builders were prepared to use it. WHAT HAPPENS TO THE 25TH AMENDMENT IF THERE IS NO VICE PRESIDENT?

Next in line for Presidential succession is the Speaker of the House. However the Speaker is not next in line to fill a Vice President opening. There is a process of selection and confirmation involving the President and the Congress to fill that slot. Suppose the President doesn’t name anyone to fill the position in case the Trump insurrectionists had hanged Mike Pence? What then?

Assuming the Vice President had survived the attempted coup, which he did, then what? Let’s say what is left of the Cabinet had approved the initiative. That action then is to be transmitted to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives according to the Amendment. Suppose they are dead? What does the Vice President do?

Political thrillers are out of vogue now. Perhaps the recent events will cause a revival. It is easy to see now in an emergency situation how inadequate the 25th Amendment is. With all its checks and balances built into the text the process could drag on for weeks. That doesn’t cut it in during an insurrection.

True, it never occurred to the authors and ratifiers of the 25th Amendment that one day a President of the United States would foster an insurrection to remain in power. Now we know better. The Amendment needs to be amended.

LOSS OF CONTROL

In all the political thrillers, the instigator or brains behind the action is in charge. That person knows what is going on and is in command of the actors. On December 7 and 9/11, the chain of command was established and maintained. The people did what they were supposed to do according to the plan. That is what was expected.

In the Trump Insurrection, the instigator brought all his shortcomings and inadequacies to the event. That doomed it to failure. The person with no management, organization, or planning skills in his business career and in the coronavirus pandemic, demonstrated the same shortcomings on January 6….for which we should be grateful. The simple-minded immature child President lacks the mental necessities or cognitive skills to effectively organize an insurrection. All the weenie in-chief could do was light a match, pour oil on the fire, and then vanish to go watch it on TV. Next to taking away his Twitter account, imagine taking away his TV!

He had no idea what the insurrectionists would actually do. It was not a 12/7, 9/11, or political thriller situation. He had no control over the people acting in his name. If his defense lawyers are smart they should plead he has the brains of a child and should be tried in juvenile court.

MY PEOPLE

Who are the “people” the twice-impeached President always refers to? Remember in the Georgia telephone call how he talked about “people” who would be angry. Then there really were the “people” who supported the telephone call – it proved he was fighting for them and hadn’t given up. Now again we hear about the “people” who would be very angry if he was penalized for his actions on January 6. After all, didn’t he give a “perfect” speech, an appropriate speech, just like his “perfect” call on his failed extortion attempt that led to his first impeachment?

I first became aware of these “people” after the 2016 election. One of the stock phrases Hannity used to attack those who criticized the legitimacy of the election was along the lines of he had been “duly elected by 63 million people.” He never mentioned the 66 million who had voted for the Democratic candidate. Why not? It would seem because those “people” aren’t “real people” and part of We the People. The 63 million who voted for the correct candidate are the Real Americans, not those other people.

Remember, Real Americans don’t get the coronavirus and die from it; “those” people do.

The exact same sequence is being played out today. All you hear about on Foxhub is the 75 million (or more accurately 74 million) who voted for the Sore Loser. Look at the increase over the 2016 vote total of 63 million! Somehow the 81 million who voted for the Democratic candidate are ignored. The 3 million fraudulent votes in 2016 became 5 million fraudulent votes when he needed more to overcome his growing gap by at least one vote. In 2020, it became over 7 million rigged votes. Over 7 million, because he really won by a landslide. Just as the 66 million in 2016 and the 81 million in 2020 don’t exist on Foxhub, so they don’t exist in the mind of the twice-impeached President. When he refers to “people,” he means only his people, the Real Americans. Confederates are Real Americans and patriots in Trump’s universe.

Such thinking also applies to Trumpicans. They feel that they have been disenfranchised by people who are not Real Americans. What are they to do they asked at the insurrection?

ENDGAME

The Capitol is our goal. Everything else is a distraction. Every corrupt member of Congress locked in one room and surrounded by real Americans is an opportunity that will never present itself again.

Did that include Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz, and all the other Trumpican traitors who voted to reverse the election? If the insurrectionists had confronted the Representatives and Senators would they simply have open fired on all of them?

At the end of the day, you mark my word, we will plant our flag on the desk of Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer. And Donald J. Trump if it boils down to it.

What flag is that? The American flag or the Trump flag? Once the forces of rebellion were unleashed, they were beyond the control of the twice-impeached President gleefully watching the mayhem on TV. He was more upset about losing the PGA Championship than he was about risking the lives of 536 elected officials and their staff.

And suppose they had disrupted the vote, what would have changed? Nothing. No matter what happened on January 6, Joe Biden would still become President on January 20. Did they know that?

So now there are 50 additional targets besides the Capitol. The story is not yet over. It will not end with the departure of the twice-impeached President. At this point, the ending to this political thriller in the real world remains unknown. On seven-day period stretched from insurrection to impeachment. The week will take us to inauguration. Who knows what will happen then? How many people can the FBI round up before they are pardoned?

There is one thought expressed at the insurrection which deserves attention. It was a call by one of the participants for exactly that:

We are here. See us! Notice us! Pay attention!”

If Joe Biden wants to be a unity President that is exactly what he has to do. Painful as that might be, he can’t unify the country unless he does pay attention to the people who oppose him. After all, Trumpicans still are Americans.

Captain Queeg and the Republican Party: Is the Party Iraq?

January 8, 2021
by Peter Feinman
Has he lost his marbles? Did he ever have them? (Wikipedia)

Whither the Republican Party? To some extent merely to ask that question implies that a Republican Party still exists. It is important to keep in mind that the Republican Party had ceased to be the party of Lincoln even before the 2016 elections [R.I.P. Party of Lincoln (1856-2016) March 12, 2016]. While individual admirers of Lincoln still exist within the Republican Party, they did not define the Party on a national level. It had become a weenie party of stupid (see Bobby Jindal, remember when he was a rising star in the Republican Party?).

The idea that the Republican Party would face the truth about its leader has been a pipe dream for years. Starting particularly with the Access Hollywood, there has been a constant sense that there was a line to be crossed and he had just crossed it. I plead guilty to having thought there would be a moment of truth, there would be some action where Republicans would stare into the ugliness of the person with no conscience, no morals, and no ethics and say, “Enough is enough.” Despite Lindsay Graham’s pro forma protestation, that moment still has not arrived collectively for the Party.

Take the Georgia phone call as an example. On one side there was an immediate hue and cry about an illegal act and an impeachable offense. Meanwhile the Impeached-only-once-so-far President said people liked the call. By “people,” of course, he meant his people, the real Americans, and not We the People. But the fact is, he was right. Trumpicans loved seeing him fighting for what is rightfully his. After all, he not only won Georgia, he won the election and did so in a landslide.

The same applies to the January 6, 2021 occupation of the Capitol. For weeks if not months the Impeached-only-once-so-far President had been inciting Trumpicans to gather at the Nation’s capital for an apocalyptic showdown with forces of evil. On the day of the assault, he and his son had incited Trumpicans to storm the Bastille as it were, to force the weak RINOs to do the right thing. As with the Georgia phone call, there was an immediate hue and cry about an illegal act an impeachable offense with the additional option of invoking the 25th Amendment. But the same Mike Pence who stood by his man after the Access Hollywood tape is standing by his man after the failed coup attempt.

True, the outcry among Republicans is greater now. They know even when Congressional Trumpican lives were on the line inside the Capitol, he would not lift a finger to help them or denounce those who threatened them. After, for the longtime-fake-Democrat-and-Clinton supporter, it is all about him. Don’t expect any sympathy or empathy for collateral damage in the Capitol. As the days dwindle for the Impeached-only-once-so-far President, there are some Republican voices being heard saying enough is enough. In the House, the Trumpicans still dominate but their vote is not needed for impeachment. In the Senate, the Republicans seem to outnumber the Trumpicans and the opportunity to deny him the right to run for President again has an appeal even to Senators who had sold their soul.

It would appear now that the Republican Party has gone as far as it can along those lines. While it was able to defeat the Democratic Party of the Politically Corrected People and its terrible candidate in 2016 despite losing the popular vote, it has reached the limits of what it can achieve unless aided by the Woke.

As things stand now,

1. it has lost the House, the White House and the Senate
2. the three male Trumps have vowed to “primary” the weak disloyal RINOs who did not come to the aid of the failed coup to reverse the election
3. the Georgia Trumpicans have lost three statewide elections in short order and the current Republican office holders have been vilified, denounced, and even taken into hiding for their safekeeping from Trumpicans – do you really think a Trumpican can first primary the current governor and then win the state election?
4. the Arizona Republican Party is now chaired by a perennial loser who has become a permanent resident of an alternate reality – after also losing three statewide elections – two Senate seats and the presidency – do you really think a Trumpican can first primary the current governor and then win a state election?
5. the initial attempt to primary the South Dakota who placed loyalty to the Constitution over loyalty to an individual has failed
6. a Trumpican could not win statewide elections in Maryland, Massachusetts, and Vermont, Republicans could and have
7. Trumpican outbreaks have occurred in multiple states throughout the country and most likely will continue as the battle is engaged – they even have a t-shirt to mark the launch of the civil war.

For Trumpicans Lincoln, Roosevelt (T.), Bush, McCain, and Romney are RINOs and Romney is to be vilified as a traitor as he just was in an airport. No place is safe from Trumpicans. The Rubicon has now been crossed. The moment of truth has arrived. The Trumpican goal to win primaries trumps the Republican goal to win elections. America’s Third Civil War is really two civil wars: one between Republicans and Trumpicans and one between Trumpicans and the Woke.

I conclude with a blog from 2016 that unfortunately represent a long-standing and false hope (Star Trek Anticipated the Trump Meltdown October 9) and (Empire State Presidential Elections (2016): A Day in Infamy, August 6). As the monster became uglier and uglier in the real world, I thought the disgusting ugly incarnation of evil that he is would be exposed for all to see. I thought he would suffer the same fate as the alien in the Star Trek episode. I even wrote:

What happens if the party of Lincoln seeks to take back its party from ugliness? What happens if non-elite heterosexual white males who love their country and are in pain 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?

I was wrong then and I would be wrong now if I thought Trumpicans would see the truth. Rather, they do see the truth. He is not an alien monster. He is their Lord and Savior, the Chosen One, Blessed Be his Name. How can Lincoln compete with that!

Impeach, Indict, Investigate or Ignore?: This Is Not a Gerry Ford Situation

November 30, 2020
by Peter Feinman
"I will be the hero!" (The Atlantic interview 9/26/19)

President Gerry Ford is back in the news… and not in a Chevy Chase way. He is in the news because of an act he did to heal the nation: he pardoned a President who had resigned in disgrace. That action is hailed as a way of moving forward from our current impeached president and sore loser today. Biden is asked not to inflict any more emotional turmoil and angst on an exhausted country that wants the nightmare to end and life to get back to normal.

Unfortunately we are not living in a Gerry-Ford moment.

This time the President was impeached.
This time the President has not admitted guilt or even conceded that he lost the election.
This time the President is planning to be politically active after he leaves office.
This time the President is planning to run again.
This time the President has a cult following who will continue to accept him as their Lord and Savior, the Chosen One, Blessed Be his Name for the indefinite future.
This time the President has $421 million in debts to pay.
This time the President is facing multiple lawsuits and indictments.
This time the President is an immature child and sore loser.
This time the President is creating the “Stop the Steal” myth as the new “Lost Cause.”

As a country we don’t have the option of putting our heads in sand and pretending the most corrupt President in the history of United States is part of our past. Who knows what parting gifts he will give the alpha-male who dominates him as part of the effort to Make Russia Great Again.

What then should We the People do? Last July, I wrote (Who Will Be Biden’s Attorney General?):

If Joe Biden is sworn in as the new President, where will the former President be at that moment? He will not be there to watch the sleepy-creepy-corrupt person who has lost his mental faculties take office. It will be difficult enough for the current President to accept the concept that THE DONALD is a loser. Especially if he is a loser to someone who received more than 306 Electoral College votes… He will not have the image of him as a loser become a defining one for him.

Well, Biden didn’t receive more Electoral votes than THE DONALD had in 2016 but he did receive 6 million votes than THE LOSER did in 2020. As gratifying as it might be to handcuff the Sore Loser on the golf course on January 20, 2021, or before he announces his candidacy for 2024, that action probably is not the best way to go. It is better to take it one step at a time and build a public case rather than to abruptly dive into the depths of his depravity the moment he leaves the White House for good. Ironically, 2021 may be remembered as the year the American people gained their immunity and the year the Sore Loser lost his.

STEP 1 RELEASE THE DOCUMENTS

During the various hearings and investigations, Congress requested documents be released. For the most part, the Criminal in-chief declined to do so and instructed all employees in the Executive branch of the government not to comply with the duly authorized subpoenas or requests. President Biden should publicly release all such documents except when there are national security concerns. Those security documents should only be released to the Congressional committees or Department of Justice. Considering how narrow the Democratic majority is, the House may not be the best venue for discovering the truth.

STEP 2 INTERVIEW THE PEOPLE

During the various hearings and investigations, Congress subpoenaed people to testify. For the most part, the Criminal in-chief declined to allow them to do so and instructed all employees in the Executive branch of the government not to comply with the duly authorized requests. The people who were willing to cooperate and were prevented from doing so should be interviewed in this step. This also includes people such as Inspectors General who have lost their jobs. The people here will not need to be subpoenaed because they are willing and eager to talk. They may even have written books about their experiences in the White House. The testimony of these people in conjunction with the documents released in Step 1 will help build a public case in the effort to determine what really happened.

STEP 3 INTERVIEW THE PARDONED PEOPLE

In that same July 2019 blog, I wrote:

If he resigns an hour before so his Vice President who is now President can pardon him, he is still subject to state law. He also still can be subpoenaed for investigations at the federal level. That means he will subject to contempt charges if he is a no-show and be confronted with a perjury trap if he does.

Now with the Flynn pardon and more to come, we are moving beyond the theoretical to the actual. This admonition applies to any and all pardoned people including himself if he deploys the Pence maneuver. The information gathered in Steps I and 2 mean the people who don’t want to tell the truth have lost the option of pleading the Fifth Amendment. Some of them still won’t tell the truth in the hope that they never will be indicted, convicted, sentenced, and jailed. Still they all should be required to testify.

STEP 4 INTERVIEW THE UNPARDONED AND UNCOOPERATIVE PEOPLE    

Theoretically, this category could include the former Vice President, the former Attorney General, the former Secretary of State, the former Postal Inspector, former multiple people from Homeland Security, the still-current son-in-law, the Fox triplets, and who knows how many others. These people may take the Fifth. That is why it is essential to go through Steps 1-3 first to lay the groundwork for the testimony of these people.

There should be a standing invitation to the Sore Loser to testify under oath at any time he wants.

The purposes of the investigations are twofold:

1. To determine for the record what actually happened.
2. To determine what regulatory and legal changes are needed so they can’t happened again.

The purpose is not to indict people except when they lie under oath.

The areas to be covered are:

1. Russian collusion and submission to Putin.
2. The cover-up including related obstruction and abuse of power in the previous investigations.
3. Ukrainian extortion.
4. The cover-up including related obstruction and abuse of power in the impeachment.
5. The assault on the election process both before and after the election.
6. The incompetence and ineptitude in the management of the coronavirus pandemic.

The actions identified under #1 may be considered treasonous. That will be determined when the investigation is complete. Technically the assault on the democratic process, the rule of law, and freedom of the press are not acts of treason done on behalf of foreign adversaries even if those actions aid his once-hoped-for business partners Russia and China. Still We the People need to know what happened. I will leave it to others to determine what to call these actions to undermine the United States of America.

This investigation will provide an opportunity for Rudy Giuliani to rise to the occasion. He said in an interview with The Atlantic in September 2019:

“It is impossible that the whistle-blower is a hero and I’m not. And I will be the hero! These morons—when this is over, I will be the hero. “I’m not acting as a lawyer. I’m acting as someone who has devoted most of his life to straightening out government,” he continued, sounding out of breath. “Anything I did should be praised …. You should be happy for your country that I uncovered this.”

Once upon a time nearly 20 years ago, Giuliani was an American hero. Like those high-school athletes remembering their glory days, he has been trying desperately to regain that status to the point where he has become a joke. He has one last chance to be the hero. I doubt he will take it even when subpoenaed to testify.

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.

Breaking News! Breaking News! President Obama Asked Vladimir Putin for a “Favor”

January 28, 2020
by Peter Feinman
"I would like a favor..." (https://www.cnn.com)

Breaking News! Breaking News! This just in. We have just learned that President Obama asked Vladimir Putin for a “favor.” The quid pro quo would be the elimination of sanctions imposed due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in return for dirt of Joe Biden. Obama wanted to replace him as Vice President so the Democratic nominee for the 2016 could run as an incumbent Vice President and just move up one step in the natural progression. Putin agreed to the deal but was unable to concoct the evidence in time so he held onto into it until he could use it to manipulate Obama’s submissive successor to tear America apart. The delay worked perfectly, even better than the Seth Rich con.

Trumpicans were wild with joy when they heard this news. All Presidents regardless of political party have the right if not obligation to extort foreign governments to assist in the personal politics of the American President. Indeed, if Joe Biden becomes President, Trumpicans will champion his duty to investigate all the foreign transactions of the Trump family.

 

In my last blog I noted that I am not privy to “sources” and don’t know what the Trumpicans-in-Name-Only (TINOs) were saying behind closed doors in the caucuses. Little did I know that such a meeting had occurred that very day while I was writing. While Jeff Flake estimated 35 TINOs would vote to have the Impeached One removed in a secret ballot, Chuck Schumer now estimates up to 10 or 12 TINOs might vote for witnesses.  McConnell acknowledges that the votes to curtail the truth are not there with the hope that they will be later this week. As things stands, anything written here can become obsolete even as it is being written.

Let’s consider a few items.

DID ANONYMOUS LEAK THE MANUSCRIPT?

There would appear to be no rational reason for a Trumpican to leak the manuscript. They had sat on it for several weeks keeping McConnell and others in the dark practically throwing them under the bus. Clearly the White House Trumpicans had no expectations that the information in the book would become public until after the Senate Trumpicans did their job and exonerated the Impeached One. So who beside Anonymous in the White House had reason to sabotage those plans? Anonymous had done it once before and had the ties to The New York Times. All things considered, the timing was perfect. Contra Scott Jennings, Nancy Pelosi’s s delay in sending the bills of impeachment to the Senate permitted there to be time for the manuscript to be delivered to the White House for review.

HOW MANY JOHN KELLY’S ARE THERE?

Sooner or later the entire story will be told. Kelly and Bolton show that once people are freed from direct control by the Impeached One, they are far more willing to publicly tell the truth. One should only anticipate that this will happen more and more. I am not suggesting that the three Mikes (Mulvaney, Pence, Pompeo) will ever tell the truth even under oath, but there probably are additional people within the White House whose names I do not know who somewhere along the line will decide enough is enough and tell the truth. Maybe they are near retirement. Maybe they are experiencing medical problems as a result of the oppressive work environment. Maybe they have kicked the dog once too many times. Maybe they are inspired by the people in Hong Kong, Lebanon, Iraq and Iran who are standing up to governments far more oppressive than ours. Maybe they remember that the Loyalists were the ones who supported King George III and not the ones who challenged him. [Remember the Declaration of Independence was our first impeachment.] Maybe they are willing to risk civil disobedience. Once the dam finally does break, it will be a floodtide.

WILL THE TEA PARTY FIASCO REPEAT ITSELF?

Once upon a time not so long Republicans had to look over their shoulders in fear of a primary challenge from the Tea Party. Those Republicans-in-Name-Only did a superb job of costing Republicans Senate seats. The Tea Party is back first as the Freedom Caucus and now as Trumpicans. As a result, incumbent TINOs need to be on guard for primary challenges from Trumpicans. The problem is exacerbated if the TINO is from a battleground state or one that has started to elect Democrats at the state level.

Between now and election day, more and more information will come out about how the President of the United States using illegal powers to withhold funding sought to extort a foreign government to do a “favor” to help the President discredit a potential foe because Vladimir Putin told him to. In this scenario, I am not sure which is worse: the President of the United States trusting Putin, the President of the United States falling for Seth Rich II – The Bidens, the President of the United States requesting a personal favor, the President of the United States seeking to defy the law requiring the disbursement of funds, the President of the United States covering up his deeds, or the President of the United States ordering staff not to comply with subpoenas. Even though he won’t answer those charges, Trumpican Senate candidates will be asked about them especially in battleground states. At some point Mitch McConnell may come to the realization that Trumpican Senate candidates threaten his majority rule if they are forced to defend untenable positions.

Consider some examples.

Kansas – The Trumpican who lost the state race for governor is now the leading candidate to be the nominee for the Senate. Even without the impeachment, the Trumpican candidacy put the seat at risk. How much more so will it be when he admits to voters that he is stupid by choice and doesn’t even accept that the Impeached One engaged in an attempted extortion or coverup? Imagine having the honor of being the first official Republican to lose statewide races in Kansas in consecutive elections.

Georgia – The Republican Governor recognizes that the state is in play. Who knows better how much gerrymandering and voter suppression aided the Republican Party candidates in Georgia than he does? When an opening in Senate occurred he reached out to a Republican in defiance of the Impeached One. He did so with the intention that a Republican candidate would better be able to reach out to voters beyond the base and win the highly contested seat than a Trumpican would. Now the passed-over Trumpican has announced his candidacy for the Senate. As a result there will be an expensive and bitter primary for the nomination. Because of the Trumpican candidate, the TINO will be hard pressed to support the call for witnesses now knowing that the fire-breathing Trumpican is ready to pounce on any sign of disloyalty. Georgia Democrats are ecstatic at the possibility of another Senate pickup and even Georgian Republicans recognize the Trumpican intrusion undermines the chances of holding the seats.

What can you say about Arizona, Colorado, Maine and others? The vaunted Red Wave can do to the Senate what it did to the House in 2018. Trumpicans will work very hard to ensure the loss of embattled seats…and maybe even put into play seats that should be taken for granted.

A simple way out of the quagmire, or at least to minimize it, is to adopt the strategy the Democrats did in the last impeachment: yes, he did everything he is charged with but it does not rise to the level of high crimes and misdemeanors. Of course, Democrats had the advantage that their impeached President openly admitted his wrongdoings. No such action is likely here. The Trumpican Impeached One will not admit to any wrongdoing. As a result the Senate candidates will be more and more obligated to be stupid-by—choice and deny that any of the actions did occur regardless of the evidence. They will follow the example of the Democrats in the last impeachment because their own survival is at stake. Except to hear more “So what, that’s the way the game is played.” That argument will resonate with Trumpicans who think politicians are corrupt anyway. This process is already underway with the “defense” by Jay Sunk-so-low and the OJ lawyer.

The strategy of keeping the Bolton book under wraps was the correct one. The gamble that it would remain hidden until after the speedy exoneration was the correct one. But the anonymous leaker upset those plans just as the whistle blower previously did.

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.

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.

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.

HANNITY DEMANDS “FIRST-HAND KNOWLEDGE” WITNESSES BE CALLED

November 14, 2019
by Peter Feinman

An enraged Duped-by-Russia Hannity practically blew a gasket after the first day of the impeachment hearings. He was so mad steam was shooting forth from his ears and every other opening in his body. He was absolutely furious about the hearings. All the testimony was hearsay. There was no testimony by anyone with first-hand knowledge of the extortion actions by the President. To rectify that shortcoming, he demanded that people with first-hand knowledge be called to testify. His list included the Vice President, the Acting Chief of Staff, the Secretary of State, the National Security chief, and the Attorney General. These are the people who met and spoke directly with the President. If the Democrats dared to call such people they would quickly expose the hoax of this witch hunt. The gauntlet has been thrown down. Do the Democrats have the courage and honesty to pick it up?

An enraged Duped-by-Russia Hannity practically blew a gasket after the first day of the impeachment hearings. He was so mad steam was shooting forth from his ears and every other opening in his body. He was absolutely furious about the hearings. Where was the testimony from the hearsay in-chief whistle-blower who had started all this brouhaha? It was vital that this individual be outed and forced to testify. Once this person had been exposed and a target put on this person’s back, the truth of this Deep State hoax and witch hunt would be exposed. The Ukraine witch hunt is just a continuation of the Russian witch hunt. Everything would be resolved if only the Democrats dared to call the hearsay whistle-blower to testify. The gauntlet has been thrown down. Do the Democrats have the courage and honesty to pick it up?

An enraged Duped-by-Russia Hannity practically blew a gasket after the first day of the impeachment hearings. He was so mad steam was shooting forth from his ears and every other opening in his body. He was absolutely furious about the hearings. Article II of the Constitution gives the President the power to do whatever he wants with impunity and immunity unless the President is a Democrat. If the President wants to extort the leader of another country for any reason whatsoever, he has the right to do so. Everything would be resolved if only the Democrats dared to admit the truth. That is the way the game is played. Get over it. Move on. The gauntlet has been thrown down. Do Democrats have the courage and honesty to pick it up?

An enraged Duped-by-Russia Hannity practically blew a gasket after the first day of the impeachment hearings. He was so mad steam was shooting forth from his ears and every other opening in his body. He was absolutely furious about the hearings. The real corruption scandal is not being investigated. The real scandal is the one by Sleepy Creepy Joe Biden and his son. The real scandal is by the Democrats. The real scandal is by the Ukrainians who interfered in the 2016 election and possess the acid-washed and sledgehammer-smashed server that Duped-by-Russia Hannity has been expounding about ad infinitum on his show. If you want to know the truth, subpoena John No-Wisdom. Show after show he has been presenting the truth about the Ukrainians. This calm voice of reason in his quiet low-key manner has been sharing the truth with the viewers while his Fake News MSNBC counterpart Chuck Rosenberg only appears to know what he is talking about. John No-Wisdom is the one with the answers. That is why the Extorter in-Chief cheers him on. Everything would be resolved if only the Democrats dared to admit the truth. The gauntlet has been thrown down. Do Democrats have the courage and honesty to pick it up?

My prediction before the hearings began, a fairly easy prediction I acknowledge, was that American would witness two different hearings.

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. No One to Throw Under the Bus

It did not take long to demonstrate the accuracy of this prediction. See “Fox’s prime time stars are telling Trump that the impeachment hearings are a ‘disaster’ for Democrats” by Brian Stetler for a rundown of the Fox reporting of the hearings. Imagine what would happen if the Democratic presidential race were not in disarray and the Democratic candidate could respond. Maybe by next summer or fall!

In the meantime, there are larger lessons to be learned from the impeachment hearings so far. The impact on the American people will be based on America today, not the America of the last two times impeachment was in the news. Even though there are people alive today who as adults have experienced all three impeachments, the world in which they live has changed considerably.

Just focus on how people receive the news about the impeachments. Once upon a time, the communities of the country had independent and local newspapers. I have been to the local newspaper office in the city where I grew up. I delivered newspapers in the afternoon in my neighborhood in the city where I grew up. I remember the scenes of everyone reading the local paper from TV shows and movies. I remember reading the morning paper on the train ride to Manhattan along with everyone else on the train. I still do that when I take the train to the city. By contrast, everyone else is looking down at a device of some kind – a cell phone, a tablet, a lap top, or some combination of all three. Now that newspaper has been swallowed up into gigantic national powerhouse (After Its Merger, Gannett Will Be the Largest Newspaper Publisher in the U.S.).

Think of the movie Hidden Figures. Everyone is watching the scenes of the Mercury astronauts including John Glenn’s abortive flight. Not even the Superbowl attracts such attention today. Regular TV shows drew tens of millions of viewers then even without being the last episode of MASH. Those days are over. A blockbuster show may attract 20 million viewers and that does not even mean 20 million viewers simultaneously. Impeachment news unlike those Mercury flights will not be a shared experience. Instead the news will be diffused over a plethora of sources. Fox viewers will never know what really happened but the certainty of the Fox announcers helps ensure that no matter what happens, the base will never abandon its lord and savior, the chosen one, blessed be his name. The impeachment hearings provide a great opportunity to bring out the inner seventh-grade smart-aleck dumb-aleck in people like the President’s Press Secretary. The examples in the Stetler piece reveal how Fox is loving it.

To those talk show people who say we should have faith in the American people and let the process play out, I say consider the example of the mainland Chinese in the United States. These people are free of the restrictions and oppression in the homeland (although probably not quite the surveillance scrutiny if the act out of line). Here in the United States, they have access to CNN, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the internet. Have they availed themselves of these options? Have they developed a better understanding of the Tiananmen Square Massacre? Or do they simply recite the Party line on Hong Kong?

The situation is no different for Trumpicans. As long as they think he is delivering on what they actually want they could not care less about all these shenanigans in the Beltway. As long as they are faithful to their lord and savior so will be the elected officials who represent them. Remember when OJ did get away with the murders he had committed? Who cares about the Ukrainians who died because they did not have the weapons they needed and that had been funded by the United States? Go OJ. Go!

Making Russia Great Again

November 5, 2019
by Peter Feinman
"You the Man!" Trump honored to be in the presence of alpha-male Putin (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/Getty)

“We’re going to win. We’re going to win so much. We’re going to win at trade, we’re going to win at the border. We’re going to win so much, you’re going to be so sick and tired of winning, you’re going to come to me and go ‘Please, please, we can’t win anymore.’ You’ve heard this one. You’ll say ‘Please, Mr. President, we beg you sir, we don’t want to win anymore. It’s too much. It’s not fair to everybody else.’” Vladimir Putin said. “And I’m going to say ‘I’m sorry, but we’re going to keep winning, winning, winning, We’re going to make Russia  great again.”

Russia is on a roll. Despite limited economic resources, it is moving ahead to disrupt the Western Alliance and the United States. Where it can divide peoples, it does so. Where it can fill a void, it does so. Where it can reap the benefits from the America Alone policy, it does so.

Recently Putin’s Pence handed Russia a win. The sudden and abrupt withdrawal of the United States from Syria was an unexpected gift. Putin could not even take credit for it. He could not claim to have initiated the sequence of events that led to this victory. Out of nowhere, alpha male Erdogan in a phone call to the submissive child president of the United of the States suggested that it was time for America to go home and let Turkey take care of business. He readily agreed to the surprise of everyone who was an ally or enemy of the United States.

Let’s look at what this strategically brilliant, dare one say “perfect,” decision led to.

American allies know they cannot rely on America anymore

Roger Cohen: “Europeans now shrug when they don’t laugh. The consensus is that the United States has lost. There is nobody home.” (Trump’s Gut, and the Gutting of American Credibility, NYT 10/19/19, print).

Mowaffak al-Rubaie, former Iraqi national security advisor: “This guy is all emotional. It is unpredictable….For Americans, their friends are disposable. The Americans, you look for them and they look for the closest exit. You turn around and you don’t find them.” (“Policy Zigzags by Trump Put Mideast in Fog,” NYT 10/13/19, print).

Shimrit Meir, Israeli columnist: “If you are someone that is a rival on the other side ⸺ you’re Iranian, Russian, Turkish, ISIS, Hezbollah ⸺ you understand that this is a time for gain.” (“Policy Zigzags by Trump Put Mideast in Fog,” NYT 10/13/19, print).

Who is the reliable partner to whom countries should turn? Who is it who touts its stability and consistency over the years?  As America bombs its own military facilities before the Russians can occupy them, who is exulting? Besides the Russians there are others.

Now, let’s consider what Putin has done and gauge whether he has overplayed his hand. I am not referring to his ventures into Africa. Trumphole countries that do not want to be vassals of China cannot turn to the United States for assistance. This bigoted President has no interest in them not even to build a resort. He will accept no refugees from them since the United States is full up…and he does not want any immigrants either. The result is void for Putin to fill. And he gets to test the disinformation techniques he will use in the 2020 elections.

Instead, I am referring to the Ukraine. As I previously stated, What Do Seth Rich and the Ukraine Have in Common? Answer: Sean Hannity, Putin’s tried and true tactic to discombobulate America is to give people what they want so they can make a mess of it.

It worked with the Seth Rich story on Flying Monkey Sean Hannity.

It worked with the Steele Dossier for the Democrats. The disruption still has not ceased after the Mueller report. Secret testimony now disclosed is shedding more light on the activities within the Trump campaign and White House on what they did. Meanwhile Flying Monkey Bill Barred-for-Life is traveling the globe seeking to indict the Deep State in part as a result of the Steel Dossier.

It probably worked with some voters when exposed to social media telling them exactly what they wanted.

It worked with the Ukraine.

Did it work too well? Putin advanced on three fronts in the Ukraine. First, it was the Ukraine and not Russia which interfered in the 2016 election. That initiative commenced in 2016 though the manipulation of Paul Manafort. Recall the press conference where the two national leaders joked about whether the Russians had violated the United States. Now we know that not only did Putin say “no,” but he steered the gullible American President towards the “true violator” that even the American intelligence services had yet to discover: it was the Ukraine.

The second Putin ploy was that the Ukraine had the infamous server that the longtime-Democrat-and-Clinton-supporter now pretending to be a Republican sought. We are beginning to be able to see how much he really wanted to locate those 33,000 emails. Somehow all Duped-by-Russia Hannity’s tirades about how crooked Hillary had acid washed the server and destroyed the emails was ignored. They had not been scrubbed, they were in the Ukraine! What a perfect example of the child-mind at work. And this is the very stable genius who is steering the ship of state.

The third Putin ploy is that Joe Biden and son were involved in a corruption scandal just waiting to be exposed. Unearthing this scandal would make Ridiculous Ruddy, attack mutt, the hero as he once had been after 9/11. His discovery of the reality of what originated as a figment of Putin’s mind would validate Ridiculous Ruddy’s shallow life. Clearly Putin knows how to play the conspiracy-minded President.

In each instance, Putin was providing the exact false story that the mark would eagerly embrace. But the results in the Ukraine maneuver may not be to Putin’s liking. The would-be hero is now facing potential indictment. His assorted cast of lowlife associates may now be ready to spill the beans. Never-Trumper and Deep-State operative Sondland posing as an ambassador-buying Trump-donor may now be ready to tell the truth and expose the abuse of power, cover-up, and obstruction even more: Of course, it was a quid pro quo. Get real. Sondland thought he was purchasing a nice cushy job where he could enjoy the good life in Europe. Little did he know how the Trump State operates. He apparently wants no part of it. Would that Vice President Brown Nose reach a similar epiphany! (Will Mike Pence Become a Profile in Courage?  so Nancy Pelosi won’t become President?)

Impeachment was the consequence Putin did not factor into his Ukrainian subterfuge. True if the red wave had not been successful in the 2018 elections in drowning House Republican candidates, impeachment never would have happened. Unfortunately for Putin, the Democrats now are in charge in the House and Putin’s most valuable asset in the United States is now at risk. Even though Putin will not lose his Pence though Senate removal, it is quite possible that a majority of Senate will vote for removal. The American people will see that the President of the United States exploits the power of the presidency for personal gain, lies about, and orders people to obstruct justice. Fortunately for Putin, Trumpicans do not care what this President did or did not do as long as he remains in office fighting for them. Putin has played weak hand well exploiting the submissiveness of the simpleminded immature child President but he may have overreached with the Ukraine since the United States may still be governed by the Constitution.