Archives for May 2017

At the start of each new Congress, in January of every odd-numbered year, the entire House of Representatives and one-third of the Senate performs a solemn constitutional rite … taking the oath of office. While the oath-taking dates back to the First Congress in 1789, the current oath is a product of the 1860s, drafted by Civil War-era members of Congress intent on ensnaring traitors.

Here is the oath every current sitting member of Congress has taken:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.

It is safe to say our Republic has reached a point in history perhaps not seen since the days of the Civil War. An existential moment, if you will. The possibility exists that we have an illegitimate president; one installed into power through the efforts and interference of a foreign enemy into our national election. Worse yet, the possibility exists of coordination between the Trump campaign and that foreign enemy!

The firing of FBI Director James Comey, while he was in the midst of a counter-intelligence investigation into whether Trump and his associates colluded with Russia to influence our 2016 presidential election, is nothing short of terrifying. It is a blatant attempt by Trump to thwart an investigation that was perhaps getting too close to home for him and his gang of Russian sycophants.

While nearly all congressional Democrats have voiced concern over this overt abuse of power (many are labeling Trump’s action obstruction of justice) and calling for the creation of an independent commission to investigate the matter, the leader of the Senate, Mitch McConnell, believes this to be unnecessary.

Congressional Republicans, while saying they are “uncomfortable” with Trump’s move, are nevertheless giving Trump a pass on his dictatorial power grab.

It is not only Senate Majority leader McConnell, but also the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Richard Burr (R-N.C.), tasked with investigating the Trump/Russia connection, who has forcefully rejected calls for an independent prosecutor or commission.

It is way past time for Republicans in Congress to live up to the solemn oath they’ve taken. “People have got to know whether or not their president is a crook.”-Richard Nixon

History will not be kind on those “party-first” Republicans who made a mockery of their sacred oath by burying their heads in the sand.

Photo | kentucky.com/LexingtonHearld-Leader

It didn’t take long. What people feared most about Donald Trump … his autocratic tendencies, his disdain and total lack of understanding of the Constitution, his disregard for the rule of law … has finally come to fruition.

People are comparing Trump’s firing of FBI director, James Comey, to Richard Nixon’s sacking of Archibald Cox, the Watergate special prosecutor.

Trump’s firing of Comey, while the FBI is in the midst of a counter-intelligence investigation into whether Trump or any of his associates cooperated with Russia during the 2016 election, is much worse.

Trump’s action is not meant to stifle an investigation into a president’s personal wrongdoing and cover-up, ala Nixon, but a probe into whether a band of Trump associates, during the campaign, colluded with a foreign government to influence the outcome of the presidential election.

Could there be a greater scandal than the possible subversion of our democracy by a foreign enemy … with Trump and associates as willing accomplices?

While Trump’s latest assault on an independent FBI has lead nearly all Democrats to call for a special prosecutor, or independent committee, to investigate “Russiagate,” only a handful of Republicans have joined the chorus.

One such Republican is John McCain.

“I have long called for a special congressional committee to investigate Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. The president’s decision to remove the FBI Director only confirms the need and the urgency of such a committee,” said McCain.

But for all his criticism of Donald Trump and his style of governing, the former “maverick” has gone along with Trump’s agenda. Yes, he has criticized some of Trump’s actions but when it has actually mattered, he has dutifully fallen in line.

For a small group of Republican senators, will it finally be country over party? Or will it be business as usual, allowing the most corrupt administration in recent history to continue to wreak havoc on our democracy?

It is time for moderate Republicans  such as Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Susan Collins (R-ME), Jeff Flake (R-AZ), Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Ben Sasse (R-NE), Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and John McCain (R-AZ to show themselves as the true patriots they claim to be. Talk is cheap. Action is what counts.

The fate of a nation may hang in the balance.

Photo | businessinsider.com

Ding-dong the witch is dead. Which old witch? The wicked witch, Obamacare.

Let the celebrations begin! After many false starts, House Republicans finally were able to put together enough votes to throw the proverbial bucket of water on that nasty old Obamacare.

Let Trump voters cheer the death of one of the most hated, demonized laws ever enacted. You know, the one with the black dude’s name attached to it. Let the “so-called” president tweet to his heart’s content about such a monumental victory.

But wait a minute. The bill Republicans passed today to replace Obamacare, the American Health Care Act, is not law … and will never be law.

The chances of this cruel, costly legislation ever being signed into law, in its present form, are just about nil. The Senate would have to come up with divine inspiration, or an assist from David Copperfield, to salvage this piece of excrement.

So why would House Republicans rush to pass bad legislation that isn’t healthcare reform at all but just a huge tax giveaway to the ultra rich?

It seems Trump, more than anyone else, was eager for a win. It didn’t matter what was in the health bill or how it would adversely affect many Americans, especially Trump voters. The bill passed and that’s all that matters! Celebrate good times, come on!

Ironically, before President Obama signed Obamacare into law in 2010, the Republicans tried scaring the American public with talk of “death panels.” They were warned the law created bureaucrats ready and willing to pull the plug on old granny. Of course this was shear nonsense hatched in the vacuous brain of former half-governor Sarah Palin.

But by voting to repeal and replace Obamacare with legislation that has been described as “morally reprehensible,” House Republicans have created real death panels for themselves … American voters.

Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight.com writes:

The biggest effects of the bill will be on the millions of additional Americans who would go without health insurance if a similar bill is passed by the Senate. But it could also endanger the job prospects of the Republican members of Congress who voted for it and make a Democratic takeover of the House substantially more likely in 2018.

Okay, House Republicans were doomed no matter what they did … if they did nothing, after so many promises to repeal and replace, or voted for this absolute shiny piece of Trump turd.

Photo | theatlantic.com

In another place and time, news like this would be satire.

But in the age of Trump, anything is possible and the most absurd possibility is usually the most likely.

Trump’s pick to oversee the federal family planning program for low-income Americans is Teresa Manning. This is the woman who has said she opposes federal spending on family planning and has a long history of making false claims about women’s health issues.

She has been quoted as saying “contraception doesn’t work” and has referred to abortion as “legalized crime.”

Funny, right?

But is this any funnier, or more absurd, than Trump naming Rick Perry head of the Department of Energy? If you recall, during a Republican presidential debate in 2011, Perry tried to name three cabinet-level departments he would eliminate if he were elected. He successfully remembered the names of the first two (Commerce and Education) but forgot the third … the Department of Energy! Oops!

Trump seems to have a penchant for naming people to head departments they either have no experience with or are opposed to … or both. Just look at Tom Price, Health and Human Services; Betsy DeVos, Education; Scott Pruitt, Environmental Protection. All foxes hired to guard the henhouse.

Donald Trump is trying to make George Orwell, the author of the satirical classic Animal Farm, a prophet. Remember it was Orwell’s Ministry of Truth tasked with rewriting and distorting history. By appointing people to run the very agencies they are opposed to or are otherwise incompetent to lead, Trump is giving real meaning to the old Republican line that government does not work.

Ronald Reagan famously said the government is not the solution but the problem. Republicans since Saint Ronnie have done almost everything within their power to prove it.

Satire is “the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people’s stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.”

In 1882, the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche said, “God is dead.”

In 2017, thanks to Donald Trump, add satire to the list of obituaries.

Photo | DavidGoldman/AP