Author: mwmiller2@outlook.com

Years ago, before retiring, I was pursuing a very large project in a country that, shall we say, didn’t have a lot of transparency in how things got done.  It was challenging and very frustrating at times, but even more so for the executives that I worked for.   They asked me questions for which I had no answers and often became impatient at the lack of transparency I was able to provide on when or if this project was really going to happen.  At one point, they (against my advice) hired a consulting company that was headed up by the former CIA station chief at the US Embassy in this particular country.  After a few weeks, he came back with his report that really had no new information in it and told the executives that trying to clearly understand what was going on was like looking at a pond of dark muddy water that was filled with all kinds of aquatic life.  You could see from the roiling surface of the water that there was a lot of activity going on, but you couldn’t really see enough to fully understand what was actually happening.    This is the perfect analogy for the Trump administration.

If you look back over the last three and a half years, there is one constant – Trump, supported by his sycophants, has done everything in his power to minimize, obfuscate or block any and all attempts to provide oversight or transparency into his presidency.    There must be a reason.     And this should concern every single citizen.   It’s our country.  It’s our taxpayer dollars.  It’s the fate of our children.   Don’t we at least have the right to see how decisions are made?  How money is spent?  Who we are making strategic alliances with?  

Trump promised during the campaign to release his tax returns.  He lied.  He is the first president in modern history to do this.  And he has used the Dept. of the Treasury, his personal lawyers and the Department of Justice to keep these documents from being released.  Any reasonable person should ask ‘why’?

 He has refused almost all requests to provide witnesses to most Congressional Committees, even if those individuals have been issued legal subpoenas.   Even Nixon didn’t go as far as Trump. This White House is operating above the law. I wonder what would happen if we all ignored subpoenas?

He met with Vladimir Putin for almost two hours with no other US officials there and then confiscated the interpreter’s notes.  That is totally unprecedented, not to mention dangerous.

He has severely limited the number of people who can participate in calls with foreign leaders after the whistleblower came forward about the Ukraine call.  

He fires people left and right with no justification, even though in some of these positions, a justification is legally required to be provided to Congress (which he ignores).  The replacements he puts in place have one qualification – they espouse loyalty to Trump.  (I’ve been under the obviously mistaken belief that people were supposed to swear an oath to uphold the Constitution).  He continues to surround himself with acolytes whether they are qualified or not.  The most significant qualification in this administration is loyalty to Trump – not loyalty to the Constitution

He and his administration most recently have stated that Congress has no oversight over $ 1 trillion that they authorized under the CARES stimulus program. These are taxpayer dollars!!! It is not a Trump administration slush fund!!

And, of course, there is the all-out assault in trying to silence John Bolton and the publication of his book and others before him who have tried to speak out.  When anyone speaks out against Trump or his administration, he and his minions immediately launch a smear campaign and engage in full fledged character assassination.   The message is clear – no one should dare speak out against Trump!!!

Finally, he is constantly lying – about everything.   Most of these lies are provably false and yet he continues. 

If this administration is allowed another four years and the Republicans retain control of the Senate, this situation will get even worse.  The first term will look like it was conducted under a spotlight compared to what will happen in a second term. Accountability and transparency will be forgotten concepts in American democracy.

And here are a few more prognostications for a second Trump term.  I seriously hope I’m wrong, but after all of the reading I’ve done on how dictators come to power, I don’t think anything I’m going to say is much of a stretch. 

1. There will be a significant increase in white supremacist groups.  They are essentially unchecked now and will be even more so in a second term.  They will become more visible and more vocal in their support of Trump.
2. There will be a significant increase in racial unrest and rather than address any of the root causes, Trump will use the ‘bigger hammer’ approach and protests will be violently put down.  If it gets too bad, Trump may even take the opportunity to declare martial law.
3. There will be a significant increase in the sale of fire arms.  This will not help make the country safer but will lead to more gun related deaths.
4. Unfortunately, RBG probably won’t make it another 4 years and Trump will pick an ultra-conservative judge to replace her on the Supreme Court.  Roe v Wade will be overturned.  (And regardless of where you stand on this issue – it isn’t worth the price of our democracy!)
5. The overturning of Roe v. Wade will lead to a black-market abortion business that will be exploited by criminal networks.  It will lead to even more division in this country.
6. Restrictions on non-white, non-Christian immigrants will become the most restrictive in the nation’s history.
7. Given the ballooning national debt, social programs will be gutted – including Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and most other programs that many of the poor depend upon
8. The gap between the wealthiest in this country and everyone else will continue to widen
9. Trump will try to put restrictions on the press and if he’s successful at packing the Supreme Court, may even be successful
10. Trump will threaten to pull out of the G7 if Russia is not re-admitted. 
11. Trump may even pull out of NATO and attempt to negotiate new deals with Russia and China at the expense of NATO. Our allies around the world will find that they can no longer count on the US and alliances that have stood for years will be irreparably damaged.
12. I truly believe Trump will try to repeal or circumvent the 22^nd Amendment limiting any one person to two terms as president.
13. Lastly, the United States, once viewed as the ‘Shining City on a Hill’ which stood as the beacon of democracy around the world, will become irrelevant on the world stage.   China and Russia will be more than happy to fill the vacuum.

I’m sure many will look at this list and say, “That can never happen.”   I wish I could be so sure.  Given all of the mounting evidence, not one thing on this list is beyond the realm of possibility.

Yesterday was quite rainy here in Bozeman so I decided to have a little fun.  I wrote the first scene of a one act play (my first) about Trump and the upcoming book to be released by John Bolton.  I’m not sure if I will post it and it still needs some work so I’ll put that off for a bit.

I have already pre-ordered my copy of Bolton’s book and while I am angered that he refused to testify before the House Impeachment Committee, I still intend to read the book.  Frankly, I don’t expect any major revelations.  I have believed and stated ever since Trump took office, that the only thing he is interested in is staying in office – even at the expense of US strategic interests and citizens.  I wrote a column for the Bozeman Chronicle stating why I believed Trump is incompetent and not at all a leader.  I suspect Bolton’s book will just confirm what I already believe, and what is being demonstrated day after day.  (And what a lot of others with much more knowledge and credentials than I have also voiced.)

What continues to amaze and depress me is that, in the face of mounting and overwhelming evidence pointing to the fact that Trump is incompetent, corrupt and cares only about Trump at the expense of everything else, people still support him.  I guess it’s like the members of the Flat Earth Society, who, in spite of overwhelming evidence, continue to insist the Earth is flat.  Or, in spite of overwhelming scientific evidence and the consensus of virtually every credible scientist in the world that global warming is a serious threat to our planet, people choose to not believe it.

I am reading a book now, Facism: A Warning, by Madeleine Albright, former US Secretary of State, which, in light of the current administration, is more like reading a Stephen King novel.  But I’m sure that most Trump supporters would just respond by stating that she was the Secretary of State under Bill Clinton, so she’s a Democrat and you can’t believe anything she writes.  

But it’s not just Democrats that are pointing to the danger of Trump.  Most recently, Colin Powell, a host of other retired military commanders, some of whom have served under Trump, former associates, and now, John Bolton, who was Trump’s longest serving National Security Advisor, are continuing to ring the alarm bell.  It can’t be a coincidence that all of these people are speaking up about the danger this man poses to the United States of America.

Trump stated during his campaign that support amongst his base was so strong that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue in New York and ‘not lose any voters’.    As disgusting and distasteful as that statement is, I have to believe it.   Otherwise, what’s going on just doesn’t make any sense.

I personally believe that many people have made a Faustian bargain with Trump as they see him as a way to facilitate their own agendas, even at the expense of the greater strategic interests of the United States.  Why, for example, is Trump so popular with white, evangelical Christians when he is the antithesis of Christian behavior?  My theory – he has promised to overturn Roe v. Wade and severely limit LGBTQ rights.  So, for support of that agenda, he gets the white, evangelical Christian vote.  A Faustian bargain if there ever was one.

There are a lot of people in this country who are afraid of whites becoming a minority.  I’ve got news for all of you people – it will happen regardless of what you do.  Biology will win.  But Trump’s crackdown on non-Christian and non-white immigrants appeals to a certain segment of the population.  Trump fans these flames and people respond.  Have you ever questioned why those attending Trump rallies are overwhelmingly white?

And, of course, a segment of the wealthy in this country support Trump and his policies because it means more money in their coffers.  All you have to do is look at the widening disparity between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’ in this country to see where this is going. 

Many people remember John Kennedy’s famous line, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.”   Unfortunately, in the current environment, I think Trump and many of his followers have changed this to read, “How can I use this administration to get what I want out of this country – and the hell with everyone else!”

I wasn’t going to write anything today but I read something last night that kept bugging me and then there was a column in the Bozeman paper this morning that just added to my angst.  So, here I am.  I know not many people read this but it is cathartic for me to write it.  Also, the cartoon below was just a bonus in the paper this morning.  It has nothing to do with what I am writing about but I couldn’t resist!!

As most everyone knows, the government passed stimulus bills of over $2 TRILLION to help the economy ravaged by the COVID 19 pandemic (CARES ACT).  As part of those stimulus packages there was a $660 BILLION program called the Paycheck Protection Plan and an almost $500 BILLION package designated for programs and lending facilities to aid mid- and large-sized businesses.   Congress included several oversight provisions in these bills since, after all, this is a significant chunk of taxpayer dollars.  However, the legal department at the Treasury Department issued an opinion stating that these programs were not subject to the oversight provisions and the information requested by Congress need not be provided!!!  Remember, we are talking about over $1 TRILLION of taxpayer money here.

This position resulted in some of the involved Inspectors General writing a letter to the relevant Congressional committees to flag this as an issue, i.e. this would greatly hamper their ability to provide ‘transparency’ to how these government funds are actually spent and to whom they are disbursed.

In addition, “When President Donald Trump signed the CARES Act in March, he included a signing statement suggesting he would ignore several of the oversight requirements, including that the newly appointed special inspector general inform Congress if the administration refuses to cooperate with requests for information.

Trump then removed the acting inspector general for the Pentagon, Glenn Fine, after Fine had been selected to chair the PRAC, the group of inspectors general who will oversee the stimulus spending.” (https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/15/politics/inspectors-general-treasury-oversight/index.html)

What really set me off this morning was reading a column from one of the Republican Montana legislators railing against Governor Steve Bullock, who is a democrat, about how the funding that Montana received under the CARES ACT ($1.2 BILLION) was being spent.  I have included the text of the column below.   

This is yet another example of Republicans, more than willing to demand openness and transparency (and rightly so), but turning a blind eye when Trump and his administration refuse to provide oversight on the spending of over $1TRILLION of taxpayer money.  What the hell? 

Once again, the Trump administration is trampling all over the constitution.  The ‘power of the purse’ is vested in the Congress according to the constitution.  Only Congress has the power to allocate federal funding.  And any reasonable person would assume that if Congress allocates $1 TRILLION in taxpayer dollars, they should have some interest in ensuring that money is spent wisely, legally and for the stated purpose for which is was allocated.  In this case, Congress allocated the funds, put in what they believed were sufficient oversight measures and Trump basically said, “Thanks for the money – fuck you!” 

It is beyond me why this doesn’t outrage every single American.  These are our taxpayer dollars!! We have a right to know how they are being spent and to whom they are being given.   And the Republicans need to grow a spine and stop putting up with this blatant abuse of authority.  Like I said yesterday – this is how democracies die – from the inside, through ostensibly ‘legal’ means, when the people who have the power to check abuses fail to act. 

HOW DEMOCRACIES DIE

Last week I offered up a few quotes from Benito Mussolini.  One of my ‘favorites’ is: “The press of Italy is free, freer than the press of any other country, so long as it supports the regime.”

Trump’s attacks on the media are well documented and the phrase ‘fake news’ has become part of the new ‘norm.’  These attacks are unrelenting and while most often reserved for most major news outlets, he will even, at times, go after Fox News if someone says something with which he disagrees or which paints him in a bad light. In one of his latest tweets he not only went after Comcast, but encouraged his followers to ‘drop them’.  The exact tweet is:  

“Concast is known for its terrible service. On top of that they provide FAKE NEWS on MSDNC & @NBCNews. Drop them and go to a good provider!”

Since when is it OK for the President of the United States to go after a specific company like this?   Regardless of your political views, this should raise alarms with everyone.  What’s next, the President will start endorsing products kind of like ‘Oprah’s favorite things’.  (Of course, he will probably demand a cut of the profits.)  So, he will use the power of the presidency to help those companies he likes and use it to harm those he dislikes?  This is just wrong and a clear abuse of the office of the President.

I know – this is just a little thing.  This is just Trump being Trump.  Given the events of the last three- and one-half years, I think it is more than ‘Trump being Trump.’  After my bike ride on Sunday, the rain set in so it was a good day to kick back and read a book.  I read, How Democracies Die, by two Harvard professors, Steven Levitsy and Daniel Ziblatt, who have spent their careers studying the rise and fall of democracies around the world.  I would highly recommend it to anyone who really cares about the institution of democracy in this country. 

Most people think that democracies end as the result of coups or revolutions.   In the past, that was often the case, but in more recent times most countries that are now considered authoritarian regimes started out with leaders elected democratically at the ballot box.

“Because there is no single moment – no coup, declaration of martial law, or suspension of the constitution – in which the regime obviously ‘crosses the line’ into dictatorship, nothing may set off society’s alarm bells.  Those who denounce government abuse may be dismissed as exaggerating or crying wolf.  Democracy’s erosion is, for many, almost imperceptible.”

“Once a would-be authoritarian makes it to power, democracies face a second critical test:  Will the autocratic leader subvert democratic institutions or be constrained by them?….  This is how elected autocrats subvert democracy – packing and ‘weaponizing’ the courts and other neutral agencies, buying off media and the private sector (or bullying them into silence), and rewriting the rules of politics to tilt the playing field against opponents.  The tragic paradox of the electoral route to authoritarianism is that democracy’s assassins use the very institutions of democracy – gradually, subtly, and even legally – to kill it.”

Just something to think about.  Putin (Russia) was elected.  Erdogan (Turkey) was elected.   Chavez and Maduro (Venezuela) were elected.  Fujimori (Chile) was elected.  And the list goes on.  If you think this could never happen in the United States of America, history says that it very well can.

“Our constitutional system, while older and more robust than any in history, is vulnerable to the same pathologies that have killed democracy elsewhere.  Ultimately, then, American democracy depends on us – the citizens of the United States.  No single political leader can end a democracy; no single leader can rescue one, either.   Democracy is a shared enterprise.  Its fate depends on all of us.”

How Democracies Die,  Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, Broadway Books (division of Penguin Random House), 2018

FACISM:   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.

I’m sure many who choose to read this will think that I am being overly dramatic.  After all, the United States is a democracy and has been since our founding.  This could never happen here.  Of course, that’s what the people of Italy thought about 100 years ago when Benito Mussolini destroyed a democracy and Italy became a dictatorship.  How did that happen?  Well, I suggest you dig into that issue a little before you dismiss the idea out of hand that it could not happen here.  History says that it can!  I have provided a snippet of that history and a few quotes from Mussolini himself.

“At rallies—surrounded by supporters wearing black shirts—Mussolini caught the imagination of the crowds. His physique was impressive, and his style of oratory, staccato and repetitive, was superb. His attitudes were highly theatrical, his opinions were contradictory, his facts were often wrong, and his attacks were frequently malicious and misdirected; but his words were so dramatic, his metaphors so apt and striking, his vigorous, repetitive gestures so extraordinarily effective, that he rarely failed to impose his mood.” (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Benito-Mussolini/Rise-to-power)

Quotes from Benito Mussolini:

“The keystone of the Fascist doctrine is its conception of the State, of its essence, its functions, and its aims. For Fascism the State is absolute, individuals and groups relative.”

“The press of Italy is free, freer than the press of any other country, so long as it supports the regime.”

“We become strongest, I feel, when we have no friends upon whom to lean, or to look for moral guidance”

“Yes, a dictator can be loved. Provided that the masses fear him at the same time. The crowd love strong men. The crowd is like a woman.”

“If only we can give them faith that mountains can be moved, they will accept the illusion that mountains are moveable, and thus an illusion may become reality.”

“The state reserves the right to be the sole interpreter of the needs of society.”

“Religion is man-made to assist in controlling the weak minded individuals because during times of atrocity and despair they feel strength in numbers.”

“The definition of fascism is The marriage of corporation and state”

“For my part I prefer fifty thousand rifles to five million votes.”

Many of Trump’s ardent and passionate supporters will immediately take the position that I’m just upset that Trump won the election and this is just sour grapes.   It is true that I truly disdain this man but there have been presidents in the past with whom I disagreed.  But this is much bigger than liking or disliking.  This man is in full attack on our democracy the same way Mussolini destroyed the democracy in Italy. And I feel compelled to speak out.   As they say, ‘actions speak louder than words’ and while Trump might not be the gifted orator that Mussolini was said to be, his actions are very, very similar.   We need to realize what is going on before it is too late.  It can happen in America.

Democracy is never a thing done. Democracy is always something that  a nation must be doing. What is necessary now is one thing and one thing only that democracy become again democracy in action, not democracy accomplished and piled up in goods and gold. Archibald MacLeish

I’d like to start this post today with a little thought experiment.  The picture above is of heavily armed ‘anti-lock down’ protestors on the steps of the Michigan capitol.  This was before the murder of George Floyd at the hands of a white police officer and all of the subsequent unrest.  The fact is, many businesses that are owned by people of color were hurt by the COVID-19 shutdown just like many businesses owned by whites.  So, imagine this picture, but instead of a group of white people, this was a picture of a group of heavily armed black people protesting in the exact same way.  Do you really believe that the police would have handled this in the same way?  Do you think they would have just nonchalantly let this heavily armed group of black people roam around the capitol?  Do you think the community would have accepted this in the same way?  Any of us who are being totally honest know that a group of heavily armed black people trying to make the same exact point in the same exact place would have been treated much differently and, in all likelihood, there would have been confrontations with the police and possibly violence  (not to mention community outrage).   Just think about that for a minute.

Several senior Trump administration officials, including Attorney General William Barr, have stated they don’t believe there is systematic racism in police departments and in the justice system.  The data simply don’t support those positions.  You can’t solve a problem unless you first admit there is a problem and to continue to insist that systematic racism does not exist in police departments and in the justice system just exacerbates the problem.  Are these difficult and uncomfortable conversations to have – yes!  And I fully understand that I am a white male and I can go anywhere in the country and not have to worry about the police or entanglements with the justice system.    That said, I am not blind, and I have a personal interest in doing what little I can to help fix this.    My ex-wife is Hispanic which means that my daughter is of mixed race.  If nothing else, I owe it to her to do what little I can to help make this country and this world a better place.    And eliminating systemic racism is part of that. 

First of all, the data reporting and collection of police actions, arrests, deaths of those police custody, police shootings and the demographics associated with that data needs to be more robust and accurate to facilitate the analysis required to drive true policy reform.  However, based upon compiled estimates of available data there a few startling figures that paint a pretty bleak picture.

• “The rate of in-custody deaths in the United States is more than double Australia’s and about six times the United Kingdom’s” (12 per 110K in the US; 5 per 100K in Australia; 2 per 100K in the UK)
• Police in the US fatally shoot more people than any other Western country – by far.  The US has averaged over 1000 shooting deaths at the hands of police for the last several years.  In 2018 the rate in the US was 31 fatal police shootings per 10 million people versus:  1/10M in Germany; 3/10M in Australia; 6/10M in Sweden; 2/10M in New Zealand; less than 1/10M in the UK
• According to data from 2016 police are almost four times as likely to use force on black people as white people
• The US has the highest prison population of any country in the world!!
  • “Black Americans make up a third of the US prison population, despite only making up around an eighth of the country’s total population.”

https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/08/us/us-police-floyd-protests-country-comparisons-intl/index.html

To make the statement that there is no systematic racism in the policing or justice systems in this country is to deny reality.   The murder of George Floyd was just the fuse that lit off these protests.  The fuel is the underlying and long simmering anger, frustration and inaction by the government and every single one of us to recognize this disparity and work to address it. 

And even now, Trump and his associates have latched on to the ‘Defund the Police’ as something to use in campaign ads and try to further divide this nation.  Wouldn’t the more appropriate response given everything that is going on, be to ask intelligent, probing questions.  “What does that really mean?” “What would that look like?”  “Is it really reasonable for cities to spend a third of their budgets on police?”  “Is there a better way to ensure the safety of our communities?” “Is it necessary to arm police departments with military hardware and weapons?”  These are not unreasonable questions.  Why can’t we even have the conversation?  And I am fully aware that 131 police officers were killed in the line of duty in 2019 and that’s also a conversation we need to have.   But they are not mutually exclusive.   You can’t solve the problem by having one conversation at the expense of the other. 

Using strong-arm, autocratic “law and order’ tactics will not solve the problem and it is clearly not working now.  Ignoring the problem and putting our collective heads in the sand won’t solve the problem.  The only thing that will solve this problem is to 1) admit this problem exists, 2) begin having difficult and sometimes uncomfortable conversations about racism, policing and the justice system,  3) start making policy decisions based upon facts and data rather than slogans and sound bites, and 4) listening more to what all of the stakeholders are saying rather than immediately taking entrenched polarized positions on these issues.   Failure to address this now just means that the problem will be kicked down the road again and continue to simmer.  And the next time a fuse is lit because a person of color dies needlessly at the hands of white police officers, the result will be even more cataclysmic.  It’s a choice each of us has to make – what kind of a country do we want to live in? An autocratic police state filled with bigotry, hatred and divisiveness or a country where everyone is treated with respect, and we strive to make life better and safer for ALL Americans. 

No doubt we will hear a lot about Trump as the ‘law and order’ candidate going forward.  The irony and hypocrisy are almost laughable if it weren’t so serious.  Just to remind everyone, Trump is an ‘unindicted co-conspirator’ in the same crimes for which his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, was sentenced to prison.   Trump could not be indicted because of the DOJ policy stating that a sitting president cannot be indicted.  And that’s just the start of a long list of actions for which Trump has been not been held accountable.

To further the irony, the phrase “law and order” was used as the title of a 1919 speech given by Calvin Coolidge in response to a police strike in Boston. Coolidge, then governor of Massachusetts, had called in the National Guard [State Militia at that time] to quell a weekend of lawlessness when the department attempted to unionize. The Boston papers characterized the cops as Bolsheviks who set out to destroy civil society.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2018/11/05/law-order-campaign-that-won-richard-nixon-white-house-years-ago/

Definition:  Autocrat – someone who insists on complete obedience from others; an imperious or domineering person

Trump should really call himself the ‘My Law and My Orders’ President.  The turnover in the Whitehouse has been unprecedented in this administration and most often, the ‘sin’ of those fired or forced out is because they dared to disagree with Trump.  The following are excerpts from an article by Dareh Gregorian for NBC News last September.  (And there have been even more people ousted since then and if I were Mark Esper, the current Secretary of Defense, I’d be updating my resume!)

“The top echelon of the Trump administration has become a high-speed revolving door — with turnover in 78 percent of the positions, a new study has found.

And 31 percent of those White House “A-Team” jobs have turned over more than once, the study by the Brookings Institution shows.

“It’s historic, it’s unprecedented, it’s off the charts,” the study’s author, Kathryn Dunn Tenpas, told NBC News. “I’ve never seen this kind of turnover before.”

In just 32 months, President Donald Trump’s rate of change has surpassed “all of his predecessors who served four-year terms,” she said.PT. 10, 201902:13

The report focuses on the top 65 positions in the Executive Office of the President, which includes jobs like national security adviser, chief of staff, communications director, press secretary and director of national intelligence.

The study found 51 of the 65 positions have turned over since Trump took office.

Sixteen of those positions have turned over twice — or more, the study found.

[…]

Tenpas, who’s studied White House staffing since the 1990s, attributed the high rate of the change to “the president himself. In all of my studies, I’ve never seen a chief executive who fires staff more frequently and more publicly than President Trump.”

“It’s extraordinary,” she said.

The A-Team figures do not include Trump’s Cabinet, where there’s also been an unprecedented amount of tumult and turnover. Nine out of the 15 Cabinet positions that are in the presidential line of succession have turned over at least once, Tenpas found. That number surpasses the amount of change during entire first terms of Presidents Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama, and the one term of George H.W. Bush.

The elder Bush is the only president who came close to the amount of Cabinet turnover: eight, but that was over four years.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/charts-white-house-turnover-breaking-records-n1056101

When loyalty to Donald Trump is the primary qualification for keeping your job and there is absolutely no room to speak truth to power, that is a major problem and should concern everyone.  If this had occurred under the previous administration, there would be outrage, calls for investigations and an unending cacophony from the Republicans about incompetence, failures of leadership, violating the Constitution and everything else.  And yet now, the Republicans, by and large, just sit on their hands and watch, or worse yet, respond with ,”These people serve at the pleasure of the President.  He has the authority make personnel changes as he sees fit.”  Given the unprecedented turnover rate, you would think somebody might ask ‘why?’  I guess that is just a bridge too far.  The silence is deafening and dangerous and allows Trump to continue to operate with complete impunity and unchecked.

Yesterday, several senior Trump administration officials stated that they don’t believe there is any systemic racism in police departments and the justice system.  The data paint a completely different picture.  Yet another indicator of just how out of touch Trump and his minions are with reality.  I intend to tackle that tomorrow.  In the meantime,  enjoy your stay in ‘Trumpland’ – where facts don’t matter and reality is whatever King Trump says it is!! 

I often these days ask myself, “What am I missing?”  “Why do people so vigorously support Trump in spite of everything I see?”  I still don’t have an answer.  I have some theories but, in my experience, it’s very difficult to get a definitive answer to the question of why, specifically, people support Trump.  The most often response is, “The economy is doing great and unemployment is low.”  Even if true, I just cannot understand why that is a necessary and sufficient argument for allowing American democracy devolve into an authoritarian regime.  This is what I see.

First and foremost, it should be apparent to everyone by now that disagreeing with Trump in any way, shape or form will lead to immediate retaliation and threats.  Trump turns it into a personal mission to crush and/or discredit ANYONE who disagrees with him.  Just recently, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) stated that she agreed with the statements made by General Mattis (ret) excoriating President Trump.  Immediately, Trump has made it a personal mission to ensure Sen. Murkowski is defeated for re-election this year.   And Sen. Murkowski joins a long list of people who have, at one time or another, disagreed with the President, and are now in his sights.  Look at the long and unprecedented list of people who have served in the White House and are no longer there because they said something that displeased the President.   This is the type of behavior exhibited by Putin, Erdogan, Kim Jong Un and other despots.  In a true democracy people should feel free to speak their minds. 

In the last few weeks, Trump has fired 5 Inspectors General charged with independently and apolitically providing for government oversight.  They are Michael Atkinson, Intelligence Community; Mitch Behm, Transportation Dept.’ Glenn Fine, Defense Dept.; Christi Grimm; Health and Human Services; Steve Linick, State Dept.   I find it no coincidence that each of these individuals, in the course of doing their jobs, were investigating possible wrong-doing by Trump and his associates.   Steve Linick at the State Dept. was fired while in the middle of an investigation of Mike Pompeo, Secretary of State, into misuse of government assets.  Mitch Behm (Transportation) was looking into possible conflicts of interest with Elaine Chao, the Secretary of Transportation (and Mitch McConnell’s wife!!).  The message is clear – Donald Trump does not want any oversight of any kind for him and anyone close to him.  Period.  That’s not democracy.  That is what dictators do!

Trump promised to ‘drain the swamp.’    And yet there is a long list of people associated with the President who are in jail, under investigation or have had to resign because of ethics violations.  You are the company you keep.  And Trump keeps the company of a bunch of really corrupt and slimy people.  And just to add to that a little, Trump would like to repeal the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) that prohibits American companies from paying bribes overseas.  (Having worked in international business development for a big chunk of my career, I have a lot of experience with this!)  So, in Trump’s mind, as long as we win contracts overseas, we don’t care how corrupt we have to be – talk about ceding America’s moral authority, such as it was.

He has pulled the United States out of most international agreements; The Paris Climate Accords, The Iran Nuclear Deal, The Transpacific Partnership, The Nuclear Test Treaties with Russia; and most recently deciding to withhold funding for  WHO (World Health Organization) in the midst of a global pandemic and to withdraw from the Open Skies Treaty that allows for overflights of signatory countries to help ensure compliance with international arms agreements.    Rather than trying to work with our allies to strengthen alliances which can then be used to collectively pressure international ‘bad players’ to be more cooperative and transparent, we will be going it alone.  The United States cannot maintain the position of global superpower without cooperation and support drawn from strong strategic alliances.  Russia knows that and China knows that. 

He has engaged in a trade war with China, the economic impacts of which are borne by the American consumer rather than China – in spite of what the President may say.    China is not paying for these tariffs!!!  These tariffs are paid for by higher prices paid by American consumers and shrinking markets for farmers.    Are there problems dealing with China – yes!  But we would be in a far stronger position to bring about change by forming strong strategic alliances and then collectively putting pressure on China.   The US, in trying to do this by ourselves, will lose this battle.   The only question is, how much pain will the US consumers have to endure?

President Trump, from almost day one, has continued to denigrate the intelligence services of this country.   He does not read the PDB (Presidential Daily Briefing) that is a comprehensive intelligence report about issues facing America.   As such, there is no clear international strategy that can be conveyed to the military, Dept of State, and intelligence agencies.  Decisions affecting the US national security are made via Tweet and very often without consulting all of the key stakeholders and allies.  A prime example is Trump’s decision to withdraw troops rapidly from Syria.  That left our Kurdish allies flailing in the wind to face a potential slaughter by Turkey and a power vacuum that got quickly filled by Russia.   Conducting foreign policy by Tweet is ridiculous and dangerous.  It does not leave America safer and certainly doesn’t help to Make America Great!

Trump is continuously replacing very experienced, eminently qualified people throughout his administration with people whose sole qualification is their unwavering support for Trump.   All of these people who have been forced out or fired, swore an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States, NOT to be loyal to Trump at any cost to the country.  A perfect example is Richard Grenell, who was put in the position of Acting Director of National Intelligence after Dan Coates was forced out.  Richard Grenell has virtually no intelligence experience or background!  His sole qualification is that he is a loyal Trump supporter.  Richard Grenell was replaced by John Ratcliffe, who has since been confirmed as DNI.  Like Grenell, John Ratcliffe has never worked at any of the 17 intelligence agencies and has essentially no intelligence experience.  He also had to withdraw his nomination to the position earlier because of allegations that he padded his resume.  But, like Grenell, he is a loyal (and vocal) Trump supporter.  Actions like this should scare the shit out of anyone who cares at all about democracy and the Constitution.   The President is surrounding himself with people, some of whom have questionable credentials, who are basically ‘yes’ men.  And by the way, they are virtually all men and all white!!  If people in senior leadership positions in the government cannot speak ‘truth to power’, that almost by definition is an autocracy.

Trump is the only president in modern history to not put his assets into a blind trust to avoid even the appearance of impropriety and conflicts of interest while in office.  His sons are allegedly running the business without talking to the father about what’s going on – bullshit!  There are currently lawsuits winding their way through the courts about violations of the Emoluments Clause in the Constitution.  And of course, he has his daughter and son-in-law working as ‘senior advisors’ in the White House.   That clearly violates nepotism laws that govern virtually every other government agency.  However, once again Trump shows that he is above the law.  But the thing that concerns me and should concern everyone more than the mere fact that they are working in the White House, is the fact that their father pushed through their high level clearances so they now have access to some of the most sensitive intelligence data produced by the agencies.  When the clearance paperwork was submitted through the normal process, the agencies involved recommended against giving Jared Kushner a high-level clearance because of his overseas financial entanglements.  But Trump, yet again, found that rules don’t apply to him and his family and he pushed through the clearance. 

Another dictatorial trait exhibited virtually daily by Trump is the continued attack on any press that disagrees with or fact checks things he says or asks him hard questions.  Fake News – we’ve all heard it.  First of all, if you are in any kind of a leadership position, you should expect hard questions.  It goes with the territory.  If you can’t answer hard questions, you shouldn’t be in the job – period!  But beyond that, it should raise a major red flag to everyone that Trump and his minions will only appear on and allow interviews almost exclusively with one media outlet, Fox News.  And it is well known that Sean Hannity and Trump talk frequently.   A free press is one of the mainstays of any democracy and restricting the press and denigrating the press is a standard tactic used by virtually all dictators.   Another thing that should scare the shit out of everyone.

And, of course, there is the lying.  It is a provable fact that Trump lies and spews misinformation virtually every day.    The rest of the world leaders are well aware of this.  How can we have any credibility with any other country if the President cannot be truthful to the citizens of this country.  It’s impossible.   There is no country in the world that will trust anything Trump has to say.  This is a huge disservice to our allies and a gaping national security risk to be exploited by our adversaries.  Don’t think for a second that Russia and China are not aware of this and exploiting it.  This is not Making America Great.  It is making American weak and vulnerable.

Lastly, there are the current crises facing this country with the COVID 19 pandemic and the widespread unrest as a result of the killing of George Floyd.  For the first, he tried to deny it was a problem, then took some action in a kind of half-assed way, would not put a national strategy in place, and started looking for scapegoats to absolve himself of any responsibility.  And with the death toll over 108,000 and climbing, he has the audacity to try to tell us all that ‘his’ response was perfect.

And in the instance of the current unrest, Trump is in his White House ‘fortress’, entirely unempathetic and deciding the best way to handle this is to order thousands of US military troops into the streets to ‘dominate’ the protestors.  If that is not the sign of a dictator, I don’t know what is.   Fortunately, the senior leadership of the military realized what an assault on the Constitution this would be and have spoken up against such action.  Let’s hope that prevails.

 So, I come back to my original question, “Given all of this, how can you support this man?”  If the answer is still, “The economy is great, the stock market is up and there is low unemployment,” then I have to ask, “Is our democracy worth so little?”   There are many Americans who have fought and died defending this democracy.  It is not perfect, but we cannot dishonor all of those who have made the ultimate sacrifice and all of those who have fought and continue to fight for ‘Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness,’ and all of those who continue to fight for Equal Justice by letting one man put a price on our democracy.   Our democracy and our constitution are priceless but fragile.  We all need to recognize that and act accordingly.

Now that President Trump has ceded any moral authority the United States ever had to criticize other authoritarian regimes for using their military forces to crackdown on dissidents in their countries, we are further along the path to becoming just another authoritarian regime.  Sad but true.

This president and his Congressional supporters are so out of touch with what is going on in this country that it is truly frightening.  Senator Lindsay Graham, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee has chosen, at the behest of President Trump to spend the committees time and energy investigating the investigation into the Russian interference in the 2016 election.  This in spite of the findings of the Republican led Senate Intelligence Committee that the original investigation was justified!!  And this during a time when the country is crying out for reform of the criminal justice system which is what the Judicial Committee should be focused on.   This is nothing other than a taxpayer funded effort to support Trump’s re-election. 

(And just a side note on the Russia investigation.  I worked in the Defense Industry for over thirty years, held a Top-Secret clearance (and beyond) for most of that time, and worked very closely with the military and other intelligence agencies to provide information to counter threats to this country.  In addition, I read the Mueller report cover-to-cover, all 441 pages.   I personally find it deplorable that the President (and his toadies) continue to publicly attack and vilify the intelligence agencies of this country.  And further, I don’t know how anyone could read the Mueller report and come away feeling that 1) there is no doubt whatsoever about the Russian interference and 2) there is no doubt about the President’s obstruction of justice.)  

Continuing with the theme of Trump as a landlord from yesterday, we should all know by now how much Donald Trump is consumed with how things look.  It’s all about the optics.  If you’ve ever been to the Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in New York you understand.   The façade is more important than the substance.  It most likely explains why Trump refuses to wear a mask – it just doesn’t look good.  But this obsession with optics and how things look is preventing this administration from trying to solve real problems.  You can only solve a problem if you first admit that there is a problem.   If you continually pretend that everything is all hunky-dory, you’ll never address the real problem.

Trump declared victory yesterday because the stock market was up 800 points.  That’s great!  It did squat to address any of the major problems facing this country.  Focusing on the stock market and unemployment rates is not going to solve the structural and foundational problems facing this country.   In a space-related campaign ad (that his campaign was forced to remove because it violated NASA guidelines!), Trump makes the statement, “You can’t be number one on earth if you are number two in space.” and that “we are not going to be number two anywhere.”   But the facts just don’t support that statement.

We have the highest incarceration rate of any country in the world!!  I’m not sure that’s something to be proud of.  Americans pay, on average, 56% more for prescription medicines than other industrialized countries.  In a study by the Commonwealth Fund, the US spent the largest percentage of GDP on healthcare – and had the worst outcomes overall. And access to and affordability of healthcare lags behind almost every other industrialized nation.   Although the US universities are still ranked among the best in the world, students in elementary, middle and high school lag behind many other countries in areas of math and science in particular.  And then of course there is the whole issue of affordability and access for college.  US college students are burdened with unprecedented debt, unseen in any other industrialized country.   The US is the second largest contributor to pollution affecting climate change in the world!  And now, the whole issue of racial injustice and inequality is once again at the forefront of issues facing this country. 

There are real, structural problems facing this country and failure to address them, will lead to a further deterioration of our country, our position of leadership in the world and the continued erosion of our democracy.  

Think about it.  We all have to spend a certain amount of time and energy working on the basic maintenance of our homes and vehicles.  If you ignore the termites eating away at your walls or you never change the oil in your car, things will begin to fail.  And if you ignore these problems too long, it will lead to a catastrophic failure.   Putting a new coat of paint on your house if it’s infested with termites will not solve the problem.  Washing your car if you haven’t changed the oil in it for 100,000 miles won’t solve the problem.  That’s not hyperbole.  That’s a fact. 

These days if feels like Trump and his minions are out mowing the lawn and talking about how pretty the grass is while in the background, the house is burning to the ground.

I once again recommend Professor Richardson’s blog.

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/people/4875576-heather-cox-richardson