Impeach Trump - Don't Hold Your Breath

If you’re a Democrat expecting Republicans either in Congress or on the street to turn against Trump anytime soon you should go back to the lessons of Nixon and Watergate. There you’ll find that accusations of wrong doing by the press and Democrats only serve to strengthen their commitment to their guy. We’ve got a long hard road ahead before there’s the slightest chance that Republicans in Congress will turn on Trump and it may never happen if Robert Mueller’s investigation is shutdown as various Republican leaders have repeatedly called for.

Trump like Nixon before him wasn’t loved by leading Republicans, they didn’t trust him to be conservative enough after having been the liberal Republican Dwight Eisenhower’s Vice President. It was the beginning of the Watergate investigation that solidified Nixon’s support among the conservative media and leadership. The more the New York Times, the Washington Post and other media outlets reported on his criminal actions the more strongly Republicans supported Nixon.

We can see this in play today with Trump, Republican leadership held their collective noses when Trump won the nomination and backed tepidly through the general election. As repeated Trump administration scandals have been reported such as former Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price’s use of private charters and military aircraft for travel, today’s more powerful conservative media have defended Trump. Congress has generally ignored the unethical behavior including Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin who also used private charters and military aircraft for personal travel at the taxpayer’s expense. The same holds true for recently departed Environmental Protection Agency administrator Scott Pruitt who mis-used taxpayer funds for unnecessary security details, construction of a soundproof phone booth in his office and other violations of agency rules.

Even this week’s outrageous Helsinki Summit remarks in which Trump took the side of former KGB agent and current Russian President Vladimir Putin over every American intelligence agency and his own staff in stating that he had no reason to believe that the Russians had interfered with the 2016 election has only briefly ruffled the feathers of a few Republican Senators and media figures. Only a day later everything was back to normal, none of those Senators said they’ll vote against Trump appointees or support Democrats calls to allow congress to review Trump’s tax returns. By the time you read this I expect that Republicans will be talking about how Trump’s two hour private meeting with Putin was a good thing and somehow improved national security.

Even the revelation that Russian secret agent Maria Butina was arrested and indicted on charges of conspiring against the United States hasn’t affected Trump supporters in his party. Of course that might be because she helped funnel Russian government funds to the National Rifle Association which enabled them to spend millions of dollars on the 2016 election.

I’m sorry to tell you that until there’s not only a dead body, a smoking gun, video recordings and eye witness testimony from Mike Pence we’re going to be stuck with Trump. It’s not enough to just vote in November, you’re going to need to get your parents to vote, your children to vote and your siblings to vote. If you really want to stop this train wreck you’re going to have to commit to donating a few dollars to Beto O’Rourke’s senate campaign or Mike Collier for Lt. Governor. You’re going to have to volunteer for John Rodgers who is running for Texas House in Guadalupe County or Steve Kling for Texas Senate in our area. Nothing will change if we wait for Republicans to do it.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - July 20, 2018

Trump Would be Pillager-in-Chief

Now that it’s pretty clear who the major party candidates will be in November let’s compare their resumes. Trump claims to be a billionaire though he hasn’t disclosed his tax returns so we can’t really know. He said he couldn’t be bought because he was self-funding his campaign but that’s not true now that he’s won the primaries he’s begging for dollars the same as every other candidate.

Trump’s experience is all in real estate and entertainment where he became a household name through is “reality” show “The Apprentice”. His experience with government has been as an applicant for licenses for casinos and permits for construction projects. He’s never held elected office or even an appointed one like Planning and Zoning Commissioner.

Last Sunday the New York Times ran a well researched and documented story on Donald Trump’s financial dealings in Atlantic City. When Trump talks about it he says he hit it big there brags about how much money he made. What he doesn’t say and the story reveals is that he ventures in Atlantic City were an unmitigated disaster for everyone but him. Whether they were an investor, supplier or construction contractor almost everyone lost money by dealing with Donald Trump.

Whether it was one of four bankruptcies or self-dealing Trump always won and everyone else took a loss. After a couple of Atlantic City bankruptcies and a downturn in New York, Trump used shareholder money to pay his personal debts while receiving $450,000 a month for personal and household expenses. He delayed paying for construction work on his hotels for 3 years or more and then only paid 30 cents on the dollar yet he walked away with millions personally. The Times quotes Sebastian Pignatello, a former Trump investor, as saying: “He drove these companies into bankruptcy by his mismanagement, the debt and his pillaging.”

Clinton has served eight years in the United States Senate where she served on the Committee on Armed Services, Committee on Environment and Public Works, Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. She then served four years as Secretary of State. As the first lady of Arkansas and then the United States, Clinton has studied and advocated for better education, the availability of health care to everyone and improving the lives of women across the world.

Clinton’s life and government service haven’t been without controversy yet even after the Benghazi Committee wasted a shade less than $7 million on hearings they have found exactly nothing. Of course if you’re a conspiracy theorist there’s always the tragic suicide of her friend Vince Foster that you can let yourself be distracted by.

In the end the choice is clear we can vote for someone prepared to be the commander-in-chief or someone prepared to be the pillager-in-chief.