Author: mwmiller2@outlook.com

The essay below appeared in the Bozeman Chronicle this morning. I really don’t have anything more to add. It’s just another voice joining the chorus of Republicans who are finally speaking up and abandoning ‘the good ship Trump’! Better late than never.

It should be an interesting day with the Supreme Court expected to hand down the decisions regarding Trump’s finances today. If SCOTUS goes against him, it’s going to be one hell of a Tweet storm afterward. And it will just add to the desperation I talked about yesterday. Buckle up!

One more fun fact. I’ve been toying with the idea of getting another motorcycle. I used to have a Honda Goldwing touring bike and I’m getting the itch again. In any case, I understand that the Sturgis motorcycle rally that takes place the first week of August is still planned to go on this year – even in the midst of the pandemic. But, not to worry, they normally only have about 500,000 attendees (a record 740,000 in 2015) who I’m sure will all be wearing masks, social distancing and taking appropriate precautions. And then they will be dispersing back around the country with whatever ‘souvenirs’ they have acquired in South Dakota!! The lunacy is staggering!! And just for the record, if I do get a motorcycle – I won’t be attending! :0)

Everything that I’ve read about Donald Trump scares me and the closer we get to the election and the more vulnerable he looks, the more he scares me.    The pandemic continues unabated and worsening significantly in several states.  Even though the stock market is up, the longer-term economic outlook is not great, and will be potentially catastrophic if the country or parts of the country have to shut down again.  Unemployment is still very high.   The racial unrest and division in this country is only getting worse.   The United States continues to cede its leadership role on the world stage and our adversaries are getting bolder and stronger.  And we have a president who refuses to deal with reality, continues to spew divisive rhetoric and fans the flames of fear and hatred.

It is no secret that Trump is a ‘win at all costs’ kind of guy.  In the upcoming election, his sole focus is on winning and staying in office.  He has already shown his penchant for skirting laws or taking the position that he is above the law.  He regularly tramples all over the constitution.  That is bad enough, but he is trailing significantly in the polls and appears to be increasingly vulnerable and increasingly desperate.  So, why is this scary? 

Most people are not aware that the president can declare a ‘national emergency’ pretty much with the stroke of a pen.  It does not require Congressional approval or anything else.   “The moment the president declares a “national emergency”—a decision that is entirely within his discretion—he is able to set aside many of the legal limits on his authority”.¹

I read an article in The Atlantic that discussed some of the emergency powers available to the president should he decide to invoke them.  As emergency powers began to pile up over the years, Congress decided they needed to reign things in a little so in 1976 they passed the National Emergencies Act.  While this seemingly imposes some oversight in that the President is required to report emergency expenditures to Congress every six months and the House and Senate are supposed to meet every six months to ‘consider a vote’ on terminating the emergency powers, the fact is, Congress has not met once in the 40 years since this act was passed to consider such a vote.  And there are currently thirty states of emergency in effect today.¹

According to the Brennan Center for Justice at the NYU School of Law, the president has access to 123 statutory provisions, should he declare a national emergency.  And what exactly are these?

Theoretically, even under the mere ‘threat’ of war, the president could seize control of U.S. internet traffic, impeding access to certain websites and ensuring that internet searches return pro-Trump content as the top results.   Obviously if Trump were to attempt something like this, there would be a flood of lawsuits – but lawsuits sometimes take time to get fully adjudicated.  (And, of course, this is where packing the courts and having the Dept. of Justice on your side would be helpful to such a president)

In the event of a national emergency the president could, theoretically, impose sanctions against American citizens.  The president could deploy troops domestically.   The breadth of ‘tools’ available to a president in the time of a national emergency are staggering and frightening.

It was recently reported that Trump has ordered the deployment of two aircraft carrier groups to the South China Sea.  So, all you need is a little belligerence on behalf of China and you have the ‘threat of war.’  (And, of course, you always have Iran as a backup.)  You add the pandemic on top of that and you have all the makings of a ‘national emergency.’  If Trump chooses to declare a national emergency, it will unleash a monster who believes he has ‘absolute power’ (his words) to do whatever he wants!  Postpone the election?  Grab control of the internet or other media?  ‘Designate’ certain individuals (read ‘political enemies’) as supporters of terrorism and thus have them sanctioned and investigated. 

We Americans have been lulled into a sense of complacency based upon the assumption that whoever is occupying the White House is a rational person with the best interests of the country in mind coupled with the belief that Congress will act as a check on the Executive branch.  We now have a man in the White House who has repeatedly demonstrated autocratic behavior and a complete disdain for any kind of oversight or control upon his behavior and a Republican led Senate that has shown a collective unwillingness to hold the president accountable for anything.  And now Trump is desperate.   It’s a very scary recipe.

We cannot get so complacent to believe that ‘this could never happen in America’ – it could.    And Donald Trump is just the kind of person that could employ this kind of a power grab.  He’s vulnerable and he’s desperate – that’s a very frightening combination.   Putin is essentially president for life.  President Xi of China is president for life.  I have no doubt that Trump would like to join the club.  Think something like that could never happen in America?  Complacency and silence are the enemies of democracy and the friends of autocrats and authoritarianism.  We all need to pay attention to what’s going on.

I have included two links below.  The first is to the article in The Atlantic, which I would encourage everyone to read – as scary as it is.  The second is a link to an essay written by Robert Redford which I thought was interesting – and right on point.

1. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/01/presidential-emergency-powers/576418/
2. https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/07/opinions/trump-biden-presidential-election-robert-redford/index.html

I wrote this letter and it was published in the Bozeman Chronicle this morning. It is beyond me why wearing a mask is so damned hard. It’s mind boggling to me.

To All Businesses in Gallatin County:   I understand the economic toll this COVID pandemic has taken on everyone and how everyone is eager to ‘get back to normal.’  Unfortunately, that seems to be a long way off.  In the meantime, we are all going to have to do our part to help our community weather this crisis.   All you business owners want my business and the business of every other resident (and tourist) who is in Gallatin County.  And I would love to give you my business.  But I will not risk my life or the lives of my loved ones because you choose to put profits over my health and the health of the community (and potentially your workers).  So, if I can find a business that enforces face covering and social distancing policies, they will get my business over a business that does not.   And, if I can’t find a local business to get what I need without subjecting myself to unnecessary risk, I will simply shop online.  I would really prefer to support the local businesses in my community.  But the businesses in this community have a responsibility to support the population as well.  So, the bottom line is – if it’s very apparent and visible that your business cares, not only about my money, but also about my health, then I will reciprocate that care and patronize your business.  If it’s obvious that you only want my money, I will shop elsewhere.  Keeping the community safe is a two-way street.

When Trump was asked why he cheated on his wives, he simply responded, “I was never told I was married!”

In a previous post I said that there was no well-defined decision-making process in the White House.  I’d like to correct that error.  I made a mistake.  I have come to realize that there is, in fact, a well-defined decision-making process in the White House.  I’m sure this must be written down somewhere because when you look back on the decisions made during the Trump administration, it becomes very clear what the process is.

If an event happens that will cast any type of bad light on Trump, the default position is ‘keep it quiet’.   If, on the other hand, information begins to leak to the press, the default position is, Trump will lie about it.  These lies fall into two categories – 1) Trump denies that he knew anything about the event or 2) Trump attacks the press as reporting ‘fake news’.  If the uproar increases, the default plan is to send Kayleigh McEnany, the press secretary, and other Trump toadies out to repeat the original lies.  If things are still looking bad for Trump, the plan is to come up with a new ‘hand grenade’ to throw out to the press so that the American people and the press will forget about the ‘old’ issue and start focusing on the ‘new’ issue.   It seems pretty clear that this process is pretty well committed to memory by Trump and all of his associates.

There are currently three major issues putting a glaring spotlight on Trump and his administration – the COVID-19 pandemic and the huge loss of American lives associated with it; the intelligence information that Russia was paying bounties to Taliban fighters for killing American soldiers; and the ongoing demonstrations against police brutality and systematic racism.  These are all very serious issues directly affecting American lives and the national security of the United States.

Given the decision-making process that has been followed so far by this administration and given that Kayleigh McEnany and Trump’s other toadies have already been out several times to repeat earlier lies, we must be at the point where Trump is looking for something to throw out there to distract the American people and the press.  And, given the seriousness of the issues currently reflecting so badly on Trump, he is going to need a really big ‘hand grenade’ to toss out there to get people’s minds off the current situations.  That should scare the hell out of everyone!!

But we should all be safe for a few days.  I guess Trump is going to Mount Rushmore in South Dakota on Friday for an early 4^th of July celebration (and virus infection party!)  I’d be willing to bet that during Trump’s remarks as he looks up at George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln carved into the side of the mountain that he will make some comment to the effect that his face should join them!!  Any takers?

It is just mindboggling to me that Trump can say with a straight face that he knew nothing about the intelligence that Russia was paying Taliban fighters to kill American soldiers.   There are only two plausible explanations for this: 1) Trump is lying (which we all know is not beyond the realm of possibility) or 2) the Intel community failed to pass along such information to the Commander in Chief.  Either option shows that there is a major problem in this administration. 

If Trump is not lying and he really didn’t know anything about this, heads should roll.  People should be fired and there should be a major investigation as to why such critical intelligence never reached the top.  On the other hand, if the intelligence was briefed to Trump (and the reporting is that is exactly what happened) and he is now lying about it, that’s even worse.   Putin knows the truth and here is the president of the United States, on television, lying to the American people!!  What the hell?

Intelligence is almost always somewhat hazy – that’s the nature of intelligence!!  Obama launched a raid to kill Bin Laden when the intelligence community did not have 100% confidence that he was at the targeted location!  And if Trump heard about this Russian bounty campaign even tangentially, you would think he would order the agencies to jump on it and get more intel to confirm or refute it.  Ignoring it is nothing short of criminal!! 

If this reporting is true and the United States has not taken any punitive measures against Russia, that seems to send a pretty clear signal to Putin that he can do whatever the hell he wants – even at the cost of American lives – and there will be no consequences.    The US has a whole menu of options available to us – financial sanctions, diplomatic options, and, of course, physical options.  But to do nothing???

This reminds me of a previous incident that Bolton addresses in his book.  Iran shot down a US Global Hawk drone, which is a very expensive and very capable high-flying unmanned surveillance aircraft.   The US agencies and the military discussed retaliatory measures and came up with a plan to launch a strike against limited military targets in Iran.  Trump bought in to this plan and everything was set in motion.  Less than two hours before this strike was due to launch, Trump called it off much to the frustration and surprise, and completely counter to the advice, of everyone involved. 

This continued pattern of letting our adversaries attack US assets and personnel without any consequences is sure as hell not making America safer!!   Putin continues to act with impunity; Kim Jong Un continues to develop his nuclear program; Iran continues to be a threat; the Saudis butcher a journalist and Trump only wants to close an arms deal with them.   Trump continues along with no clear international strategy, alienating our allies and letting our adversaries get away with, in some cases, murder!

Carl Berstein wrote an article about Trump’s interactions with foreign leaders based upon his sources in the government (and I’m sure Richard Nixon would agree that he likely has some pretty good sources!)  that continues to paint a very grim picture of exactly how dangerous this president is to the national security of this country.    I have included the link below. At the end of this post.

I can just see it now – Trump standing on the bridge of the Titanic saying, “No one told me about any icebergs!”

https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/29/politics/trump-phone-calls-national-security-concerns/index.html

It rained most of the day yesterday here in Bozeman so while Jordan and her mom decided to binge watch the last season of Downton Abbey, I decided to grab some coffee and hibernate in my office to finish John Bolton’s book, The Room Where It Happened.  It was quite a tour de force through his 17 months as Trump’s National Security Adviser.

Just to set some context – John Bolton is not a holdover from the Obama administration and certainly cannot be accused of being part of any ‘deep state’ that Trump likes to refer to.  He is a card carrying, Conservative Republican who has served in three Republican administrations, both Bushes and Reagan.  He is a graduate of Yale Law School and has worked in private practice as well as in government.  He is known for his somewhat brash manner, hawkish views on foreign policy and someone who is unafraid to speak his mind.

I have never been a big John Bolton fan, primarily for his hawkish views on foreign policy and his willingness to advocate for regime changes (which, granted, are sometimes justified).   That said, he is very knowledgeable about foreign policy, who all of the players are, and the intricacies of all of the ‘moving parts’.  He is very well read, articulate and, I believe, sincerely cares about the long term well being of the United States.    The mere fact that the Trump administration tried so hard to suppress the publication of this book, provided even more motivation for me to read it.  And now that I’ve read it, it is pretty clear why the administration wanted to keep this under wraps.

The administration has repeatedly said that they wanted to delay the publication of the book due to the possible release of classified information.   I had high level clearances throughout my career in the defense industry and routinely worked with classified information at all levels.  There is nothing in Bolton’s book that struck me as coming anywhere close to information that should be classified.  So, as far as I’m concerned, that whole argument from the White House is bullshit.  The fact is, any foreign leader who has dealt with this administration already knows what dealing with Trump and his administration is like.  So, the real reason to suppress publication of this book was to keep the American public from reading it!

It’s difficult to summarize a 500-page book in a couple of pages of text but I will try to provide some insights.   Bolton discussed most of the major foreign policy issues that he was involved with during his time in the White House – North Korea, Russia, Venezuela, Afghanistan, Iran, Syria, China, NATO and, of course, the Ukraine.  It is hard to read any of these accounts without coming away with the words ‘chaotic’, ‘erratic’, ‘mercurial’, and ‘irrational’ stuck in your mind.  It is very clear, that there is no long-term strategic plan that is guiding US foreign policy under Trump.  Decisions are made based upon how they will play to his ‘base’, how they will play in the ‘press’, what kind of photo op something will provide.   There is not even a well-defined, decision making process with well-defined roles and responsibilities.  Trump often undercuts his own people at the last minute or makes decisions without informing all of the stakeholders involved.   He does not listen to his advisors and shows up at meetings with foreign leaders completely unprepared. 

Trump does not seem to grasp the concept of ‘long term strategy’.  He views everything in short-term, monetary, transactional terms.  “I win, you lose.”  This might work in the New York real estate market but it is clearly not what is required when dealing with players on the global stage.  The idea that he is the consummate deal maker is a myth he likes to propagate but when you look at what has gone on with the US foreign policy over the course of his administration there is absolutely nothing to support it.  He has alienated virtually all of our allies and they have learned that he cannot be trusted.   There is an article in the New York Times just this morning in which German officials are stating that relations between Germany and the US may be irreparably damaged.

Not only has Trump alienated our allies but our adversaries have learned how to ‘play’ Trump.  Bolton discusses several instances where foreign leaders simply stroke his ego by telling him how great he is and then Trump’s staff wait with bated breath to see if Trump is going to give away the farm by falling into this trap.  Every other leader shows up to these meetings with Trump prepared and Trump, in general, just wings it, based upon his ‘instincts’.   The bottom line is that he scares the crap out of his staff because they never know from one minute to the next what will come out of his mouth (or his Twitter feed) or what he will commit to.  Is this really any way to conduct foreign policy?

Even as distressing as the ongoing chaos is, the thing that I found the most disturbing in Bolton’s account of this time in the White House, was the consistent theme throughout the book that Trump cannot or will not separate his personal interests from the interests of the United States.    Whether asking President Xi of China to buy more US farm products to help ensure his 2020 reelection, pushing for a Nobel Prize in his failed bid to de-nuclearize North Korea, or asking President Zelensky of the Ukraine to investigate his political rivals, there just seems to be no limits to what Trump will do to benefit Trump – laws, the US Constitution, and the strategic interests of the US be damned.  I don’t know how anyone could read this book and not come away scared to death for the future of the United States if Trump gets re-elected.

In one of Bolton’s concluding paragraphs he states: “While liberals and Democrats focus on impeachment, conservatives and Republicans should worry about the removal of the political guardrail of Trump having to face reelection.  As this memoir demonstrates, many of Trump’s national security decisions hinged more on political than on philosophical, strategy or foreign policy and defense rationales.  More widely, faced with the coronavirus crisis, Trump said, ‘When somebody is the President of the United States, the authority is total, and that’s the way it’s got to be.’  He threatened to adjourn Congress, wrongly citing a constitutional provision that has never been used. No conservative who has read the Constitution could be anything but astonished at these assertions.”

I stated in a letter to the editor of the Bozeman Chronicle that I wrote some time ago that if Trump is reelected and he no longer has to worry about future elections due to term limits (22^nd Amendment to the Constitution), even his most ardent supporters may be shocked at what he is capable of.  John Bolton just validated that statement and I stand by it today.

I was going to post this this morning but I got a bit distracted.  It was a beautiful day so I took off on a real bike ride.  It’s great therapy!!  And when I returned, Jordan and her mom wanted to go for a hike so we headed up Triple Tree trail which is not very far from my house on the south-side of Bozeman.   Lunch and a few chores around the yard and here I am.  It’s too hot to work outside so I thought I’d finish this. 

I am about a quarter of the way through John Bolton’s book which landed on my doorstep Wednesday night.  As I stated before, I have never been a big John Bolton fan and disagree with him on a number of his policy stances, however, there is no doubt that he is extremely well versed in foreign policy and what’s going on around the world.  He is known as a meticulous note taker, ingests tons of information and is able to clearly articulate arguments for or against policy positions.  He is also a died-in-the-wool conservative Republican who has never been afraid to speak his mind.  So, you have to ask yourself why would John Bolton take the extraordinary step of writing this book that paints an extremely unflattering picture of Trump?

There is, of course, the anger amongst the Democrats as to why Bolton refused to testify at the impeachment hearings.  And there is the also the question as to why the Senate refused to call John Bolton when he did offer to testify under oath.  Whichever side of this argument you land on, it really doesn’t matter at this point.  He has chosen to tell his story now.

I’m sure there are those that will simply make the argument that he did it for the money or he’s simply a disgruntled employee.  The two million that he will reportedly make on the book is a nice sum of money.  However, John Bolton is not penniless with or without the book advance.  He has been and will continue to be on the speaking circuit for years and gets paid a tidy sum for speaking at various forums.  While the two million is nice – it’s hard to imagine that Bolton is so financially needy that he would risk the wrath that he will be subjected to for publishing this book. 

As far as being a disgruntled former employee – well, he joins a growing chorus of people who have worked in the Trump administration who are all saying the same thing – Trump is incompetent, irrational, driven by his own selfish interests and, in a word, ‘dangerous’ for the future of this country.   Can so many people who have worked in this administration and come to the same conclusion be wrong?  It seems like rather than dismiss these claims out of hand, it might be worth peeling the onion a little bit.

Incompetence:  The COVID-19 pandemic is surging.   Yesterday the US set a record of 39,000+ new cases in one day!!!  The US has 4 % of the world’s population and about 25% of the total number of cases in the world!  And about 25% of the total deaths!    This is a disaster and will get worse.  Trump put his head in the sand in the beginning and he continues to put his head in the sand.  His continued inaction and politization of CDC guidelines like social distancing and mask wearing in his push to re-open the economy is costing thousands of American lives.  The European Union is discussing banning travelers from America from going to Europe because the situation here is so much worse than there.  There is not now, nor has there been from the beginning, a national level strategy for dealing with this pandemic.  The lack of leadership is astounding.

And then you have his anemic and totally unempathetic response to the racial unrest in this country.  I’m only a quarter of the way through Bolton’s book and it’s very apparent that Trump’s performance on the world stage is pathetic and he is totally not respected by most of our allies and is viewed as an easy target to manipulate by our adversaries.  And the list goes on.  I wrote a letter to the Bozeman Chronicle some time ago detailing why I believed Trump was not a leader by almost any measure and I stand by what I wrote then.

Irrational:   Trump’s decision-making continues to be a chaotic, hot mess based more upon how his decision are going to be perceived by his ‘base’ and Fox News than on any real overall strategy.  His top administration officials are often caught unaware as he manages the country via Twitter.  And then there is a big scramble to clean up the mess and walk back what Trump just tweeted or said.  The people who work for Trump in this administration remind me of the people who follow the horse riding groups in parades.  They follow along with there little shovels all dressed up in clown costumes to make cleaning up horseshit look fun! 

Election driven:   It seems like every single decision Trump makes can be tied back to how it will affect his re-election and how it will play with his ‘base’.  He has done nothing to try to unite the country since his first day in office – nothing!   Trump caters solely to his base and ignores the rest of the people in this country like ugly step children.   Quite frankly, I’m getting tired of playing the role of Cinderella!!  Of course, we all know how that ended up so perhaps there is still hope!!

Corrupt:   Trump promised to ‘drain the swamp’ but instead he brought his own swamp!  Just look at all of the people around Trump that have been convicted of crimes or are under investigation!  And you have to ask why he is trying so hard to keep everything from the American people – his school records, his tax returns, his communications with foreign heads of state, and making the ridiculous statement that ‘I consider every conversation with me highly classified.’   This man is more secretive than any president in modern times.  It is called ‘public service’ for a reason.  Trump works for ‘we the people’ and we have a right to know about the character of the man running the damned country!! 

I have had a number of conversations with my daughter and her mom recently about the upcoming election.  One of the things that has come up is,   ”what if Trump refuses to concede the election if he loses?”  Never, in a million years did I ever think that I would be having a conversation about whether or not a sitting president in the United States of America would refuse to leave office if he did not win the election – but here we are.  And, it’s not just me.  I have heard that statement and seen many, many articles focused on that very issue.  Even in the contentious Bush/Gore election where the courts were discussing ‘hanging chads’ in Florida to try to settle the close election, Gore finally conceded because it was in the best interest of the country.  Given that Trump only cares about Trump, I don’t see him being nearly so gracious.  And this is the ‘dangerous’ part.  Trump will do anything to retain power – period!

He is already planting the seeds about a ‘rigged’ election.  And, regardless what the final vote count is, if he loses, he will claim the election was rigged.   Free and fair elections have been one of the hallmarks of our democracy over the years and the more aspersions that Trump casts upon the process, the more he shows he cares more about Donald Trump than about the United States of America. 

It continues to amaze me why, when one man could do so much to help contain the COVID-19 pandemic, he chooses to do so little.  And not only chooses to do so little, but takes actions that exacerbate the problem and is costing American lives.  It’s even more distressing given that this individual is the president of this country.

The overwhelming scientific and medical evidence indicates that social distancing and wearing masks significantly helps to reduce the spread of this deadly disease.  And yet, Trump has made wearing masks a political issue, continues to put his head in the sand about the severity of the pandemic in the US, and insists on conducting his ‘rallies’ in which people are packed into closed spaces.

There is no doubt that if Trump were to address the American people and state that wearing masks is a good thing (and he should follow his government’s own advice) and that social distancing is important to help the country get through this, many of his supporters would follow him and heed the advice of the medical professionals.  But he has chosen a different course – and that course will directly result in the death of many Americans. 

I have heard, ad nauseum, the statements about ‘this is a free country and it is MY right to not wear a mask.’   The fact is, you are not wearing a mask so much to protect yourself, but to protect those around you and contribute to the effort to make the community safer and reduce the spread of this virus.   By refusing to wear masks under the guise that it is your right, you are basically saying, ‘Fuck everyone else, this is about me!’

There are societal norms and laws against getting behind the wheel of a vehicle when you are drunk or high and driving down the highway at 80 mph.   If you want to be that stupid and you crash your vehicle and kill yourself, then that would be unfortunate, but from the community’s standpoint it’s kind of like ‘too bad.’  However, if in the process of being stupid and irresponsible, you injure or kill passengers in your vehicle or collide with other vehicles and injure or kill people, then society pays a high and unacceptable price for your selfishness.

There are about 10,000 deaths a year from drunk driving accidents.  And there is no doubt in anyone’s mind that driving drunk is irresponsible, selfish and unacceptable.   There are currently over 120,000 American deaths from COVID-19 and yet, somehow, mask wearing and social distancing has become political.  This is absurd. 

If this president really cared about the citizens of this country, he would lead by example by fully supporting the guidance of the country’s top health experts.   But he chooses to put his head in the sand and continues to hope this will all magically go away – and at what cost in American lives?  General Custer was absolutely convinced he was right – until he wasn’t!

Here we are on Monday, buckling in for another week which will no doubt take all kinds of twists and turns.  That seems to be the norm these days – just ongoing chaos!  We’re all tired of it but I don’t see it settling down any time soon.   Given the events of this past week, Trump is no doubt feeling the pressure and we all know what happens when you corner a wild animal.  They just become more aggressive and irrational.  I suspect that’s what we can expect going forward.

There is a bright spot in the week, however (at least as far as I’m concerned!).  John Bolton’s book is due to be released tomorrow and is due in my mailbox on Thursday.  That should provide some interesting, amusing and depressing reading next weekend!   I, like many, wish Bolton would have testified before the House during the impeachment trial.   And, in fact, he said he would if subpoenaed.  The House chose not to issue that subpoena, knowing full well that the administration would try to block that subpoena just like they blocked so many other legally issued subpoenas so the issue would have been tied up in court for months.  And, the fact is, I’m sure that nothing John Bolton would have said in those hearing would have made any difference at all in the outcome.  The Senate’s ‘verdict’ was a forgone conclusion.

Just to remind everyone, John Bolton did offer to testify before the Senate during the impeachment trial, even without a subpoena and the Republican led Senate refused to call ANY witnesses including Bolton.   They knew that any testimony under oath from Bolton would be damning to the president and would make their task of acquitting Trump much more difficult.  So, we can certainly fault Bolton for not testifying before the House committee but the Republican led Senate is equally culpable in refusing to allow him to testify in the Senate.  But, no matter, the book will be out this week.

I’m sure it won’t change many minds.  Ardent Trump supporters will just dismiss it as a bunch of lies from a ‘traitor’ and ‘disgruntled employee’.  The administration is trying to make a big deal about him releasing classified information.  The irony is that if there are untruths in the book, they cannot be classified – you don’t normally classify lies.  So, the administration is going to have to choose between ‘it’s classified and therefore it’s true’ or ‘it’s a lie and it’s therefore not classified’.    This administration has a penchant for classifying information after the fact which is a questionable practice all by itself.  And further, when Trump recently made the statement that he believes EVERY conversation with him should be considered classified – that is a joke.  So, when it comes to determining what’s classified and what is not, I don’t have a lot of confidence that this administration has much credibility in making those arguments.  On the other hand, John Bolton has served under multiple presidents and is highly versed in national security issues and has a pretty good idea what is and is not classified.  Given the lack of credibility of this administration, I have to land on the side of Bolton on this one.    I have never been a big John Bolton fan, but I will read the book and draw my own conclusions.

The track for the record for the administration this past week has not been good. They tried to suppress publication of Bolton’s book – they lost.  The Supreme Court handed down decisions on DACA and LGBTQ rights that went against Trump’s administration.   There was the attempted ‘Friday night massacre’ of Geoffrey Berman, the attorney from the Southern District of New York, that turned into a spectacle and exposed the administration’s ongoing attempts to interfere with any and all investigations of Trump and anyone close to him.  There was the ‘spectacle’ in Tulsa which was a dismal failure and an embarrassment to the president given the poor turnout.  (Trump’s campaign manager, Brad Parscale, should be updating his resume.  I predict he will be soon joining the growing crowd ‘under the bus’.)  And, of course, there is the ongoing pandemic which Trump keeps trying to wish out of existence but which continues to kill thousands of Americans (120,000+ so far) and is on the uptick in 23 states.  Lastly, there are the polls showing that Trump is well behind Biden almost everywhere.  Yes, we have an angry, desperate President on our hands!

I won’t even try to predict what will happen this week.  But amidst the growing chorus of senior government and military officials who characterize Trump as ‘incompetent’, ‘irrational’, and driven solely by concerns over winning the election, anything is possible.  Buckle up!

Trump tweeted something yesterday that should at least cause citizens to raise an eyebrow and pause.  He tweeted, ““The recent Supreme Court decisions, not only on DACA, Sanctuary Cities, Census, and others, tell you only one thing, we need NEW JUSTICES of the Supreme Court. If the Radical Left Democrats assume power, your Second Amendment, Right to Life, Secure Borders, and … Religious Liberty, among many other things, are OVER and GONE!”

Once again, Trump believes that the Rule of Law only applies when it agrees with his view of the world.  There have been previous presidents who were not happy with rulings coming down from the Supreme Court, but they usually state that they are disappointed but respect the decision, i.e. deferring to and accepting the Rule of Law in this country.

Trump, on the other hand, simply states that we need ‘NEW JUSTICES’.  This is the part that should concern everyone. I would venture a guess that most people in this country are not aware that the number of Supreme Court justices is not mandated by the Constitution and has actually changed at several times during the course of this nation’s history.   The number of nine Supreme Court justices was established by Congress in 1869 and has not changed since then.

However, Congress does have the power to change that number.  Fortunately, I believe it requires both house of Congress to sign off on that legislation so it would be difficult to do with the House under Democratic control and the Senate under Republican control.   However, I would not be surprised if Trump, in cahoots Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, wouldn’t try to use some arcane rules to try to circumvent the ‘normal’ process.

The two most discussed cases of ‘court packing’ were done during the administrations of Andrew Johnson and Franklin Roosevelt.  The number of justices was reduced during Johnson’s administration to thwart his ability to appoint justices to the Supreme Court who would have supported Johnson’s post-civil war agenda.  Franklin Roosevelt tried to increase the number of justices because he got frustrated that the Supreme Court kept ruling against parts of his ‘New Deal’.  He wanted to increase the number of justices so he could appoint justices that would support his agenda.  Fortunately, there was sufficient bi-partisan support to kill this effort to pack the court to support a partisan agenda.

I’m just finishing up Madeleine Albright’s book, Fascism: A Warning, and in it, she profiles a number of modern day autocrats – Hugo Chavez (Venezuela), Erdogan (Turkey), Putin (Russia) to name a few – and, universally, every single one of these people packed the courts AFTER they were ‘elected’ in such a way that the courts essentially became rubber stamps for their expanding political power.  On the surface it looks like democracy, but in reality, the judicial system becomes a farce.  It is a standard play from the ‘autocrat handbook’!

Think it can’t happen here?  Mitch McConnell has been busy as a little beaver packing the lower courts with conservative appointees.  He is ramming these appointees through the senate at an unprecedented clip.  And, some of these appointees have been deemed ‘unqualified’ by the American Bar Association.  However, once again the most important qualification for anyone serving in this administration is to be 1) an avowed conservative and 2) loyal to Trump.

The Supreme Court just handed down two opinions that angered Trump – one on DACA and the other on LGBTQ rights.  There are a couple more big cases slated to be decided including one involving Trump’s tax returns.  If the Supreme Court rules against Trump on that case, I have no doubt that Trump, his toady, William Barr, and Mitch McConnell will begin looking at every possible way to, in Trump’s words, get “NEW JUSTICES”.

And, speaking of the judicial system becoming a farce, there was another attempted ‘Friday night massacre’ yesterday when Bill Barr tried to fire Geoffrey Berman, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York.  Berman refused to step down and this whole issue is no doubt headed to court.

Berman’s ‘sin’s’: he was involved in cases against Michael Cohen, Rudy Guiliani and two of his associates, and Deutsche Bank (the only bank that would touch Trump after his bankruptcies and from whom, Trump documents have been subpoenaed).  I talked about transparency yesterday and this is just another example of an attempt to thwart any and all oversight and investigations into Trump or anyone close to him.   This should send chills up the spine of every American who believes in the Rule of Law and a fair and impartial judiciary.

I highly recommend Heather Cox Richardson’s newsletter that addresses this subject today. 

Heather Cox Richardson