Bits & Pieces #92

There is a twenty something year-old girl in this country who is about to go to jail for leaking the fact that the Russians hacked into county clerks computers in an attempt to alter the vote count in the last election. We all know that this is illegal but let’s grab hold of reality folks. Our President, Donald Trump told the Russians about our intelligence involving Israeli undercover agents and screwed both the Israeli’s and our own contacts with them and what the hell has happened to him? Nothing! Yes, there are laws and according to ours the President can slime his way out of such situations but why should that girl, Reality Winner, (Her parents should be shot for that name) go to prison while the fat asshole in the White House commits a worse crime and goes free? She was doing what she did out of a sense of right and wrong while he was doing what he did to boost his pathetic ego and show the Russians how informed he was.

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While Mitch McConnell was spending all his time on Trumpcare a few Republicans and Trump were, and are doing their best to get rid of the Dodd/Frank regulatory law. The primary point of Dodd/Frank is the limiting of a bank’s ability to use their depositor’s money in high-risk investments. Basically it says commercial banks cannot risk their depositor’s money but investment banks can. Banks risking investor money was one of the primary causes of the 2007 crash. It seems pretty logical that the cowboys from Wall Street should be kept from throwing away your savings on a whim, which is what they love to do. What the hell, it’s not their money. The GOP has already eroded a good part of Dodd/Frank and now they want to get rid of the rest. This is bad for everyone except the crapshooters who play the market with your money. Stop them.

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Trump is a felon. Is he involved financially with the Russians? Sure. In fact his dumb sons have already blown the whistle on that one. That’s why Trump doesn’t want to go anywhere near the Russian investigation and why, strangely enough, he never discussed any aspect of the Russian cyber-invasion with the head of the FBI. This is the same FBI chief that by his own admission discussed this critically important topic with President Obama many times. So why in the nine meetings with the FBI didn’t Trump think it was important to inform himself of the details of this problem? Maybe because he has his hands so deep in Russian pockets he is now fondling Putin’s balls.

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Al Sharpton interviewed NY Democratic Congressman Adriano Espaillat on his show this week. Espaillat is a well-spoken, seemingly very intelligent man and this blog agrees with almost everything he said in the interview. However, one thing stood out. Sharpton stated that Espaillat is the first undocumented member of the House and it made me wonder how come we are able to elect a man, no matter how intelligent, to our national governing body when he isn’t even a citizen. We all know that a president must be a native born citizen. I think that’s a good idea. How come our federal legislators don’t? Those who read this blog regularly know how I feel on most matters that fall into this category but still, I wonder if we shouldn’t be restricting the Senate and House the same way we do the presidency. Didn’t Mr. Espailatt think it was important for him to become a citizen of his adopted country or is there some other reason why he didn’t apply? And before you start writing to me about how we aren’t doing too terribly well by electing the likes of what is in congress now – I know. I agree. But I still have this little doubt about electing non-citizens to congress.

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As usual our bumbling President doesn’t know what he or the rest of the American government is doing. The big noise about Qatar is; while Trump attacks them for being a source of terrorism the rest of our government led by the State Department and the Pentagon is praising them and using them as our largest Middle East base for American efforts to stop ISIS. The fact that Saudi Arabia is attacking Qatar should be enough proof that they are not a source of terrorists. The real source is the Saudis.

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People keep talking about the President being his own man like it’s a good thing. Well, with a normal human being it might be; but when you are dealing with an uneducated egomaniac, “It ain’t necessarily so.” That’s because it means he isn’t taking the advice of those who more often than not, know a hell of a lot more about the subjects in question than he does. Of course he would never admit that. His ego demands he be the smartest, the strongest, the most admired and the most talented person wherever he happens to be molting. That is catastrophic for a man in his position because it leaves him open to making the most egregious mistakes and having to take responsibility for the results. Even for a guy who tries to lie his way out of every problem he creates, this is a bad position in which to put ones self. It’s even a worse position in which to put the country and that’s what we have to worry about. This clown is putting America in some very bad positions; no just in this country but also, all over the world.

His idiotic embrace of the Arab nations even while he is abandoning our European allies is the work of a befuddled infant or more accurately a madman. Weakening NATO is not good for this country. Fighting with the European Union is not good for this country. Threatening union management and small contractors may have worked for him while he was bribing building inspectors but it’s just not the way to conduct international business. There will come a time when our next President will have to conduct negotiations with the other countries of the world and attempt to undo the damage that this fool is doing now. It would be great if Trump doesn’t fouled things up to a point where they cannot be undone.

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Donald Trump from within his bubble of ignorance has declared that, at this point in his administration he has signed more bills than any other president in history. The problem is Trump, in his ignorance, doesn’t understand the difference between a bill that has fought its way through two houses of congress and a Presidential declaration, which any clown in his office can write up and he can sign. He has done a lot of that. He seems to love handing out pens.

The problem is, he can do a hell of a lot of damage just signing these edicts that his coterie of know nothings turn out. One of the latest stops our CIA from moving weaponry to the forces fighting Assad’s army. Why? This is a fighting group that is supporting our interests in Syria. To stop arming them is to assist the plans of Assad, Putin and Iran. Are Trump and his lackey’s so uninformed that they don’t realize this? Or, as any informed person believes, is Trump in Putin’s pocket?

True, Trump has signed no actual legislation, but that doesn’t mean that he hasn’t been doing anything. He has been appointing right wing lawyers, at an alarming rate, to judgeships all over the country. This is very disconcerting because while he is filling judgeships he is decimating all other departments of the government. Our State Department, arguably our most important government agency is almost devoid of workers. We have all kinds of diplomatic posts that are going begging and interestingly enough what would normally be a disaster, in the Trump reign is almost a blessing. I mean, look at what he has appointed to diplomatic posts around the world; a comedy team of donors and dingbats that are assured to bring disgrace to this country immediately upon arrival

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Trump sat in the Oval Office and whined that he didn’t have a bill to sign that would end the healthcare mess. Paul Ryan sat in the House and waited for something to come back to him from the Senate, something that he and his lackeys could make into a bill that satisfied their benefactors in the banking and insurance businesses. McConnell sat in his seat in the Senate and tried to work out some kind of useless compromise that would still be a tax benefit to the rich without stealing too much care from the old and poor. This after eight years! Eight useless years and still these greedy, stupid assholes didn’t have any solution to a problem that they have been promising to eliminate for all that time. Sure they voted over 50 times to repeal Obamacare but everyone including them, knew that Obama would veto it each time. It was only an exercise in futility. Now, despite owning all the elements of government the GOP still is unable to get anything done.

These are the same clowns that attacked Obama for not accomplishing much in his second term while stopping him from that goal because they had the majorities in both houses of Congress,

And still there are fools who vote for them. Still there are brain dead sycophants who stand behind Trump. Still some of those too dumb to breathe want to tell us that Trump and the Republicans are doing the right thing, that they are trying to get us better healthcare and get them good jobs. Who are these people? What outhouse have they migrated from?

These voters, the same ones who voted in Ronald Reagan in 1980 and have since then voted in both Bushes and Trump are the ones responsible for the death of the American middle class. Starting on January 20, 1981 and the birth under Rvepublican power of trickle down economics, the American Middle Class has been disappearing at an alarming rate. It was ignorance and incompetence that allowed these people to believe that if you give the rich extra money they would spend it on creating work for those whom need it. That is the most farcical notion that has ever been jammed down the psyche of the institutionally stupid. The American Right bought it and swallowed it whole and it has been choking on it ever since. Every Republican President, the guys who are supposed to be looking after your tax money have increased the deficit. In fact the only President in that span who reduced it was Bill Clinton, turning the deficit-ridden country he inherited from Bush the elder over to George Bush with a surplus, which the dumb kid blew.

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Trump is supposed to be the man who upholds the law in this country but he cares nothing for the law. He hires lawyers to find ways to get around and flaunt the law. Trump’s view of the law is the same as any other cheap crook and con man. The law is to be flaunted and used and when you come up against it you hire sleazy lawyers who know how to undercut it and avoid its disciplines.

It appears that Trump is either too stupid or too guilty to understand that his current actions all point to his guilt. If, as Trump babbles, there is nothing to the accusations then why is he so involved in proving that he had no contact with the Russians?

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Late last night John McCain walked out onto the Senate floor and voted “NO” to the Skinny Repeal bill on healthcare. When asked later why he voted that way he said, “Because it was the right thing to do.” With his vote and that statement John McCain became a giant for the ages. We already knew he was a brave man but there have been numerous times when his judgment has been challenged. Now that’s over. No matter what he does from here on out, John McCain is an American icon and the reason for his action will ring through the halls of American government as long as a few good men still exist there.

Donald Trump has not done one single thing because it was the right thing to do. He has shown himself to be incompetent, dishonest, inept and completely unwilling to learn how to do anything right. Trump will become a disgusting footnote in history while McCain will be a brightly shining beacon.

But John McCain wasn’t alone. His vote would have counted for nothing but for the courage of two outstanding women, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowsky. Our criminal President actually had Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke threaten Murkowsky with the withdrawal of Federal funds form her state. She ignored him and lead the way for all “would be” honest congressmen and women of the future. McCain, Collins and Murkowsky, three Americans of whom we can all be proud.