The First American Dictator

The First American Dictator

Today, in front of an audience of GOP members, Trump had a celebration with his allied partners in crime at the White House.  He was celebrating escaping responsibility for violating the Constitution, exceeding his Presidential authority and obstructing justice.  In other words, he celebrated escaping removal from office as a result of a scam Senate trial, designed to conceal damning evidence and all witnesses.

Trump is now emboldened.  He cannot be impeached anymore.  He is above the law.  He can commit any crime and must remain in office as long as he is still in his presidential term.  The check that the Congress had on him is now defunct.  He has in effect, become the first American dictator.

Today was, as Trump described it, "Total Acquittal" day.  As before with the Mueller "Total Exoneration" day, Trump was free to celebrate with his accomplices, who he identified by name.

His celebration started by reviewing what he called "unfair treatment" which "everybody wanted to come to an end. " He reminded his audience of the "witch hunt" he had to overcome "ever since I came down the elevator at Trump Tower."  He used terms to describe the investigators of his campaign as "evil," "corrupt," "dirty cops," "leakers" and "liars." He explained that they have been after him since the beginning.  He complimented himself for firing James Comey stating that he caught Comey "in the act."  One of his most atrocious and frequently repeated statements was "this should never happen to another President."  He said that Obama would have "jailed people already" giving a hint that Trump may be thinking about jailing his accusers in the near future.

Then he began praising himself for the job he has done as President.  He thanked the administration  and Republican Congressmen for helping him accomplish so much.  He claimed the stock market would have crashed if he was not elected and gave himself credit for it's continued success.  He claims that the market responded well recently because it liked his state of the union address.  He indicated someone (nameless) who said it was the best state of the union address ever.

He thanked his lawyer staff for working so hard to get him acquitted.  "It just worked out" he said.  "I did nothing wrong."  He holds up the Washington Post with the headlines "Trump Acquitted."  He called the Russia investigation "bullshit"  and because of the Mueller investigation a "rough campaign" mixing reasons for his impeachment with the reason for his campaign investigation.

He returned to his campaign investigation and called it running against "bad" and "evil" people; "Dirty cops" and a "FISA Court that should be ashamed."  He made fun of the results of the Mueller testimony, saying it "didn't work out for the other side" and receiving laughter from his conspirators in the audience.  He attacked Hillary Clinton and said "the DNC paid millions for a fake dossier."  He claimed even "Steele said it was fake."  He thanked his legal team saying they did a great job.

He called Adam Schiff "corrupt"  and claimed he made up Trump's statements when on the phone with President Zelensky.  He ridiculed Lieutenant Colonel Vindman.  He gave credit to Tim Scott for telling him he never did anything wrong.  He tells McConnell he did a "fantastic job."  He thanks Mitch for getting 191 federal judges approved.  Calls him a great guy and says Mitch understands this is crooked politics.

Trump insulted Nancy Pelosi numerous times about her sincerity about praying for Trump.  His complicit Republicans applauded his comments condemning Pelosi.

He pointed out Bill Cassidy as a great man and someone he could go to about health insurance and pre-existing conditions.  He compliments Mike Brand for an unknown reason.   He compliments  Chuck Grassley for getting James Comey to "choke."

He mentions Josh Hartley for winning over Claire McCaskill and congratulates himself for the Hartley's win.

He denounced Mitt Romney as someone who uses religion as a crutch.  He asked the Congressman from Utah to apologize to Utah for Romney.  He complimented Kelly Lafler for defending him.

Trump says 197-0 with no explanation and follows that by "Democrats have horrible policies."  He mentions "open borders, raising taxes, getting rid of healthcare."  But he says Democrats are "vicious and mean."  "Horrible persons."  "They stick together like glue.  That's how they impeached.",  he claims.

Then he announces the poll numbers for the Republican party and himself are the highest ever.  He reminds people again that he thinks the impeachment was "unfair to his family and the country."

He returns to the "perfect call".  "Think of it" he says,  "a phone call." Many people were on the call."  He says Ukraine and the United States were supposed to work together to get rid of corruption in Ukraine.    He adds that there must be corruption in the Biden's if Hunter Biden worked for so much money.  He turns against the European allies by saying they did not pay enough for Ukraine aid.  He criticizes the Obama administration for putting up with it and says they did it because they were "righteous weaklings."

He resumed his praise of his willing accomplices by citing Kevin McCarthy as doing an incredible job.

After giving himself credit for winning two house seats in 2018, Trump continues to name his accomplices for congratulatory purposes.  He calls them Trump's warriors.  He names:

Kelly Armstrong, Jim Banks, Andy Biggs, Bradley Byrne, Doug Collins, Matt Gaetz, Jim Jordon, Debra Lesko, Mark Meadows, Ron DeSantis, Mike Johnson, Devin Nunes, Scott Perry, John Ratcliff, Steve Scalese, Mike Turner, Brad Wenstrup, Lee Zeldin and Louis Gohmert.

The Republican party has allowed a wannabe tyrant to violate the Constitution, abuse his power and obstruct justice into an impeachment investigation.  Like the arrogant bullies that they are, they sit in allegiance to their criminal leader and toss insults and false accusations on their political enemies, laughing and applauding at their chicanery.

These Republicans think that their leader will carry them along to future success and prolonged political office, but their fate is sealed.  They have chosen the criminal over the country.  The criminal expects their loyalty, but does not return that loyalty.  The moment Trump does something so unforgivable, that some begin to turn on him, they will be targeted.  For those that survive Trump's retaliation, the country will make them pay for their treason.

Good people cannot permit the destruction of our Constitution and democracy.   In a worst case scenario,  as our government systems falter we will not be able to answer intrusion from adversaries.  If our system of government falls, our safety and security will be lost.  This will increase the need that our population has for the dictator, ironically making Trump even stronger.  Chaos is good for Trump.

In order to hold our democracy together, we need all voters to vote as many Republicans as possible out of office.  Forget about party allegiance for 2020.  Once we get the corrupt politicians out, we can rebuild a friendlier two party system and work toward a better democracy and more unified country after that.

This is truly our last chance to save democracy.  

A Party Disgraced

McConnell's Republican Scam

The Senate impeachment trial of Donald John Trump has reached its predetermined conclusion which Mitch McConnell openly admitted prior to the start of the trial.  With only two dissenting Republicans, the vote to allow witnesses has been denied along party lines.

This is a foreshadowing of McConnell's ultimate pre-trial public admission, that Trump will be acquitted next week on both articles of impeachment, regardless of what the evidence shows.

Trump's actions to cheat in the 2020 election has been upheld by the GOP majority.  And when you think about it, Republicans have become famous for finding ways to cheat at elections.  They are the ones who created the false narrative around voter fraud.  They found many ways to deter or suppress  Democrats from voting. They came up with the idea to use mathematical models to help them win against overwhelming opposition by gerrymandering state districts.  Why should Congressional Republicans expect their President to be any more honest than they themselves have shown to be?  Why would they want their candidate to lose in the 2020 election?  

With patriotism devoid in the GOP, they do not care about the Constitution or their oath of office or the oath that they took at the start of the trial to be impartial jurors.  Hell, they don't even care about guilt and innocence or right and wrong.  They only care about power and money.  The power they get from having their party's President working only for the rich and the money they get from that and  ultra-rich donors who's sole bidding they do every day in the Congress.

If there was a party that the devil himself would join, it would be the Republican party.  Think about the atrocities and cruel things that Trump has been allowed to get away with.  Things like caging Latin-American men, women and children because he thinks they are undeserving of entry into America.  Like losing track of over 1800 children in government custody.  Like  preventing the population of innocent Muslim countries from entering the United States.  Like reducing and preventing immigration of refuges from Syria.  Like undoing regulations that the Obama administration placed in order to protect Americans air and water.  Like attempting to eliminate health protections of the Affordable Care Act.  Like reversing DACA so that registered immigrant children are deported back to countries they don't even know.  Like taking from the poor and middle class in order to fund a tax cut that satisfied the greed of the ultra-rich and himself.

And his moral offenses are really something the devil would be proud of.  Things like having extra-marital affairs with porn stars while his wife is pregnant.  Like proudly speaking of sexually abusing women.  Like hanging around with a pedophile and allegedly taking part in sex with underage girls.  Like allegedly raping multiple women who have come forward.  Trump is a scar on the Presidency that the Republican party not only approves of, but encourages to violate the American Constitution.

With an acquittal, Republicans will have given up their constitutional duty to protect America from a tyrant. Every Republican Senator must now face the will of the American people if our republic is to survive.  If America accepts this acquittal without removing those responsible, our government is lost.  The one last chance America has to keep its democracy is left with the voting public.  

Now that Trump will be very active in doing favors for other foreign countries in order to get them to help him cheat in the 2020 election, this may be a formidable task.  It will take every person who is eligible to vote to get out and vote like our democracy depends on it.

Because this time it really does.

Reid to GOP: Give up and become reasonable...(that'll never work.)

Senator Harry Reid (D)

Democrat Senate majority leader Harry Reid sent a letter to John Boehner today asking for a reasonable end to the government closing forced by the unreasonable demands of Republicans.  You can see the entire letter here.

To paraphrase, Senator Reid explains that the actions to close the government are an undeserved consequence of Republican actions which should never have been attempted.

Senator Reid wants Mr. Boehner to become reasonable and pass the Senate version of the clean continuing resolution after which Senator Reid promises to name nominees to a budget conference which he says can start as soon as the government re-opens.

In a nutshell, Harry Reid is asking Republicans to give up their master accomplishment, shutting down the government, in order to behave as reasonable people and compromise on government funding after they wake the government "monster" back up.

There are a number of reasons why Harry Reid's request will not be successful.   However, he doesn't see it because he is a reasonable person who simply doesn't appear to understand the nature of the Republican mind.

First, the radical wing of the Republican party is instigating the government shutdown because they are

anarchists whose purpose is to eliminate government.  They are actually happy that the government is shut-down.  Because they have the ear of some simple-minded citizens and because they have tremendous amounts of cash coming in from like-minded anarchists, they control the Republican party right now.

Their plan all along has been to get the government into this precarious situation.  The first step was to obstruct all Obama era legislation.  The accomplishments of the 112th and 113th Congress since Republicans have been in control of the House are devoid of any substantial legislation.  They are the two worst in the history of the United States.

Next they planned to starve government by allowing the sequester to happen. This was a Republican tactic from the beginning.  John Boehner reminded us of how favorably Republicans see the sequester when he commented that their plan for the continuing resolution keeps the "savings brought about by the sequester."

They saw their next obstacle to government shutdown in Obamacare.  They realized that implementing this program might squash or set their agenda back.  Even their own constituents, as simple-minded as some of them are, might realize that affordable healthcare is something that they want and need from government.  So in their minds this program must be destroyed.

And that brings us to where we are today.  Republicans happy with the damage they have done to America so far, won't be completely satisfied until Obamacare is gone and they will do everything from spreading lies and rumors to creating legislation in Republican controlled states to block it,  blame it, and make it look responsible for their devious behavior.

Congressman Ryan (R)

House Speaker John Boehner (R)

Not only will Boehner not accept Harry Reid's offer, Republicans will allow the government shut down to persist until the next Republican manufactured crisis; the debt ceiling.

It was Paul Ryan who enthusiastically lectured Republicans on live TV just as the government was shutting-down, that the next hostage to use to get their way was the debt ceiling.

So expect the shut down to last at least until then and be prepared for economic melt-down if Republicans hold the debt ceiling hostage.  Economists have compared the damage done by a government shut down to the damage done by defaulting on our debts as the difference between a hand grenade and global nuclear war.

But maybe that is what Republicans want.

Republicans reduce demands for releasing the government hostage, but the threat of shutdown continues

John Boehner

When House Republicans started the debate over the continuing resolution to fund the government they started their bargaining at the high end.  Not only would ObamaCare have to be defunded, but nearly all of the Mitt Romney economic policies he campaigned on were added to the pot.  The Democrats in the Senate would not hear any of it, so they stripped everything out of the House bill except for the continuing resolution itself and returned it to the House.

Democrat majority leader Harry Reid forewarned House Republicans that any bill sent in response that included any changes to ObamaCare would be "dead on arrival" to the Senate chamber.  That didn't stop the Republicans on their second volley attempt at modifying the bill.

Late Saturday night, House Republicans reduced their requirements to two major ones related to ObamaCare.  They are now seeking a one year delay in the introduction of the program and elimination of a 2.3% tax on medical device manufacturers which was a requirement of ObamaCare funding.  Although this reduction in demands may be seen by the Republican base as a serious offer, it is unlikely to be met with anything but refusal when the bill goes to the Senate.

Neither the Senate nor the House is expected to be in session on Sunday, so it is almost certain that the government will shutdown unless a new bill can be drafted and passed by both chambers of Congress on Monday, September 30.

In an apparent concession that the government will close down, Republicans also passed a bill that would continue uniformed military pay in the event of a government shutdown.

As always, Republicans have been cunning in formulating strategies to advance their political agenda.  One Republican Congressman interviewed by MSNBC indicated that the goal of the one year delay was to allow time for Republicans to regroup and win the Senate back in 2014 when they could take care of the whole deal with ObamaCare.  A comment that made one think they planned to eliminate the program as soon as they were in control of both Houses.

The 2.3% medical device tax was a requirement of ObamaCare on medical device manufacturers' profits.  At the time of creation, legislators and manufacturers agreed that ObamaCare, with all of the new patients being covered, would give a windfall of new profits to all medical industries, some of which should be used to help fund the program.  Other medical industries agreed that between $60 billion and $80 billion was a fair amount to return for the increased revenue from ObamaCare over ten years.  The medical device industry however, has said that the 2.3% tax would be damaging to their industry and have spent over $150 million on lobbyists trying to get out of the deal.  If Republicans were successful in removing the proceeds from this tax, ObamaCare would essentially be defunded by some $35 billion over 10 years.

How long will it take Republicans to realize that Democrats just need a clean continuing resolution bill without attachments related to changes to ObamaCare?  Republicans have gone outside of the normal procedures of a democracy.  It is new ground that they are breaking by threatening harm to America unless they get their policies passed.  We can only hope that they do not repeat the same behavior when the debt ceiling comes up for a vote in the next few weeks.

Their actions during this President's term in office should give policy makers ample reason to justify legislation to reign in such harmful tactics by members of Congress.

Fed Chairman Bernanke's report to Congress

Ben Bernanke

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke met today with Congressional leaders of the Financial Services Committee to report on the Federal Reserve's take on the state of the economy and Federal Reserve actions in that regard.

In an introductory statement Mr. Bernanke made it clear that the fiscal policy that legislators have chosen to take has been a detriment to the economic recovery.  In an effort to acknowledge the impact that a dysfunctional Congress has on the economy, he highlighted that tight fiscal policy will restrain economic growth.  He warned that political fights over raising the debt ceiling as has happened in the past would hamper the recovery.  Although a few of the Congressmen on the committee appeared to understand the importance Congress has in assisting in the recovery, it is still to be seen if Congressional Republicans take this guidance into consideration as they enter discussions about raising the debt ceiling, ending sequester or resurrecting the American Jobs Act.

Bernanke believes the economy is recovering at a moderate pace.  He cited the improvements in the housing market as contributing to economic gains and predicted this would continue to improve notwithstanding recent mortgage interest gains.

He believes the labor market is improving gradually and contributed a 0.1% drop in the unemployment rate to the Fed's policies of buying assets.  He admits that job growth has a long way to go to be considered satisfactory.  As I have stated in previous blogs, I question the impact that buying assets really has on the job market especially because it does nothing to increase demand for products and services.  It does have an important impact on the stock market as we have seen investors sell off stocks and bonds when Bernanke hinted that the asset purchase program was going to be discontinued.

Understanding the emotional nature of the stock market, Bernanke was careful not to repeat the mistake of hinting at a change in the asset program at the committee meeting.  He emphatically stated that the current asset purchase program will continue and monetary policy will be "accommodative" for the foreseeable future.  As of noon today the US markets appeared to be unaffected by Bernanke's comments.

In order to help prevent another Bush era financial collapse of the big banks, Fed policy is to prevent  collapse by increasing the requirement for cash reserves under what is called Basel III capital reforms.

 In summary, Bernanke explained three mechanisms that the Fed is using to support economic growth.  These are mortgage asset purchases, forward guidance on Fed plans for the federal fund rate target and Basel III capital reforms.

Based on the comments at the committee meeting, it appears obvious that the Fed needs a lot of help from Congress to revitalize the economy.  Bernanke's warning about Congressional actions around fiscal policy may have been his cry for help.

A Republican to English dictionary

Although born and raised in the United States, my father, who passed away in his old age a few years ago, was not really good with the English language.  Sometimes he used words that he made up in conversation that sounded like words that they really weren't.  My kids were often confused by their "Papa", as they used to call him, and I would joke with them that maybe we needed to get a Papa- to-English dictionary.

Because of their support for policies which Republicans stand for, most of which go against their best interest, middle-class Republicans may be well served if they had a Republican-to-English dictionary.  Perhaps that way they could better understand that their welfare is not of concern when it comes to modern Republican politics.

Here are a few examples of statements we have heard our Republican leaders talk about.  I have given some assistance to the American voter by attempting to identify the true meaning of these words in plain English.

"Jobs, Jobs Jobs": Cheap foreign labor for America's Corporations.  

"Support for our troops": Increasing government funding of defense contractors.

"Reducing the deficit":  Protecting the 1% by taking revenue off the table, increasing military budgets to protect defense contractors and only calling for government spending reductions in programs for the poor, women, children, the elderly, students, the handicapped, military veterans and the unemployed.

"Smaller Government": 1. Eliminating government protections of it citizens in regards to regulations on business so that big business can operate with a free hand to decrease costs involved with making a safe product, protecting the environment, giving fair wages, creating a safe work environment, treating workers fairly and otherwise operating responsibly.  2. Reducing government spending by eliminating public service jobs such as teachers, police, fire-fighters and government workers and rejecting the American Jobs Act that would have improved the infrastructure of roads, bridges, schools, etc. 

"2nd Amendment rights": Returning the favor for NRA lobbyist money and preserving the market and demand for weapon manufacturers regardless of the wishes of the majority of Americans for stronger gun laws.

"Obama-Care": Originally a Republican introduced derogatory term for the Affordable Care Act which later became adopted as a catch-phrase by President Obama.  Republican intent is to put fear into American citizens and protect big insurance corporations from the effects of treating American citizens with fairer insurance rules and charging costs that would benefit the citizen.  Most of the effort of the Republicans in the 113th Congress has been in attempting to repeal Obama-Care law 37 times as of this date.

"Sequester": A Republican plan since 2010 to reduce the size of government in a way that would protect the wealthy and would otherwise never be possible by normal legislative proceedings.

"Filibuster": The cornerstone of Republican obstructionism used to prevent problem resolution, slow down progress on legislation and block President Obama's appointees and ideas that support middle-class Americans.

"Balanced Budget": A financial plan that reduces spending on useful government programs such as medicare, medicaid, the social safety net and social security which must not be balanced by any increase in revenue, especially by increased taxes on the wealthy or corporations. 

"501(c)4": Republican worked loophole in the IRS regulations that permits a political action committee to receive donations that are exempt from federal taxes and then to complain when the IRS workers request information that may prove they are political action committees.  The 501(c)4 is supposed to be for non-political social organizations.

"Stimulus package": Another name for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.  An act carried out by the Democrats and President Obama that saved the country from financial collapse.  Republicans voted against the stimulus package.

"Voter ID": An attempt to reduce access to voting by members of the citizenry who would not vote Republican in elections.  This action as well as closing down voting precincts and voting hours were used by Republican state legislatures as a strategy in the 2012 elections.

Republicans have proven that they do not represent the middle-class or the poor.  If you are in one of these groups and you vote Republican, I would be interested in knowing why you would vote that way.

If you have any other definitions, please feel free to add a comment.  I'll add the best one's to my collection.

Easter thoughts: Christianity and Republican politics

Jesus ascends into Heaven

Happy Easter to my Christian friends and family.  Christians across the world celebrate Easter Sunday in memory of the life of Jesus Christ and His ascension into Heaven.  It was the culmination of the actions of Jesus' entire life that led Him to the cross and eventually brought Him to His holy Father.

Jesus' ultimate sacrifice was done knowing that He would die.   Although He was a man of peace, His teachings were seen as quite belligerent by some members of society at the time.  It is useful to review some of those teachings if we are to learn from history.  Here I would like to compare those teachings to the current Republican party thinking to shed some light on how religion has been used to capture votes from unsuspecting middle class Christians.

Although stories of Jesus' performance of miracles abound during His lifetime, in this dissertation I would like to focus only on Jesus' philosophical views as a human.

Crucifixion

We must begin this story at the end, with Jesus' self sacrificing nature and death.  He so loved the people of the world that he gave his life to help reform them.  He was a man that preached "love thy enemy" and "treat your neighbor as you would have them treat you."  He taught that bettering the world starts with each of us learning to love one another.

He defended the helpless and served them.  He taught that each human being is valuable and one's status in life does not make them any more or less valued than anyone else.  On occasion he taught us that love of money over people makes it more difficult to enter the gates of Heaven.  He said "It is easier to thread a camel through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven."  He reminds us in the parable of the rich fool that storing wealth for ourselves is offensive to God when some of that wealth could be used for the less fortunate.

Forgiven Prostitute

He did not love sin but helped sinners find a way out of their condition.  He did not forsake sinners as too unclean or too low to be helped.  He reminded a crowd of people who were ready to stone a young prostitute that they were probably no less guilty of their sins than the girl when he said "Let those among you who is without sin cast the first stone."  He washed the girl's feet before directing her to "go and sin no more."

Ultimately, the lesson is that Jesus overwhelmingly cherished people over worldly goods.  He  encourages people to raise their view of life beyond earthly possessions.  He asks people to believe in each other and support each other.  He directs us to help those less fortunate.  He reminds us that greed is offensive to God and can be detrimental to its possessors.

Let us turn now to Republican political policy.

Republicans have proclaimed themselves as the party of Christians, but do the current policies of the Republican Party seriously represent the teachings of Jesus?

We know that Paul Ryan believes in the anti-Christian policies of Ayn Rand which advocate that entitlements must go to the worthiest people and be denied to those less fortunate or those incapable of contributing to their own welfare.  Survival and advantages are only deserved by the fittest in society per Ayn Rand.  Ryan has admitted his strong acceptance of Ayn Rand's philosophy in public interviews.  His budget offerings that tear away the social safety net from the weakest of Americans gives evidence of his true beliefs.  His tax favoritism to the most fortunate among us show that he views money more favorably than the people in the lower classes of society.  All Republicans in Congress support this budget.  I think Jesus would have been furious with the Paul Ryan Republicans.

But that's not all of it.

Republicans have obstructed bills intended to help students with government money for Pell Grants.  They have opposed increasing the minimum wage.  They have refused to give women equal pay for equal work.  They have voted against aid to military veterans.  They would like to tear down social security and medicare which assists elderly Americans.  They believe that government efforts to help the defenseless should be reduced while government spending to give the wealthy special entitlements should be increased.  They have brought the government to a near shutdown.  They have brought us to the brink of default.  They held up disaster relief funding.  They have held up most of the provisions of the American Jobs Act.  They have prevented passing a violence against women act.  They held up middle class tax breaks insisting that they be tied to tax cuts for the wealthy.  They have stood in the way of gun safety legislation.  They are trying to tear down the consumer financial protection bureau.

Republican policies have been directed against the very essence of what Jesus firmly believed in...those less fortunate people who need our help.  Republican politicians are very anti-Christian indeed.