July 24, 2017: Whole World Laughing, Serving the Kremlin, Very Useful Idiot

“The whole world is laughing, not at who we are but what we have become. It isn’t the robust laughter of amusement but a timid laughter betraying a deep fear and loathing. The world so laughs at the America of our very own Caesar Disgustus.”

                        ----from “The Quotations of Chairman Joe”

The “Quid Pro Quo”, what was the “Quid Pro Quo”?  That is the question. 

There is no question of Disgustus’ slavish behavior when it comes to Putin and the Kremlin. 

While criticizing nearly every one of our allies, and questioning U.S. foreign policy, he has gone out of his way to avoid criticizing Putin, indeed heaps praise on the man even comparing him favorably to our former president.  What explains this disgusting behavior has to date not been fully revealed, but it is becoming increasingly clear that Disgustus has crossed the line.

The Kremlin’s policy goals are generally well understood in the west.  Rachel Maddow, reporting for MSNBC listed major Russian policy objectives on her program this week Among them were:

Weaken Western Alliances

Hollow out the U.S. State Department

Discredit the democratic process in representative governments

Weaken NATO

Weaken the European Union

Diminish U.S. influence in Syria and the Middle East

Create chaos within the political system of the United States

Diminish the role of the United States

Elevate the international profile of Russia

Lift U.S. sanctions on Russia.

The Kremlin has been amply rewarded by backing Disgustus, for he has helped them achieve nearly every one of these goals. 

He has helped weaken western alliances by calling NATO obsolete, questioning if the U.S. would come to the aid of any member of the alliance that came under attack, a provision in the treaty invoked only once—when the U.S. was under attack during 9/11, and it is a question of significance to Eastern European members struggling to get out of the shadow of their Russian neighbor.  He has questioned the very concept of a ‘nuclear umbrella’ under which our allies have for decades found security, a concept, it is doubtful, that he even understands.

He has weakened our State Department, a source of great irritation to the Kremlin as it had continually questioned Russian human rights violations, its annexation of Crimea, its actions in Ukraine. But the greatest affront was questioning the legitimacy of Putin’s re-election, an action that put the U.S. State Department and Hillary Clinton in the crosshairs of Vladimir Putin.  Now we find Disgustus doing the Kremlin’s bidding by cutting its budget by 30% and failing to staff senior positions or to get diplomats nominated and confirmed.  Consequently, Disgustus has now attended two European conferences without having in place ambassadors in, among other places, France, Germany, Poland or Russia.  He attends these meeting ill-prepared and with no senior diplomatic staff, further isolating the United States in the international arena and making a complete fool of himself in the bargain.  Indeed, one of Disgustus’ first acts as president-elect was to appoint Rex Tillerson, a man given the highest medal the Russian Federation can bestow upon a foreign national, and Putin favorite, as Secretary of State, and bestowing unto his wholly ignorant son-in-law major foreign policy initiatives, including the Middle East portfolio. 

Putin has for years been working to discredit the democratic process in republics around the world.  This serves two objectives.  Where there is open collusion, as with Marie Pen in France, he seeks an open ally. A bit of hubris perhaps, overplaying his hand in the glow of his American successes.    If an adversary, like the United States, Putin seeks to demonstrate to his people and the world that representative governments are corrupt with their electoral processes no more legitimate than his own.  Within the United States, he seeks to delegitimize the political process supporting tRUMP knowing that should he have lost, tRUMP would claim the result could only have been the consequence of a rigged system, or outright fraud; or, conversely, if tRUMP wins but loses the popular vote the outcome could only have been the result of massive voter fraud. Has Disgustus lost both the popular and Electoral College votes, he would be immediately and continually about the business of delegitimizing the outcome. Putin knows his ‘man’.  Had he won the election outright he would be about executing his only known talents, demonstrating his overwhelming ignorance, his breathtaking hubris and his staggering incompetence would insuring the destabilization of the world’s foremost ‘superpower’.  Further imagine the reaction of this swine should the Democrats take the House or the Senate or both in the upcoming mid-term election.  Where Obama in the aftermath of stunning losses in midterm elections simply announced with some humility that “we got shellacked” and Clinton quietly reminded the press that the President was “still relevant”, Disgustus can be relied upon to whine and cry out in ‘tweet-storm’ after ‘tweet-storm’ that “we were robbed”.    Whatever the outcome Disgustus, given what Putin knows from tRUMP’s personality profile, would be all that he promised to be: a very useful idiot.

With the fall of the Berlin Wall and the imminent collapse of the old Soviet Union, George H.W. Bush assured his Russian counterpart, then Mikhail Gorbachev, that the United States and its allies would not support the expansion of NATO into Eastern Europe, a promise that was almost immediately broken.  Since then, not only has the alliance spread into Eastern Europe, including several former Soviet Republics but has placed missiles and held military exercises right on the Russian doorstep.  In fact, the crisis in Ukraine was sparked by pressure from the West for Ukraine to join the alliance despite the country relying on Russian gas and oil for its energy and nearly half its population former Russians—as is the case in the Balkan States.  The weakening of NATO as well as the European Union, consequently, has become an urgent Russian foreign policy objective; one that the Kremlin would be pursuing regardless of who is in charge.    What the Russians are seeking here is the return of some semblance of the order following the Second World War: the re-establishment of the “Corridor Sanitare” or sanitary corridor—a buffer zone between Western Europe and Russia first imposed by the West in the aftermath of the First World War with the re-creation of Poland and creation of several other states from the old German and Austrian Empires, states that were pro-west in their foreign policies, aligned with France and England to insure that the Soviets would be “contained”.  In the aftermath of World War II, Stalin imposed Soviet Rule in Eastern Europe—something that Churchill reluctantly agreed to, despite his talk of an ‘iron curtain’—so that Russia, invaded three times from the West in the previous hundred and fifty years and having lost between 25 and 30 million people in the last invasion, would control the ‘buffer zone’ giving the Kremlin some measure of national security.  Now that corridor has been overrun with predictable foreign policy consequences.  But tRUMP has done more than weaken these alliances; he has called into question their very legitimacy. 

Disgustus and his entourage have also served Russian foreign policy interests in the Middle East.  From isolating our ally Qatar (see previous post), to his open support of Israeli expansion into the occupied territories—among other things appointing an ambassador to Israel who has donated money in support of the ethnic cleansing—to his suggesting that the United States withdraw from the agreement reached by the U.S. and our European allies with Iran over nuclear weapons (although he has, at least temporarily, approved the agreement).   Now we find that he has given the Russians a free hand in Syria, even cutting off at the knees U.S. supported rebel factions.  Given his “Muslim Ban”—especially as it pertains to Syria (Note the Ban does not include countries with tRUMP investments) where are these insurgents to turn when the inevitable happens and Assad regains his grip on the country?  Disgustus is once again demonstrating that America can be a most unreliable ally.

Disgustus has served the Kremlin’s interests by creating chaos within the political system of the United States, calling into question its very legitimacy by claiming it is “rigged” and that the election, should he have lost, would have been stolen from him.  Now having been elected by the archaic Electoral College (a device intended to protect the country from people like tRUMP), he falsely claims that millions of undocumented and illegal aliens voted and that massive voter fraud alone could only have been responsible for his loss of the popular vote by some 3 million votes or two whole percentage points.  It is not hard to imagine that, having lost the election outright, he would now be certainly barnstorming the country claiming fraud.  Indeed, having won the election he is still whining and complaining and claiming fraud, instituting a commission to search every precinct to find a problem that simply does not exist so as to shore up his little ego and wreak havoc and sow suspicion and paranoia about the land, further eroding public confidence.  In this Disgustus has been a most predictable and useful idiot.

Disgustus has assiduously worked to diminish the role of the United States on the world stage.  He has called into question the world order established at Breton Woods, New Hampshire in the wake of the Second World War.  He has questioned our alliances, and the role of the U.S. within the international framework, suggesting a ‘go it alone’ posture.  Now, citing bogus claims of burdensome demands placed upon the United States by the Paris Climate accord he has withdrawn the U.S. from the treaty making the United States one of three such countries in the world to do so; the other two being Syria because of internal strife and Guatemala because, in their view the agreement does not go far enough to deal with the looming crisis.  Indeed, the rest of the world wanted to make the agreement mandatory but Obama knowing that he would not be able get the Senate to ratify such an agreement required that the Paris accord be voluntary.  So, the world determined what needed to be done and agreed to voluntarily do about half of it.  Nevertheless, our orange buffoon stood in the rose garden and, complaining bitterly that the treaty requirements were a terrible burden on our country, saying that we had been somehow hoodwinked into a terrible deal and that the whole world is laughing at us, declairing that they will laugh at us no more. 

So isolated has the U.S. become under this fool that tRUMP was described at the NATO conference as “lonely and isolated” and that our allies were working assiduously to find ways to work around him.  Indeed, so are many others.  Governor Jerry Brown of California—itself with the world’s 11^th largest economy—openly declared that he would invite China, Mexico, Canada and others to work with him on climate change. 

Indeed, the whole world is laughing at us because somehow this fool has been elevated to the highest office in the land. It is because of tRUMP that they laugh. Nevertheless, it is a nervous laughter born of fear and loathing.

By whoring after Putin at the recent Hamburg conference, like some love-struck teen-age girl in pursuit of the high school quarterback, tRUMP has not only insulted our allies—especially host Germany—he has elevated Putin’s stature on the world stage giving the Russian leader far more profile than one would normally accord a country whose economy, for instance, has a Gross Domestic Product of roughly that of Italy.  Shunning interaction with nearly every other principal Disgustus was seen continually seeking out the Russian leader for confabs that didn’t include diplomats or American interpreters; confabs that the Russian Ambassador said may have included meetings in the men’s room.  One is left imagine what possible acts of unspeakable degradation may have transpired therein.

In the first known meeting, scheduled to last about half an hour, tRUMP, accompanied only by Putin friend and U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, and without U.S. interpreters, met for two hours.  The second meeting, lasting about an hour, in full view of the assembled and involving only tRUMP, Putin and a Russian interpreter, was said to be about “Russian Adoptions”, which has become code for “Sanctions”.  The White House told the nation that tRUMP, at the first meeting, closely questioned Putin on two occasions but former tRUMP campaign chairman Lewandowsky told reporters that Putin denied any such interference and, declared Lewandowsky, the Russian investigation is, therefore, at an end.  Basically, if Disgustus questioned Putin at all it was clearly a simple formality, for to admit to any foreign involvement involves, at base, questioning the legitimacy of the tRUMP presidency.  So both principals at the meeting once again had concurrent interests. 

Foremost there is this question of lifting sanctions.  Rachel Maddow reported several weeks ago that oil giant Exxon-Mobile has mineral rights to roughly 64 million acres in the Russian federation, mostly in oil fields near and above the arctic circle.  Putin needs this oil to boost his struggling economy, and he needs Exxon-Mobil’s expertise and technology to extract and deliver the oil and gas.   When the U.S. placed sanctions upon Russia for its ‘aggressions’ in the Crimea and Ukraine, Exxon-Mobile had put down less than two dozen wells.  To put this in perspective, Exxon-Mobil has drilling rights to roughly 15 million acres in the U.S. and has thousands of wells.  It was to signal to the Kremlin that Disgustus was ready to lift these sanctions that tRUMP appointed Rex Tillerson to direct the State Department.  Indeed, the Treasury Department announced a fine of two million dollars levied against Exxon-Mobil for violating the sanctions while Tillerson was at the helm.  Here, clearly, is a man who can be relied upon to be a friend of Russia, one who would end U.S. pressure on human rights, one who would work to lift the sanctions.  And, indeed, word has leaked from this very porous White House that the lifting of sanctions was at the top of the priority list until the Michael Flynn fiasco engulfed this White House in the Russian scandal.  As we speak a bill has been reported out of a conference committee of the Senate and House and to be voted on next week insuring that Disgustus cannot lift Russian sanctions without congressional authorization, a bill that passed the Senate 98-2 before it was sent to conference to work out any conflicts with the House version.  So distrustful has the political leadership in Congress become with the handling of foreign affairs by this “useful Idiot”.

The broad outlines are now clear.  Disgustus has been witnessed fawning over the Russian leadership and has had no compunction in serving the national interests of the Kremlin.  The question remains, for with tRUMP everything is transactional: what did the Kremlin provide to command such slavish obeisance?  There is no doubt that the Russians interfered on his behalf during the election, there is also no doubt that he has done the Kremlin’s bidding. What was the extent of Russian meddling and did their actions include purging voters from the registration lists?  What financial transactions are lurking beneath the interface of international money laundering, organized crime and racketeering with international banks and political leadership.  To what extent was Russian money—perhaps laundered money—funneled into tRUMP’s business interests or personal accounts?  To what extent was such money funneled into his campaign and, perhaps just as importantly, into the coffers of the Rescumlican National Committee?  Perhaps this explains the reluctance of Rescumlican leadership to discipline this man.  In any case it is worth noting that when several foreign intelligence services set the FBI unto his trail, they told our agents that Russian money was flowing into the election, an allegation broad enough to include both the tRUMP campaign and, perhaps the Rescumlican

It is also worth noting that a conversation was leaked in which the House Majority Leader, commenting to a group of Rescumlican Congressmen, said that there were two people known to be on the Russian payroll: Dana Raurbacher and Donald tRUMP.  House Speaker Ryan, amid nervous laughter, admonished the assembled to keep this bit of information to themselves.  

They know this man, they know who he is.  They have always known who he is.  They also know who they are. 

Follow the money. Special Counsel Robert Mueller must follow the money.  Is it for these reasons that Disgustus told the New York Times last week that to do so would “cross a red line”? I am thinking that perhaps it is.

What else could explain this bizarre and ludicrous behavior? 

The whole world is laughing.  Not the laughter of joy, but a nervous laughter born of fear and loathing.

Cause and effect, connect the dots, follow the money.

Impeach and Imprison.

July 22, 2017: Isolated and Friendless, No Desire or Capacity, Skin Flute

“A savage opinion of Donald Trump’s presidency that went viral was delivered by one of Australia’s most seasoned political journalists, who is well known to viewers of the national broadcaster for his frank opinions” (1), wrote Naaman Zhou in “The Guardian”. Quoting Chris Uhlmann, political editor of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation describing tRUMP as “isolated and friendless” pursuing a foreign policy that has “pressed fast-forward on the decline of the United States”. tRUMP, characterized by Uhlmann as an “uneasy, lonely and awkward figure” at the G20 gathering in Hamburg, Germany, has “no desire or capacity to lead the world” declaring that tRUMP now presents “the biggest threat to the values of the west”. (1)

“Where was the G20 statement condemning North Korea which would have put pressure on China and Russia?  Other Leaders expected it, they were prepared to back it, but it never came” (1), concluding that Trump had “managed to isolate his nation to confuse and alienate his allies and to diminish America” (1).  Where indeed?

This has all been of a piece, dating back to well before his presidential campaign and coinciding, it is becoming increasingly obvious, to meetings held between senior campaign operatives and Russian agents as Disgustus, by degrees had become co-opted by the Kremlin.  For over a year now, Disgustus has been trashing our alliances, questioning the legitimacy of our electoral process, the jurisdiction of our courts, and the wisdom of our decades-long foreign policies.  Now we find him in Hamburg shunning the leaders of our allies, even the host German Chancellor, while finding every opportunity to meet with is hero and benefactor in order to begin a long-anticipated bromance.

There is a story breaking that the current imbroglio with the state of Qatar (2) may involve financial entanglements involving White House advisor and Disgustus’ son-in-law and bank loans.  According to the story Kushner, like his father-in-law and mentor, made his move in real estate by making a ‘splash’ in Manhattan.  In this case 666 fifth avenue purchased by some estimates for about twice what it was worth.  As the real estate market tanked in the wake of the ‘Great Recession of 2008’, Kushner has had to scramble to cover his losses leading, by degrees, to seek a loan from Qatar for roughly half a billion dollars, a request that was subsequently rebuked. 

Questions present themselves.  Was the action of the administration, done on the advice of Kushner himself, done not in the national interest of the United States—for we have a military base there—but in retribution for being rebuffed on a private land deal?   Was the action taken against Qatar done an effort to send signals to other governments and principles (China for instance) that one best co-operates with Disgustus and his cohorts or it will determine foreign policy outcomes?  It has been suggested that Disgustus’ hostility to the European Union is a consequence of his difficulty building golf courses in Europe. Does this explain the Russian loans to tRUMP, Inc.?  Does this explain the Chinese government’s reversal of previous policies and grant tRUMP and his children billions of dollars in trademark protections? 

Everyone who has spent any time with Disgustus, his biographers among them, say that everything with tRUMP is about money, and everything is transactional.  The questions present themselves.  What was the quid pro quo involving Disgustus’ behavior regarding Russia?  What were the transactional details regarding his reversal of policy on declaring China as a currency manipulator.  What were the financial deals that led the administration to press Qatar’s neighbors to move to isolate them in the international community.  Were they really financing terrorists or did they simply fail to come to the financial rescue of the tottering real estate ‘empire’ of Disgustus and his family?  Follow the money. 

Meanwhile the twit, when he isn’t “barking out bile in 140 characters” or wasting “his precious days as president at war with the west’s institutions like the judiciary, independent government agencies and the free press” not to mention our alliances, is on “Twitter” declaring that the G20 meeting was a great “success”, citing his deal with Putin on Syria and proposing a joint effort with the Russians to guarantee internet security.

The internet security proposal earned immediate rebuke, moving Senator Lindsay Graham of South Carolina to remark “I’ve heard dumber ideas, but not many”, and stinging criticisms from the likes of fellow Republicans Susan Collins and John McCain.  What didn’t get nearly as much immediate attention was the deal over Syria where Disgustus agreed to ‘no fly zones’ and the pulling of American support of several “moderate” forces opposing the Assad regime, cutting these allies off at the knees.  This gave Putin a virtual free hand in the region, and represents a virtual unilateral abdication of any U.S. influence.  tRUMP, presenting these “deals” as a great “Success”, basically gave away the store in exchange for a handful of beans.

If this is “success”, I’d hate to see “failure”.   tRUMP played Putin alright, he played him like the proverbial skin flute.

And, meanwhile, “Br’er Rabbit, he just laugh and laugh”. (3)

Follow the money. 

Impeach and Imprison.

-----

(1).  https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jul/09/biggest-threat-to-the-west-australian-journalist-demolishes-trump-after-g20

(2). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qatar

(3).  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Br%27er_Rabbit

June 29, 2017: Impeach and Imprison, , Cries of the Damned, To Obstruct Justice

As the Watergate Scandal was heating up, an increasingly desperate Richard Nixon went to the country holding campaign-style rallies intending to shore up his fast-eroding political support.  These were the days before such events were mere photo opportunities, days when the crowds were attended not by carefully screened party faithful in housed events but in the open streets by anyone caring to attend; days in which candidates and politicians spoke to the congregation instead of singing only to the choir.  About every such gathering, worth its salt, one would often find protesters; and Nixon had just fired Watergate Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox fueling a storm of protest along with articles of impeachment in the House of Representatives.   On the periphery of one such Nixon event, late in the fall of 1973, was erected a long banner upon which was printed in stark black and white: “Impeach and Imprison”. 

This simple directive, in plain king’s English, quickly caught on becoming a staple of protestors now camped out round-the-clock on Pennsylvania avenue, many dressed in Nixon masks and prison stripes, holding placards reading “Honk If You Think He’s Guilty” creating a din that kept the president awake nearly night and day.  And, interspersed with this and other messages, one would regularly find placards imploring the country to “Impeach and Imprison”.

Had we done one or the other or, better yet, both, we would now be a far better nation.  Imagine if Nixon had been impeached and convicted.  Better yet imagine had he been removed from office and then made subject of criminal prosecution for obstruction and actually sent to prison.  Would we have had Iran-Contra?  Would Oliver North have been so cock sure that acting in the name of the president put him above the law?   Would we now have a ‘chief executive’ similarly so cock sure that he is likewise sovereign and above the law? 

Times have changed, but not entirely.  Today, Disgustus having fired FBI director James Comey who was investigating this Russian mess, we find ourselves facing a similar crisis but, alas, Pennsylvania Avenue since 9/11 has been closed to street traffic and pedestrians further insulating our ‘leaders’ from the “cries of the damned”. 

There are many facets of this Russian Scandal that need close examination.  From possible collusion with a foreign adversary to win an election; collusion involving everything from the manipulation of voter registration rolls and misinformation campaigns to the possible undermining of U.S. foreign policy, our alliances, and the international institutions that we have put in place as well as the lifting of sanctions against Russia in exchange for such assistance.  There have also surfaced questions about possible bank loans to tRUMP and associates, money-laundering and racketeering.  Some of this has been bubbling to the surface raising questions that demand thorough investigation. 

Comey, of course, had been alerted and put upon the scent of this trail over a year ago by several foreign intelligence agencies and has told Congress that there has been an open investigation into tRUMP and Associates since early summer of 2016.  Why the Director felt compelled to violate Bureau rules and guidelines and speak publicly of the investigation into the Clinton email mess while not informing the nation that the other party’s presumptive nominee was also under FBI investigation—on far more insidious matters—is not, as of this writing, yet clear.  But it had enraged the Democrats, as did his behavior regarding the Clinton campaign last year giving tRUMP the misguided belief that, since it could be said that Comey alone had handed Disgustus the presidency, he could move on Comey at any time with relative if not absolute impunity.  It would at once, so Disgustus thought, satisfy the Democrats and show the nation that Caesar would discipline his own.

Comey, upon his termination and the subsequent savaging of his service in several Disgustus’ “tweet storms”, released a statement that he had taken notes of his several meetings with Disgustus at the White House, notes written down immediately after each event the contents of which were shared with several high-ranking FBI officers so as to establish a contemporaneous record; for Comey did not trust this president to tell the truth.  This led tRUMP to respond—always via anti-social network—that there may be tapes of such conversations, tapes allegedly confirming the Disgustus version of reality.  Of course, the White House eventually confessed, there were no tapes for nothing coming from the White House is ever accurate, nearly everything an exaggeration, fabrication or bold-face lie. Lies intended to intimidate a possible witness, lies intending to call into question the veracity of a witness, lies intended to obstruct justice.   

The ‘tweet-exchange’ however, was enough for the Assistant Attorney General (Attorney General Sessions had long since recused himself from the investigation himself knee deep in the shit), to appoint an “Independent Counsel” to investigate the affair and for Comey to appear before the Senate Intelligence Committee to explain his side of the story.

It was a telling performance.  In over three hours of public testimony Comey recalled his meetings with tRUMP and his phone conversations.  He spoke of the Disgustus demanding his personal loyalty, and of asking the Director to call off the Bureau’s investigation of Michael Flynn, tRUMP’s original National Security Advisor who was forced to resign in a hailstorm of revelations about his Russian connections and his being an undisclosed agent of a foreign government (Turkey and, perhaps, Russia) during the campaign, the transition and as National Security Advisor.  On these points Comey demurred.

After several weeks in which Disgustus importuned the Director to call off his dogs and upon learning that the FBI investigation was moving into the financial dealings of tRUMP associates, including at least one principle “White House figure”, Disgustus moved to terminate the Director.  For Comey, an experienced investigator and prosecutor, smelling the smoke was getting too near the fire.

At first the White House said that it was over Comey’s “unprofessional” handling of the Clinton email investigation, but this, as everything else emanating from this White House, proved laughable and made no sense.  For it was just such handling of the Clinton affair coming as it did at crucial points in the campaign that gave tRUMP the presidency.  But, like everything else in this White House, whatever the official line tRUMP would be seen either on “twitter” or on television giving lie the administration’s story; in this case openly admitting within 48 hours in a nationally televised interview that he had intended to fire Comey regardless of Department of Justice recommendations and then rambled on about how fake the Russian story was.  Shortly thereafter, so as do drive ever deeper the impression that he is in the Russian bag, he entertained the Russian Ambassador and Russian press in the Oval Office itself telling the assembled that he had fired Comey so as to put the Russian Scandal behind him.   Here, in short, are at least two open admissions of firing the FBI director so as to impede or end an investigation.  Here, in short, are admissions of obstructing justice.  Here is our very own Caesar Disgustus openly admitting that he has committed an impeachable offense. 

Impeach and Imprison.

May 6, 2017: The Art of the Steal, A Pirate Ship, Plundering The Public Domain.

How does one characterize tRUMP’s cabinet and tRUMP’s White House?  Perhaps one can turn to Winston Churchill for instruction: never have so few known so little about so much.”

                        ----from “The Quotations of Chairman Joe”

One of the great untold stories concerning the election of 2016 is the story of theft.  The story has been overshadowed by the ongoing Russian imbroglio, but it is part of the pattern of larceny of which the Russian Scandal may well be only the tip of the proverbial iceberg.  According to several sources the Scums have, through more stringent voter registration laws and intimidation kept untold thousands, perhaps millions from the polls.  Less publicized was “Operation Crosscheck”, a Rescumlican effort that purged an estimated 7.3 million voters from the rolls, 440, 000 in Michigan alone in a state tRUMP “won” by a mere 10,000.  In Wisconsin over 300,00 were purged with similar results.  Ditto, Ohio and Pennsylvania a state whose governor openly boasted of using such means to deliver a Rescumlican victory in 2016.   One could also throw Florida into the mix and North Carolina as well.  Flip those states and tRUMP is quickly cast into the dustbin of history, a minor wart on the flesh of the republic. How much help the Russians were in aiding this effort or what mischief resulted from their tampering with the rolls remains to be seen but it is doubtful that the collusion between tRUMP and the Russians was limited to mere “opposition research” through the hacking of emails.  Putin must have had more sinister reasons behind extending the hacking into the voter registration rolls, as well as several congressional campaigns.

The Scums certainly did for winning by any means including collusion with our enemies and adversaries has been a Rescumlican modus operandi for some time now.   Since 1968 when Nixon, through backchannels, conspired to thwart the Paris Peace Conference to win election, and Reagan’s campaign negotiating with the Iranians to hold the hostages until after the election, the Scums have had a history of dancing on the thin edge of sedition if not outright treason in order to win election.  They have been amply rewarded for their treachery and now with Disgustus nearly openly admit it.  So confident was tRUMP in this enterprise that, one will recall, he publicly called for the Russians to continue to hack private American citizens, and later openly took to the defense of the Russians thinking nothing of denigrating our intelligence and national security services.  After all, like the Rescumlicans, little Lord Fauntleroy had been taught by repeated experience that the rules don’t apply.

Large scale political larceny.  But to what purpose?   As tRUMP began assembling his cabinet and gathering around him his ‘advisors’ the purpose became increasingly obvious.  Certainly, this assemblage was not intended to advance sound public policy for the Scums despise public policy; certainly, the assembled were not brought together to advance public administration for they possess neither the requisite intelligence nor the experience. Rather, quipped British Comedian John Cleese, “tRUMP is gathering about him the crew of a pirate ship”.  Precisely.

A Secretary of Interior hell-bent on changing environmental regulations, leasing arrangements, and the privatization of the public lands; a Secretary of Education, who has never spent a day in a public school, hell-bent on privatizing our educational system through educational vouchers and spread of private and ‘charter’ schools; a Secretary of Energy deeply committed to fossil fuels and hostile to renewable energy. An Attorney General reversing Obama initiatives to end the privatization of federal prisons.  You get the picture.  Clearly Caesar Disgustus gathered about him a band of pirates hell-bent on nothing less than the plundering of the public domain. 

The “Art of the Deal” has become the “Art of the Steal”.  Large scale political larceny enabling in turn the wholesale plundering of the public domain by appropriating through privatization or the outright selling off the assets of the people to the capitalist pigs he represents. 

That’s the real story behind last year’s election and the rise of our very own Caesar Disgustus. 

April 29, 2017: One Hundred Days, Nothing of Substance, What Indeed.

“Where once sat Kennedy, now shits tRUMP”

                        ----from “The Quotations of Chairman Joe”

Caesar Disgustus has now been upon the throne for one hundred days.  One hundred days in Sodom.  One hundred days during which the sadistic little prick has continually and serially sodomized the republic and, according to a by now well-established pattern, can be found “twitting” away whining and complaining about the “hundred days” benchmark, by which time he was to accomplish “marvelous” and “fabulous” things.   Notwithstanding it was Disgustus himself who set the mark by issuing during the campaign his version of Newt Gingrich’s “Contract on America”.  Now, having accomplished nothing of substance he stands before the nation with a straight face complaining—always complaining—that somehow this standard is “unfair”; a standard set by others designed to diminish his administration.  Disgustus doesn’t need us for that.

The famous roll-out of a health care bill, promising to “Repeal and Replace ObamaCare” was a dud in the house.  No doubt the scums will resurrect it, because they have little choice having energized their ignorant base with false claims for years and promises to repeal and replace.  But the prospect of stripping 22 million people of health insurance has proven a difficult climb.  Disgustus had promised repeal on his first day in office but we now find him whining that “who would have known this would be so complicated?”   The answer is at once obvious: everyone on the planet except the most woefully ignorant.

There have been no major legislative accomplishments.  Progress or, rather, Regress can be seen only in tRUMP’s rescinding of every executive order issued by President Obama, from the re-privatization of prisons, to the use of lead bullets for hunting in federal forests, to promising to refill Guantanamo prison.  There is even a review of Clinton and Obama national forest and monument designations.  Even his most singular accomplishment to date, the nomination of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court could only be confirmed by the Senate suspending the rules, thereby completing the theft of a Supreme Court seat held open by the scums refusing to move on Obama’s nomination for nearly a year and, incidentally further enabling our little Lord Fauntleroy by again teaching him that, once again, the rules don’t apply.

Disgustus is animated by expunging when he can and defiling when he must everything Clinton and Obama even to the point, it is alleged,  of engaging with Russian prostitutes in “Golden Showers” on a bed slept in by the Obamas when on a state visit to Moscow.  This petty little man is consumed and animated by nothing more than mendacity and vengeance.

“With malice for all and charity toward none” quipped President Kennedy, paraphrasing Lincoln, and referring to Richard Nixon.    What, my god, would he have to say about the one presently occupying his office?  What would President Kennedy have said about a vicious little “Twit” about to strip 22 million of health insurance?  On this the hundredth anniversary of his birth one must ask: What indeed?  Where once sat Kennedy now shits tRUMP. 

This too is the legacy of the “Generation of Swine”.

March 31, 2017: The Russian Connection, Useful Idiot, Threaten to Sing

The scandal simply will not go away.  No matter how mightily our Caesar Disgustus struggles to obfuscate, mislead, confuse, blame and raise wholly bogus complaints of election fraud, wiretapping, and other nefarious misdeeds by enemies’ and forces real or imagined, the scandal simply will not go away.

Of course, to listen to Disgustus tell it the “Russian Story” is an entire fabrication concocted by the Democrats to explain away, in his words, “losing an election they should have won”.  Like everything else emanating from the mouth of this man there is always a tidbit of truth.  In this case the Democrats should have won, and won hands down were it not for the machinations of forces within the Democratic Party securing the nomination of the only person on the planet capable of losing to this man; and, it is becoming increasingly apparent, forces within the Rescumlican Party reaching from the Kremlin all the way into the highest echelons of the tRUMP campaign and the Rescumlican Party working to ensure the outcome.  

But, it appears, there may be a bit more to the story.  According to several news sources it appears that as early as 2015 foreign intelligence agencies, among them Estonia, Poland, Germany, France, Israel and Australia while monitoring the activities of several principles within the murky world where Russian Intelligence, Russian political leadership and the Russian Mafia combine, were bumping into information regarding contacts between these actors and people associated with the tRUMP campaign.  It was these agencies that first brought this issue to the attention of the FBI and American Intelligence.  Other sources have also surfaced, including the famous “Steele Dossier”, put together by a former British MI6 agent and funded first by an unnamed opponent of tRUMP in the Republican primaries, and later by a Democratic operative.  Much of it today remains unsubstantiated, but much of it has been verified. There is still, however, no word on the veracity of the salacious account involving tRUMP and Russian Prostitutes involving acts of urination known as “Golden Showers”.   What we do know from all of this is that to date at least nine different tRUMP associates have been identified as having contacts with the Russians before and after the election including, it is rumored, tRUMP himself.  Precisely what was exchanged at these meetings is under investigation but, in the words of John McCain, “This is beginning to resemble Watergate and more shoes are bound to fall”.

This much we do know.  All 17 U.S. Intelligence Agencies agree with “High Confidence” (read “Dead Certainty”) that the Russians meddled in our election in order to elect one bombastic, willfully ignorant megalomaniac with a vocabulary of about 700 words and the attention span measured in nanoseconds to the presidency of the United States.  They did so, it is held, because Vladimir Putin, angered by the actions of then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to question the legitimacy of his re-election, was moved to retaliate.   It wasn’t that Putin thought he could win the election, it was that by backing a man this unstable, this vengeful, this paranoid, and animated by this level of complete mendacity he had found a man who promised to shake the political process and, therefore, the legitimacy of the most powerful republic on the planet.  Here was a golden opportunity for tRUMP, win or lose, is in the parlance of Russian Intelligence, a most “useful idiot”.   It is not difficult to imagine the chaos Disgustus would now be wreaking upon the republic had he lost the election.  Can there be any doubt as to his response?  Calling the election “rigged” and “fake”, whining that the office-- which, in the mind of Disgustus, is so rightfully his—could only have been lost by having it ‘stolen’ from him.  Can there now be any doubt that having lost he would be presently barnstorming the country demanding justice and doing everything within the power of “Faux News” and mendacity itself to delegitimize the Clinton administration.  Perhaps, it is feared, there would have been armed rebellion. 

But to WIN the election!  Oh, what a delicious prospect for Putin that would be!  What better candidate could one possibly conjure who, placed at the vortex of political power, is better suited to vandalize and wreak entire havoc upon one’s greatest adversary?  tRUMP’s staggering ignorance alone would almost insure the project.  Add to this his breathtaking incompetence and the stench of his malignant personality and one has the perfect ‘useful idiot’; a vandal capable of nothing save damaging, destroying, defacing, and besmirching virtually everything and everyone about him.  For let there be no mistake about it: anyone who associates with this man is belittled thereby and reputation besmirched. 

Putin, a former head of the old Soviet KGB, knows something about personality profiling.  He also knows something about political power.  He knows that a man with tRUMP’s resources and tRUMP’s personality would make for a very toxic mix, win or lose.  And like any good geostrategist Putin, always thinking at least six steps ahead, found in our Disgustus the perfect foil—a man who, among other things, cannot see beyond his nose much less around any corner.  So, leading his idiot by the nose, Putin helped Disgustus assume the throne. 

The broad outlines are there and the details will, no doubt, be forthcoming.  All our intelligence agencies agree that the Russians interfered in our election.  They hacked into not only the Democratic National Committee and Clinton Campaign Manager John Podesta’s emails but also into the electoral rolls of at least 22 states and several congressional campaigns.  They spread disinformation about Hillary on the anti-social networks Facebook and Twitter.  They may, and probably did, have done much more. 

But what isn’t emphasized in the reporting here in the States is that Disgustus, upon receiving this aid and comfort from our adversary began to change policies and ape the Kremlin line concerning elections in republican countries.  On orders from Disgustus himself, and with the Russian Ambassador looking on, the Rescumlican Party did an immediate ‘about-face’ on Ukraine, changing its platform from support of the Ukrainian nationals over Crimea to supporting Putin and Russia. tRUMP immediately, again aping the Kremlin’s line, began to warn that the election was rigged, and that the only way he could lose would be through outright theft. 

Faced with a growing chorus of questions about Russian interference and his role in it, tRUMP dismissed U.S. Intelligence, denigrated the agencies, and parroted the Kremlin line, and then set about undermining our western alliances by questioning the need for NATO, suggesting that the U.S. may no longer honor the provision to come to the aid of any member of the alliance under attack, and demanding—like some slumlord running a tenement—that the member states belly-up to the bar and “pay their fair share”.   This, of course, has served to undermine one of the great alliances that has kept the peace in Europe for over 70 years; a principle policy goal of Putin and the Kremlin since NATO’s expansions into Eastern Europe right up to the doorstep of Russia itself.  Once again, Disgustus has demonstrated by undermining our alliances—even to the point of refusing to shake the hand of the German Chancellor-- how useful an idiot he has become in the furtherance of Russian national interests.    

In the memorable words of Senator Sam Irvin presiding over the Senate Select Committee investigating Watergate: “If it looks like a horse, walks like a horse and sounds like a horse, one can reasonably assume it’s a horse.” 

As we speak, former tRUMP National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, known to have met with the Russians before and after the election and suspected of undermining Obama’s response to the Russian interference by promising reversal of policy upon tRUMP’s inauguration, has offered to sing in exchange for immunity from prosecution.   So far no one has taken him up on it.  

March 29, 2017: The Politics of Mass Delusion, Paranoia Strikes Deep, ‘Tweeting’ Away the Presidency

“Paranoia strikes deep

Into your life it will creep

It starts when you’re always afraid

Step out of line, the man come

And take you away”

                        ----Buffalo Springfield “For What It’s Worth”

Historians have long observed the American propensity to be deeply paranoid (1).  Indeed, from the “Great Awakenings” of the late 18^th and early 19^th centuries to the “Know-Nothing” movement of the mid and late nineteenth century, to the “Palmer Raids” in the immediate aftermath of World War One to the McCarthy era and the hysteria that permeated much of the cold war, paranoia has often—all-too-often it seems— come to define the political landscape.

Americans have always been a deeply paranoid lot but the paranoia that currently holds the conservative movement in its grip is a most peculiar strain and a uniquely modern phenomenon.

I have written previously (2) citing the works of Corey Robin of the deep sense of persecution felt by what I call “the victims of property and standing”, dating back at least to the French Revolution.  Here is an excerpt of that post from 2008, a long segment of which bears repeating:

Corey Robin in an essay entitled “Out of Place” quotes the opening statement of Ronald Story and Bruce Laurie's “The Rise of Conservatism in America, 1945-2000” that 'the central story of American politics since World War II is the emergence of the conservative movement'.  “Yet”, writes Robin, “for some reason Will still feels that the travails of his political kinsmen are insufficiently appreciated and recognized”.  Robin continues: “Will is not the first conservative to believe himself an exile in his own country.  A sense of exclusion has haunted conservatism from the beginning when emigres fled the French Revolution and Edmund Burke and Joseph de Maistre took up their cause.  Born in the shadow of loss—of property, standing, memory, inheritance, a place in the sun—conservatism remains a gathering of fugitives (emphasis added).  (3)  Buckley and his cohorts saw themselves at “out of place” with their badge of exclusion making them just about the “hottest thing in town” (3)

“Plato's guardians were wise”, writes Robin, “Aquinas's king was good; Hobbes's sovereign was, well, sovereign.  But the best defense of monarchy that Maistre could muster in “Considerations on France” (1787) was that his aspiring king had attended the 'terrible school of adversity”.   Similarly, Edmund Burke in his “Reflections on the Revolution in France” (1790) would describe Marie Antoinette “dragged 'almost naked' by 'the furies of hell' from her bedroom in Versailles and marched to 'a Bastille for kings' in Paris'.  “Marie Antoinette”, Robin continues, “was a particular kind of loser, a person with everything who finds herself utterly and at once dispossessed.  Burke saw in her fall an archetype of classical tragedy, the great person laid low by fortune.  But in tragedy, the most any hero can achieve is an understanding of his fate: the wheel of time cannot be reversed; suffering cannot be undone.  Conservatives, however, are not content with illumination or wisdom.  They want restoration.” (3)

What we have here, according to Robin, is the truly “bizarre” nature of modern Conservatism: a ruling class that for the first time rests its claim to power upon its sense of victimhood asking “us not to obey them but to feel sorry for them—or to obey them because we feel sorry for them.” Whereas other political movements must persuade “the disenfranchised that they have rights and power”, the modern conservative poses a novel justification: “they are aggrieved and entitled—aggrieved because entitled—and already convinced of the righteousness of their cause and the inevitability of its triumph.  They can play victim and victor with a conviction and dexterity the subaltern can only imagine, making them formidable claimants on our allegiance and affection.” (3)

A deep sense of paranoia, born of an abiding persecution complex, inhabits the conservative mind, and colors the political landscape.

But, alas, Corey Robin hasn’t entirely mapped the extent of it.  Beginning in the immediate wake of the Supreme Court Decision Roe v. Wade, forces already breaking loose from established main-line protestant denominations began to organize; forces already at war with the federal government’s efforts to integrate the public schools; forces representing strains of Protestantism deeply at war with reason, science and natural history; forces deeply suspicious, deeply intolerant, and deeply paranoid.   First falling under the banner, at the presidential level, of one James Earl Carter Jr, and later switching to Ronald Reagan they have become the foot soldiers of the emerging conservative crusade, willing to man the phones, pound on doors, stuff envelopes and attend rallies.  What distinguishes them from typical congregants and parishioners is their loose or non-existent connections with some greater presbytery (answerable to no higher church authority), their unparalleled intolerance fueled by a deep and abiding paranoia.  I am here speaking largely of the so-called “evangelicals” but also the free-lance non-denominational hucksters like Robertson, Hagee, Olsteen, and Dollar. 

What has brought these disparate elements of the conservative coalition together is not taxation, monetary or economic policy, certainly not the legalization of abortion by the Supreme Court.  What they have in common is a deep and abiding paranoia, born of real but mostly imagined persecution: in the case of the intellectual lights and financial scions of the movement it is government regulation and taxation and the refusals of academics to give credence to their demonstrable nonsense; in the case of the religious zealots it is alleged persecution at the hands of virtually everyone who doesn’t follow their version of the gospels.  And, by degrees, it is variously held that the wealthy deserve the lion’s share just as the true Christian has a prior claim on the fruits of the planet and the governance thereof. 

To accomplish this, we are continually reminded of persecutions real or imagined from unspecified burdensome regulation to tales of Christian persecution despite a church standing on every other street corner of America. For this purpose, tales of Muslim conquest although centuries ago and far less draconian than our collective memory has it color a deep suspicion in these quarters of anyone hailing from the region.  For this purpose, the Crusades keep re-emerging as a template ignorant of the fact that we lost the Crusades.  For this purpose, a strain of anti-Catholicism colors the political wrong as the inquisition is rehashed.  It is a persecution complex as old as Christianity itself dating back to Roman times, embroidered by time into a full-fledged tapestry deeply coloring how the assembled view the world. 

On this point one must consult, briefly, the historical record.  The historian Gibbon in his “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, estimated, after consulting contemporary records, that perhaps 1,800 persons were put to death in the 400 years before Christianity became the state religion noting that subsequent persecutions by Christians far outnumbered the original sin.  Never mind, for Rome had become the first Anti-Christ, a trend that has continued down to our time to include our own government. 

The fact is that these people have always been in control, only now a much more virulent strain of the disease that is American Conservatism has taken the palace exhibiting a much more deranged, delusional and far more deeply paranoid behavior.  Convinced now that they are being “sandbagged” by a “deep state”, tRUMP and his associates—foremost advisor Steve Bannon lately of Breitbart “News”—have balked at staffing high government positions, refusing to refill vacancies left from the previous administration thereby destroying institutional memory.  They have moved to cut funding of the State Department hampering intelligence gathering worldwide thereby insuring that this country will be blindsided in some upcoming international crisis.  They have even cut funding for NASA satellites monitoring global warming.  Deeply suspicious, deeply intolerant of opposing points of view, deeply paranoid, tRUMP and associates spend their time “tweeting” away the presidency engaging themselves only is uneven attempts to expunge Obama from the historical record and getting revenge upon “enemies” real and imagined. 

This is what unchecked paranoia can do to a body politic, and this too is a legacy of the ever delusional “Generation of Swine.”

___

(1).  See, for instance, Hofstadter, Richard. “Anti-Intellectualism in America American Life”

            Op.cit.  

(2).  See my post dated October 2, 2008: A Question of Will, Exile on Main Street,           Victims of Property and Standing.

(3).   Robin, Corey.  “Out of Place” The Nation June 23, 2008 pages 25-33

March 27, 2017: The Politics of Mass Distraction, Jambing Our Radar, Not the Medium nor the Man

“Only a twit goes on twitter, and only a birdbrain tweets”

                        ----from “The Quotations of Chairman Joe”

A theory is being bandied about which holds that tRUMP’s use of the social media “Twitter” is a clever stratagem to circumvent conventional media, in whose hands he has been savaged, opting instead to speak directly to his constituency in 40 characters or less.  I imagine that this would comport with the ‘bumper-sticker’ mentality of the great unwashed in search of a champion, but it is no way to explain public policy.  Others hold that tRUMP’s nearly daily use of the medium is a bit of genius, distracting as it does from the wretched Rescumlican agenda, serving as a form of “flak” in effect jamming our “collective radar”, distracting us from watching what congressional Rescumlicans are cooking up in the smoke-filled rooms and about to foist upon an unsuspecting public.  Others hold that tRUMP’s “tweet storms” serve to distract us from the ongoing investigation into Russian meddling in our election, possible tRUMP campaign ties to the Russians and possible collusion with the Russians to rig the outcome of the election.  Lurking beneath, not so far from the surface, are possible financial dealings which may involve racketeering and money laundering.  So, it is held, tRUMP almost daily takes to “Twitter” and “Tweets” false accusations and insults in every direction, calling into question in the process the legitimacy of every institution in this country, be it law enforcement and the courts, the press, the congress, thousands of county clerks (mostly Republican) across this country who conduct our elections, financial institutions, American corporations and businesses and accusing anyone who slightly disagrees with his version of reality of being “fake”, disingenuous, and an outright liar; all of this designed to smear with a mighty hand so as to obfuscate, confuse and obstruct.  He has even been compared to the ‘Great Communicator’ Ronald Reagan as an alleged genius in connecting with the ‘people’. 

I’m not about to give tRUMP such credit.

You see Reagan spoke on behalf of a moribund and largely discredited political and economic philosophy honed by messages delivered at countless ‘rubber chicken’ events held at VFW and other venues in countless towns and cities throughout America, transforming himself, over the years, from a first-rate second-rate actor to a master political salesman.  Moreover, a political salesman possessing a deeply-flawed philosophy of governance, but a philosophy nonetheless.  tRUMP, it by now must be clear, possesses none of that. 

Many students of the presidency have correctly pointed out that the president has very few constitutional powers.  Beyond his or her role as “commander-in-chief” of the armed forces and the veto power over acts of congress (which can be overridden), the power of the presidency is one largely of persuasion. In this the president, to be successful, must first have a clear idea of where one wants to lead the country, how to use the office in order to so lead, and, most importantly, how to sell one’s agenda to the nation at large.  For this one must be able to adroitly use in Teddy Roosevelt’s immortal words the “Bully Pulpit”, but in order to do so one must be able to make a salient case for one’s agenda; one must use the profile of the presidency in order to legitimize and move one’s policy goals.  For that one needs an uncommon salesman.  tRUMP, it appears, is not a salesman.

I have often pointed out in these columns that a business background is an immediate disqualification for political office, especially the highest office in the land.  The president, you see, does not “rule” by “decree”, but must persuade the people, the congress and the courts of the need, legitimacy and urgency of proposed change. For this, the star of the reality television show “The Apprentice” is the most ill-suited for the job, for barking “you’re fired!”, will hardly get the job done for the inevitable question—and it is always a PUBLIC question-- immediately emerges “now what”?, demanding a public debate and discussion.    In any case, nowhere is the totally ill-suited nature of this man for the office he holds on greater public display than in his almost daily use of “Twitter”.

“Twitter” along with “Facebook” and “LinkedIn” represent the vanguard of an explosion in this culture of so-called “Social Media”.  It should be more correctly termed “Anti-Social Media”, inasmuch as complex questions of public policy, when they are discussed at all, are done in crude two-dimensional “Memes” where everything is reduced to bumper-sticker mentality or involve sometimes long threads where people, armed with few facts and less understanding, openly abuse each other by reducing public discourse to invective, vitriol, and abuse. 

These are media made for one Donald J. tRUMP, for it should be clear by now to even the most casual observer that the man in the oval office, armed with few “facts” and even less understanding can only express himself by reducing public discourse to invective, vitriol and abuse.  And so, the headlines of the day are dominated by these “tweet storms” in which our intrepid leader is constantly seen whining, blaming, accusing and demeaning everything about him—even, on occasion, his own party’s policy agenda.  None of these rants stick, none have in the parlance of the theatre “legs”, save the “tweet” that President Obama bugged tRUMP tower thereby accusing the former President of committing a felony.  That little tweet storm rattled through the ‘news cycles’ like loose change in a dryer for nearly two months bringing unwanted attention to the Russian mess all the while robbing Rescumlicans of a splendid opportunity to sell their much-anticipated savaging of the health care system in this country. 

But it is one thing to steal a Supreme Court seat in the static caused by these “tweet storms”; it is one thing to get a health care bill through the house stripping, by estimates of the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, 22 million people of their health care; it is one thing to then have a handful of Senate Rescumlicans meet behind closed doors to fashion a Senate version of same.  It is quite another to get this country to swallow such a savaging of the safety net as Rescumlicans are learning with each trip back home. 

So instead of addressing the nation from the oval office or, as Obama before him, before a joint session of Congress in order to explain himself, we find instead this little man, hamstrung by language reduced to trying to forward his agenda in 40 characters or less.  “Twitter” is not the medium for this and Donald J. tRUMP is not the man.   To do this one must sell the program to the American people.  To do this one must have a Master Salesman, one must have a president.  Donald J. tRUMP is no Master Salesman; Donald J. tRUMP is no president worthy of the name.  

March 21, 2017 Requiem for Rosemary, Fifteen Years Gone,