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.  

Caution: Autocracy Ahead

In February of 2017, Steve Bannon, then Trump administration mastermind, spoke at CPAC about how the policies of Donald Trump would become a "deconstruction of the administrative state."  At the time, many observers believed he meant that the Trump administration would seek to change taxes, trade pacts and regulations in order to reduce the size of government and positively impact the economy and America's growth.

However, Americans who have been following political news since that time should by now realize that Trump and his administration have amplified Bannon's statements to also mean strengthening and widening executive branch authority and tearing away at the balance of power between the branches of government.

We are now seeing what the founding fathers could never have imagined.  The office of the President of the United States has always had great authority and power, but there were limitations on that power.  Trump has seized power that was never intended by the founding fathers.

During Trump's first term he has been able to replace administration officials that many thought would keep him in line.  Anyone in his administration who would not comply with or simply spoke out against Trump's actions, especially when those actions were illegal or Constitutionally subversive, was fired.  Any Justice Department official who was investigating him was fired or publicly humiliated by Trump.  Trump replaced those officials with people who would be subservient and loyal to him and not to the Constitution of the United States or any oath they took for office.

In order to gain complete control of government so that no other branch has authority over him, Trump would need to have the cooperation of the Congress, cooperation of the Justice Department  and a Judicial branch that would favor his policies without question.  Trump is testing those waters now.

When he fired Jeff Sessions as Attorney General, Trump himself took the first step in creating his autocracy by hiring William Barr.   Trump knew that Barr would be loyal to him and not the Constitution since he had written a memo in June of 2018, that some saw as a resume letter for the job of Attorney General.  The letter showed he believed Trump could not be guilty of obstruction of justice.  Barr had been known to be a proponent of the unitary executive theory ascribing to a nearly unhampered presidential authority.

Barr had criticized the Mueller report before taking office. While Attorney General, he summarized it publicly before the report was made available.  Barr's summary indicated that the Mueller report was a complete exoneration of Donald Trump.  It was not.

The investigation of the Mueller investigators requested by Trump showed no evidence that there was political bias against Trump, but Barr publicly stated that he did not believe his Inspector General.  Barr was born to be Trump's second Roy Cohn and the person most likely to create an American dictator.  With Barr at his side, Trump has complete control over the Justice Department.

Trump and his Republican cronies in Congress have already shown that they band together like a criminal organization where loyalty to the leader means more to them than loyalty to the nation.  We know that the GOP meets with Trump to corroborate policies with him.  They are in lock-step with Trump.  The GOP has given up their Congressional power in this submission to Trump.  To them, violating their oaths of office and the Constitution of the United States means nothing.

In allowing Trump to trample on the Constitution without rebuke, the Republican party has taken the second step into making Trump an autocrat.  As long as Senate Republicans do not vote with the Democrats, Trump will not be removed from office.  That is a priority in becoming a dictator.  You must first be the President.  Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, has publicly stated that he will not be an impartial juror and will be coordinating with the White House lawyers during any Senate impeachment trial.  McConnell has also stated that he does not want any witnesses to appear.  McConnell has said that Trump will never be removed from office, effectively admitting that the GOP will run a scam trial in order to acquit Trump.

The third step in becoming an autocrat is getting a docile and cooperative Judicial branch.  Under Mitch McConnell, this began many years ago.  The Republican party has been working diligently on the lifetime appointments of many conservative judges.  More conservative judges have been appointed during Trump's term than ever before.  With the GOP giving up their power to Trump, the judicial branch of Republican judges should fall in line with the needs of the party on substantial issues.

McConnell had prevented Obama from appointing a Supreme Court judge for two years of his Presidency in hopes that a Republican would become the next President to appoint another Supreme Court conservative judge.  That is exactly what happened.  Judgeships are important to the Republican party and a key element in giving Donald J. Trump autocratic rule.  But cooperating with the Judicial branch is not really very important to Donald Trump.  White House officials have reported that Trump has already questioned the need for judges, signaling an end to the judiciary if he becomes the first United States dictator.

So all of the steps are in motion.  Without some other intervening force, it seems very likely that Donald Trump will become the first United States dictator.  Some readers may think this is impossible, but isn't it strange that Donald Trump has not been stopped yet?  His plan is clear.  His violations of Constitutional law are obvious.  His mental state is questionable and many experts have stated that he is a danger to the security of America.  Trump has been continuously assaulting American democracy since he was elected.  This assault has not been prevented and appears will be encouraged by the Republican party.  In a real democracy where there is a respect for the constitution and checks and balances, he would have been stopped long ago.  Those checks and balances are no longer effective.  Not much else is in his way.

Don't count on the American voter to remove Trump.  If Trump is not removed from office, he will advertise it as complete exoneration.  He is guilty of asking a foreign nation to interfere in an American election for his personal advantage.  Knowing he can get away with it will inspire more of the same with other countries.  We may have many foreign nations interfering in our elections.   Who can tell if the vote tallies will be affected?

Don't count on the military to remove Trump.  The President of the United States is the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces.  They won't be able to help.

In a world where the President has unlimited power and malignant narcissism, expect the worst.  My guess is that Trump will establish himself and family as the present and future rulers of America for the rest of our lifetimes.  Why should he stop at himself being the dictator when he could have his family rule as American royalty for as long as Trumps exist.

Am I being too unrealistic and negative?  I don't think so.  I think Trump is totally capable of making a monarchy out of American democracy.

Who's going to stop him?

Trump's Acquittal is not Guaranteed

Partners in Crime

Today, America witnessed the start of the early proceedings to prepare the Senate for the impeachment trial of Donald John Trump, current President of the united States.

But before those proceedings, we heard from the Government Accountability Office.  The GAO has announced that Trump and the Budget Office did in fact break the law when Trump ordered that money approved by Congress to be released to Ukraine, was withheld.

Before that, Lev Parnas, an associate on team Trump, who was tasked along with Rudy Giuliani and others, to coerce Ukrainian President Zelinsky, to announce an investigation into the Biden's, was interviewed on the Rachael Maddow show.

Parnas admitted that Donald J. Trump directed and knew everything about this plot.  Parnas reported that Trump's purpose was to gain political advantage over Joe Biden in the upcoming 2020 election.  There were many pieces to accomplish this plot, including releasing Ukrainian oligarch Dimitry Firtash from DOJ prosecution in a legal case he was involved in, in exchange for announcing information that would be detrimental to the Mueller investigation.

Parnas says that William Barr knew of the plot to release Firtash and was part of the team working for Trump.  The Justice Department has denied any truth to those statements.  Two colluding fox news TV lawyers (Joe diGenova and Victoria Toensing) would become Firtash's lawyers and Parnas would broker them.  All of this was to help ensure that the Ukrainians would make the announcement of the Biden investigation.  Back at home, Trump had others at Fox news promoting his conspiracy theories about Joe Biden's son Hunter, to keep the Republican base focused on defending their leader.

It seems appropriate that there should be an investigation into the actions of William Barr, Devin Nunes and others in the administration who colluded in this plot.  If justice is done, we should see additional impeachments or incarceration against others in the Trump circle.

It is hard to believe that the start of the Senate impeachment proceeding would be preempted by such relevant news directly related to the guilt of Donald J. Trump, but this is Trump's America where a mad man rules.  You can expect the worst when a malignant narcissist has the keys to the country.

Meanwhile, back to the impeachment trial.

Chief Justice John Roberts was sworn in by Chuck Grassley, to do impartial justice according to the Constitution and the law.  Roberts gave the oath to swear in to all Senators, also to do impartial justice according to the Constitution and the law.  Each Senator was called up to sign the document of their oath.

Remember that McConnell and Graham have already publicly declared that they would be traitors to the Constitution and not be impartial jurors.  They also already predetermined and announced that Trump would be acquitted in a rapid trial with no witnesses.

I wonder how many of the GOP sycophants in the Senate were feeling a little differently about how their vote would go, being that they had just made a promise to the American people to be impartial.  This was the quietest and most solemn period I have ever seen in the Senate.

We shall see what GOP Senators will do in the coming days.  They should be re-evaluating their intentions given the additional information that has come out recently.  More incriminating evidence is sure to come out before the Senate trial begins.

The Senate is expected to begin their trial in earnest on Tuesday of next week, January 21, 2020, although additional findings and Trump's travels may delay it.

Trump's Soleimani Secrets

Qasem Soleimani

If you didn't know Donald Trump was a compulsive liar, then you probably will believe the lies he has been telling about the killing of the Iranian Quds Force commander, Qasem Soleimani.  

Trump has been telling America that Soleimani was planning an imminent attack on four American embassies.  Trump says Solemani's death stopped those attacks and saved American lives.  In order for Trump to take military action without the approval of Congress, it would require an imminent threat to American lives.  Without the urgency of an imminent attack, Trump would be abusing his Presidential authority and guilty once again of violating the American Constitution.

But now defense secretary Mark Esper has admitted that there was no intelligence that discussed any immediate threat especially to American embassies.  Esper indicated that he shared Trump's opinion, but it was only a personal opinion and not based on any information from the American intelligence community.  He also said that the gang of eight had been told about the imminent threat.

Adam Schiff, who is chair of the House Intelligence Committee and a member of the gang of eight, who are privy to highly classified information, indicated that there was no such intelligence shared with the gang of eight members.

The original story Trump put out to the public was a lie.  

NBC news has reported that Trump, at the insistence of Pompeo and Bolton, authorized the killing of Soleimani months ago but he required final sign-off and only if Iran killed an American.  When a US contractor was killed in Iraq by Iranian proxies, killing Soleimani then qualified as an option for the US to counter the attack.  But the US intelligence agencies indicated that Iran did not intend to escalate, but just keep pressure on the United States.  The intelligence did not support the idea of an imminent threat to other Americans.

After the contractor was killed, Trump ordered strikes that killed dozens of Iran-backed militia members, which led to protesters attack on the Baghdad embassy.  This is when Trump decided to order the killing of Soleimani.  There was no imminent threat.

One of Trump's greatest lies is that he is a stable genius.  In this case as in so many others with this President, Trump's malignant narcissism prevents him from taking the appropriate actions and allows him to carry out actions that support his alternative view of reality.  

We have a mad man running the United States who has been given permission by his party to mold America into the newest Western dictatorship.  If Republicans in Congress won't agree to remove him, then he must be removed from office by American voters before he can accomplish his sinister goal.

Trump's Legal Defense Team

Besides the Senate Republicans, Trump has defense lawyers defending him in the Senate impeachment trial.  By now the public has become familiar with Trump's peculiar choices in defense attorneys.  A quick synopsis of some of them and their connection to Trump follows.

Pat Cipollone served as assistant to Attorney General William Barr from 1992 to 1993.  In private life, Trump was a client of Cipollone.  Cipollone succeeded Don McGahn who departed (was fired) after he refused to fire Mueller as Trump requested him to do.  Cipollone has been the voice of opposition to the Trump investigations and established the obstruction posture regarding the impeachment demands of Congress.

Jay Sekulow has a history of making millions of dollars from businesses and charity organizations that he created with himself and his family members as owners.  The Guardian reported that documents they obtained showed that attorneys general in New York and North Carolina had opened investigations into one of Sekulow's charities for pressure tactics on donors and misdirecting money to him and his family.  Michael Cohen testified that Sekulow and other Trump attorneys made changes to his false statements about the length of time the Trump Tower project in Russia was ongoing.  Cohen testified that it was Sekulow who instructed him to lie to Congress and testify falsely about the duration of the project.

Ken Starr is best known for heading investigations into the Clinton administration known as "Whitewater."  He was initially appointed by the Bush administration to investigate the death of Vince Foster and investments in Whitewater real estate by Bill Clinton.  This was later expanded into investigating Bill Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky.  After four years of investigations, he released the Starr report, which stated that Clinton lied about his affair in a sworn deposition.  This led to the Clinton impeachment.  He was fired as president of Baylor University because he mishandled several sexual assaults there.

Alan Dershowitz has been involved in several high profile legal cases.  He is probably best known for his part as an attorney for O.J. Simpson during his murder trial.  He has handled celebrity cases for Mike Tyson, Patty Hearst and Jim Bakker.  He won an appeal for Claus von Bulow and defended Jeffrey Epstein as well being a consultant for the legal team defending Harvey Weinstein.  Dershowitz stated that he will take a minor role in the defense of Trump, speaking only to the constitutional aspects of impeachment.

Robert Ray has been the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York and was the successor to Ken Starr as the Independent Council when he investigated and issued final reports on the Whitewater investigation and other controversies.

Pam Bondi is a former Florida Attorney General.  Bondi was the lead attorney general in the unsuccessful lawsuit intended to overturn the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.  She argued that the individual mandate provision of the Act was unconstitutional.  Bondi joined with nineteen other Republican run states to allow insurance companies to charge people with pre-existing conditions more for insurance or to deny them coverage.  While Bondi was still attorney general, she hosted Fox news shows and appeared on the Sean Hannity show.  While Bondi was Florida attorney general, she first claimed to be joining a New York suit against Donald Trump for tax fraud in regard to the Trump University scandal.  When a few days later, she received a $25,000 contribution from the Donald J Trump Foundation, she decided to drop out of the fraud case against Trump.  In 2016, Bondi appeared at the Republican Convention where she led cheers of "lock her up" against Hillary Clinton.  In 2019 she was hired by Ballad Partners, a firm with close ties to Trump.  She also began working as a lobbyist for Qatar.  She was hired by the Trump administration to help with messaging during Trump's impeachment.

Jane Raskin is a Florida lawyer who represented Trump during the Mueller investigations.  Resistance to Mueller's requests for interviews came from Raskin and her husband, also a lawyer on Trump's Mueller defense team.

Senate Scam Impeachment Trial

Enemy of Justice

Nancy Pelosi will be passing the impeachment articles on to the Senate the week of January 13th.  Shortly after that, Mitch McConnell will begin the Senate trial to decide the status of Trump's presidency.  

The fate of our Democratic Republic depends on the outcome of the Senate impeachment trial of Donald J. Trump. 

Senator McConnell said that he will not be an impartial juror and will coordinate every step of the Senate trial with the White House and Trump.  Before the Senate trial even starts, Mitch McConnell, has publicly stated that Donald J. Trump will be acquitted and not be removed from office.

 McConnell says this, not because he believes Trump is innocent, but because he and the GOP Senators are rigging the trial to allow a guilty President to go unpunished and continue his abuse of power.  The GOP will ignore their oath of office and the oath they will take before the trial to be impartial jurors.  If there could be a definition of a treasonous party without there being a war, the GOP would exemplify it.

The prosecutors of the Senate trial are the House members who are chosen as "case managers."  At this time it is unclear who these people will be, but it is fairly certain that  Adam Schiff, House Intelligence Committee chair and Jerry Nadler, Judiciary Committee chair will be among them.   

Besides every Republican member of the Senate, Trump will have White House lawyers defending him.  There is rumor that Alan Dershowitz may also be on Trump's legal team.

It's possible that the Republicans may vote to dismiss the impeachment even before a trial commences.  In the case of a Senate impeachment trial, only a simple majority would be needed to eliminate the impeachment proceedings.  Although the expected outcome of dismissal would be the same as a scam trial, it may be too arrogant or at least unwise for the GOP to eliminate the trial altogether.  There is the smallest chance that a few Republicans would vote against dismissing. With a dismissal, Republicans would not have a chance to cloud the issue of Trump's guilt and help him appear innocent to confuse American voters.

As the trial starts, the Senate's sergeant-at-arms will proclaim that all persons are to remain silent, on pain of imprisonment, while the House is exhibiting to the Senate the articles of impeachment. 

The trial will be overseen by Chief Justice John Roberts.  With the Republicans so openly partisan and standing steadfastly by their guilty president, John Roberts' role may be moot.  The Chief Justice will be able to rule on questions about evidence, however, his decision can be overridden by a simple majority vote in the Senate.  Unless the Democrats can convince four or more Republican Senators to vote with them, it is likely that all votes will follow the Republican game plan and favor Trump.  

McConnell said that he does not want any witnesses to be heard, however, Republican Senator Susan Collins has publicly announced that she is working with a small contingent of Republicans to ensure that witnesses can be heard.  Based on Collins' previous actions it is fairly certain that she will walk back those words if a vote on witnesses is required, but we shall see.

It would take a super majority of sixty-seven votes to convict and remove Donald Trump from office. Anything short of that leads to an acquittal.  That verdict would be final and no appeals would be allowed.

The outcome is certain.  Donald Trump will be allowed to continue his pursuit of the destruction of our Constitution and democratic republic.  

Perhaps the GOP believes Donald Trump will support their re-election, helping to maintain their Republican Senate majority.  But they miss the most important point.  Trump is guilty of violating our Constitution and is abusing Presidential power.  The GOP has lost its sense of justice and its ability to do what is right for the country.  Some could argue that the GOP lost those things many years ago, but it has become worse with Trump.  

The best result of the trial we could expect is that it could generate significant controversy around the actions of the GOP in excusing Trump's violation of our Constitution.  It may lead to more active participation by more Americans in peaceful demonstrations against autocracy.  It may cause more Americans to vote against the GOP and Donald Trump in upcoming elections. Let's hope the GOP loses their Senate majority and loses the Presidency in 2020.

The GOP will regret the day that they helped create the first American dictator. 

How Trump's "Accomplishments" hurt Americans

President Donald (mocking J) Trump

Republican media has stated that many more evangelicals will vote for Donald Trump in the 2020 election compared to 2016 because now they have seen all the things he has accomplished.

Since this is such a general statement of unproven fact, we thought it would make sense to review those things that the Trump Presidency has done for you.

The Trump Administration has published a list that it considers accomplishments of Donald Trump. They range from taking credit for 400,000 manufacturing jobs being created in three years to eliminating regulations. The complete list is found at http://whitehouse.gov/trump-administration-accomplishments/.

In order to discuss how these "accomplishments" really hurt average Americans, I have grouped them into categories as follows:

1. Job related
2. Regulation related
3. Tax cut related
4. Health related
5. Energy related
6. Armed forces related
7. Judiciary related
8. Export/Import related
9. Immigration related

Job related accomplishments
Trump is taking credit for the growth in jobs, which amounted to 4,000,000 jobs since his election. Based on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, jobs since the recovery from the "great recession" of 2007, have been maintaining the same rate of growth. This growth rate was started due to the economic successes of the Obama administration in dealing with the greatest financial crisis since the great depression. The most Trump should take credit for related to job growth is that he hasn't yet had a downturn in job growth rate during his first term. 

Regulation related
Trump boasts that he has made it easier for businesses by reducing regulations. What he doesn't admit is that in many cases, those regulations were created to protect the environment and the Americans that must live in it. The Trump administration has reversed or is in process of reversing a total of ninety-five environmental regulations on pollution, toxic substances and safety and water purity. In many cases, this was done in an underhanded manner where the administration failed to provide a legal argument for the changes and skipped steps in the process such as notifying the public and asking for public comment. It has been estimated by the New York University Law School's State Energy and Environmental Impact Center that the increase in greenhouse gases and emissions from these regulation changes alone could lead to thousands of unnecessary deaths every year from air pollution and many more from the eventual damage to the earth through climate change.
One can read the details of some of these and other reversed regulations on the Brookings Institute site. Reviewing these regulation reversals makes it seem Trump thinks making America great again includes returning to a time when pollution was rampant. It also shows that he honors oil and gas company lobbyists much more than he values life.

Tax cut related
Trump is very proud of his tax cut program. He boasts that it is the biggest tax cut in history. But when one takes a closer look into the bill, one can understand why most Democrats view it as a tax scam. Briefly, the tax cuts created will deliver over $1.7 trillion dollars to the ultra rich in the next ten years. That is a very small percentage of Americans with income in the millions of dollars. The bill is written so that it continues indefinitely for the ultra rich, but will stop it's small benefit to the rest of us in 2025. It has been estimated that nearly 87% of all benefits of the tax scam bill go to the ultra-rich and Corporate America.

Additionally, the GOP tax scam bill will increase the United States deficit by trillions of dollars. This plays perfectly into GOP leadership hands as they will now have a reason for reducing Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and the social safety net in the near future. If Republicans become the majority in Congress and Trump wins re-election you can be assured that they will not care about anyone who needs those services, including their own base.

Health related
Trump says his administration has "reformed" Medicare by stopping hospitals from overcharging low-income seniors for drugs. He claims his administration has provided more healthcare options. He takes credit for the FDA approving more lower cost generic drugs. 

Donald Trump and the GOP currently have lawyers pursuing ending the Affordable Care Act in the courts. They have also taken steps to help destroy the act by passing legislation designed to defund the act. They have passed legislation tied to the tax scam act that removed the individual mandate, which will cause more of a financial burden on the implementation of the act. Trump and the GOP almost destroyed the Affordable Care Act in 2017 before Senator McCain voted to stop their plans. At every turn, the GOP have tried to take away the benefit that the ACA has provided to so many people who have not had health insurance before. The plans that Trump would prefer are those that give the upper hand to the insurance companies. The GOP wants you to have a full compliment of insurance plans that can reject covering you for certain diseases, drop you from their plans at will, charge you rediculously high deductibles and not cover your pre-existing conditions.

Energy related
Trump celebrates and takes credit for the coal, oil and gas industries accomplishments. They have increased coal exports and reached record high oil production recently. Natural gas is exported now from the United States. These environmentally hazardous industries are big donors to the Trump campaign, so Trump must do his best to keep them profitable. Trump refers proudly to exiting from the "illegal" clean power plan. Investing in developing sources of clean energy is seen as a threat to the fossil fuel industry, so Trump and the GOP will vote clean energy down. Trump lists withdrawing from the "job-killing" Paris Climate Accord as an accomplishment.
Trump and the GOP are not interested in the health of individual Americans nor are they interested in saving the earth from climate change. If the GOP as a group shows people they are not valued, that is a good reason to remove yourself from the party.

Armed Forces related
Trump considers record making budgets for the military an accomplishment. He sees forcing NATO allies into an uncomfortable position to get them to donate more to NATO as a good thing. He considers his "guns in space" Space Force idea, brilliant. He is taking credit for violating the Iran Nuclear deal.

Unless Trump is planning on starting World War III, there is no reason for the United States to fund our military with more money than the combined total amount of the next 10 largest military countries in the world. When the GOP thinks about the deficit, instead of thinking about reducing the social safety net, perhaps they should start with reducing the military budget and giving back the tax scam money.

Trump has turned America into a fair weather friend insofar as our NATO allies are concerned. Because of Trump's poor treatment of our NATO allies, Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany, has said that Europe can no longer depend on America. The world is less secure with Donald Trump as the American President.

Because Trump withdrew from the Iran deal, we are today in a much less secure world. The middle east is now more destabilized because of Trump's actions regarding Iran and his decision to violate the Iranian deal.

Judiciary related
Trump takes credit for confirming more conservative judges than any other Republican president. He is happy to acknowledge that he selected two Supreme Court judges.

Mitch McConnell deserves much of the credit that Trump takes for judge confirmations. McConnell changed the rules for confirming judges, so that only a simple majority vote (fifty-one votes) was required instead of 2/3 majority. This may have lead to the appointment and confirmation of many unqualified judges. The American Bar Association has given a "Not Qualified" rating to many of the judges the GOP has confirmed.

For two years, Mitch McConnell held up a Supreme Court judgeship that was legally President Obama's to appoint. As a result Trump was able to appoint a conservative judge to the Supreme Court. With such trickery going on for appointment of unqualified judges, there really is nothing for Trump to be proud of.

Export/Import related
Trump sees removing the United States from the NAFTA agreement as an accomplishment. It was really a deal that did not need to be redone. He is replacing the NAFTA agreement with a USMCA agreement between the United States, Mexico and Canada. Thanks to the Democrats, the USMCA agreement is better than the original agreement designed by Trump and the GOP. It is currently being held up by Mexico who does not agree with provisions for the United States to inspect Mexican manufacturing sites.

The riskier side of the equation that Trump is toying with includes the negative effect on consumer incomes that has been caused by his questionable tariff program. Tariffs increase cost of goods to consumers and the companies that must use the imported goods in their manufacturing processes. Trump has placed tariffs on steel, aluminum, and various products from China. We have seen that farmers have been affected so badly by Trump's tariffs, that they have had to be reimbursed for $billions in losses. All of this has a negative impact on the economy as a whole.

Immigration related
Trump claims that a travel ban against certain Islamic nations is an accomplishment. He claims that improved vetting and screening of refugees and switching to overseas settlement is an accomplishment. He claims he has begun building the Southern border wall which he thinks all Republicans want.

Trump and his administration have removed children seeking refuge in the United States from their parents permanently. This inhumanity to fellow humans is criminal. In the meantime, people entering the United States from airports, or docks or any other border crossing are allowed in without problem. Even people seeking legal refuge from the Southern border are being denied entry.
Trump touts his wall while he takes land by eminent domain from his base at the border. 

Other issues
Let's not forget that Trump has been impeached. There is a continuous flow of information that is proving Trump is violating the Constitution and should be removed from office. In allowing Trump to act against the Constitution without rebuke, the GOP is complicit. Mitch McConnell has stated he will coordinate with the White House lawyers and will not remove Donald Trump from office. That should be all you need to know about Trump and the GOP. None of them deserve to govern. 

The lesson is that you must investigate the claims that Trump and the GOP make. The underlying philosophy of the party is that big donors are their primary concern. The average American can only help them get elected and so their promises during campaigns and their claims while in the majority are usually lies designed to convince the electorate that GOP policies will benefit them. Once they are elected, the legislation they support only caters to their corporate donors. Average Americans are ignored and as shown here, may suffer or at least lose benefits from GOP policies once they are in office. 

Be smart and don't vote for a party that doesn't really care about you.

Meet Elizabeth Warren

Elizabeth Warren

Born in Oklahoma to a working class family, Elizabeth Warren has the childhood experiences of the ordinary American whose family is struggling from paycheck to paycheck.  She understands what middle class Americans  have been going through for the longest time and in her gut has the motivation to help people.

Her first marriage was to her high school sweetheart, Jim Warren.   Shortly after marriage, she received a Bachelor of Science degree in speech pathology and audiology from the University of Houston.

A couple of years after having her first child, she enrolled in Rutgers Law school where she received her Law Degree while pregnant with her second child.

The Warrens divorced and two years later Elizabeth married Bruce Mann but retained her last name from her first marriage.

Prior to her service in elected office, Elizabeth has been a public school teacher, a lawyer and a law professor at various Universities including U of Pennsylvania and Harvard.  Law and economics has been her focus area in the private sector.  She is a published author with eleven books to her credit.  She was a highly influential law professor and is the most cited scholar in the field of bankruptcy and commercial law during the time she was in that role.

She is a former FDIC Advisory Committee member and a member of the national Bankruptcy Conference.  She was a vice president of the American Law Institute.  

During the 2007 economic recession, she was appointed to chair the Congressional Oversight Panel to oversee implementing the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act.  She was an early advocate of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and was assigned by President Obama to setup the CFPB. 

Warren had been a long time conservative and registered Republican, but in 1995 began to vote Democrat because she started realizing that the Republican Party no longer was "principled in its conservative approach to economics and to markets" and instead was favoring the rich and large corporations at the expense of middle-class Americans.

Elizabeth won her Senate seat in the 2012 election win against Republican Scott Brown, becoming the first woman Senator in Massachusetts history.  At the 2012 Democratic national Convention she gave a speech that explained her beliefs as a champion of the middle class.  She ran for re-election to the Senate in 2018 and won over the Republican by 60% to 36%.  As Senator she has been assigned to the Committee on Armed Services, Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions and the Special Committee on Aging.

Since announcing her candidacy for President, Elizabeth Warren has been developing her important focus areas and policies she will pursue as President.  Her top priorities are: 

• Strengthening Democracy
• Rebuilding the Middle Class
• Equal Justice Under Law
• Ending Washington Corruption
• A Foreign Policy for All

She wants to strengthen democracy by ensuring voting rights are not suppressed and by eliminating gerrymandering. She wants to ensure America fights back appropriately when foreign governments attack our elections.  She wants to hold Americans in power accountable for divisive talk.

She wants to rebuild the middle class by building Unions.  She wants workers to elect 40% of the Corporate board.  She wants antitrust enforcement.  She wants to stop the give-aways to the rich and ensure they pay their fair share.  She wants to enact an ultra-millionaires tax on the 75,000 richest people in America.  She is for green manufacturing, clean energy, affordable housing and wants to fight for veterans and service members.  She advocates for Medicare for all and promises that she has a plan to accomplish it without raising middle class taxes.  She wants to create great public schools and refurbish the public school system.

She'll fight for equal justice under law.  She knows there are two legal systems; one for the rich and one for the rest of us.  She will fight to change this.  Criminal Justice reform must make the punishments for laws fair and equal for everyone.  She is for legalizing marijuana.  She wants to ban private prisons.  She'll lead a new commitment to prosecuting giant corporations and their leaders when they cheat customers, stomp out competition or rob workers.  

She'll fight for ending Washington Corruption.  Corruption in Washington, DC makes government work for the rich but fails the rest of America.  She wants to put political and economic power back into the hands of the people.  She wants to remove big money from politics by overturning Citizens United.  She wants no more lobbying, PACS or SuperPACS.  She wants to eliminate the unfair advantage that corporate America gets when high level federal employees go to work as lobbyists for Corporate America after their federal jobs end. 

She'll fight for a foreign policy for all that serves all people and not just the wealthy.  She is against Trump's NAFTA II trade policies unless it produces a better deal for Americans.  She advocates for people over corporate profits.  She is in favor of cutting the military budget to a reasonable level to end the stranglehold defense contractors have on our military policy.  She wants to reinvest in diplomacy and stand with our allies to advance our shared interests, something that Trump has directed us away from. She is an advocate for cybersecurity and fighting climate change.

I can't go into the details here but it will be important for you to follow the debates and Elizabeth Warren's rallies during the campaign.  She explains her policies best when you hear her speak.  In my opinion, Elizabeth Warren has a very good chance to be the Democratic nominee.

Impeachment inquiry continues to get at the truth while Trump and GOP call it witch hunt

Kiev, Ukraine

Donald Trump's hatred of the beautiful country of Ukraine may grow stronger as his impeachment inquiry continues to uncover damning evidence from witnesses familiar with the Ukraine meeting.

Although there have been plenty of other reasons for the impeachment of Trump, the phone meeting with Ukrainian President Zelensky has been the subject that initiated the formal impeachment inquiry by Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats.

Trump and his zealous Republican loyalists have given their own classification of the impeachment inquiry.  According to them it's a "witch hunt," "bull," "a joke," "a lynching" and "a scam."

They believe the Democrats are trying to overthrow the 2016 election.  So they are spending money  on ad campaigns to smear the impeachment investigation.  Trump has so far committed at least $1 million to ad campaigns to lie to the American people about it.

Trump and his supporters present no evidence that would prove Trump innocent of the claims of the whistle-blower and the multiple corroborating witnesses who have been testifying in Congress.  There is only the party line that they expect us to believe, even though they have been caught in their lies thousands of times.

It seems the Ukraine venture by the Trump organization is much more complex than we first thought.

It has been reported that before he resigned, John Bolton warned the administration that Rudy Giuliani may be too closely involved in the Ukraine situation.  Not being an official government statesman, this would be an illegal activity for Giuliani.

Kurt Volker, Envoy to Ukraine, testified that Trump requested military aid to Ukraine to be held up.  Giving testimony on Trump's thinking about Ukraine, he said that Trump believed (or said he believed) that Ukraine interfered with the 2016 election.  Volker also had text messages that showed that Trump and Giuliani pushed Zelensky to investigate the Bidens.

Bill Taylor testified that Trump would withhold military aid to Ukraine until they publicly announced an investigation into the Bidens.

Catherine Croft, who reported to Ukraine envoy, Kurt Volker, testified that Trump told Mulvaney to hold off on Ukrainian aid.  She also testified that Trump was pressured by Giuliani to remove Ukraine Ambassador Yovanovich.  Yovanovich herself testified that there was a concerted effort by the Trump administration and Rudy Giuliani to remove her for questionable motives from her position as Ambassador to Ukraine.

Christopher Anderson, also a report of Kurt Volker, testified that the White House blocked a condemning formal statement by the State Department regarding a 2018 incident where Russia seized a Ukrainian vessel.  Anderson also testified that he attended the meeting where John Bolton warned the White House of the interference of Giuliani in Ukrainian affairs.

Lieutenant Colonel Vindman, a Ukrainian expert, testified that Trump and the White House omitted details about the quid, pro quo regarding dirt on the Bidens from their telephone meeting summary. As the Ukraine expert, he attended the meeting held in Ukraine with Energy Secretary Perry.  After the meeting he was told by the White House staffer Fiona Hill that he would not be invited to the debriefing of the meeting and was instead replaced by a former Devin Nunes staffer, Kashyup Patel.  Patel has no knowledge of Ukraine.

The witnesses corroborating testimony is getting to the facts that even Trump loyalists cannot deny.  We are fortunate that there are still some patriots left in government.  Trump attempts to pervert the truth with such statements as "the Ukraine meeting was perfect!" and "no quid, pro quo!" But these are falling apart with the barrage of witnesses who are claiming otherwise to Congress.

Let the truth cleanse this administration.

Multiple Trump officials should be impeached over the substance of Ukraine meeting

Nancy Pelosi, House Speaker

Throughout his Presidency, Donald Trump gave the public many examples of his betrayal of the Constitution and denigration of the office of President.  So many of Trump's actions have been attacks on  democracy and our American way that any one of them could be a part of the articles for impeachment.

Nancy Pelosi has focused on one of Trump's recent infractions before she committed to impeaching him.  And that one was a big one.  Big in substance but also big in the number of Trump officials involved.

This recent infraction was the quid, pro quo that Trump asked from the newly elected Ukraine President.  Trump is so driven to find ways to ensure his re-election, he has not only avoided taking precautions against future Russians interference, but has also asked the Ukrainian President to dig up dirt on his Presidential challenger, Joe Biden.  Trump told Ukrainian President Zelensky that he must report on the requested investigation into Joe Biden and his son in a public announcement to be given at a White house visit, or he would not be given military aid that Ukraine so desperately needs to defend against Russia.

Just as Trump and his family asked Russia for dirt on his 2016 challenger, Hillary Clinton, they have now asked Ukraine for dirt on his 2020 opponent, Joe Biden.  It seems when it comes to finding an illegal leg up on the competition, Trump is surprisingly consistent.

And now we find out that this plan was in effect many month's ago, when his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, his EU Ambassador, Gordon Sondland and his Energy Secretary, Rick Perry were sent to discuss related matters with Ukrainian officials.

On July 25, 2019, Trump had the infamous quid, pro, quo call with Zelensky.  Mike Pompeo was present for the call.  Trump instructed Mick Mulvaney to delay the Ukraine military aid related to the quid, pro, quo call.

If by these actions Trump is guilty of impeachable offenses, so are all of the other Trump officials that were involved.  Perry has self-impeached as he recently announced his resignation, but all the others except Giuliani should also be impeached.  Giuliani is not a federal employee but has to answer for other crimes such as not registering as a foreign agent.

As for impeachment, Donald Trump's attorneys have gone to court to have the impeachment deemed illegal since there was no formal impeachment vote in the House.  Last week Lindsey Graham introduced a resolution condemning the impeachment inquiry as illegitimate.  Republican officials  have been stymied by a judge covering the case who has determined that the inquiry being carried out by the House is legitimate and does not need a vote to continue.

However, Nancy Pelosi has announced that Democrats wanted to push back on claims by Trump that the impeachment is not valid and will hold a vote on Thursday, October 31, 2019 to establish the procedure for open hearings, dispositioning transcripts and transfer of evidence to Judiciary as they consider impeachment articles.

The impeachment will happen.  The House of Representatives has the votes for that.  However, the impeachment is not the same as removing Donald Trump from office.  It will take more Americans to register their outrage with Trump in order to convince Republicans in the Senate to vote to remove him from office.  At this point, the GOP is still solidly with Trump.

As public hearings give Americans more insight into the impeachable offenses of the Trump administration, perhaps more GOP Senators will come to their senses and save America, democracy and their own dignity.

When the Justice Department helps create a dictator

William Barr, Attorney General

Donald Trump is a malignant narcissist.  He can convince himself he is an innocent victim of any criticism, even if he knows the criticism is accurate.

Believing that he has escaped prosecution for his part in the Russian 2016 Presidential election interference, Trump has been proclaiming that the intelligence community came to their conclusions of his involvement  for partisan political reasons.  He thinks his own Justice Department is conspiring against him.

The Mueller report made it clear that Trump could have been indicted as a co-conspirator in campaign contribution violations.  It identified at least ten instances of obstruction of justice for which Trump was found responsible.  Mueller himself said that the only reason Donald Trump was not indicted was due to a policy statement of the Justice Department.  Foolishly, the Justice Department believes that they cannot indict a guilty sitting President.  Mueller left that to Congress, which has the power to remove such a President through impeachment.

Trump, due to his narcissistic delusions, believes that he can convince the general population of his innocence.  The proof he puts forward has no substance.  There are no witnesses that can vouch for him.  He doesn't have any alibi.  In fact, many of his tweets and public appearances are outright displays of obstruction or violations of the Constitution.  The written answers Trump gave to Mueller's questions were nothing more than "I do not remember" non-replies.  The facts are not on Donald's side.

That Donald Trump believes he must convince America of his innocence is puzzling.  The "heat" of the Mueller investigation is passed.  Democrats did not do a good job of making the serious conclusions of the Mueller investigation an issue for Trump.  One could say he got away with it unscathed.  So why is Trump bringing it up again?

Trump has fired most of the patriots who were in his administration that might have done something about his bad behavior.  He has replaced them by loyalists who have the power and desire to protect him.  Cowardly Republicans in Congress still stand by Trump and defend his every aberrant move.  They will likely stand by him until just before their own careers are impacted.  That day will come as more and more of the American people call for Trumps impeachment.

America will soon begin to hear more about the high crimes and misdemeanors Trump has committed that are worthy of his impeachment.  Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats will impeach him.  In the next couple of weeks, some of the impeachment interviews they are doing will become public appearances.

To my thinking, this is why Donald Trump needs to find another way to convince the American people of his innocence.  Donald will soon need a distraction from the negative news coming from Congress.  That distraction must be large enough to draw the attention of Americans away from the Congressional hearings.

An official investigation into Trump's own intelligence community will give credence to the conspiracy theories he wants us to believe.  He needs the force of the Justice Department loyalists to carry out the investigation as if it were something real.  His hand picked and proven loyalist attorney general, William Barr is just the man for the job.

Trump loyalists have so far ignored Congressional subpoenas.  They have refused to appear in front of Congress.  They have refused to give requested documents to Congress to aid their investigations.  That pretty much means these loyalists are willing to break the law and are likely to take other extreme actions in defense of Donald Trump.

Barr may think he is defending a person of integrity.  Maybe he thinks all Presidents are patriots.  Maybe he is just a fool.  In any case, Trump is counting on Barr to give the conspiracy theory life.  Now it appears that it is about to happen as tonight the Justice Department has opened a criminal inquiry into its own Russia investigation.

If the Justice Department can be used as the President's personal police force to round up political prisoners, then we have a dictatorship.  Something I believe Trump has been working toward since he was elected.

This is a serious attack on American democracy.  America must snap out of their Trump induced depression and start acting like democracy is something to save.

There is a much better way than voting for Trump to express your anger with government

Whether you are Republican or Democrat, many people are upset with government.  Some are so upset with what they call government establishment politicians, that they want something completely different.  They want someone with no connection to the existing government infrastructure.  Given the choices for President this year, they see Donald Trump, a person with more connections to the Russian government than the American government, as suitable.

Trump supporters are so angry with government, that they are willing to forgive Trump of all his trespasses.  They have faith that a proven narcisisstic sociopath and sexual predator such as Trump can change his nature to become a true American dream of a patriotic and fair presidential Trump.  Someone who will "drain the swamp" in Washington (as Donald tweets) to correct the injustices they have felt and  that they believe have been caused by those politicians running the government now.

These angry feelings are understandable, but the source of this anger may be misdirected and the resolution of this anger by voting for Trump will only feel good for a very short time.  Trump's transgressions and trespasses will only get worse if he becomes President.

We are dealing with a man who has serious mental illness that may not be curable.  It prevents him from respecting anyone's opinion but his own.  It causes him to do and say things that a psychologically healthy person would find abhorrent.

Winning is more important to him than being President, and if he should lose, his flaws will cause him to find unreasonable excuses and blame others.  It causes him to assume an authoritarian personality which if elected, will make his term as President resemble a dictatorship more than democracy.

His business dealings with foreign governments will jeopardize foreign policy.  His closeness to Russia may cause him to champion policy that will favor Russian world domination.  He may even be seen by Putin as an unwitting partner in his pursuit of that effort.  Imagine the influence that  allying with the United States could have for Putin.

He has already shown an ignorance of our Constitution by challenging freedom of the press and stating that he would jail his political adversaries if elected.  He even violates the rights of American citizens by claiming that an entire religion should be exiled from the country.

He has violated business ethics and treated workers and small businesses unfairly by refusing to pay for work performed according to business contracts.  Many of his businesses have gone down to bankruptcy, which he feels makes him a smart businessman, showing complete apathy for the workers who lost jobs as a result.

He claims he will bring American jobs back to America, yet his own companies operate in China, India, Bangladesh and other third world nations.

I can continue on many more reasons that Donald Trump should not be President, but I promised in my title that there is a better way to resolve the situation that is causing so much anger with the government.

The American electorate agrees that the current Congress is worthless.  We all know that nothing gets done there.  One thing that may be missing from the explanation you have heard in the media is that not everyone there is useless.  In fact, those people that are useless are the biggest reason you are angry, even if you don't realize it.

Republicans may not accept this explanation, but I would ask that you remain open minded and consider that the GOP may have caused your anger.  If you are a devoted Fox News Republican, or listen to the multitude of right wing broadcasters, you may have been brainwashed into believing that Obama and the Congressional Democrats are responsible for all of your anger.  I submit for your review a few of the things that I believe may have caused some of your anger.

If you don't have a good job, let me remind you that America's unemployed work force could be put back to work if the President's American Jobs Act was enacted.  Unfortunately Congressional Republicans prevented passing it.

If you don't feel the improvement in the economy, remember that women earn less than men and yet could become equal in the workforce if legislation to prevent discrimination in wages was lifted by removing Republican obstruction.  Women belong to families, so increasing women's wages increases family wages.

If you care about your fellow Americans, America's immigrant families could receive fairer treatment if Congressional Republican leadership would not disallow a vote.   A bipartisan immigration effort was stifled by Republican leadership.

If you want to improve the finances of many Americans who work in lower paying jobs, and want to help stimulate the economy by putting more money in their hands, then an increase in the minimum wage could do it, except that Republicans refuse to support it.

The unfair control of government realized by the few uber-rich American contributors to the Republican party who influence their legislation and activities could be eliminated if Democrats were in the majority.

The economic theories of the GOP is summed up in the "trickle down" theory, which pretends that jobs will be created by giving tax breaks to the rich at the expense of the middle class.  The failure of the theory has been proven over many years.

It fails because jobs will never be created unless demand for products increases.  No business owner is going to increase the number of people working unless he needs them because the demand for product is exceeding current capacity of the workforce.

One way to benefit the economy, the rich and the middle class would be to increase the wealth of the middle class.  This will allow them to spend more on products and stimulate demand.  This would then allow the business to increase the workforce.  Provided the businessman has some patriotism left, these new workers will be American workers.

This demand side policy has not been allowed into practice by Republicans who are in the majority in Congress and all attempts to introduce increased wages have been blocked by the Congressional GOP.

If you are a caring person, realizing that some poor children go to bed hungry should make you  angry with Congressional Republicans whose cuts to the SNAP program are based on incorrectly identifying fraud as the reason for cutting aid.

If you are proud of your vote, then falsely imposed voting restrictions in Republican run states might make you angry.

Perhaps you are angry that Congress is spending millions of tax dollars on the Republican party's partisan witch-hunts based on false accusations.  Maybe you would like to see this waste of money stop being the focus of the Congress.  The GOP has already promised many more years of "witch hunts" if Hillary Clinton is elected.

America would never again renege on their debt obligations if Republicans are not given the power of the majority to cause it as they have already.  Incidentally, this also added billions to our debt because of our decreased credit rating and increased interest charges as a result.

Dealing with scientific facts, the government could make more reasonable decisions to enact laws that protect our environment and prevent climate change if Republicans were not in control.

Near treasonous acts that show Republican leadership's opposition to government would end.

Using fear tactics and lies to persuade Americans into voting against their own self interest could end if Republicans are shown that using those unethical tactics cannot win them elections.

The federal government may never face another shutdown if Republicans were not in control.

Real efforts to fix the Affordable Care Act to protect Americans with health insurance would be possible and not face Republican efforts to repeal it and replace it with "something really terrific" but as yet unidentified and most likely non-existent.

We can accomplish all of this by voting for Democrats up and down the ticket.  Believe it or not, it is your Republican run Congress that is causing your anger.

Your vote is the key.  Don't waste it on four more years of obstruction.  Your situation will improve as soon as we have reasonable politicians who put people before profits working in our government.

Should Presidential candidates be psychologically tested?

Donald Trump mocking handicapped

Maybe it goes without saying that Americans would prefer their President to be psychologically healthy.  But how do we know if our nominees are sane for sure?


One could postulate that anyone running for President is by definition psychologically healthy.  After all, being in front of the public exposes all of your abilities and frailties. It should be easy to spot someone who lives in a fantasy world or by their actions has other psychological problems deserving of a trip to the insane asylum.  How could a psychologically unfit candidate ever get by that scrutiny?

Perhaps there is a type of person who can pass that scrutiny even though they are not truly psychologically healthy.  If there is one such type of person in this election year, my guess is that is Donald Trump.  Now, I am not a psychologist or mental health worker, so my observations are based on my own bias on what I think normal is.

But it is also based on the findings of a group of seventy Republicans who have petitioned the RNC to discontinue funding for their Presidential nominee.  The members of this group have worked with Republicans throughout previous administrations and they enumerate a number of observations they have made about the statements of the candidate that seem to give credence to the questionable state of his psychological health.

Their letter includes the observations below:

• Attacking Gold Star families of soldiers who died serving their country. 
• Urging a hostile country to intervene in a U.S. election.
• Suggesting that gun owners take action against his opponent if she is elected.
• Repudiating our NATO treaty obligations to protect our allies.
• Reportedly expressing interest in the preemptive use of nuclear weapons.
• Exposing his total ignorance of basic foreign policy matters.
• Stating his admiration for violent foreign autocrats.
• Refusing to release any of his past income taxes including those not under audit.
• Deliberately and repeatedly lying about scores of issues, large and small
• His campaign is built on anger and exclusion where he has mocked and offended millions of voters including the disabled, women, Muslims, immigrants and minorities.
• He has shown dangerous authoritative tendencies including threats to ban an entire religion from the country, ordering the military to break the law by torturing prisoners, killing families of suspected terrorists, tracking law abiding Muslim citizens in a database, and using executive orders to commit other illegal and unconstitutional acts.
• Waging battle with other Republicans with his own super PAC and openly refusing to support Republican candidates.

It is also based on the opinion of 50 former Republican administration security experts that say Donald Trump is a clear and present danger to the safety and security of Americans.

If you believe that Donald Trump would be a good President, ask yourself why you are supporting him.  Could it be that he appeals to the skeletons in your own closet?  Perhaps he appeals to your secretly hidden worst nature.  Many of his supporters say he is just like one of them.  Does this mean that you are OK with the above list?  If not, then perhaps you are supporting the wrong candidate.

But I digress.  Perhaps it is time for Congress to enact legislation that requires all Presidential candidates to pass a psychological test before we allow them to run for office.  It appears that in this election, if we leave it up to the people to decide, it is quite possible that a person who should be in a mental hospital could wind up being President.

Then again, maybe we should just not vote for Republicans for any office.