The GOP Betrayed Us

We have been betrayed.

The GOP has betrayed us.

They have betrayed all of us. 

They betrayed the Founding Fathers. 

They have betrayed their oath of office.

They have betrayed everyone who has ever fought to defend the Constitution. 

They have betrayed everyone who has ever served the Republic. 

They have betrayed everyone who has fought tyranny and injustice. 

They have betrayed everyone who has given the last great full measure of their own lives in service to the Nation.

We have all been betrayed by the craven mendacity of the Republican Party. The GOP is no longer the party of Lincoln. Honest Abe would pale and quake at the thought of the nation which he saved from Civil War becoming the bauble which Donald Trump toys with. The precious trinket that Trump debases with his criminality is the Constitution; a sacred document which he defiles on a daily basis by his open contempt of the Law and by his actions.

Donald Trump is a loathsome person. 

He has been a loathsome person his entire adult life. 

Unless you have been in a deep coma for more than four decades, you know this. 

By a bizarre twist of fate, by Russian cyber-intrusion, by byzantine means, he woefully gained the highest office in the land. 

He, Donald John Trump, simply must not be there. 

As a lifelong criminal, fraudster, huckster, con-man, cheat, pathological liar and serial sexual predator, he has no place as the President of the United States. His incompetence, irresponsibility and ignorance of so very much, is well known.

With full knowledge of who and what Donald Trump is, the GOP have taken him as a god-send. They have gutted the Republican Party and stuffed the dead carcass with the malicious substance that makes up the vain, vile, vapid nature of Donald Trump.

The GOP has betrayed us. 
McConnell, Barr, Pompeo, Collins, Graham, Rubio, Barrasso, Ernst, Murkowski, Cruz have all betrayed us.

The GOP betrayed us.

Drumpf's Tiny Peter Principle

It’s been bandied about that Drumpf is the poster child for the Dunning-Kruger Effect (Google it). Actually, Drumpf is the leading exemplar for the Peter Principle whereby a person is promoted into their own distinct level of incompetence. 

The irony is leaden with Drumpf, in that he’s never been competent at anything beyond the avoidance of repercussions for his incompetence.

He was, by accounts, a failure scholastically, but gained admittance to the Wharton School of Business, the wheels greased by Daddy Fred’s moolah. 

He avoided the repercussions of his numerous business failures. (How does one go bankrupt owning a casino? How does one manage to do it three times?)

He’s avoided further bankruptcy by the Russian mob throwing millions at him in money-laundering schemes with the duplicitous mendacity of Deutsche Bank.

He was able to avoid charges of child rape and other sexual assault charges through the strong-arm, gangster tactics of his minion, Michael Cohen, and other more lawyerly deflection.

Through the vagaries of the Electoral College, the digital finagling of Fusion GPS and the Russian Troll Farm, Drumpf was promoted to his highest level of incompetency; he became the president of the United States, on office for which he is totally unfit and unsuitable to hold.

Congratulations Laurence J. Peter, the author of the Peter Principle, for this horrific validation of his theory, which observes that people in a hierarchy tend to rise to their ‘level of incompetence’.

Unless you’re a hard and fast MAGA-Moron, few would argue that Drumpf is as incompetent in his role as POTUS as he was as casino owner.

Now, it appears the poxy chickens are coming home to roost, at last.

The Racist-in-Chief

What President Trump tweeted about the four Congress-members was appalling in its blunt force racism. There is no rational way to dodge the base racism that Mr Trump expressed. 

'Go back to where you came from!' is an age-old trope of xenophobia and racism. It was shouted at the Irish, the Poles, the Italians, the Chinese. It has been a slur shouted at nearly every single ethnic group which has ever come to the shores of North America and endeavored to make America their home. 

Commentators of the media have been quick to respond by decrying Mr Trump's blatantly racist comments. That was to be expected. However, one aspect of their commentary seemed to miss the point that all members of Congress are, in fact, Americans. Whether or not they were natural-born or naturalized, each are American citizens. It matters not where their family came from. It matters not a whit that they or their ancestors came from Somalia, France, Italy, Poland, Ireland, England, Russia or Germany. 

Mr Trump today double-down on his impudent impulse to express his inherent racism (Who can deny it now!?) by blaring 'Love it or Leave it!' during a press conference. (A press conference, mind you. Not during a stroll to Marine One. Not a 'gotcha' moment.)

'Love it or Leave it' was a bumper-sticker slogan of the late 1960s. It was shouted at 'peace-niks'  and 'long-hairs'. It was shouted my way on more than one occasion.

When asked if he thought such openly racist sentiments were, indeed, racist, Mr Trump, inexplicably, tried to turn the tables and claim that anyone felt affronted by such racist tropes were themselves racist.

This is totally absurd and totally unacceptable. It is unacceptable from the local mechanic. It is unacceptable from the mailman. It is unacceptable from an I.C.E. officer. It is most assuredly unacceptable from POTUS.

What Will It Take?

What will it take?
Will it actually take Donald Trump shooting  someone in public before Speaker Pelosi  allows the formal impeachment hearings to begin?
Or would she require more evidence for that crime, as well?

Trump's old running buddy, Epstein, was arrested - AGAIN! - on charges sex crimes.  There are clear implications that 'The Donald' was complicit to some degree in these crimes.
Trump has directed various members of his administration to ignore Congressional subpoenas to testify, a clear obstruction of justice and contempt of Congress.
Trump has directed his DOJ to delay the release of his tax returns and financial records  as ordered by Congress; another clear obstruction of justice in contempt of Congress.
Rob't Mueller has presented clear examples of obstruction by Trump of his investigation which include firing Comey, ordering the firing of Mueller amongst other allegations.
Trump's daughter and son-in-law and advisors have been in clear violation of the Hatch Act.
Trump's daughter and son-in-law and advisors have been in clear violation of the Logan Act, as well.
The list of alleged criminality by the President, his administration and his enterprises is a long one that includes violations of the Emoluments Clause, Bank Fraud, Tax Fraud, Money-Laundering and conspiring against the US government with a foreign adversary.

When is enough going to be enough?
What will it take?

Allegations against Nixon were a fraction of those against Trump.
Allegations against Clinton were as nothing compared to those leveled with evidence and witnesses against Trump.

Taking those two together, they were as nothing compared to the charges which could be brought against Mr Trump. Yet, Clinton was impeached. Nixon was told to resign by the GOP leadership of the day before the House voted to impeach.
Demand that Speaker Pelosi begin the formal impeachment hearings with a special counsel.
Demand it for the sake of the Republic.
Demand it for the preservation of the Rule of Law.
Demand it for the preservation of our Democracy.

Demand it for the sake of decency.

Impeach Donald J. Trump. 

NOW!

  

Trump is a Bully

Trump is a bully. We all know that.
All bullies are cowards at heart. We all know that, too.
As a bully, he truckles to other, stronger bullies.

That's why he acts the whipped dog around Putin.
That's why he fawns like an adolescent in love over Kim.
That's why he kowtows to Xi Yin-ping. That's why he considers the monster, Duterte, a swell guy.

He would have sucked up to Franco.
He would have been Mussolini's lick-spittle.
He would have groveled before Adolf.
He would have acquiesced to Stalin.
He would have.
We all know he would have.

He would have blustered a bit and puffed out his chest, thrust his chin forward. He would have demonstrated all that alpha-chimp bravado to effect a place for himself amongst the other bullies. He then would have curled up like a cur at their feet. He would have growled at their detractors much as he does to critics of Putin.

He would have been one of their enablers.

For bullies must always be backed by a coterie of enablers; thralls, minions, stooges.

Michael Cohen was one of his stooges. Enthralled by Trump's bellicose posturing, Cohen was Trump's junk-yard dog, playing the bully's factotum and consigliere.

Cohen was Trump's man.
Cohen was the bully's fixer.

Until he wasn't any more. 

That's where hope lies if there is hope to be had.
The allegiances that enable Trump's bullying are sworn not in blood but in salt water.
His allies are apprentice bullies doomed to be abandoned by the Bully-in-chief.

Cohen knows this.
Manafort knows this.
We all know this.
We know this because we know how bullies end.
We know that this is how the bully's boys end, as well.
They end in abandonment and banishment.
Poisoned in a bunker.
Hung upside down and executed.
Imprisoned.

McConnell will learn this.
Graham will learn this.
All of Trump's enablers, schmoozers, apologists, sycophants, flunkies and underlings will learn this.

It is a lesson they will learn.

We must be their teachers.

Our lesson has begun.
It must continue.
The next stage in the lesson must be impeachment.
Yes, impeachment.

Impeachment is not only a tool for removal.
It is a tool for chastisement.
It is a process of castigation and reproval.
It is a means to demonstrate the criminality of the president by offering testimony by witnesses, offering prove of wrong-doing.

Impeachment is not simply for removal.
Any argument that assumes that removal is the sole function of impeachment is one based on a fundamental error.
Impeachment is the tool by which We, the People - through Congress - can express our profound aggrievement between presidential elections. 

The four-year term should not be considered sacrosanct.
It must not be considered inviolable.
It must not be thought of as a hair-shirt which we must all wear as penance for a grievous error in judgment.  

Without the pressure that the impeachment process brings to bear, the bully will continue to swagger, lie, defraud and display a general disregard for convention, the Law, the Constitution, the social compact, civility, decency, decorum and conscience.

We must demand that the impeach process move forward officially.

We do not want to learn what travesties the Bully-in-chief will be capable of at the end of 2020.

   

It is not a panacea

It is not a panacea. It is not a cure-all. It is not meant to be. 

Refugee children must still be cared for in a humane, compassionate manner.
Women who have made allegations of rape and sexual assault must still be heard and their cases investigated.
Income inequality remains a persistent and pervasive matter that must be rectified.
The desecration and defilement of the environment is a travesty that must end.
The existential issue of global climate change must be addressed immediately.
Nuclear proliferation, world trade, the tragic case of the 9-11 First Responders, and so on and so forth are still worrisome items on a full agenda.

Impeachment and removal of Donald Trump from the White House will not solve any of the aforementioned problems.  What impeachment and removal  will do is mitigate all of the above. It is a necessary step in the preservation of our Republic.

Removal of Mr Trump will preserve the Constitution and re-establish the Rule of Law in the USA. The Rule of Law and the Constitution must be protected from lawlessness and incompetence.  

Allow me to remind all the member of the government; by your oath of office, you are sworn to defend and protect the Constitution.

Drumpf the Dove?

Good.
In his ego-sating blundering, he actually did the right thing for a change.
Even a blind pig finds a truffle now and then. Impeach the Felon-in-chief.
Now No more pussy-footing.
No more of this 'gentlemen's agreement' horse manure of false decorum.
We're dealing with a pathological liar and a lifelong criminal who takes the Cosa Nostra as his basic rule of thumb but discards any sense of 'honor or duty' which even the Mafia would adhere.

Drumpf is all that we find despicable in a human. He is the lowest of character. He makes Iago look honorable. At least Iago was conflicted in the drama. Drumpf has no conflict with his ego or his id. Grab-em-by-the-pussy is his motto. Remember how trippingly it came from his mouth? Impeach him and shred that DoJ memo about not indicting a sitting president.
Treason, fraud, obstruction of justice, child endangerment; these are not indictable offenses?