Could Donald Trump usher in the End of the American Democratic Republic?

The End of American Democracy?

With the barrage of witnesses whose testimony corroborated each other, at this point in the impeachment of Donald J. Trump, honest Americans can see that he is guilty.

Nearly every witness so far has testified that Trump directed a group of people to work with Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, to help Trump abuse his power by recruiting Ukraine for interference in the 2020 US election.

Trump ordered actions taken that would delay Ukraine from receiving Congressionally approved military aid unless Ukraine President Zelensky made a public announcement that he was investigating Hunter and Joe Biden.

Additionally, Trump wanted President Zelensky to announce an investigation into Ukraine's part in the 2016 election interference, a false narrative that is being pushed by Russian president Vladimir Putin.  Every intelligence agency of the American government has identified Russia as the 2016 election intruder.  They have also indicated that the conspiracy Trump is pushing about Ukraine being the culprit in election interference is a Russian conspiracy propaganda attack.

The Republicans on the committee could have accepted the witnesses evidence.  But they didn't.  Instead, they defended Trump's conspiracy theories, blamed Democrats for an impeachment scam, lied and  yelled at witnesses.  They have lost their self-respect and prostrated themselves in loyalty to the worst President in US history.  And for what?  Are they complicit?  Do they know the "fix is in" and they can't lose in 2020?  What could make a whole party go mad?  Does Donald Trump have a spell cast over them?

Maybe it doesn't matter to understand Republican thinking.  Maybe the important things to know are that they do not govern with all Americans in mind.  They will not defend American democracy.  They do not respect the law.  They do not care about Presidential accountability.  They do not recognize their Constitutional duty in the balance of powers.  They do not care about America's national security.

Even worse, hope that the impeachment inquiry will help more Americans come to the realization that Republicanism is a betrayal of democracy, is being lost.  Recent polls are showing that there are now more Independents that are against impeachment than for it.  This is a bad sign for Democrats.  Independents are the game changers for political elections.  If this signals that Independents are becoming more Republican leaning, it could usher in another Trump term.

It is the Senate that determines if Trump is removed from office.  Trump has already met with his jury of Republican Senators who might be on the fence about removing him from office.  The transcripts of that meeting are not published, but Senator Susan Collins, one of those at the meeting, announced that she will not vote to remove Trump from office.  Making this decision before the Senate trials even start, begs the question; what empty promises did Trump make to those Senators?

If Susan Collins and the House Republicans are any indicator, the Senate will never remove Trump from office unless their constituents (the ultra-rich and lobbyists) call for it.  Since the ultra-rich and lobbyists are reaping the lion's share of benefits from having a Republican like Trump in office, there is  no reason for them to insist that Trump be removed.

The Senate will not save America.  In fact, Republicans who support Trump despite the damaging evidence against him, have set up the failure of American democracy.  Republicans have forsaken the balance of powers by defending Trump.  They are denying Article I of the US Constitution and are thereby making Trump more of a dictator than a President.

Trump's administration started out by admitting they were out to "deconstruct the administrative state."  Trump appointed administrative officials who opposed the agencies they lead.  Trump has decimated the State Department.  Regulations that protected Americans' health and welfare have been perverted or overturned to make America less safe for Americans and more profitable for the rich.  Science has been denied and puts human existence in jeopardy.  If Trump is re-elected, there is no telling what other deleterious changes to US democracy and national security he may make.

It has been reported that Trump has seriously asked if he could just get rid of judges.  Without a Judicial branch, all power would lie with the President.  That is a dictatorship.  His praise for and friendships with global dictators is already in public view and gives a plausible assessment of his desire to become one himself.

Ultimately, it is the American voter who has the last chance to save our Republic.  This will not be an easy fight.  Russia will be out in force, attempting to interfere in our elections and power grid.  Trump will be spending millions of dollars on propaganda campaigns to denigrate Democrats and praise himself.  Trump loyalists will be repeating the ramblings of the Trump administration and those in Senate committees will advance Trump's conspiracy theories.  Right wing media will be continuing to lie to their viewers to make Trump appear the right choice for President.  Trump's mysterious and almost supernatural spell over MAGAts and Republican political figures will be strong.

America faces the possibilities of two futures.  One being the shining star of freedom and hope for the world, the other being the frightening world of a self-serving dictator.  We will only get one chance to get it right.  After that, we will have the country we deserve, be it good or bad.

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.

McConnell's Senate Graveyard

Pelosi describes McConnell's Bills Graveyard

The primary duty of Congress is to write, debate and pass laws.  Congress is composed of two bodies; the House of Representatives and the Senate.

The leader of the House of Representatives is a person selected from the members of the party in the majority.  In the house, the Democrats are in the majority and Nancy Pelosi is the leader known as Speaker of the House.  

The leader of the Senate is known as the Senate Majority Leader and is also selected from the party in the majority for that body.  In the Senate, the Republicans are in the majority and Mitch McConnell is the Senate Majority Leader.  

The White House and the Congressional GOP have often used derogatory terms to describe the Democrats in Congress.  Much like the childish bullies they are, they believe that name-calling is a useful policy tool.  We have heard Trump use slogans like "Do nothing Democrats" to convince their  own gullible constituents that it's the Democrats who are not getting anything done in Congress.  However, in this case, the name-calling tool is really a projection of their own failure to work for America.  

In order to pass legislation that originates in the House of Representatives, Mitch McConnell must bring those bills up for debate in the Senate.  In a normal functioning Congress, the goal is to find agreement in both houses through compromise and concessions during a healthy debate. The goal is to enact legislation intended to help all Americans and improve the condition of the country.  But in the Republican led Senate, the goal is to stifle Democratic legislation that would help Americans.

McConnell has stated publicly that no Democratic bills will ever pass the Senate and will "die" there.  McConnell has been so pleased to prevent America from progressing with bipartisan legislation that he sees his new job as that of a "grim reaper," a name that he gave himself.  And he has been true to his name.  

According to the website congress.gov, in this 116th Congress, the House has so far passed 258 (H.R.) bills since the session started in 2019.  To view each bill and search for other interesting data, visit congress.gov at the following shortened url:  http://bit.ly/2PJQ9A5 .

Only thirty-three House bills have passed the Senate and only thirty-one have become law.

McConnell and the Republicans in the 116th Congressional Senate have introduced thirty-nine bills.  Eleven of them have become law.  Included in those Senate initiated bills that became law are:

• S.2249 A bill to allow the Deputy Administrator of FAA to continue as Deputy
• S.1693 National Flood Insurance Extension
• S.1379 Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness
• S.998 Supporting and Treating Officers in Crisis
• S.863 A bill to amend title 38 to clarify pay grade and pay of podiatrists of the VA
• S.744 Effective Prosecution and Possession of Biological Toxins and Agents
• S.483 Pesticide Registration Improvement Extension
• S.252 A bill to authorize Bob Doyle to grade of Colonel in the regular Army
• S.163 Alaska Remote Generator Reliability and Protection
• S.49 A bill to designate the outstation of the VA in North Ogden, Utah as Major Brent Taylor Vet Center Outstation

There are so many House Democratic bills that McConnell is holding up, I cannot include them all, but a few of the more important ones include:

• H.R.3722 Joint Task Force to Combat Opioid Trafficking
• H.R.3710 Cybersecurity Vulnerability Remediation
• H.R.3625 PCAOB Whistleblower Protection Act of 2019
• H.R.3525 U.S. Border Patrol Medical Screening Standards
• H.R.3239 Humanitarian Standards for Individuals in Customs and Border Protection Custody
• H.R.2513 Corporate Transparency Act
• H.R.2359 Whole Veterans Act
• H.R.1585 Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act
• H.R.1331 Local Water Protection Act
• H.R.1112 Enhanced Background Checks Act
• H.R.987 Strengthening Health Care and Lowering Prescription Drug Costs
• H.R.986 Protecting Americans with Preexisting Conditions
• H.R.582 Raise the Wage Act
• H.R.6 American Dream and Promise Act

If you visit the government website mentioned above, you can see the stark reality that it is the Republicans in Congress that are obstructionists.  You realize that the Democrats in Congress have the energy, desire and concern for America that enables them to create these bills.

Republicans have proven themselves to be liars, obstructionists, and now grim reapers.  They may think they are attacking Democrats but it is you, the American people, that the Republicans are really hurting. Vote smart when the time comes and don't believe the Republican lies.   

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.

Will the GOP survive once Donald Trump becomes the first American dictator?

The Future Mr. President

Since Trump has gained the Presidency, America is being publicly bombarded with aberrant behavior previously
considered unacceptable by most Americans.  Some of us are outraged.  Some of us are simply not paying attention.


But there are others who are finding cover for Trump's outrageous behavior.  They are trying to convince us that Trump's violations of the Constitution and America's laws are acceptable and within the powers of the President.

Just yesterday, Trump's lawyers were in court arguing that the President could not be accused of any crime as long as he remained in office.  The judge asked Trump's personal lawyers if Trump could shoot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue and get away with it, as Trump once claimed.  The lawyer answered in the affirmative.

These are dangerous times, brought to us by the Grand Old Party. The GOP prepared for their eventual rise to power during the Obama administration.  They were convinced that they could rise to power by obstructing everything the Democratic President did for the American people and create false narratives about how bad everything was in America because of Obama.  Some may remember that they even obstructed bills that they themselves brought up if Obama favored them.  They hated Obama so much that they had television interviews where they said they considered Putin a better President than Obama.  The GOP has hated the fact that a black man could be in the most powerful seat reserved for white power. 

Some of you may still believe that the GOP was only trying to protect America by attempting to destroy the Affordable Care Act.  Maybe you believe they only meant the best or were trying to reduce fraud by removing food from the hands of children when they reduced food stamps.  Maybe you think they were only trying to find better jobs for America when they rejected the American Jobs Act that Obama wanted passed.  What reason did you find for the GOP's lack of support for an increase in the federal minimum wage?  How did you rationalize the GOP's resistance to the Fair Treatment of Women's act.

The GOP has proven over and over again that they do not support the average American.  Their recent tax scam under Trump was only meant to serve their true constituents, their million dollar campaign donors. 

A party that is concerned with all Americans does not deny services to the needy.  It should not fight against fair wages for workers.  It should not give entitlements to people who already have enough to live 1000 lifetimes.  It does not reverse regulations that protect Americans health and environment.  It does not create a budget that intends to strip medicare and social security.  And it does not find ways to divide Americans against one another.  But yet, these are the priorities of the GOP.

And now the GOP are at a crossroads.  Do they continue to find excuses for Trump and forsake American democracy for a wannabe dictator?  Or do they come to their senses and save America while at the same time saving their party?

Trump has created around himself, a circle of sycophantic loyalists. These loyalists hold most of the power in government and refuse to abide by the checks and balances of government power.  They openly refuse to obey court orders. 

Trump has a propaganda media company at his disposal in Fox News that is also culpable in the "dumbing down" of the American GOP. 

Trump is making decisions that distance our allies and partner up with the axis of evil.  Trump has created human rights abuse issues at our border.  He has sacrificed our Kurdish allies to the bombs of Turkish genocide.

Trump is seeking campaign help from Ukraine's new President asking him to create and announce a controversy around Trump's political opponent Joe Biden.  Trump will hold off on military aid until Ukraine follows through. 

Trump and his campaign has been delighted to have had help with the 2016 election from the Russians, meeting with them in secretive rendezvous.   In 2016 Trump's personal attorney announced on news shows that there would be an October surprise that was a prelude to knowledge the campaign had in regards to the DNC hacking done by the Russians.

And now Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats are investigating Trump for behavior deserving of impeachment.  The GOP leadership is still siding with Trump.  Some even performing ludicrous acts in front of TV cameras.  About thirty-six of the more unstable GOP leadership, led by Matt Gaetz, have stormed a secure SCIF meeting uninvited, with iPhones blazing to defend their divine leader Trump.

Since his inauguration, Trump has thrown a long list of his former allies under the bus by either firing them or blaming them for crimes which he had no part in. (Fingers crossed.)  Here are a few:
Reince Priebus, John Kelly, Kirstjen Nielsen, Steve Bannon, Carl Icahn, Sebastian Gorka, Michael Flynn, H. R. McMaster, John Bolton, K. T. McFarland, Tom Bossert, Rob Joyce, Keith Kellogg, Fred Flitz, Fiona Hill, Rob Porter, Sean Spicer, Michael Dubke, Anthony Scaramucci, Hope Hicks, Sara Huckabee Sanders, Raj Shah, Boris Epshteyn, Michael Short, Gary Cohn, Jeremy Katz, Peter Navarro, Justin Clark, Steve Munisteri, Omarosa Manigault Neuman, Keith Schiller, Bill Stepien, Don McGahn, Ty Cobb, John Dowd, Ronny Jackson, Chris Christie, James Mattis, Patrick Shanahan, Rick Perry, Tom Price, Ryan Zinke, Jeff Sessions, Sally Yates, Dana Boente, Rod Rosenstein, Mathew Whitaker, James Comedy, Andrew McCabe, Alex Acosta, Rex Tillerson, Nikki Haley, Marie Yovanovitch, Kurt Volker, David Shulkin, Dan Coats, Richard Cordray, Scott Pruit and dozens more who were assistants or under secretaries, or deputies.

Trump supporters may not think of him as a dictator, but his actions resemble those of other dictators in history.  American democracy is only holding on by a thread right now. 

The GOP, who is in the majority in the Senate, are responsible for removing him from office, once the impeachment is transferred to them.  Up to now, the GOP leadership has defended Trump throughout all of the damaging news brought into public view. 

If the GOP fails to remove this potential dictator from office, then our last hope will be the American people's vote in the 2020 election.  Here's hoping that one of those two fail-safes prevents the end of American democracy.  My confidence in either is not very high.

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.

Living in the past, Trump reincarnates Reagan trickle down plan as most forward looking policy for America

Trump speaking in Detroit

Today, Donald Trump gave some specifics about his Tax plan, among other subjects, if he were elected President.  I review here what the major features of his plan includes.

Trump believes that taxes are the biggest differentiation between him and Hillary.  He repeated his campaign's rhetoric and false claim that Hillary says she will increase taxes on the middle class.

Overall, his approach to taxes is to reduce them for most people, but especially for the wealthy and Corporate America.  Although he stated that he is the future thinking of American taxes, his tax plan is to reactivate the 1980's Reagan trickle down economic policy, which many argue does not increase the number of jobs, or give wage increases to workers.  What it does do is pad the bank accounts of the extremely rich.  He spoke nothing about minimum wage increases.

The "trickle down" policy is cited as one of the major reasons for the redistribution of wealth from the middle class to the rich which caused today's income inequality.  Most of his recommendations would reduce revenue to run the Federal government and likely increase the deficit unless severe cuts are made to the social safety net or other programs thought unworthy by a Republican Congress.

For example,  Donald Trump admits that the tax code is extremely complicated but does not mention how the tax code would change, other than by reducing the number of tax brackets from seven down to three.  The three brackets would be 12%, 25% and 33%.

Donald believes that taxes and regulation on Corporate America have had the most adverse impact on reducing the GDP.  Further, he believes that reducing the already highest business tax rate of all western countries from 35% to 15% will improve the economy and spur on business investments and job growth.  The problem with that statement is that 2/3 of all businesses pay no taxes and those that do, have their taxes reduced through exemptions, deductions and off-shore tax havens to about 12.6%.  If reduction in Corporate taxes had any long term impact on increasing jobs or increasing wages, we should have already seen it.  We have not.

Not stopping there to improve the lives of the wealthy, Mr. Trump also advocates elimination of estate taxes.  This was received by a large round of applause from the audience, who apparently either are very rich themselves or do not understand that estate taxes are not paid by any family having less than a $10.8 million estate.

Mr. Trump indicates that the rich will pay their fair share of taxes, but this is very subjective.  Mr. Trump did not get into details on what constitutes a fair share.  For example, if a Corporate CEO who enjoys a $15 million annual income shelters $14 million of it in offshore tax shelters, does he pay tax on the $15 million or $1 million?  Even if he finds legal ways to protect most of that income, what constitutes a fair share?

One tax advantage offered that could favor working women is elimination of all child care expenses from taxes.  Again no specifics but on the surface, it appears that provided you have a job and a child in day care, your child care costs might be deductible from your gross income and not be subject to a tax.  The average cost of child care for working women is about $200 per week, so this has the potential to save over $10,000 from being taxed.  We'll have to see how a Republican Congress would find this proposal, but if history is any indicator, Republicans are not very generous appropriating money for such social reasons.

For example, on the subject of equal pay, if Republicans in Congress passed equal pay legislation, women's wages would be increased by about 30%, potentially increasing the take home pay by much more than $10,000.  That has been rejected by Republicans more than once.  My guess is that Trump's child care deduction will be solidly rejected if Republicans stay in control of Congress.

Donald indicates that more about his tax policies can be found on his website.

The economy is great...so why don't I feel it?

Led by Donald Trump, a familiar claim of the Republican party is that Obama has made the economy far worse than ever. However, the economy has actually improved, especially after the Bush financial crisis was resolved by the Obama administration. But this fact does not ring true with many workers in the middle class.  

And therein lies the strength of the Republican strategy to convince people of their false statements about the economy.  As a whole, the middle class has truly not participated in the economic improvements and large cash in-flows enjoyed by the financially top 1% of society.

The reason for this is simple to explain and has nothing to do with the Obama Administration or the new Democratic platform.

If you are a middle class worker, you have a job.  The salary you got when you took that job was between you and your boss.  The government currently has no control over the wages that you are paid by your employer, except if you are a minimum wage worker.  State legislatures set the minimum wage that your employer cannot legally go below.  But there is no governmental requirement for an employer to increase your pay at any time.  Whether you get a pay increase at all, depends on the policies of the executives running your employer's company.  In the distant past, employers used to treat employees to annual raises, the amount of which depended on how well you met your job objectives.  Today however, regardless of how well you do your job, your employer may still not increase your pay.

Prior to the Reagan administration, some middle class workers enjoyed protections on living wages by their union membership.  Labor unions were started under a Democratic administration at a time when business executives put profits before people in the worst way.  

Before labor unions, many company executives treated workers with contempt and disrespect.  Hours were long.  Safe working conditions were not a consideration.  Weekend work was expected. If you got a vacation it was not paid.  Children were put to work in factories as executives of manufacturing companies took advantage of families that could not afford to eat during the depression unless their children worked. Some workers were killed during strikes against unfair labor practices.

As soon as they gained back the Presidency, the Republicans worked hard to reverse workers gains received from labor unions.  This effort continues even today and has resulted in the demise of union membership.  Today, less than 25% of workers belong to unions and the Republicans are still trying to get rid of unions altogether.  Their "Right to Work" legislation is being promoted as a positive measure to help workers, but in reality it is just another Republican lie to reduce current Union membership and reduce workers rights and wages.   Republican legislators have argued that the National Labor Relations Board, the agency that is the only help workers have with grievances against their boss, be dissolved from the federal government.  Republican legislators have refused to increase the federally mandated minimum wage.  They have legislated for increased work visas for lower paid foreigners to take American jobs.  Working for their true constituents, the Republican party has assisted the wealthy by devaluing workers and ensuring that workers wages do not impact the corporate bottom line.

Labor to an executive is an expense.  It costs the company money and reduces the profits.  The profits are for the executives and the owners and not something shared with workers in most companies.  A large part of business management's responsibility is to reduce costs so there is always downward pressure on wages. In a society that found slavery as a viable alternative to more expensive labor, it is fairly apparent that in a capitalistic society the powerful value profits over people.

Your employer has enjoyed the benefits of the economic progress made by the Obama administration, but has not shared the profits with you.  Your wages could be increased since there is plenty of cash in the coffers of Corporate America, but your employers have decided against it.  That is why you have not been feeling the benefits of economic gains being realized by the rich.  

For the last thirty years, the share of the economic gains received by the top 1% of society have exceeded those that most workers have received by nearly 300 times.  If you have been employed for more than 20 years, you may remember a time when annual raises were a thing.  Today, most corporations have eliminated annual raises and increased the competition between fellow workers in order to keep their workers more productive and content with having a job with no increase in wages.  With foreign workers visas being increased yearly, American workers today are always fearful that their company may have another lay-off, in which they might lose their job to lesser paid foreigners unless they out-work their fellow employees and don't complain about their wages.

Ultimately, you are not feeling the improvement in the economy because of the greed of your bosses.  They have received the benefits, which one could say are the result of your labor, since no company is made profitable by its non-human elements.   

Nearly 75% of the economy is from consumer purchases.  The other 25% is from government spending. The Republicans want to keep your wages low and reduce the federal government.  Both tactics will reduce the economy for all socio-economic classes.  The Republicans are married to the "trickle-down" theory where you give the economic benefits to the rich and they will create more jobs.  This is a total farce that has hurt the middle class for over the last 35 years.  The only thing their economic theory has caused is a redistribution of wealth to the top 1%.  Jobs don't get created if demand does not warrant it and simply giving tax breaks and exemptions to the rich does not increase demand.

The Democrats want to improve the economy from the middle class out, which will improve the economy from the consumer side.  This will ultimately benefit the rich as well since consumers with more money can buy more things.

When you vote this November, remember that Donald Trump is not an island to himself, but rather the culmination of historic Republican obstruction and erroneous economic policies that contributes to your inability to make gains from the improvement in the economy.  If you are middle class, you should not want Republicans in state or federal office.

Vote for Democrats for all political offices to eliminate the obstruction in Washington and give America back to the middle class.  Only then will workers make progress against the powers that otherwise would hold them down.

Hillary, Paul and Donald and the Further Decline of American Democracy

The GOP has led the attack on Democracy in so many ways, it is surprising that their voting base has not noticed.  Perhaps they are too ignorant to notice or maybe in their deepest, darkest thoughts, they knowingly go along with it.

A few of the many examples of GOP actions against Democracy exist such as legislating unnecessary voting rights restrictions,  eliminating discussion of gun control legislation, preventing the staffing of the Supreme Court and other judge appointments, legislating against the civil rights act, violating citizen protections of the constitution, preventing certain minorities from getting health insurance and the obstruction of the normal functioning of the federal government.  The GOP fight with the government has been a fight against the rights of ordinary American citizens and against Democracy.

Hillary Clinton

Some may think that Hillary Clinton is not an ordinary citizen, and in many ways she is not, but she is also protected by those same rights found in our constitution as any other American.  Today, after a long and controversial investigation regarding her handling of a private server and classified emails, the FBI has found that there was no "intent" to commit a crime.  In such cases, the FBI considers not only the act that occurred, but also the element of "intent.  Without both of these clearly identified, there is no possibility of charges being brought against her.

Paul Ryan

In a statement he presented after the announcement by the FBI Director James Comey, Paul Ryan advocated for prosecution of citizens without just cause.  Ryan stated that not prosecuting Clinton would set a "terrible precedent."  In reality, what Ryan calls for would set the terrible precedent.  Imagine a government official calling for the prosecution of a person based on Republican suspicion.  This eliminates the rule of law which Comey describes and instead institutes a lynch mob mentality based on suspicion.

Donald Drumpf

Someone else in the Republican party has previously mentioned a similar thing when it comes to capturing and killing the family of ISIS terrorists.  That person is the presumptive Presidential nominee and leader of the Republican party, Donald Trump.  Needless to say, Republican leaders everywhere agree with Paul Ryan, and although many secretly also agree with Donald Trump, are not so stupid as to show their true colors to the American people as Donald Trump seems to be.  I don't have to tell you how Donald Trump reacted to Comey's statement, but it was just as self-serving as Ryan's, albeit with more third grade words and aggression.

No one in the Republican leadership has called out Paul Ryan for encouraging a lynch mob mentality because his attitude towards Hillary Clinton is shared by them.  This should give us concern since it shows that the current Republican leadership is willing to turn against our constitution and bend law to their own view of it.  This likely means that they will be willing to support a President Trump's view of Democracy and may set us up for the re-incarnation of an American Hitler President.

It's time for the Republican citizenry to begin to see their leaders for who they really are.  They are no longer the Republicans of the past.  They are no longer reasonable.  They are no longer trustworthy.  Only the base of the Republican party can bring Republicanism back to reality since the leadership and Donald Trump has failed you.

This time Obama-Care may be toast

The essence of the Affordable Care act was introduced as a proposal by the Republican policy making group, the Heritage Foundation in 2003.  See the web page on the Heritage Foundation site http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2003/03/covering-the-uninsured-how-states for one such article by Dr. Robert E. Moffitt of the Heritage Foundation.

Dr. Moffitt gives guidance to the states that seems based on his humanitarian ideals to cover more people who cannot afford healthcare insurance.  Some of that concern for humanity seems to have left Republican Congressmen of late.

Since the Affordable Care Act was introduced as law, Republicans in Congress have been fighting to find ways to stop its implementation.  They have wasted their time attempting to repeal the law over fifty times, only to be met with a Presidential veto. They have researched the weakest parts of the law and attempted on a few occasions to get the Supreme Court to denounce it as unconstitutional; usually to no avail.

Republican leaders in GOP led states refused to open up their own state healthcare marketplace sites to try to make the Federal government's role more complex.  They were happy when the Supreme Court left it up to the states to implement the medicaid expansion part of the Affordable Care Act law.  Most Republican led states refused to accept medicaid expansion and denied millions of the most defenseless Americans the opportunity for healthcare.  This was not just a typical Republican heartless act, but was also intended to help the law fail. Any additional profit for insurance companies from medicaid expansion payments by the federal government could not happen as a result.  This would likely push premium prices higher.  Additionally, people who could not get medicaid assistance would increase lost revenue by hospitals and doctors when they could not afford to pay for their medical care.  Some who could not afford it, would die without medical care.

Republicans have used their power in Congress to appropriate funds, or in this case to fail to approve appropriation of healthcare funds in attempts to make the law fail.  They have contributed to the potential failure of the Affordable Care law however they could.  Without their destructive acts,  the law may have been successful.  Now closed medical facilities and hospitals may have stayed in business.  Insurance companies could have profited more.  The act would have lived up to its title and really been affordable without increases in premiums as are now proposed.

But now, this latest tactic of Republicans has been to attack Obama's funding of subsidies which they claim has been done without their consent.  Congress does have the authority to approve the appropriation of money used by the Federal government and they claim the money was not approved by Congress.  The lawsuit brought against the Obama Administration has been judged in favor of Republicans by the lower court.  The judge in that case has found the subsidy funding of insurance companies by the Obama Administration was illegal since the money was not appropriated by Congress.

Of course, the case is not final and will be allowed to have appeals proceedings.  If brought to the Supreme Court, where the Court is now equally divided between Democratic sympathizers and Republican Sympathizers, the lower court ruling may stand if it ends in a tie and the Affordable Care law will die.

What type of party is the GOP to have fought against its own citizens to defeat an administration who is an advocate of the people?  Hopefully you will think hard and long about this as you ponder your choices for the party that should be elected to Congress in the upcoming elections.

Trump: Ironic outcome of establishment Republican obstruction

Donald J. Drumpf

Throughout the Obama Presidency, establishment Republicans in Congress did their very best to obstruct the normal functioning of the Federal Government.  They were convinced that obstruction was a winning strategy to ensure that the GOP would become victorious in the 2012 Presidential election.  Although they were somewhat victorious in the mid-term elections, the GOP lost the  2012 Presidency to a second Obama term.  They continued their obstruction of government with even more intensity in preparing for the 2016 Presidential election, all the while ignoring the impact of their obstruction on the American people and especially on the voting base of their own party.

Republican leaders ignored the data that their own post Romney party "autopsy" showed them.  That they were losing their constituents to old age.  That they were not appealing to the diverse ethnicity of America.  That they were on the wrong side of women's issues.  That they were being seen as a party of the rich and not a party of the ordinary person.  Yet they did nothing positive to improve their image.

Instead they took to underhanded and un-American actions to cheat American Democracy such as voter suppression actions, reducing voting precincts and changing voting privileges for students so they could not vote at their own campuses.  All attempts to reduce the number of Democrats who might vote.

They used their power in government committees to create artificial controversies around the Obama administration and the future most-likely to be nominee for President, Hillary Clinton.  They openly disrespected the Office of the President, calling President Obama names and falsely accusing him of not being a leader.  According to many of them in office, Russian President Putin is a better leader than our American President.  Their intentions were to make Democrats seem ineffective as leaders or untrustworthy by using insults, insinuation and disrespect.  To them, it was just another tactic to win votes in future elections.  This tactic worked on their own constituents.  It also served as a lesson to Donald Trump.  Appealing to Republican's worst nature wins their support.  If we were paying attention, we would see how closely Trump would follow this tactic in the Republican Primaries.

In this 2016 Presidential nomination process we are now seeing the decaying fruits of those actions for the GOP as a party.  Republican voters now see vitriolic rhetoric like their party's leaders used on the Obama Administration as a characteristic of a good leader.  Republican leaders led them down this path.  Voters are voting by overwhelming margins in primary elections for a narcissistic sociopathic con-man.

Donald Drumpf is riding the tides of victory in primary elections, not because he is the best person for the job.  Not because his policies ring clearly as the correct approach to governing.  Not because he will make America great again.  He is not the best person to be President and nothing good would come of his winning the Presidency.  He is simply winning because of the anger that Republican voters have.  He is now the Republican nominee for President.

Republicans are angry because they see themselves as ordinary citizens who have not benefitted from the improvement in the economy.  They believe current government policies will make them fall further.  They know things are better for some people, but not for them.  They do not understand why and need to blame someone for their situation. The confusing explanations they get from their Republican leaders are intentionally meant to mislead them.  They know Republicans in Congress are not getting anything accomplished to benefit society and are beginning to doubt them.

There is now a state of utter confusion in GOP politics.  Establishment Republicans agree that Donald Trump is not a true Republican.  But that is not the worst of his characteristics.  Secretly they believe he is not a stable individual either.  Not someone you would want in control of the nuclear codes.  How should they react to Trump's overwhelming win margins?  The GOP base obviously wants him as their new President.  Did the establishment create a monster?  If they get behind this monster, will GOP policies be advocated?

At this point, Donald is the Presidential nominee.  Republicans now must decide whether they will support him or not.  They do have some things to gain if he becomes President, such as Supreme Court appointments.  He will carry out his threats to eliminate "Obama-care," which Republican leadership has stated is the worst thing since Obama himself.

The dilemma they are faced with is whether they will give up more than they gain.  We will see in the upcoming months whether Republicans will stand behind Trump and save their party or do the right thing and save the country instead.

Florida plans to eliminate the undeserving from healthcare

Florida State Flag

Florida, like most other Republican run states, has decided that the poor do not deserve healthcare.  Their rejection of Medicaid Expansion is based on their distrust of President Obama and their acceptance that reimbursing hospitals with Low Income Pool money is better than giving health insurance to the undeserving poor.

The public distrust of President Obama and his Democratic administration has been a Republican party strategy.  All Republicans are expected to continue this public display of criticism of the President so that they can use it as their main reason to obstruct any Democratic policy and by so doing, help the Democrats fail.  This is partisan politics which shows that Republicans have no problem taking actions that hurt Americans and hurt their state's economic condition without so much as an ounce of guilt.

Psychologists often say that a person's view of others is influenced by the subconscious guilt that they feel about their own actions.  Psychological projection is a theory that explains why some people shift their own faults onto someone else and deny that it occurs in themselves.  Neurotic or psychotic liars think all people lie.  Every narcissistic untrustworthy person thinks everyone else is untrustworthy.  Maybe that is the thinking that has entered into the Republican party.  The fact that many in the right wing of politics are commonly referred to as "nut jobs" may have a real basis in fact.

Someone who really does not deserve trust is Florida's governor, Rick Scott.  He was the former CEO of Columbia/HCA Healthcare.  In that position, Scott and his executives illegally charged Medicare billions in fake charges.  Scott quit that position just four months after the government's case became public.  His company was fined $1.7 billion as a result and Scott narrowly escaped getting jail time.  Now he's Florida's governor.

And now Florida finds itself with a House in conflict with its Senate regarding budget money for low income healthcare provisions.  With only a few weeks left in the legislative session, Florida Senate lawmakers have passed a budget for $80.4 billion which includes low income healthcare spending, while lawmakers in the Florida House have passed a $76.2 billion budget which eliminates healthcare spending for low income people.

Governor Scott has had a flip, flop, flip attitude when it comes to low income health insurance.  First he was against expanding medicaid to toe the Republican line to attempt to repeal the ACA in its entirety.  Then he was for it, but could not persuade stalwart Republicans to support it.  Now, after the Federal government has rejected his demands to continue to fund the Florida Low Income Pool, he is against it again.

Governor Scott and the Republican Florida House would much prefer to allow big tax breaks for business and a few dollars in savings for cable bill taxes for it's citizens than provide life saving health care for Florida's "undeserving."

Scott's demands to continue the Low Income Pool (LIP) were rejected by the federal government as it warned it would over a year ago, if Florida could not provide evidence about how the money was being used.  Also, the LIP fund was never supposed to be a permanent program.  Florida did nothing to convince the Federal Government that the LIP fund should be continued, outside of Rick Scott demanding that it should and the government refused to extend LIP.  But there would be plenty of federal money available for healthcare if the state would just expand medicaid.

With the Federal government offering to pay for 100% of the costs of expanded medicaid for the first three years of its implementation,  and 90% thereafter, Florida did nothing and let that money pass by.

The benefits of accepting expanded medicaid far outweigh the benefits of the LIP fund.  Medicaid expansion provides individuals with medical insurance; while the LIP fund provides hospitals with payment if they should care for someone who cannot afford to pay for services.  If an individual does not have medical insurance, they are more likely to not get healthcare when they need it.  This can lead to unnecessary complications and even death in some cases.  When they do need it, it is usually urgently needed and may be a life or death situation, so they are more likely to go to an emergency room where prices are much higher.  Expanded medicaid would save lives.  The LIP fund merely save some costs for hospitals.

There is a reason why hospitals, the Chamber of Commerce, medical device manufacturers  and others in the medical profession have favored expanding medicaid.  Not only does it mean more money for business, it also means a healthier state population and a healthier state economy.  Denying expanded medicaid makes Republicans in Florida seem very ignorant.

It is beyond time for the Florida House to stop their war against the poor in Florida.  It is time for Republican leadership to show that they are not right wing nut jobs.  It is time to accept medicaid expansion and get back to the business of serving all people of the state.  It is the correct thing to do.  It is the economical thing to do.  It is the moral thing to do.

And there is little time left to do it.