Wild White House & the Worst Month in the Stock Market Since 1931

Just announced: this month of December has been the worst in the stock market since 1931, a low point in the Great Depression.

At the same time, things have sure been hopping in the Oval Office. On Thursday all this happened in just one morning:  

.... Announcement that U.S. forces will be pulled out of Syria;    

.....Resignation of the Secretary of State ; 

.....Rising specter of the  government shutting down because  Trump demands $5 billion for his stupid wall.

What does all this turmoil in just one morning really tell us?

Answer: just ask yourself who made each of these thing happen? 

Trump did. 

So our next question should be "why"? 

And the answer? He is trying to distract attention from something else very, very big. 

He used up a lot of chips yesterday from his "Distraction" cabinet. Why so many? Why now? What is he distracting us from? Anybody got a guess?

How about money? After all, it's the most important factor in Trump's existence. 

So far this week the Dow has lost a lot of money. Day after day it has repeatedly dropped about 500 points. Voters think about their 401(k)s and shudder. Including Trump's supporters. 

This is the point where Trump's core supporters may start to peal off, finally reaching the end of their loyalty to Trump. Let him shoot somebody on Fifth Avenue in New York City. Trump is right: his supporters wouldn't care. But if he starts costing them money, they are indeed going to care.

Because they are just like Trump in their values. As with many Americans, money is far and away their big concern. Even their racism, which is another of their major values, is somewhat money-based. They don't want people of color around in part because people of color generally are paid less than whites and thus, Trump's supporters believe, undercut white wages.

Trump has been counting on a healthy economy and a sky-high stock market to keep him in office. They would, he believes, protect him from impeachment: "You can't impeach a president who has delivered such economic success," he has proudly boasted. They also would, in his view, be his best argument for re-election in 2020.

In spite of the stock market's appalling drop this month, the economy is still - at least for now - doing pretty well. But "the economy is doing well" isn't enough for Trump's supporters. It could be just one man's opinion. And to Trump's slogan-level supporters, it's vague.

By contrast the stock market numbers are clear and sharp. They are a method of measurement no doubt strongly persuasive to Trump's supporters. A simple and simple-minded point of reference.

That's the irony here. Trump has chosen his base from among those who are simplistic in their thinking. Now he is about to be hoisted by his own petard. If the market stays down, he's toast because his simple-minded supporters look to a simplistic measurement.

Further adding to Trump's current distress is that he may be about to slide out of his favorite boasting territory, the kindergarten land of I'm-so-much-better-than-Obama.  The landscape in his brand of la-la-land has shifted mightily, as a current article shows: "The Dow’s performance since Trump took office is now significantly less than what was achieved at the same point in Barack Obama’s presidency. The Dow is up 18 percent under Trump, compared with 45 percent at this point under Obama...." (As stocks drop, Trump fears he’s losing his best argument for 
reelection)

If almost everybody is very nervous because of yesterday's events and the slip-and-slide of the stock market recently, maybe they can take some comfort from the fact that Trump is perhaps the most worried and unnerved of all. But I don't think that Trump's panic and distress should offer us any comfort. 

In fact, they should make us even more concerned about what comes next. What will he do to regain his unwarranted sense of almost dictator power?

Use a nuclear weapon somewhere?

These are worrisome times. But may I suggest an answer? For now - in this Christmas season - have some faith. Say some prayers. And turn your thoughts away from Trump, the nasty ugly fat guy, and think instead about that jovial and kindly plump man we call Santa. His name is actually Saint Nicholas. As someone has pointed out, it is quite appropriate for us to ask him to help us get rid of Trump. For one thing, he is a saint. And he would not be above helping in a desperate political situation. 

We tend to think of politics as nasty mean little stuff unworthy of our attention or that of the saints, forgetting that Christ was crucified by the Romans because He presented a threat to their political power. Politics has been around a long time. It's part of the fabric of life. 

If you're a believer in something other than Christianity or are a non-believer, consider how awful Trump is and join others of us in seeking "outside help", in fact help of any kind, wherever we can get it! 

So, yes, Virginia, there is indeed a Santa and he'd better bring us the gift of taking Trump away. Come on, Saint Nicolas! Take Trump away before he can rip more children from their mothers' arms and cut food stamps for the hungry. 

Having left our appeal on the doorstep of Heaven, we know that Baby Jesus as a newborn was under threat from the horrible Herod and that his little family had to flee into Egypt to escape violence. (Doesn't this sound familiar, like our southern border?) We can hope the Holy Family will join Saint Nicholas in helping us get rid of Trump and thus help the refugees who are coming here for this be their Egypt.  

With hope of such help we can now turn away from disgusted consideration of Trump and gaze instead in joy and delight at the festivities and love manifested at Christmas. Love every light on every tree and every gift each person gives another because of love. 

Remember all this celebration of joy and love will recur year after year -  long, long after Trump is a forgotten footnote. 

So may I say, "Merry Christmas" to you, believer or not. And best wishes that surely 2019 will be a happier New Year.  And 2020 even a better one! We know Trump is done for because we will not let Trump take away our country. And everybody knows, God helps those who help themselves. So let's get to it.....

But first let us have a wonderful Christmas, one and all!

P.S.  Next time: how Trump made the stock market fall.

P.S. P.S. What's a petard?

Thanks to Donald Trump for All These Gifts!

ADD: The Editorial BoardHow Trump Has Hurt the Gun Lobby  nyt 2-12-19





OUR BIG THANKS TO DONALD TRUMP!

Trump unwittingly has done great good things for the Democrats and Independents and for America. Let us give thanks to Mr. Trump for the following gifts to us:🙏

1. For all your verbal attacks on women and bragging about grabbing their genitals, we thank you. You've fired up legions of women to organize against you, win over 100 seats in the Congress, and generally not just roar like lions but become tigers! Even GOP women are now tigers and snarling!! 

2. For firing up the usually non-participating young people. They have come out in droves to organize politically and to vote. You appall them. You are dooming them to a life without a future and without hope, an approaching era of mass die-offs and hideous weather events and fires and shrinking usable land mass. All because you want to be cozy with the oil and coal workers.

3. For appointing Whitaker to be Acting Attorny General, Whitaker being the man most obviously unable to get away with firing Special Prosecutor Mueller.

4. For riling up Congress against more arms sales to the Saudis. You did this by refusing to condemn the Saudis' murder of an American resident and columnist. (New party invitation: "Bring a bone saw!")

5. For alerting blacks, Jews, Muslims, and anybody not of your white northern European background to the fact we still have a ways to go in overcoming society's prejudices and its tendency to kill us. Golly, how could we Jews have thought we were safe in America?! Now all the fore-named groups may come together to withstand the forces of hatred. And the big celebrities can make TV spots about how we should not hate people.

6. For threatening our parks and wilderness set-asides. Now there will be a great media education process as these wildlands and parks become more and more the center of litigation. (You really goofed on this one, buddy. Americans love their public lands, except for residents of a few states whose votes you have anyway.) 

7. For a full-employment program for American attorneys. All kinds of lawyers, from ACLU to giant corporate firms are happily busy suing you to stop all your cockamamy nonsense.

8. For the huge tax break for yourself and your wealthy friends. This has put Medicare and Social Security at risk. And Americans love these two even more than they love the federal parks, thus guranteeing your political life will perish on the Third Rail of American politics i.e. the entitlements Medicare and Social Securty. And by the way, they are called entitlements because we paid into them and thus we are entitled to them.)

9. For killing off the GOP. It's done for as a party since you have driven out all the decent folk and exposed the GOP turncoats in the Senate and House who threw their lot in with you. All that's left of the GOP is your Trump Party as a rump party, the 30% of Americans who like to be angry and are afraid of a coming non-white majority. 

10. For being such a jerk that you will likely be enshrined as the first American monster. "Don't do that, Bobby! Do you want to turn into a Trump?!"

That's enough Mr. Trump. That's about all the gifts from you we can stand.

Let the Voting Begin.....

In five hours our neighbors up in the mountains of New Hampshire will begin voting. Finally the day is arriving when hopefully we can deliver ourselves, our nation, and our future from the hate and lies and cruelty of Trumpism. 

If the Democrats win the House perhaps the House can find out what has happened to the children Trump took from their families. That cruelty must be undone!

Other bad things must be undone or stopped. There are many hopes riding on the voting that begins in  New Hampshire in a few hours. 

God bless and help America.

I'm Back! And With Possible Keys to Tuesday's Outcome?

Broken bones and patch-up surgeries in my right arm are all healed. As a writer, I am back and just in time for the midterms.  

There's a lot of prognosticating in these last days before the midterm elections. These points from a very good article seem to me very important.

........"Among those who say they are certain to vote or already have voted, Democrats enjoy a nine-point advantage, while those who say they probably will vote or that the chances are “50-50” tip toward Republicans by four points, with 10 percent undecided."

......"Democrats have a 51-to- 44 percent advantage among likely voters.That seven-point margin, which is in line with other polls taken in the past two weeks, puts Democrats roughly within range of what they probably will need in the overall national vote for the House to capture a majority from the Republicans, based on calculations from previous midterm campaigns."
......"Public and private polls of individual races conducted by candidates, political party committees, the media and others show many contests still within the margin of error."
.....Among registered voters, 71 percent say the economy is good or excellent, up from 60 percent in August. Those who give the economy positive ratings favor Republican candidates for the House by 54 to 40 percent, wider than the 49 to 42 percent margin in August."
......"Trump’s approval rating among all adults stands at 40 percent, holding steady from a poll in early October and slightly higher than his 36 percent rating in August. Those who disapprove account for 53 percent. Among registered voters, Trump’s approval is 44 percent, with disapproval at 52 percent, the best margin among this group during his presidency."
......"The share of Republicans saying immigration is “one of the most important issues” in their vote has grown from 14 percent to 21 percent. The share of Democrats saying immigration is a top issue has dropped from 23 percent to 11 percent."

The above are from Poll: Democrats lead in House preferences, but voters’ views on economy, border security may buoy GOP

          Please note that the outcome in the last point is not what it may appear on its surface. The Democrats are a much bigger group than the GOP so a 12% Democratic drop in interest in immigration is a  bigger part of the electorate than the apparent 5 point spread between the 7 point gain in interest among GOP and the 12% loss of interest among Dems. The Democrats number almost one-third more than GOP. The moral of the story: always ask "Percentage of what?"

..........Between now and Tuesday remember our motto: Vote early and often!..........

Here's How We Defeat Trump's 40-year Supreme Court!

I apologize for writing a post on Facebook on Labor Day expressing my deep fears and sorrow about 40 years ahead with Trump judges running the Supreme Court. Then that evening I had a thought. It's an old one. It actually occurred to the Founding Fathers over 230 years ago and more recently to California governor Jerry Brown these past eight years, especially since Trump claimed the presidency and started destroying our rights and protections. 

And what is this precious thought? 

That the states can enact laws to protect the people from the very evils Trump's court will let loose on them. California Governor Jerry Brown has been doing it for quite a while to control the nasty stuff in gasoline. Several states including California are doing this regarding marijuana and also immigrant sanctuary. Increasingly states will be taking over health care. A Big Divergence Is Coming in Health Care Among States  nyt 3-5-18 I knew Jerry Brown's dad even before I knew Jerry. He was Gov. Pat Brown, and he would be proud of you, Jerry.

I too am finally proud of you. I was proud to be one of the first four women to hold an executive job in California state government back in the mid-1970's. But now, Governor, I am actually glad it was you I worked for. (Back then I was not one of your admirers because you were a bit of a brat!) Now, Jerry, give 'em hell! 

Likewise you other Democratic governors and the Democratic state legislatures that will emerge from this November election. 

And for you, my reader friends, I say as did Edward R. Murrow back in his days fighting Joe McCarthy, "To all of you...good night and good luck." 

Tomorrow we pick up the fight to out-maneuver Trump and his 40-year court!

100% of Nothing Is Stlll Nothing as Trump Support Melts

How deceptive numbers can be for those who don't understand them. Let's look at a typical piece of  misunderstanding that appeared in July in the New York Times.  (Note that Trump's current disapproval rating is 60% so the  "all-time high" mentioned below by this excited Times writer sure didn't last long.)  

This Times writer mainly seems in awe of Trump's rating among Republicans and credits it with being the main factor in Trump's  supposedly great showing in the polls: "Trump has seen his approval rating tick up to 45 percent, an all-time high for him in the survey. Trump’s high rating, up one percent from June, is thanks largely to support of Republicans, 88 percent of whom told pollsters that they approve of the job he’s doing. Among them, 64 percent strongly approve of Trump, who is experiencing an almost unheard-of level of support from members of his own party.”New York Magazine & see NYT 7-25-18 Blow: What Doesn’t Kill Him Makes Him Stronger  

This writer is virtually saying, "Wow! 88% of Republicans support Trump! 88%! That's a big number!"

Not here it isn't. It's merely a high percentage of something that is small. In actuality the GOP has shrunk to being merely 24% of the electorate. In having 88% support of this pathetically small slice of the electorate, Trump has the support of only 19% of the total electorate. He might as well kiss 2020 goodbye right now.

Further, the GOP slice of the pie has recently shrunk 2%, indicating that the GOP is in trouble in two ways: (1) it's losing voters and (2) what's left behind is likely more radical than the party was before Trump and this will likely drive away even more voters. The GOP is strangling itself with Trump.

The numbers - when read correctly - carry even more bad news for both Trump and the GOP.  While 88% of GOP approve of him, only 64% of GOP voters "strongly approve." That indicates some squishiness in his ranks, a possibilty of defection of almost one-fourth of his supporters. This is especially noteworthy because - given Trump's appalling character and manner - it seems likely that anyone who was on board for him would be all the way on board. But almost a fourth are only partially committed.

Something else bodes ill for Trump. As we have seen, he has 88% of 24% of the electorate, i.e. only 19% of the entire electorate. But polling tells us his approval in the entire electorate hovers between 30% and 35%. This means 11% to 16% of Trump's support in the total electorate is probably among Independents. And this means they are not as anchored to him as they would likely be if they were GOP. From my 60 years in politics, I can confidently say two things about Republicans: (1) they vote come hell or high water, and (2) they are wildly committed to their party. Not so with Independents.Their very title indicates they aren't committed anywhere. The Democrats thus have a real shot at peeling off a goodly chunk of Trump's present support.

While these numbers paint a cloud over Trump, other numbers also indicate he is in trouble. For example, 63% of the electorate believe Special Investigator Robert Mueller as opposed to Trump. Since Mueller is possibly going to try to put Trump in jail, this number is very significant.
                                                         
                                                               
AND LO AND BEHOLD! While I was writing the above, predicting Trump was on a downhill slide, these new poll numbers were just issued. Now it's my turn to say Wow!

"Just 36% say they approve of the job President Trump is doing, a 5-point drop from last month, according to the latest IBD/TIPP poll. Fifty six percent disapprove of Trump’s job performance, up from 53% the month before. …

Trump lost significant ground on job approval with Republicans this month, which fell from 83% last month to 76% this month. Among independents, Trump’s approval dropped 4 points to 33%. Democratic approval has never been above the low single digits.

"He also saw a big drop in support from men (it went from 49% last month to 40% today)."

The chickens are coming home to roost!

*****************
Hereafter keep this little slogan in mind: 100% of nothing is still nothing. If Trump had a large % of the GOP and the GOP is very small, Trump didn't have much. And his little bit is getting smaller and smaller.

Now if only the Democrats could find a way to block Trump's Supreme Court apppointments....

CLARITY NOTE: The numbers out today refer to numbers "from last month", i.e. August. You may have noticed these are different from the numbers in the quote I used early on. That's because those numbers are from July.

Trump didn't win the presidency and therefore can certainly be indicted and prosecuted

I am keeping this short and sweet: Donald Trump's claim to the presidency is fraudulent and thus he can indeed be indicted.

Trump stole the Oval Office. Trump is NOT a sitting president and therefore he CAN be prosecuted. By the sworn testimony of his co-conspirator and former attorney, Michael Cohen, Trump "directed" Cohen to break federal election campaign law so as to hide important information which could have influenced voters to vote against him. It was an extremely close election; only 77,000 votes in three states gave Trump the electoral college. By contrast Hillary Clinton out-paced Trump by 3 million votes nationally. Clearly Trump has no claim on a presidency he "won" by fraud. Under our laws, one cannot keep what he has stolen. Ill-gotten gains are not gains at all.

Let's hope Mueller sees it that way.

The Beginning of the End of Trump

So much has happened in the last two days that the best I can do is give this review in chunks. Like bulletins. Because that is how it happened. For example the Michael Cohen confession and the Paul Manafort conviction came at almost the same minute!

# 1. TRUMP HAS COMMITTED A FELONY! AND HAS BEEN RECORDED ADMITTING IT. Trump's  fix-it guy and sort of attorney Michael Cohen has now said in sworn testimony that in the weeks before the 2016 election, Trump directed him to pay off a woman who alleged an affair with Trump. Hushing her was necessary, Trump made clear, in order to protect his chances in the election. He thereby defrauded the public of knowing necessary information and also screwed up the way the hush money was paid so that he and Cohen committed a felony under election finance laws.  In addition to Cohen's sworn testimoney, he has previously provided the tape recording of Trump discussing the hush money payoff.

 #2 . TRUMP IS NOW EMINENTLY IMPEACHABLE. The grounds for impeachment are blatant and numerous, but now we have one that is virtualy inarguable, i.e.the payment of hush money to secure his winning the election. Here's an expert opinion:

"Does Trump's paying off the women constitute enough of an offense to warrant impeachment? The framers thought so. 'The campaign finance violation President Trump’s former lawyer accused him of on Tuesday — arranging to pay hush money to influence an election — may be precisely the sort of offense that the drafters of the Constitution meant to cover in granting Congress the power to impeach and remove a president.' " This quote is from a discussion of a book analyzing the framers views on impeachment:' "When Is an Offense Impeachable? Look to the Framers for the ...                     

#3. TRUMP'S SO-CALLED PRESIDENCY WAS A NULLITY BECAUSE OBTAINED BY FRAUD. Therefore all his supposed presidential acts are nullities, including his recent Supreme Court appointment and all the other federal judicial and other appointments he has made.  His attempts to do stupid things, like nullifying  environmental regulations and messing with tariffs, will be automatically reversed since he lacked the authority to launch such. Our allies can sigh with relief that the crazy man is gone, and we can repair our mutual defense groups and trade agreements. And someone else will head our government and make a super-strong effort to find the 600 children and get them back to their parents. Lots more good things will happen but that's for another time.

#4. PENCE WILL NOT BE PRESIDENT. He got into the office of Vice President on the same ticket as Trump and thus with the help of the same crookedness Trump used. His supposed election is therefore a nullity.

#5. IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE IMPEACHMENT, A DEMOCRAT WILL BE PRESIDENT. The Constitutional order of succession is President, Vice President, Speaker of the House.  If Democrats win the House in November, the Democratic Speaker of the House will succeed the impeached president and vice president. As the Bard once said, "It is a consumation devoutly to be wished". Getting rid of Trump only to then have been saddled with Pence would have been awful. But it doesn't it have to be that way.

Time out now for a good night's sleep before I survey more of the Trump crash site and try to make sense of the whole lot. And hopefully I can find answers to such questions as, "Will Trump pardon Manafort?"  (No. And I'll explain why not.)

I think it was Gerry Ford who said after Watergate and Nixon's resignation, "America's long nightmare is over." We can't say that yet. But at least it appears as if an ending is possible and perhaps is coming sooner than we have thought.

Again, a consummation devoutly to be wished.

Good night now. I think we are all sleeping better these nights, right?

"Collusion"? "Conspiracy"? How about "Treason"?

[I'm still supposed to be resting my right arm and hand by not doing any typing, but I couldn't stay silent while such nonsense is afoot, i.e. Trump and Guiliani saying Trump didn't commit a crime because one term for it isn't in some of the penal code books. And at the same time hundreds of the lost children of Trump's "zero tolerance policy" remain lost.]

Hey, Trump and Rudy G, take it from this old law prof, under your beliefs such as  "collusion" not being a crime [Giuliani and Trump claim 'collusion isn't a crime'] "stealing" would  not be a crime either. Idiots and ill-educated that you are, you want the rest of your fellow citizens to believe Trump's possible wrong-doing can disappear just because some people have called it by a broad term — "collusion" — which isn't recognized legal lingo. In many jurisdictions, you can look up "stealing" and you won't find it analyzed as a crime either. Instead there will be the precise forms of stealing, e.g. misappropriation, robbery, fraud, etc.

Abraham Lincoln did an excellent job in one of his cases of explaining the crime of misappropriation. His analysis became the definitive one and established the action as a crime in its own right. "Stealing" just didn't do the job for this particular crime against property rights. Don't mistake me, however. I'm not saying that collusion and stealing are related; I'm merely pointing out that conversational terms for bad conduct aren't always adequate enough to be used as legal terms.

But, hey, Trump and Rudy, will it make you feel any better if we convict you, Mr. Trump, and your pals for "conspiracy" instead of "collusion"? No matter the term for betraying our country, we'll get you for it, and the correct terms will be used in your prosecution. 

Additionally we shall use the approriate term of "treason". 

Even now you are committing treason right in broad daylight and in front of everyone. And right in front of the TV cameras. You also did it in Helsinki. You are aiding and abetting our enemy Russia by refusing to protect us from Russia's electronic invasion into our elections. Russia Attacks America’s Election System. Trump Shrugs. This is a more damaging kind of attack than one wth guns and bombs because the Russians are blatantly trying to destroy our election system and thereby destroy our democratic system of government.

You took an oath to protect us and our Constitution. You are flaunty that duty, instead insisting that our own intelligence services are wrong in their assessing Russia's invasion.  No one could reach your conclusion if they had read the recent American indictments of the thirteen Russian military officers. But that's just it, isn't it. You  didn't read the indictments, did you? Either from laziness or indifference, you "don't read things". You didn't read the meticulouly detailed accounts of how these Russian military officers invaded us. Those indictments spell out who did precisely what and when and where they did it. They are damning. And just today Facebook reports that the invasion has resumed. Facebook uncovers disinformation operation ahead of midterm elections


Ignoring the indictments and instead blathering on about some 400-pound man on a bed somewhere may be the failing of a man of little intellect who is congenitally unfit for any responsible office.  Or it may be a clever distraction, waving nonsense under the noses of an electorate already exhausted and baffled by your daily menu of nonsense and outrageousness. No matter that perhaps you can't help being an idiot. You are still sworn to protect this country. The soldier who falls asleep at his post intends no harm but nevertheless his dereliction is such as to constitute an offense for which he may be duly and lawfully executed. 

We may pity that poor soldier but we can never pity you for anything. Not after you have deliberately terrified those seeking sanctuary here by ripping their babies and toddlers from their arms and then losing the little ones in an unplanned system so that they may never be returned to their famlies. That cruelty of yours, combined with your dereliction of duty, not only make you unfit for office but makes it incumbent on us all to seek your removal from office and your appropriate punishment.

Sadly the law may grind a bit slowly in punishing you. So let us pray that the return of those children is speedier. And let us also pray that the patriots in our military and intelligence services take it on themselves to defeat the Russian attack even in the absence of their Commander in Chief. 

And let us fervently pray that the likes of you is never seen in our political life again.

Donald Trump Has Committed Treason

Some readers have asked me for my assessment now of the Donald Trump situation. Because of my broken arm I haven't been able to write this blog for quite a while. This pause has, however, given me the opportunty to take a longer look at Trump and his conduct.

This is my resulting conclusion at this point:

While virtually every commentator (*see footnote)  is fussed by Donald Trump's bratty behavior, ignorance and bullying, Trump's most important misconduct is being overlooked. Virtually no one dares say it but this fake president has committed treason and continues to do so. He will likely commit further treason this week in his private meeting with Russia's president Putin.

Two things this past week make this treason obvious. One is the detailed account by Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller in his indictment of twelve Russian agents who attacked our election process in 2016. By supplying precise dates and other evidence Mueller has made it possible to link Trump himself, as well as his staff and associates, to the Russian attack.  We now have a clear picture of Trump "aiding and abetting" a criminal act, which is itself a crime. In this case because he was, and still is, aiding and abetting an attack upon the United States, his crime is also treason as defined in Article III of the Constitution.

The second thing that happened this past week is that Trump did not cancel his "summit meeting" with Putin nor make any demands or invoke any punishments regarding the Russian attack so convincingly described in the Mueller indictments. He refused to take the details of the attack seriously. Either he is in collusion with Russia in the matter or is so criminally and stubbornly ignorant as to be in effect liable for deliberate and willful volation of his oath of office. Quite arguably such deliberate and willful violation of the oath by a president can constitute treason. He is, after all, ignoring an attack by an obvious enemy, an attack aimed at the very heart of our democracy, i.e. our elections.

My arm will heal soon, and I can then write about this topic in more detail. And get this straight: the topic is treason, which is a capital offense. It isn't enough any longer to talk impeachment, as other commentators are doing. At this time impeachment is too vague and too partisan. Treason is a clear-cut charge and one so serious that possibly the GOP members of Congress will suddenly stop protecting Trump and start thinking about saving their own skins.

Meantime, please work on voter registration and organizing a get-out-the vote drive for November's election. We need a functioning Congress now more than ever. You have the power to get us one.

* No sooner had I finished writing the above observations than I saw this Charles Blow column in the NY Times. Blow is one of my favorite writers so it is especially reassuring that he too sees what I do: Trump is commiting treason. Trump, Treasonous Traitor.  Also, my prediction has come true today that the GOP will back off from this latest treason by Trump. Even GOP Speaker of the House Paul Ryan todays disavows Trump's siding with Putin against our own intelligence service findings.

George Will Is The Saddest Man in the World, and It's Trump's Fault

You know who George Will is.

At least you know him as he used to be. The much-honored chief spokesperson of the conservatives. Winner of the Pulitzer and other awards.  Highly respected for his astute mind, insights, gift of expression. Columnist in the best newspapers in America. Frequent guest on discussion shows on MSNBC even though his politics were quite unlike those of his hosts.

Above all he was a self-assured, confident, almost cocky man. He was a man sitting on top of the world.

Not any more.

He was on MSNBC one night this past week, and he was the saddest man I ever saw. I kid you not. There was even a sheen of unshed tears in his eyes. His shoulders were bent over. His face sagged into weary lines of sorrow. This was a beaten and suffering man. For a man of words, he certainly wore his sorrow on his sleeve.

This sad spectacle is the work of Donald Trump.

It's become a cliche that anyone who works with or for Trump comes away damaged and diminished. In the case of George Will there was no propinquity. George Will never associated in any way with Trump that I'm aware of. Instead Trump just destroyed Will's world.

In his first year of campaigning and his first in the presidency, Trump took away all the ground that the conservatives once stood upon. His crass Trumpland now occupies the right of the political landscape. Its doctrines of recklessly increasing the debt, launching trade wars, breaking treaties, depriving people of their rights, attacking environmental protection, attacking our law enforcement branch of government  —  all of these defy true conservatism. The GOP has been so seduced by Trump that it has forgotten that Nixon was a fine environmentalist, in fact the best environmental president we ever had. To Nixon's credit: the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, the Environmental Protection Act, Executive Order 11593 that protects historic sites. The GOP has forgotten that Ronald Reagan entered anti-nuke treaties with Russia. It has forgotten the strong Republican support for NAFTA, the Pacific trade agreement, elements of NATO. It has forgotten that in the 1960's the GOP leader in the Senate, Ev Dirksen of Illinois, fought for the Civil Rights Bills in cooperation with President Lyndon Johnson. All of this rich contribution by the GOP is gone with the wind, the destructive tornado that is Trump.

Civility is gone too. Conservatives knew how to be civil. Now Trump has reduced politics to a nasty name-calling brawl, full of threats and pseudo-tough guy talk. This brawl has come out of the mob gutters of New York and into the almost sacred halls of our Congress and the White House.

And the corruption! It mounts daily. The latest this past week was revelation of the $4.5 million that has been paid by corporations to Trump's "personal attorney" for the strange task of providing "insight" into the Trump administration.

George Will has no home any more in the political landscape. Will he and the other exiled conservatives and moderates in the GOP creat a new home for themselves? Or will they fight to take back their old party? I have no idea. Ordinarily I would say that creating a new party is virtually impossible, but the alternative is even a dimmer prospect, i.e. taking back the GOP from the Trumpies looks nearly impossible.

Well, it's not my problem. The Democrats' big problem is getting Nancy Pelosi to shut up about impeachment. Her babbling on about it may inspire the uninspired GOP ranks to turn out for the midterms and in 2020 so as to protect their poor picked-on Donald Trump.

Also the plight of the GOP is their own problem because they made all this bad stuff happen. George Will has lost his home because his party created a monster faction in order to stay in office. There is some justice in life: they may be in power now but they are in terrible, terrible trouble as a party. (More soon on how the GOP fatally wounded itself.)

Is America also in terrible trouble because of Trump? I don't think so. More on that also another time.

As for George Will he is a well-read man and surely he is familiar with the saying: "When you sup with the Devil use a long spoon."

Too bad that warning slipped his mind.

I'm Back!

My broken knee has healed and my two new hip replacements are working great. I can once again sit at the computer and write. And in a couple of weeks I will be walking without the walker, cane or whatever.  Freedom and joy!

Meantime we have lots to reflect on. Let's not spend all our time on the clown car and its driver Trump. We have seen all his tricks now, including his one today in cancelling the Iran nuke agreement. He's an ignorant and dangerous jerk. But the world and our future and the strength of our nation are each bigger than Tiny Trump. Indeed, he's so awful that he has prompted a great new wave of political activity. (More on that later.)

For now, I'm moving my books back to my office and organizing the mess that results from eleven months of life in a recliner chair.

It's wonderful to be able to work. To move about. And soon to drive!

May blessings as big as these now come into your life too.

Let's watch the Congressional primaries tonight. They sure look to be interesting.

And rejoice in the newest polling that shows only 29% approve of Trump withdrawing from the Iran nuke agreement. About one-fourth of his little base isn't in on this one.

And thanks for all your good wishes through my long year of waiting in doctors' offices!

Time Out for Surgery, Please

No, I haven't been goofing off. Just getting ready for another surgery in the next two weeks. All kinds of tests, etc. This is the third in about 7 months.

The first two were hip replacements and they have worked out great.

This third one is smaller but a bit spookier. Geting something done about an aneurism on my aorta. These last three words sound like the lead into an old-fashioned and really corny song: "She was only an aneurism on an aorta but she was all the world to me."

Keep an eye on Trump while I'm messing with the medicos. But don't let him eat your life. He is mostly a sound and (lately) a fury, signifying nothing. He wants your attention.

Say a prayer, or whatever you say, that I come through this ok. Got to finish the book I'm writing and got to get back to this blog. This is such a great year in politics!

Like those kids this weekend! Wasn't that great! They are wonderful.

So are you. And together you and 82-year-old me, and the 1500 woment who are running for offices, and those 800,000 kids are going to boot Trump and the Trumpists right over the pasture fence.

Like Michael Moore said early on, "There's more of us than there are of them."

Don't Fear Trump! The KIds Are Here!

In huge D.C. rally, students demand action against gun violence. But this isn't solely about gun control.

Broken News? We Are Tired of Trump.

The Washington Post this morning just put up this banner in red at the top of the front page as Breaking News:
Trump says he is ‘considering a veto’ of $1.3 trillion spending bill approved by Congress that would have staved off a shutdown.  

Is this really news? 

It's just more of Trump's tiresome, non-stop grab for the spotlight. It's broken news. I'm not interested in what he "considers" because he doesn't really consider anything. He just shoots from the hip like a two-bit gun slinger who likes the noise of shooting. Tomorrow (or even by 3:15 this afternoon) he won't remember what he said today. 

Except he will remember that today he appointed John Bolton to lead us into war. Bolton is a hawk supremo, an old guy who thinks rattling nukes is cool. Actually he says using them is cool. But I'm not going to sweat this one either. I gave 50 years of my life to quaking in my boots about nuclear war with the Russians. How do you flee nuclear attack with six young children and only 30 minutes notice? How would I continue to get the anti-seizure medicine for my youngest child who had epilepsy? We lived right at the western edge of the USA, where all the techies were then and are now. Prime target. I even figured out where we would flee to: a Native American reservation in the rugged mountains in the far north of California. 

I have not only see this nuclear horror scary film before; I have seen Trump's entire act. So have you. He's figured out he can keep the spotlight on himself by saying outrageous things. And by firing people. "Sticks and stones may break our bones but wild talk just gets boring."  

I just hope he doesn't get wise to the fact that he is boring a lot of people. Maybe then he will switch to action: such as declaring war on North Korea. Or invading Iran for a regime change. 

If he does anything of importance, I'll check it out. Otherwise I am going back to the original focus of this blog:  the how of politics. Actually for a while Trump was useful in a political primer because he illustrated beautifully how not to do politics. Now he's just repeating himself and his mistakes. 

The only things about Trump that may be compelling are the legal issues that we glimpse relative to the Mueller investigation. Mueller keeps a tight lid on, however, so there's not much to glimpse there in terms of quantity. What has emerged, however, is quite significant as to quality, and I plan on doing a round-up this weekend of where we are now with Mueller.

The focus of this Out Front Politics blog as I now see it should be on (1) winning the fall Congressional election for Democrats and to thereby save our country, (2) winning the state legislatures' fall races for Democrats, (3) using the fall results to get rid of Trump and make sure his kind never comes back into the presidency, and (4) embracing the kind of campaign that won in Alabama in December and in PA's 18th district last week. This fall election is supremely important not only because it's a way to rid ourselves of Trump and bar his possible successors but because it gives us the opportunity to rid ourselves of politics so tarnished by big money that America is no longer a democracy.  It's a Dollar Store. A Billion Dollar Store. 

But, okay, okay! Yes, I will harpoon Moby Trump if an exceptionately incredible thing happens. Or if he actually does something. (Now I'm thinking I may write a review on how he actually did nothing of any consequence accept divide some weeping families. And a posting on the great good he unintentionally has done for the Democratic progressives. That will be a bit of a surprise, right?)

Meantime, let's believe that somehow the military has provided against Trump starting any nuclear attacks. They did with Nixon, but I'll explain that another time. Right now it's worth noting sadly that there are fewer military guys around Trump than before. Today a screaming and demented hawk replaced one of the generals I was counting on to keep Trump away from the launch codes.

Goodbye, General McMasters. I am really, really, really sorry to see you leave as Director of National Security. Any chance you could hide the nuclear launch codes on your way out?

Misspellings in Trump White House Tell Us a Lot.

Typos, spelling mistakes are common in Trump’s White House  nyt 3-22-18


You wanna laugh? Or cry?

The evil that men do lives on after them. So does their wretched disregard for our language a la Trump.

Their written mistakes speak volumes, saying:

1. The current White House and its boss Trump have no respect for the public to whom the documents are addressed.

2. Trump et al are poorly educated.

3. They don't give a damn about what they are talking about,

4. They don't respect the written word. Such as in contracts. Or in the laws. They feel free to flaunt.

Boy, are they flaunters!

Well, honey, let's flaunt too. Let's flaunt our anti-GOP, anti-Trump votes in November. Let's throw   out the Trump-enabling Congress. That's O-U-T and out goes GOP!

It Wasn't Just Russians; Trump and Cronies Stole from Us, Spied on Us, and Tried to Manipulate the Election

This news is so shocking that I am speechless:  You must read this.  Consultants for Trump Misused Facebook Data of Millions

And this: Cambridge Analytica Talked Business With Russian Oil Company

The only cheerful notes in all this are (1)that their candidates don't seem to win (Trump lost the popular vote by three million) and (2)they apparently haven't intruded into the 2018 campaign. 

At least not yet. At least not that we know of.

Let's treat this as an enraging thing that will make us work all the harder to win in November.  

And let's find a way to haul Facebook to the woodshed.

St. Patrick, the Pa 18th District and Great Good News

Good news from Pennsylvania's 18th District. Hurrah! The Democrat won, showing how unpopular Trump and his "agenda" are.

Oops. No hurrah? Nobody's cheering? Nobody's cheering up! 

Everybody I've encountered on this "day after" seems still mired in fear and loathing. What good are miracles if people won't lift their heads up and look? Mark Shields of PBS Newshour said last night much the same thing, that people are exhausted and depressed by Trump. (He's one of my Shields relatives.)

Rachel Maddow called the Democratic victory in Alabama a miracle when the reddest state in the union elected a Democrat to the Senate last December. I called it a miracle too. It was.

But it wasn't enough to cheer people up. Nor was the outcome in the statewide elections in Virginia that preceded it. 

And now Pennsylvania's18th isn't enough either. 

Donald Trump and the media have scared the beejeebers out of people.

I have to work day and night trying to keep all age levels of people from being scared. Trump and his shenanigans have them really frightened. They really believe he and the N. Korean hair guy are going to start a nuclear war, that the world is "very violent" now, that something has gone wrong with America as shown by Trump getting elected, that everybody is cheating, that the world is coming to an end because of global warming, that Soc. Sec. and Medicare are running out of money, that serious voter suppression is going on and getting worse, that the Democratic party is finished, and that Trump is taking over as a dictator.

None of this is true. Unless people really buy into it. Believing it will happen can make much of it come true. That's because believing things are inevitable suffocates resistance to them. Being hopeful isn't naive. It's immensely practical. After all, what do you have to lose by being hopeful? 

I came of age in the cynical 1950s of the Beatnik era.Then as now, liberals had to believe in the negative land of "drive on by, nothing good to see here". "Beatnik" stood for "beaten". I liked the Beatnik writings, the energy of "On the Road". And I liked the clothes. The look.

But I never bought into the "we are beaten" outlook. Nor the "God is dead" belief.

Before the 50s even ended we few, we hopeful few had started the civil rights movement, had done the first sit-in complete with being waterhosed, and were two minutes away from starting the environmental movement with Save The Bay. 

We went right on and saved the Bay, saved the redwoods, saved historic buildings and rid LA and all other American cities of smog. We got rid of segregation and ended the war in Vietnam. A few of us women stepped up before there was Women's Lib  and took what we wanted and pushed and pushed and pushed the envelope. We had stopped being polite, pretty, and passive (although 40 years later I was getting women college students who were still into the Three Ps). 

In our lifetime the poverty rate of the world has plummeted to near-zero. Illiteracy has virtually disappeared. Many terrible illnesses have been eradicated. Medical advances have been legion.There haven't been any world wars. Nations pull together and help each other out when disasters or famine strike. (They didn't help each other back in the "good old days".)

Genocide is no longer tolerated. 

Racism has been so suppressed that the last of its aged and ignorant adherents are fighting like the blue blazes to keep it alive. They will fail. In 2017 the last high school class in Texas graduated that had a white majority.

Diverse sexuality is widely accepted. Whose family doesn't have a homosexual or lesbian ? Now families know that people they love are ________ (fill in the blank) so they don't care any more about who is what. It's all in the family!

God was declared dead in the 1950s. I crept around still going to Mass while my intellectual friends sneered at me. Then their children got killed in a car crash or died of cancer. So I renamed God for their sake and called Him "Love". They needed comfort and would accept me saying things like "Love is stronger than death." Etc. Just no three-letter words, please. And I had to comfort them as best I could. Because that's what G-O-D means to me, i.e. help your fellow humans.

Before leaving this topic of what's better now than what used to be, I have two personal things. The founding of Israel is one. (America did that.) Never again will the Jews be without a place to go when the murderers come. The second thing that I find very cheery is that after 400 years of fighting and persecution, being burned to death en masse in our churches or deported to Australia, being denied education and basic rights, but fighting on and on until the Irish finally drove the English out of Ireland. Oh, yes. There was starvation too. A million dying of starvation, dead by the roadside, their faces green from eating grass.
        When my Jewish family had to flee Poland and my Irish great-grandparents had to run from the English soldiers for being Fenians, they came to America. America saved our lives. 

        Right now the Chinese are not killing 40 million of their own people in the name of Communism; the Russians aren't killing 20 million of their own people in the same questionable cause. They did that in the 20th century. And the millions in Southeast Asia aren't killing each other as in the 1970s. And we aren't killing them either although we are still enmired in the Arab world. 

        Latin America too has calmed down. For example, Argentines aren't "disappearing" by the thousands. ( Op-Ed Contributor The Death of a Genocide) Venezuela is the exception, suffering badly with lots of hunger. If we had a decent political party in charge in Washington, we'd be trying to help out. But we don't and we can't. Maybe that will change soon.

        We would want to help if we could. That's what keeps me a cheerful person in a society of long faces and "stress". Knowing that Americans have indeed done rotten things (e.g.slavery, genocide of the Native Americans,etc.) but that we want to do better, want to be helpful and kind. And we have been working on those principles for 200 years of being Americans, almost always trying to live up to out ideals, even the unwritten ones. Americans are the only country in the world with anything like our philanthropy, both public and private. And let's remember it was Bill Clinton, bad as he was in some ways, who worked on getting the English out of Ireland. 

       
So don't let Trump and the "bought and paid for" GOP majority in Congress get you down. We'll whip them in November. 

Just as we did Tuesday in Pennsylvania's 18th District. 

Meantime may Love bless you on your way and inspire you to love one another. That is the greatest riches in the world. I know because I have lived almost 82 years and seen everything. And trust me, things are good now, the best they have ever been in all of human history. Check that out. It's true. And things will get even better. 

Because you are here to make it happen. 

   

Fasten Your Seat Belts...We're in for a Very Bad Ride with Trump

He knocked a big chunk off the Dow by threatening tariffs and a trade war.

He's scared the world by threatening nuclear war with North Korea.

All of his family and friends have left him increasingly alone in the White House.

He's reported as raging and "coming unglued".

And Mueller is closing in on him rapidly.

Will impeachment come in time?

‘Pure madness’: Dark days inside the White House as Trump shocks and rages

The So-called President to the Rescue? Or Are the "Children" Rescuing Us?

The thing about Trump is that he blindly and stupidly sets up the jokes. Here's a beaut!



Instead of making up fairy tales about himself running unarmed to face an AR and its triggerman, Trump should be actually defending all of us in his constitutional job of commander in chief by  defending against the Russians attacking our 2018 election. This is his sworn duty — to defend us.

Today's polling results show that over 70% of Americans thinks he isn't doing this job. How can the other 30% think he is, you ask? My guess is that the other 30% are on opiodes or believe the Russians are really our friends just like Trump says. Or, most likely, they're just not thinking at all except about lunch.

Trump is failing us badly. But that's what he does. Always and consistently.

But I am happy today anyway because the next generation has stepped up to the plate. It is horrible that 17 people had to be shot to death at a Florida high school in order for us to discover what wonderful people today's high school students are. They are so smart that they are smart enough to call themselves "children" rather than kids or young adults. "We are your children and you adults failed to protect us." That works!

As the "children" that we failed to protect, they have Trump in a dither of what to do. They have major U.S. companies fleeing association with the NRA. They have state governors assuming the task of gun control measures. And they have a lot of GOP members of Congress worrying even more frantically  about November's election.

These "children" are moving into politics in a big way, smart enough to see that there is plenty of room for grassroot workers to win elections for candidates who support the issues these young people care about. Gun control is but one of their big issues. They care enormously about the environment. After all, they will have to live on this planet a lot longer than we oldies. They also care about equal dignity for all and social justice for all. And they know how to get things done. Their rallies have been overnight miracles, with a big march on Washington DC coming up in a few weeks.

What particularly tickles me is that six of them have signed up to run for governor of Kansas. What a great way to get a continuting platform for their message. What news person can ignore a six-person team running for governor!

It's hard living in these days of Trump. It's tiresome and tiring. He is so predictably awful and so loud in demanding attention all the time. And he wounds people and the environment on virtually a daily basis, which grieves me.

But the "children" of that Florida high school and their six-person gubernatorial tag team in Kansas cheer me up.  The future is arriving a bit ahead of schedule, and it looks wonderful!

Thank you, you high school children. We adults may have failed to save you, but you are saving us!

The Evil That Trump's Manafort Served

We should all be disgusted that Paul Manafort had a role in putting someone into our White House, namely Donald Trump, for whom he acted as campaign manager for six months. As bad as Trump is, Manafort is arguably worse. He is as wretched a human being as his employers in the Ukraine in their political campaigning.

Do you understand what Putin's minions did in the Ukraine presidential campaign?

They poisoned the opposition candidate.

Literally.

The handsome man pictured below was close to beating the Putin candidate for the presidency of Ukraine and thus keeping that country out of the controlling hands of Russia.

As the election neared, the Putin puppets were scared this man would indeed win, and so they poisoned him, thereby disfiguring his face and making him repulsive to voters.

Before Poisoning by the Russians

After poisoning by the Russians

When a woman candidate then took over the run against the Putin puppet, she was kidnapped and jailed.

The next move of the pro-Putin people was to hire Manafort for $15 million. His job?  To hide the evil done in the Ukraine election and to burnish the image of the Putin puppet in the world. 

This is the kind of man Manafort is. He aides and abets the worst kind of criminality. And Trump not only hired him to run his campaign but himself defended Putin and Russia during the campaign even at the expense of America. When a news reporter challenged Trump's friendliness with Russia, pointing out that Putin "kills people", Trump replied that the USA also kills people.

Yes, we have killed to get our way, although CIA political assassination in other countries is now outlawed by our federal laws.  But we haven't poisoned people so that their faces become disfigured and scarred.

And American political donations should not go into the pockets of men like Manafort who try to hide such vicious acts. 

But that's exactly what has happened. Yesterday Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller revealed that he had filed additional charges against Manafort, these being for tax fraud in Manafort's deceiving the feds about the $15 million he got from Putin's Ukraine puppets. The "hush-it-up" money was paid by Putin's criminals right into Manafort's hands. These funds then were disguised by Manafort in his  crimes of tax fraud and money laundering. 

What kind of man is Trump to hire such a one as Manafort? And to pay him from donors' contributions? Do Trump's supporters know what their money has been used for?

He who sits down to sup with the Devil must use a long spoon. 

There is however no spoon long enough to adequately distance one from  the evil Manafort serves.

BRING BACK GEORGE WASHINGTON!

WE USED TO HAVE PRESIDENTS WHO DIDN'T TELL LIES. Happy George Washington's Birthday! And Happy Lincoln’s Birthday too. He didn’t lie either. In fact, none of our prior presidents were famous liars…..

BRING BACK GEORGE WASHINGTON! OR LINCOLN Or even Franklin Pierce? Polk? ......