Author: mwmiller2@outlook.com

I got a little distracted this morning.  I read a letter to the editor in the Bozeman paper that I felt compelled to respond to. Who knows if they will publish my response but it made me feel better to write it.  The letter and my response are below.  That’s all I got for today. I’m sure my level of disgust will be sufficiently elevated after Trump’s acceptance speech tonight to get my pen motivated tomorrow.

My response:

I guess I am one of those ‘deplorable gun-owning Neanderthals’ referred to in the letter from Mr. John Trask, “Don’t be fooled, Dems will come after your guns.”  Although I am a gun-owner, I do take issue with the labels ‘deplorable’ and ‘Neanderthal’.  I doubt if anyone who knows me would consider me ‘deplorable’ and, given that I have three college degrees and had a very successful career, I’m not sure the term ‘Neanderthal’ is applicable either.  Beyond the unwarranted personal attacks on responsible gun owners, he ended his letter with, “nothing will stop progressives enacting sensible gun laws and removing all guns.”  I guess since he opposes ‘sensible gun laws’ he is for ‘nonsensible’ gun laws. But the statement ‘removing all guns’ is nothing other than blatant hyperbole and a lie.  The right to gun ownership is enshrined in the 2^nd Amendment in the US Constitution.  Further, repealing a Constitutional amendment requires:  #1 – 2/3 approval of the House of Representatives #2 – 2/3 approval of the Senate #3 – 3/4 approval of the State Legislatures.  The odds that that is going to happen are zero. And in a recent Supreme Court ruling having to do with gun rights, in District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570 (2008), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the U.S. Constitution protects an individual’s right to possess a firearm for personal, lawful use.  Given that there are more gun deaths and more mass shootings in the US, by far, than in any other high-income, developed country it doesn’t seem unreasonable to want to at least have a discussion about what might be done to mitigate that problem.  The unwarranted and untrue hyperbole propagated by the likes of Mr. Trask just make such a conversation all the more difficult to have.

What do you suppose the Republicans would have done if Hillary Clinton, who was the sitting Secretary of State, had given a speech in support of Obama at the Democratic convention leading up to the 2012 election?  They would have been apoplectic and screaming their heads off that it was potentially a violation of the Hatch Act and certainly unprecedented in modern history.  Right?  I can just hear people like Jim Jordan and Matt Goetz now.  And yet, one of the featured speakers for Tuesday night’s festivities was none other that the current Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo. 

Rep. Joaquin Castro (D), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Oversight and Investigations Committee, has launched an investigation into this whole issue of Pompeo giving a speech at the Republican convention.  I’m sure it will go nowhere and all of the Republicans who would have screamed bloody murder if Clinton had done the exact same thing will be characteristically and very loudly silent.  Just another example of how Trump’s whole ‘law and order’ message is a joke. 

Kelly Ann Conway, a senior advisor to the President, was found by the Office of Government Ethics to have violated the Hatch Act multiple times and recommended she be terminated.  Nothing happened.  Ivanka Trump was, likewise, found to have violated the Hatch Act.  Nothing happened. 

Trump’s idea of law and order is to use the DOJ to pursue, prosecute and punish his real or perceived enemies and to use the same department to benefit himself and his friends.  Remember Roger Stone?  Found guilty on multiple felony counts and Trump commuted his sentence.  The DOJ is trying to get the case against Michael Flynn dropped after Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to a felony.  Attorney General Barr launched an investigation into the Russia investigation in spite of both the Mueller report AND the final report from the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee coming to the same conclusion – the Russian investigation was legitimate and that Russia significantly interfered in the 2016 election (and are continuing to do so for this election).

You can bet the findings of Barr’s investigation will hit the street before the election in spite of the standing policy at the DOJ to not publish any significant decisions within 60 days of an election.  And you can also bet that the report will provide Trump with campaign propaganda.   Quite frankly, I’m surprised that Attorney General William Barr is not joining Mike Pompeo and also making a speech endorsing Trump.  I’m sure the Republicans could find a way to justify that as well.

It is clear from this convention that it is the ‘Republican National Convention’ in name only.  The fact is, it is the Trump National Convention. If you have any doubts at all about that, just look at the speaker lineup for Tuesday.  There is Melania Trump, Eric Trump and Tiffany Trump and, of course, Donald Trump who can’t pass up a chance to get in front of the cameras.  And, as I stated yesterday, there is no Republican platform – just Trump’s vision for America. 

He has hijacked the Republican party and where the party once espoused clear ‘conservative’ principles, it is now the party of ‘Trumpism.’  Not only has he hijacked the Republican Party, he has hijacked and politicized the Department of Justice, the State Department and, most recently, the United States Post Office. 

There is no doubt that Trump would like to add the Department of Defense to his trophy room but so far Mark Esper, the Secretary of Defense, has resisted attempts to politicize the military. He has stated that the Dept. of Defense will not deploy troops domestically to be used against US citizens.  As a result of that position, rumors abound that the friction between Esper and Trump is growing so if Trump is reelected, I would suspect Mark Esper will be shown the door and be replaced by a Trump loyalist.  It’s bad enough to have some joker like Trump loyalist, Louis DeJoy, now in charge of the Post Office – just imagine if he were in charge of the Department of Defense. 

I’m sure there are those who will say, “Why the heck is Rep. Castro wasting time and money launching an investigation into Mike Pompeo giving a speech at the Republican Nation Convention?  What’s the big deal?” “What’s the big deal about Kelly Ann Conway and Invanka Trump and the Hatch Act?  What’s the big deal about Trump putting people he likes in Cabinet positions and politicizing government agencies that heretofore were deemed to be independent?

Here’s the big deal.  As I have stated in previous posts, the road to authoritarianism often starts with someone winning an election and then, once they are in power, they begin to slowly and and sometimes subtly chip away at the same democracy that brought them to power.  Trump has been doing this since the first day he took office (actually before he was sworn in if you count the illegal calls Mike Flynn made to the Russian Ambassador, Sergey Kislyak).

Thus far, Trump has not been held to account for anything.  He continues to chip away at American democracy, the Constitution and any vestige of presidential norms.  If he is reelected, you can fully expect that he will stop chipping and start smashing.   I am sure some of his current supporters and enablers will wake up one day and ask, “I didn’t think he would do that. How did that happen?”  The simple answer is – you let it happen. 

In the spirit of honesty and full disclosure, which I understand are often in short supply these days, I did not watch the Republican National Convention last night so anything I say will be based upon what I have read, seen on the news and just reflections on previous Trump rallies.  Based upon that, I can only state that it appears to have been a prime example of more ‘Trump porn.’

According to Merriam-Webster, ‘pornography’ is defined as:

“1: the depiction of erotic behavior (as in pictures or writing) intended to cause sexual excitement

2: material (such as books or a photograph) that depicts erotic behavior and is intended to cause sexual excitement

3: the depiction of acts in a sensational manner so as to arouse a quick intense emotional reaction”

Although Trump has been accused of sexual assault by more than a dozen women, paid hush money to a porn star to keep an affair quiet, and is known to have had affairs during his marriages, in this case, I think the third bullet is the more appropriate:   “the depiction of acts in a sensational manner so as to arouse a quick intense emotional reaction.”  I think that pretty well sums up ‘Trump porn.’ 

Trump rallies and certainly this convention seem to be prime examples of ‘Trump porn,’ where the whole purpose is to get people all riled up rather than to provide any substance about how to address the many problems facing this country.  Facts and data are in short supply and there is absolutely no effort to reach out to voters that don’t already support Trump. 

It reminds me of an old-fashioned tent rival.  Most of the people who enter the ‘tent’ are already believers.  They are there and the people who are giving the sermons know the people are there to see a show and get all riled up and go away feeling good!!  It does little to solve real problems but it’s like a short term shot of endorphins.

In my post yesterday when I confessed to being a ‘radical’, I predicted that the speeches at the RNC would be full of lots of blame, lots of dystopian rhetoric, and very little in the way of ‘vision’ for this country and how to address the many problems we face.  And, as predicted, Trump was lauded for his leadership during this pandemic in spite of the FACT that nearly 180,000 Americans have died and approaching 6,000,000 have been infected.  [We have 4% of the world’s population and 25% of the world’s COVID deaths!]

Again, as I stated yesterday, at this Republican convention, in contrast to virtually all previous conventions, there is no written party platform – just a resolution stating that the Republican party fully supports Trumps ‘vision’.   I have struggled with what Trump’s vision for America is but I recently had a small epiphany.

Many have accused Trump of wanting to roll back America to the 1950’s where American was ‘whiter’, white men controlled the country, and everyone knew ‘their place.’  Remember, this was a ‘pre-Civil rights’ time and most women were ‘housewives.’  I think that is somewhat true, but in the last couple of weeks, I have come to a different conclusion. 

A couple of weeks ago I was channel surfing after a day of remodeling and looking for something to mindlessly watch and I stumbled across a series on Netflix, Hell on Wheels, which I started watching.  This series takes place in the 1860’s during the building of the trans-continental railroad and it dawned on me quickly, that this is really Trumps’ ‘vision’ for America.   Rich white men are clearly in control; treatment of all non-whites, black, brown, Asian, indigenous is atrocious; most women clearly know their place; and corrupt politicians are a dime a dozen.  Welcome to Trump’s vision.

During the Democratic convention, there were a number of high-profile Republicans who came out and voiced support for Joe Biden – and the list continues to grow.  Even the former RNC chair, Michael Steele, has joined the Lincoln Project, to oppose Trump.  Think about that, the former chairman of the Republican National Committee is opposing Trump!  How many prominent Democrats are scheduled to speak at the Republican National Convention? None that I am aware of.   And, in fact, there are a number of prominent Republicans that won’t be on the speaking agenda for the convention because they are trying to distance themselves from Trump if they are in close races.  That should tell you a lot about Trump’s ‘vision’.

I’m sure the next three nights of the Republican convention will continue along the themes of a dystopian future if Trump is not re-elected and will be filled with more Trump-porn!  I’ve always been a believer in live and let live so if Trump-porn floats your boat, go for it.   It’s a free country – at least for now.

Today is the first day of the Republican National Convention.  I saw something over the weekend that got me to thinking about what we are likely to hear from the Republican convention.  First of all, we will hear from a lot of Trumps!  The ‘key’ speakers listed by Fox News include Melania, the four kids Ivanka, Donald Jr., Eric, and Tiffany and Trump himself.  I can only be thankful the Duggars aren’t running for office!

We won’t hear much about the Republican Party Platform because, in contrast to previous years, there isn’t one.  There is basically a resolution stating the Republican party’s support for Trump and his ‘America First’ policy.  I guess this is a clear sign that the Republican Party has ceded all control over the agenda to Trump.  For me, I’d kind of like to know what the plan is for the next four years but I guess it will be whatever Trump wants to do.

The Democrats, on the other hand, published a 90-page document outlining the Democratic platform.  However, I’m sure we will hear many speeches about how the Democrats and the ‘far-left’ want to make America a socialist country, are a danger to the ‘American dream’ and way of life, and only Donald Trump can save the country.  A few of the policies that are regularly attributed to the radical left are: universal health care, the Green New Deal, ‘defund the police’, tax the rich, equal access to education, a woman’s right to choose, reasonable gun control, equal rights for all, immigration reform, to name the most significant. 

Universal health care: “The U.S. is the only high-income nation to lack universal health care. As the report notes, this has effects that go beyond just access issues. Administrative efficiency, for example, lags because of the time wasted sorting out billing and insurance claims.

Though there is plenty of room for the U.S. to improve, the Commonwealth Fund concludes that for the country’s health care system to compete with those of other high-income nations, a drastic change in course may be necessary.”¹

In the US system, healthcare is usually tied to a job unless you are over 65 and eligible for Medicare, or you are a low-income individual eligible for Medicaid.  The Affordable Care Act tried to address part of that problem but the Trump administration is trying to dismantle it.  If successful, the healthcare system in the US will become worse than it currently is – and it’s already one of the worst for any high-income nation in the world.  Affordable healthcare for all – radical?

Green New Deal: Virtually all credible environmental scientists agree that climate change is real and we are already feeling the impacts around the world.  The Green New Deal simply acknowledges that fact and believes that we should aggressively explore ways to mitigate the man-made impacts on the environment by moving towards alternative energy resources and away from fossil fuels.  Trying to ensure the long-term survival of the planet and the human race – radical?

Defund the police: It’s understandable why this phrase pushes peoples’ buttons.  However, it is hard to deny that systematic racism exists in the policing and judicial systems.  All you have to do is look at the data.  Denying it is like denying that pay inequality exists between men and women.  The data are very clear.  So, the real question is, is there a way to reimagine how we do policing in this country?  Is there a better way to spend the money than equipping our police departments with military grade hardware?  The US has the largest incarcerated population in the world and more people are killed by the police in the US than any other high-income nation – by far.  Rethinking the policing and judicial systems – radical?

Tax the rich:  Wealth disparity in the US continues to worsen and that has happened even during this pandemic.  The marginal tax rate for the wealthy is less than that for many ‘normal’ Americans due to the availability of tax shelters, trusts, foundations and the ability to hire tax professionals that are simply not available to most people.  People simply want a system where everyone pays their fair share – radical?

Equal access to education: Being the father of a college student about to enter her senior year at a private university here in the US, I am intimately familiar with the cost of college and what a daunting burden it can be.  Even when I was teaching a Gallatin College at MSU last year, many of my students were juggling classes, working jobs and worried about college debt just to attend a public land grant institution like Montana State University paying in-state tuition.  Some believe that having equal access to education without a crushing burden of debt will lead to a stronger society – radical?

Woman’s right to choose:  This is a very emotional issue but if a person really believes in ‘less government’ and ‘individual freedom’, how is this position not consistent with those beliefs?  The issue has been hotly debated since Roe v Wade was enacted decades ago. New issue? Hardly. Radical?

Reasonable gun control:  The US has more guns per capita than any other country in the world.  First of all, very few, if any politicians on the left are calling for a ‘repeal of the 2^nd Amendment’.  However, even a majority of Americans are behind some reasonable things like universal background checks.  Most other high-income countries also have bans on certain types of weapons, i.e. ‘assault rifles’.  Given the high number of gun related deaths and mass shootings in this country it seems reasonable to at least have the conversation. – Radical?

Equal rights of all:  The idea that the rights guaranteed under the US Constitution are applicable to every American – radical?

Reasonable immigration:  Like it or not, the US is a nation of immigrants and has been since Europeans landed, uninvited, on the shores of America.  Outside of the indigenous people, everyone single one of us is the descendant of someone who emigrated to America.  I have never heard one single person say they want ‘open borders’ but virtually everyone agrees that there needs to be some type of immigration reform.  Radical?

And while the Trump administration will try to paint the Democrats and their policies as radical, it is the Trump administration that is vocally supported by the conspiracy theory group, QAnon, which the FBI has labelled a domestic terror threat.  QAnon is, of course, the group that propagates unfounded theories about a ‘deep state’ comprised of pedophiles and cannibals who are bent on subverting Trump.  Wonderful!  There are 2 avowed QAnon supporters who have won GOP primaries – one in Georgia and one in Oregon.  Trump refuses to disavow the organization.

The Trump administration has garnered support from most white supremacist organizations in the country – all of whom are heavily armed.  And then there is the occasional ‘Islamaphobe’ like Laura Looner, who just won a GOP primary in Florida, and who was congratulated by Trump.

Add to the mix all of the Trump associates that are convicted felons, currently under investigation or have been forced out of office due to ethics violations and it makes you begin to wonder which party is the more radical and it makes Trump’s claim about being the ‘law and order’ president ring pretty hollow.

I’m sure all of the speeches during the Republican convention will paint a rosy picture of what’s going on in the US – in spite of almost 180,000 COVID deaths and a bleak economic picture.  There will be a lot of blaming.  China.  The Democrats.  The ‘deep state.’   There will be word pictures painted of a dystopian country overrun with immigrants and with no police forces anywhere.  On the other hand, I suspect there will be very little discussion of what Trump will do to address the many problems facing this country.   Lots of blame.  Lots of slogans.  Very few plans.

Given where we are now and based upon who is supporting Trump, the kinds of people he is attracting to the party, and the abysmal job he has done to date, I’m willing to take my chances on a ‘radical’ new approach.  I never really thought of myself as a radical – but I guess I am!!  Cool!

1. https://www.newsweek.com/unieasted-states-health-care-rated-worst-637114

When Donald Trump ran for office four years ago, he promised to ‘drain the swamp’ and he promised to surround himself with the best people.  I’d like to take a closer look at those promises.  According to Merriam-Webster a swamp is:

1: a wetland often partially or intermittently covered with water especially:one dominated by woody vegetation

2: a tract of swamp

3: a difficult or troublesome situation or subject

I am assuming in this instance we are really talking about the 3^rd definition.  According to Trump during his 2016 campaign, Washington D.C. was a dystopian swamp filled with monsters, ogres, and unpatriotic people who were bent on sabotaging this country.  He claimed that ‘he alone’ could fix the problems and drain the swamp.

A quick review of some of the people surrounding Trump makes one wonder who the real monsters, ogres and unpatriotic people really are:

Steve Bannon – former senior advisor and chief strategist for Trump; indicted for fraud yesterday

Michael Cohen – Trump’s former attorney and fixer; sentenced to prison for tax fraud, lying to Congress and campaign finance violations

Paul Manafort – currently serving a 7 ½ year sentence for financial crimes

Rick Gates – sentenced to 45 days in jail and 3 years probation for helping Manafort conceal his crimes

Roger Stone – Trump friend; convicted on 7 Federal counts; sentence commuted by Trump

Michael Flynn – Trump’s first National Security Advisor; pled guilty to lying to the FBI; DOJ is trying to get the case dismissed against the wishes of the investigators and prosecutors who worked the case.

There are a few other minor players – George Papadopoulos; George Nader and Chris Collins – but you get the gist of this. 

And to add to the list, Forbes published a report that listed a number of Trump associates identified in the recently released bi-partisan report from the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee on the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election:

Felix Sater:  Managing director of Bayrock Group; Spent 15 months in prison in 1994-95 for assault; 3 years later pleaded guilty to racketeering as part of a Mafia stock dumping scheme; has extensive Russian contacts including into the GRU (Russian Intelligence Directorate); had an office in Trump Tower just a few doors away from Trump.

Tevfik Arif: Owner of Bayrock Group; alleged to be involved in Russian organized crime, money laundering and human trafficking dating back to 2000.

Emil and Aras Agalarov:  Hosted the Miss Universe pageant in Moscow when Trump owned it; according to the Senate report the Agalarovs “ have significant ties to Russian organized crime and have been closely affiliated with individuals involved in murder, prostitution, weapons trafficking, kidnapping, extortion, narcotics trafficking, money laundering and other significant criminal enterprises. Some of those activities have extended outside of Russia, including to the United States.”  They also have significant ties to the Russian government, including access to Putin.

Irakli Kaveladze:  Worked for Aras Agalarov: worked closely with Donald Trump Jr on the initial Trump Tower in Moscow negotiations;  Allegations by the GAO of Russian money laundering through some of the 2,000 corporations he created

Giorgi Rtskhiladze:  Has high level contacts into the Russian government

Andrey Rozov:  Allegations of ties to Russian influence operations

And, if those aren’t enough ‘swamp creatures’, you have Trump’s recent Tweets of congratulations to Laura Loomer who won the GOP primary in Florida Congressional District 21 and is a very vocal ‘islamaphobe’ and Marjorie Taylor Greene, the pro-Trump supporter of QAnon, the conspiracy theorist group, who just won a Congressional primary in Georgia.

As far as bringing the best people, you just have to look at the list of Cabinet Secretaries who have been forced out or are currently undergoing scrutiny for ethics violations and/or conflicts of interest –  Scott Pruitt (EPA), Wilbur Ross (Commerce), Ryan Zinke (Interior), Tom Price (Health and Human Services), Michael Flynn (National Security Council), Mick Mulvaney (Director OMB), Ben Carson (Housing and Urban Development),  Betsy Devos (Education), and the list goes on.

If Trump’s objective was to ‘drain the swamp the data certainly don’t support that.   He has surrounded himself with a collection of con men, criminals, conspiracy theorists, and foreign agents – none of whom have the best interest in the United States as the driving force behind their actions.  This election is shaping up more and more to simply be a choice between ‘The Joker’ or ‘Batman’!  I can only hope the citizens of Gotham will make the right choice.

1. https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/20/politics/trump-bannon-law-associates/index.html
2. https://www.forbes.com/sites/danalexander/2020/08/20/trumps-business-partners-allegedly-involved-in-human-trafficking-mafia-matters-probable-money-laundering/#4885a64b610d

I wrote something yesterday and decided not to post it.  It wasn’t all that controversial but after I reread it, it just didn’t seem that cogent and worth anyone’s time.  Hopefully, today will be better.

I was listening to a conversation involving Carl Bernstein yesterday morning and he said something that concerned me and, for anyone who gives one whit about our democracy and the Constitution, should concern them as well.  As you may recall, Carl Bernstein was one of the key figures in exposing the Watergate scandal surrounding former President Richard Nixon, ultimately leading to his resignation.  I don’t think anyone would doubt that he has pretty good connections around Washington, D.C. with some extending into the White House.

During the conversation, Bernstein said that he was aware of discussions amongst some of Trump’s aides about trying to throw the election into the House of Representatives.  This was a surprise to me and I’m sure many others (who perhaps learned this in some long past political science or government course and promptly forgot about it) who were not aware that this is a possibility.  It has occurred before.  That is how John Quincy Adams was ‘elected’ over Andrew Jackson to become the sixth president of the United States.

The Constitution provides that, in the event that no candidate attains a sufficient number of electoral votes, the decision as to who becomes president gets deferred to the House of Representatives.  And why is that particularly scary? – the Constitution mandates that each state act as a single voting block and that a simple majority vote is required to ‘win’.  Given that there are 26 ‘Republican’ states and 24 ‘Democratic’ states, if this election were to go to the House of Representatives it doesn’t take a genius to figure out who the probable winner would be – Trump!

Farfetched – think again.  “The contested 1876 presidential election between Republican Rutherford B. Hayes of Ohio and Democrat Samuel J. Tilden of New York was the last to require congressional intervention. Tilden won the popular vote and the electoral count. But Republicans challenged the results in three Southern states, which submitted certificates of election for both candidates. While the Constitution requires the House and Senate to formally count the certificates of election in joint session, it is silent on what Congress should do to resolve disputes. In January 1877, Congress established the Federal Electoral Commission to investigate the disputed Electoral College ballots. The bipartisan commission, which included Representatives, Senators, and Supreme Court Justices, voted along party lines to award all the contested ballots to Hayes—securing the presidency for him by a single electoral vote. The Commission’s controversial results did not spark the violence in the post-Civil War South that some had feared largely because Republicans had struck a compromise with Southern Democrats to remove federal soldiers from the South and end Reconstruction in the event of a Hayes victory.”¹ [The bolding is mine]

Think about it.  We now have a president who is desperate to stay in office and is lagging in the polls.  He has already tried to sabotage the post office and continues to cast doubts on the integrity of the elections results.  He also has a long history of trying to solve problems and intimidate people with law suits.  If this election is at all close, and perhaps even if its not, there will be a ton of lawsuits to challenge the vote.  It is not unthinkable that all of these challenges could throw this thing into the House of Representatives.  If that were to happen, Trump could literally steal this election regardless of the popular vote and regardless of the initial electoral college vote.  If that doesn’t scare the crap out of you, I don’t know what will. 

We already know that just because someone wins the popular vote, that does not guarantee victory.  It is the electoral college vote that counts.  Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by over 3,000,000+ votes but Trump was elected due to his winning the vote in the electoral college.  Even the voting in the electoral college is not cut and dried because we must now worry about ‘faithless electors’ which are defined as members of the electoral college who do not vote for the candidate for whom they are pledged to vote.  Recent instances of faithless electors have been litigated in court.  (Are you seeing a theme here?)

Just like so many people underestimated and continue to underestimate the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic, I don’t think many people have a clue how close to the brink we are of losing this democracy.  It’s too easy to just dismiss these things coming out of Trump and his camp as just ‘talk’ and comfort ourselves with a quick, ‘that could never happen.’  It has happened and it could very well happen again.  I have pointed out in these blogs several times that many authoritarian regimes began when a potential despot was voted into office in an election.  And despots stay in power by packing courts, trampling on constitutions, and rigging elections.

Right now, there are huge demonstrations in Belarus which just held an election.  The current President, Alexander Lukashenko, has been in power since 1994 and the latest ‘official’ election results show Lukashenko with 80% of the vote.  That should throw up all kinds of red flags.  It is beyond comprehension, given the huge demonstrations that are now sweeping Belarus, that 80% of the voters actually support Lukashenko.  Hundreds of protesters have been arrested and Lukashenko has ordered an even more brutal crackdown.  Think this can’t happen in America – we are on this path! 

The President has already shown a willingness to deploy Federal troops against protesters in the name of ‘law and order.’  He has repeatedly shown a willingness to completely bypass Congress and disregard the Constitution and the rule of law. Mitch McConnell has been busy as hell packing the courts with conservative judges (some of whom have been deemed as unqualified by the American Bar Association).  Trump is a well-documented liar.  He has shown in his actions and it has been attested to by many people who know him and have worked with him, that he is concerned only with himself and his reelection.  So, if you think that Trump and his camp are not willing or capable of trying to encourage some ‘faithless electors’ and/or throw this election into the House of Representatives should it appear that he will lose – think again.  We are in very treacherous territory.  I hope everyone understands what is really at stake here.  This could very well be the most consequential election in our lifetimes and the results will have resounding consequences for decades.

1. https://history.house.gov/Institution/Origins-Development/Electoral-College/

I am tired this morning and have lots of work to do so this will be brief.  I did want to point out that our ‘illustrious’ leader, Donald Trump, once again has no idea what he is talking about.  Yesterday he was in Minnesota for one of his rallies and he was railing against the democrats and threatening that Biden would “replace American freedom with left wing fascism.”  I few weeks ago I wrote in this blog about a book that I read, Fascism: A Warning, by Madeleine Albright, a former Secretary of State, so I have some familiarity with the term ‘fascism’.  Perhaps I should send my copy to the White House.  Fascism is a form of far-right nationalism – but then again, when have facts ever mattered to Trump? 

You don’t have to take my word for it.  The definition below is from Merriam-Webster.

Definition of fascism

1often capitalized : a political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition

2: a tendency toward or actual exercise of strong autocratic or dictatorial control

The definition is obviously more descriptive of Trump than Biden, but we all know that in ‘Trumpland’, facts don’t matter. It is extremely distressing to have a president is so supremely ignorant and abysmally unqualified for the job.  He needs to go back to his reality TV shows.  Which leads me to what I will end with today.  The column below appeared in the Bozeman Chronicle this morning and I can only say that I couldn’t agree more.

I will preface today’s post by stating that there was a time in my life when, if asked, I probably would have said I was a Republican – or at least my philosophies aligned more in that direction: “character counts, personal responsibility, strong on Russia, the national debt that actually mattered, immigration made American great, a big-tent party”.¹ The quote is from a book I just finished, It Was All A Lie: How the Republican Party Became Donald Trump, by Stuart Stevens, a former Republican strategist.   Many years ago, I began to realize that the Republican party and my belief system were no longer in alignment.  This book just confirms much of what I already believed and have witnessed over the years as the Republican party has evolved into the party of Trump it is today.

Character counts: I remember when the Republican party was the party that always talked about ‘family values,’ which falls under the umbrella of ‘character counts.’  And we end up with a president who is on his third marriage, is known to have had affairs, paid hush money to a porn star, has been accused of sexual assault by over a dozen women, and bragged about being able to grab women by their genitals, and continuously belittles anyone who disagrees with him – ‘character counts’?

Personal responsibility:  The Republican party is now led by a man who has made and continues to make a career out of not taking responsibility for anything.  Instead of taking personal responsibility for anything, he and most of his minions, play the blame game.  It is always someone else’s fault. 

Strong on Russia:  Conservatives by and large were the party known for hawkish views on our adversaries like Russia.  And now we have confirmation that Russia interfered with the last election and is interfering in this election, allegations that Russia was paying bounties on American soldiers in Afghanistan, and that Russian mercenaries are operating in places like the Ukraine and Libya and yet where is the tough stance on Russia?  In spite of Trump’s words, his actions show that he, backed by the Republican party, is doing little to confront Russia.

The national debt that actually mattered:  Even before the pandemic hit, the national debt under the Republican party was going through the roof.  All of those fiscal conservatives must have gotten lost in the woods.   During Trumps’ real estate career, he used to brag about being ‘the king of debt’ and now he, with help from all of his Republican supporters, are doing the same thing to the US.  Our children will pay for this. 

Immigration made America great: We certainly know that is a joke given Trump’s frequent tirades and actions against immigrants.  And, he does this with the full consent and support of the Republican party.  Instead of embracing immigration as a source of strength, Trump and the Republican party have become true xenophobes.

Big tent party:  Rather than a party that strives to expand and embrace a diversity of people, the party has become more like one of Trump’s exclusive gold clubs.  In his clubs, it costs a lot of money to get in.  In Trump’s Republican party the cost of admission is somewhat higher – you need to swear absolute loyalty and you need to be white.  And the Republican party of today does not seem at all interested in trying to broaden that membership. 

The Republican party that was once associated with conservative principles has become the party of white grievance and home to conspiracy theorists.  The latest example being the winner of the Republican primary in Georgia, Marjorie Taylor Greene, an open supporter of QAnon, who Trump congratulated and called a ‘rising star’ in the Republican party.  Really?  If this is the future of the Republican party, it is truly a sad day in America – regardless of your politics.

Stevens writes, “Republicans are allowing Trump to equate conservatism with conspiracy, and the long-term success is predicated on stupidity becoming an airborne viral plague that will sweep the country like the walking dead.  That seems like a bad bet for a political party, but one on which the truth-shredding, anti-fact Republicans are betting the future of a sane, respected center-right political party in America.”

When you look at the attendance at Trump rallies, the makeup of his cabinet and the large majority of his nominations, it is clear that Trump’s party, the Republican party, is a party that does not reflect the true demographics of America but is primarily a party of white voters.  Somehow, a section of the white population in this country seems to be deathly afraid of losing their ‘majority’ in this country

After reading Stevens book, I am more convinced than ever that what ‘Make America Great’ really means is ‘Make and Keep America White’.  So, for all of those who are afraid of the whites in America becoming a minority, I have news for you, regardless of what you do, biology will win.  Short of a nationwide genocide (which I’m sure a number of white supremacists would prefer) the white population in this country will become a minority.   So, there are two choices, you can either accept that fact and embrace it or you cannot. 

 Donald Trump and the Republican Party have made their choice which is why, rather than trying to broaden the base of the party to appeal to a greater demographic, they are pulling out all of the stops to try to control the vote – voter suppression; gerrymandering; this latest fiasco with the post office; trying to discredit the election even before it happens; and welcoming interference from foreign entities.   The saddest part of all of this is simply the fact that many in the Republican party are either willing participants or just silent. “These people don’t hate America, but they are weak men and women who decided long ago their self-worth was determined by winning elections.”

I have read a number of books about Trump and this administration but this one was one of the most sobering.  Much of my other reading was focused solely on Trump.  This book, by a man who spent his career getting Republicans elected, sheds a very scary light on a political party whose sole goal these days is not to solve the huge problems facing this country, but to do everything possible to win elections and retain power.

“Donald Trump has served a useful purpose by exposing the deep flaws of a major American political party.  Like a heavy truck driven over a bridge on the edge of collapse, Trump has made it impossible to ignore the long-developing fault lines and failures of the Republican Party.  A party rooted in decency and values does not embrace the vicious hate that Donald Trump peddles as patriotism.  But the Republican party did and does.  This moment should signal a day of reckoning for the party and all who claim it as a political identity.  Will it?  I’m not hopeful.  Better than most, I know the seductive lure of believing what you prefer to believe and ignoring the obvious truth.”

“What the Republican Party must realize is that it needs America more than America needs the party.  And the America it needs is the one that is 320 million Americans and growing, a country of immigrants and less white every day: the real America, not the gauzy Shangri-La of suburban bliss that never existed.  I’d like to say I believe the party I spent so many years fighting for could rise to the challenge.  But that would be a lie, and there have been too many lies for too long.”

1. It Was All A Lie; How The Republican Party Became Donald Trump, Stuart Stevens, 2020, Alfred A. Knopf

I am currently reading, It Was All A Lie; How the Republican Party Became Donald Trump, by Stuart Stevens who spent his career as a Republican strategist.  I’m sure I will have lots to say once I finish, given what I’ve read in the first quarter of the book.  But, for now, a few words on another subject.

As everyone knows, Kamala Harris has been named as Joe Biden’s running mate.  Regardless of your politics, this is an historic pick.  While Sarah Palin and Geraldine Ferraro preceded Kamala Harris as female Vice-Presidential picks, Harris is the first woman of color and Southeast Asian descent to assume that mantle.  It really is a truly historic choice.  Why then, did Fox News immediately go on full on attack against Harris?

If anyone ever had any doubts that Fox News is anything more than a propaganda arm for the White House, this kind of conduct should dispel those thoughts.  A legitimate news organization would spend at least some time discussing the historic nature of the pick and the evolution of race in American politics. (And people like Tucker Carlson would at least learn how to correctly pronounce her name.) But rather than trying to provide ‘news’ in an objective and factual manner, the talking heads at Fox went immediately into full on attack mode.

This is particularly disturbing because something like almost 25% of people get their ‘news’ from Fox News, which by-the-way does not use the word ‘news’ in their disclosure statement – they use ‘entertainment’.  So, I got to thinking, I wonder how many journalistic awards Fox News has garnered over the years.  One would think if you are a ‘news’ organization, you would strive for excellence in your field and hope to be recognized for your work. 

Actors are recognized with Oscars, Emmys or Tony awards.  Writers are recognized with Pulitzers.  Scientists, economists, writers and others are recognized with Nobel Prizes.  In virtually every field, excellence is recognized and rewarded.  Journalism is no different.  News organization and journalists s are recognized for excellence with Emmys or the George F. Peabody Award “perhaps the most prestigious honor in electronic media and given by the University of Georgia.”

I found a listing of media and journalism awards for the various media:

The Peabody Awards

PBS 119 CBS 16 ABC 12 NPR 12 CNN 8 NBC 7

Fox News 0

Emmy Awards

PBS 88 CBS 73 NBC 40 ABC 36 CNN 17 HBO 17 CNBC 11 MSNBC 10

Fox News 0

Alfred I. DuPont Award

PBS has 44 NPR 17 CBS 13 ABC 13 NBC 7 CNN 6 MSNBC 2 Court TV 2 National Geographic 1 CNBC 1 Current TV 1

Fox News 0

Gerald Loeb Award

CBS 4 NBC 4 Bloomberg 4 CNBC 3 ABC 2 CNN 1

Fox News 0

Edward R. Murrow Award

CBS 25 NPR 11 ABC 11 NBC 10 AP 7 ESPN 4 CNN 3

Fox News 0

Fox News was founded in 1997 and last year, they received their very first Emmy nomination for an interview that Chris Wallace did with Vladimir Putin.  One Emmy nomination and ZERO journalism or media awards in the last 23 years.  Hmm.  And this is the organization that almost 25 percent of the people turn to for ‘news.’ 

Trump and his supporters will certainly try to make the argument that out of all of the media outlets that have been recognized for journalistic excellence, Fox News has been excluded because of some widespread conspiracy.  They will further claim that all of the other media outlets are ‘fake’ and only Fox News is giving people the ‘true’ story.  The data don’t support those claims – but then again, when did Trump and his supporters ever let facts and data get in the way of whatever fantasy they wish to believe in ‘Trumpland’?

https://www.quora.com/Has-Fox-News-ever-won-any-prestigious-awards-for-journalism

All of the news for the next day or two will be about Joe Biden’s pick for VP, Kamala Harris.  I actually bought her book, The Truths We Hold, a while ago when she was running for president but I didn’t get around to reading it.  I guess I will have to move it back towards the top of the stack.  That said, I lived in California before moving back to Montana and am somewhat familiar with Senator Harris.  I think she is a great choice.  She’s smart, tough, and if I were Mike Pence, I’d be pretty nervous going into a debate with her.

If Biden-Harris are successful and win this election, I have two major concerns – neither of which has anything to do with either Biden or Harris, who I fully support.  The first is whether or not Trump will relinquish power smoothly, which I doubt, and secondly, what will happen on all of the down ticket Senate races, i.e. will the Republicans retain control of the Senate.

As to the first concern, Trump has already been setting the stage to challenge the election if he loses.  He will claim wide spread voter fraud.  He will claim foreign actors helped Biden win.  He and his minions are likely to file lawsuits in every state that he lost and this whole thing could drag out for weeks.  Not a pretty look for the United States of America which has been held up as a ‘model of democracy’ in which one of the foundations is the peaceful transition of power.  It will just be another example to show Trump cares more about Trump than about the United States of America. 

I don’t remember a time in my lifetime when so many reasonable people were actually having serious discussions about whether or not there would be a smooth transition of presidential power after an election.   Even in the most recent incidence in the Bush-Gore election when the whole issues of ‘hanging chads’ were a key issue in the Florida results and the Supreme Court ultimately had to get involved, there were not accusations on either side of wide spread voter fraud.  There was plenty of litigation but, in the end, Bush won the electoral college vote and Gore graciously conceded.  We can fully expect that scenario to be played out on steroids this election.  https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/11/politics/biden-trump-2020-election-november-3/index.html

Trump challenging the election results will certainly be ugly but a bigger concern of mine is if the Republicans retain control of the Senate.  If that happens and Mitch McConnell remains the Senate Majority Leader during a Biden presidency, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and the rest of us are in for a tough four years.  I just finished the book, Broken; Can the Senate Save Itself and the Country?, by Ira Shapiro which chronicles how the Senate has devolved over the last two or three decades from the ‘world’s greatest deliberative body’ to a partisan arena where floor debates on legislation are rare, things are done in partisan committees behind closed doors, arcane rules are used to obstruct progress, and ‘the art of compromise’ is rarely practiced.  Mitch McConnell is directly responsible for much of today’s Senate disfunction.

Shortly after Obama won his first term, McConnell gathered his Republican flock and “sketched out a strategy of opposition.  They would pick fights that they could win to show that Obama was not invulnerable.  They would obstruct and oppose him on virtually everything else, undercutting his basic promise to usher in a new era of postpartisan cooperation.”

If the Republicans retain control of the Senate, it is a 100 percent certainty that McConnell will institute a similar strategy during a Biden-Harris presidency.  McConnell is astute enough to know that the administration in power generally gets blamed for whatever happens so if he can prevent Biden from implementing many of the things he promised during the campaign, it will provide great political ammunition for the Republican candidate in 2024. 

One of the reasons that Obama resorted to Executive Actions was due to the fact that the Mitch McConnell controlled Senate made it their mission to obstruct him at every turn.  Biden could find himself in a similar situation. (And you can bet, that in spite of all of the Executive Actions that Trump has signed, the Republicans will scream bloody murder.)  In the final words of Shapiro’s book, “What is most urgently needed is for senators to act like senators, not partisan operatives.  They should not mirror, and even exacerbate, the nation’s divisions.  They were sent to Washington to overcome them.”   If only most of the Senators understood that.

It is unfortunate that more people don’t understand how powerful Mitch McConnell is.  After the Democrats took control of the House in 2018, they passed hundreds of bills that were passed to the Senate.  Mitch McConnell proudly sports the moniker, “The Grim Reaper,” because almost all of the bills never even have a chance to get debated in the Senate.  They essentially die in Mitch McConnell’s desk drawer.   It’s a pretty sad comment on American democracy when the second most power man in the country is proud of the job, he is doing at blocking any debate on issues of substance. 

Unfortunately, the Senate seems to have lost its way and if the Republicans retain control of the Senate, it’s going to be an ugly road ahead – no matter who wins.  If Trump wins, he will be even more emboldened knowing that he has Attorney General Barr and the US Senate in his pocket.   And if Biden wins, Mitch McConnell will dig pothole after pothole to try to obstruct everything Biden tries to do.  I don’t think the Founding Fathers ever envisioned a president like Trump nor a Senate Majority leader like Mitch McConnell.

“The Senate, the great anchor of the government …. Such an institution may be some times necessary as a defense to the people against their own temporary errors and delusions.”   — James Madison letter to Thomas Jefferson; Federal Papers #63 (1787)