Tag Archives: POTUS

legal news

SCOTUS justices provide satisfaction

I took more than a little bit of satisfaction from this week’s stunning decision from the U.S. Supreme Court that no president is above the law.

My satisfaction came in the form of two justices’ decision to side with the 7 to 2 majority that declared that Donald Trump cannot invoke presidential immunity no matter what, that a Manhattan, N.Y., prosecutor is entitled to obtain Trump’s financial records in a probe that could result in some serious criminal indictments.

Those two justices happen to Donald Trump’s two nominees to the highest court in America: Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh.

Let’s presume Trump’s ignorance of the law and the Constitution for a moment and conclude that the president had hoped Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh would stand with him. I mean, Trump does demand loyalty even from members of an independent and co-equal branch of the federal government. The justices didn’t do as Trump no doubt wanted.

This gives me hope on at least one important matter. Gorsuch and Kavanaugh likely will sit in their high offices long after Trump leaves his office. Trump said he wanted to appoint rock-ribbed, true-blue conservatives to the federal judiciary, which is another way of saying he wants judges who will vote in his favor at all costs.

Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh saw the question arising from the Trump finances case differently. They interpreted the law with no regard to how it might affect Trump’s continuing refusal to release his financial records to prosecutors.

I cannot predict whether Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh will continue to demonstrate their judicial independence on future cases. The Supreme Court term has ended; justices will return to the bench in October, just ahead of the November presidential election.

I am hoping the election will deliver a new president who then will take over the appointment powers from a president who doesn’t grasp that the concept of an independent judiciary is inscribed in our nation’s governing document.

I am going to hope that the men who ended up on the court because Donald Trump nominated them will continue to exhibit the independence they showed in determining that no one — not even the president of the United States — is immune from criminal prosecution.

national news

Donald ramps up his demagoguery

Let’s call it Demagoguery by The Donald.

It was on full display this weekend as Donald Trump spoke to the nation during two Independence Day events.

He said this, among other things: “Our nation is witnessing a merciless campaign to wipe out our history, defame our heroes, erase our values, and indoctrinate our children. Angry mobs are trying to tear down statues of our founders, deface our most sacred memorials, and unleash a wave of violent crime in our cities.”

How about that? Makes you proud, right? Well, if it does, then you’re as sick as Donald Trump.

Trump’s full-on, all-out assault on our nation’s culture contains so many red flags, I almost don’t know where to begin.

A “merciless campaign to wipe out our history, defame our heroes …”

I want to visit with that statement for just a moment.

Defaming “our heroes” is nowhere to be found in this current effort. The “heroes” to whom Trump refers are actually traitors to the nation. These are the individuals who sided with the Confederacy that in 1861 seceded from the Union. Their aim was to overthrow the federal government. They went to war against the United States.

Why? Because they wanted to preserve slavery. They wanted to retain the ability to enslave human beings, to treat them as property.

These individuals might be “heroes” to those who endorsed the treason they committed, but not to the rest of us. They are traitors.

Yet these are the individuals Donald Trump wants to salute. These are the treasonous characters Trump wants to salute.

I am having trouble recalling a time in my life when I’ve heard such blatant, bald-faced demagoguery coming from the president of the United States.

There it is. Laid out there for all to see and hear.

This individual is a disgrace.

national news

Kanye for POTUS?

Kanye West has tossed his hat into the presidential ring.

He wants to run for president in 2020. My first reaction was decidedly mixed, believe it or not.

Initially, my thought was this: What kind of gimmick is this clown pitching to us? A rapper who married into a reality TV family, a guy with nothing whatsoever to offer a nation in turmoil wants to lead the government and become commander in chief of the world’s mightiest military machine? Is he serious? We’ve got some serious issues to resolve, not to mention a serious crisis involving our collective health and, indeed, our lives!

Then it dawned on me: This United States of America had the bad sense to elect Donald John Trump in 2016.

God help us.

Donald Trump

Worst week of hideous saga coming to an end

I believe it’s fair to suggest that Donald John Trump is coming off the worst week of the presidency he inherited.

It has revealed to the world just how low this individual can go to debase the principles he took an oath to protect.

Let’s ponder a few things that occurred.

George Floyd was killed by police in Minneapolis; the cops who killed him were fired immediately; one of them was charged with murder and manslaughter, while three others have been charged as well. Trump’s response was to lash out at the protesters; to be fair, many “protests” turned to riots … which drew Trump’s public attention. He has been silent on the issue of how African-Americans are mistreated too often by police agencies.

Trump then vowed to unleash “thousands and thousands of heavily armed” active-duty military personnel to “dominate” the streets of American cities. He said he would use the most potent and lethal military machine in world history on American citizens exercising their rights to protest government policy.

He also used cops and some sort of “secret security force” to clear the streets between the White House and an Episcopal church of peaceful protesters. The cops used tear gas on the protesters. Trum then traipsed to the church, carrying a Bible. He stood before the holy place, held up the Bible … for a photo opportunity! Yes, this individual demonstrated for all the world to see how he is able to use a Holy Bible as a political prop.

The blowback from these repeated demonstrations has been scathing condemnation general-grade officers, including a former defense secretary, two former chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a former White House chief of staff, the former special operations commander and an assortment of three- and four-star officers, all of whom have served their country with honor and heroism. 

Oh, and thousands more Americans died from COVID-19, the disease Trump dismissed as no worse than the flu.

I have said it many times and I will say it again and again. Donald Trump is morally, temperamentally and psychologically unfit for the office he holds.

I would suggest that we have witnessed the worst possible week of a presidency in mortal peril of disintegration … except that we have many more weeks ahead of us before we can usher this individual out of the Oval Office for the final time.

national news

What kind of lowlife would do this?

1 Comment

I just cannot stop shaking my head in utter disgust.

Donald Trump continues to exhibit the traits of a disgraceful, despicable lowlife capable of defaming the characters of those with whom he has mere political disagreements.

His latest target happens to be an MSNBC talk show host, Joe Scarborough, a former Republican member of Congress who has since become a Trump critic.

The president of the United States of America has suggested several times openly that Scarborough had a hand in the death of a former congressional aide. Donald Trump has said Scarborough was responsible for the death of Lori Kaye Klausutis. Authorities have debunked anything of the sort.

Trump, though, keeps pitching that scurrilous lie. Not only is he seeking to harm the reputation of Joe Scarborough, Trump is brining untold suffering and pain to Klausutis’ family. Her widower has called on Trump to cease and desist. So has Utah GOP Sen. Mitt Romney, who has said “enough already” with the defamatory rhetoric.

When reporters ask Trump about the lie he keeps fomenting, he falls back on that lame “many people have said” defense.

To think, therefore, that this piece of sh** politician managed to get elected to the highest office in the land and that the individual masquerading as our head of state is continuing to conduct himself in such a reprehensible manner … while he should be focused exclusively on putting down a global pandemic that has killed 100,000 Americans.

Lori Kaye’s husband, T.J. Klausutis, has asked Twitter to take Trump’s tweets down. “I’m asking you to intervene in this instance because the President of the United States has taken something that does not belong to him — the memory of my dead wife — and perverted it for perceived political gain,” he wrote in a letter to Twitter. To date, the social medium has not done so, but it has put warnings out about the lies that Trump keeps fomenting.

Donald Trump is sickening in the extreme.

State news

Lt. Gov. Patrick ought to eat those idiotic words

This editorial cartoon is one of many that have blasted to smithereens the remarks from Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who had the boorish bad taste to say that old folks ought to sacrifice themselves to the coronavirus to save the nation’s economy.

He’s taken his share of criticism. I have joined those who suggest that Dan Patrick’s butter has slipped off his noodles. He hasn’t responded to me, nor do I expect this goofball to fire back at little ol’ me.

However, I continued to be appalled that the state’s second-ranking elected official — and arguably Texas’ most powerful politician, as the presiding officer of the Texas Senate — would even think such a thing, let alone say it aloud.

Yet this clown said that elderly folks shouldn’t seek aid if the virus strikes them down. Dan Patrick’s alleged rationale? The economy needs to be Priority No. 1 over the care for aged Americans.

This guy disgusts me at virtually the same level as the president of the United States, Donald John Trump.

https://highplainsblogger.com/2020/03/not-afraid-to-die-for-the-economy/

I’m even more ashamed of Patrick now than I was when I posted this blog item.

Sickening.

national news

Why the opposition to Donald Trump?

(AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

This might surprise some readers of this blog, but I actually do ponder at times why I oppose Donald John Trump so vehemently, so angrily, with so much hostility.

It’s true. At times my anger toward this individual troubles me. Then I reflect on the danger he presents to the country he was elected to lead. Upon reflection, my anxiety dissipates.

My opposition to Trump is visceral. It is intensely personal.

I’ve never lost a dime investing in anything with this clown’s name on it. So it’s not that. I never have met him or seen him in person, which means he has never insulted me personally. Nix that reason, too.

It’s just that Donald Trump was in our face for many years prior to the moment he decided to become a politician. Most of us knew of The Donald, a flamboyant businessman who boasted of his “self-made” status. To be candid, I believed it, not that it made him any more palatable. It was his personality that grated on me as I watched him from some distance interject himself into the news of the day.

The Central Park Jogger comes to mind. He called for the execution of five young men — all of color — even after they had been cleared of any charges relating to the beating and rape of a woman in New York City.

It was clear to me long ago that Trump had focused like a laser on one goal during his entire professional life: self-enrichment. He was in it for himself. No one else mattered.

So, he brought all of that reputation with him into the political arena. He made that showy entrance in Trump Tower in June 2015, declared his candidacy and immediately impugned immigrants from Mexico.

The rest of this clown’s public posture is well-known. I won’t regurgitate the record here.

It’s just that my gut-wrenching, visceral dislike and distaste for this guy eclipses whatever this individual has to say.

It has little to do with policy. Trump doesn’t believe in anything. He is without principle. He lacks morals. He cannot be trusted at any level. Donald Trump is a pathological liar who lies about big things and small things. It matters not one damn bit to him.

So, my animosity is alive and well. I doubt it will ever subside. Donald Trump has been in front of us for too long. To be candid, he has been in a pain in my backside for far longer than he’s been president of the United States.

One more thing: I oppose this individual out of pure and categorical love for my country. Donald Trump is destroying the exalted office he occupies.

I want him to vanish from the public stage.

national news

Trump’s unfitness for office on full display

I am not usually one to say “I told you so,” but I want to make an exception right here and now.

I told you that Donald J. Trump’s entire adult life was geared toward one selfish end: to further his own ambition. That history in my view disqualified him from seeking — let alone achieving — election as president of the United States.

He took an oath more than three years ago to protect Americans, to defend the Constitution and to provide for the general welfare of the nation he was elected to govern.

He has failed! Miserably, I should.

The coronavirus is just one more despicable example of this man’s unfitness for public office.

His hideous tap-dance messaging on the coronavirus outbreak illustrates that this individual’s primary objective is not to protect Americans against potentially fatal illness. It is to further his re-election effort.

He didn’t want that cruise ship to dock in Oakland, Calif., because he was afraid it would boost the number of Americans infected by the Covid-19 strain of the virus. He has sought to downplay the danger. He has contradicted the medical experts almost daily. He has boasted (falsely) about his “knowledge” of medical issues, while wearing a Keep America Great campaign gimme cap at the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention office in Atlanta.

Jennifer Senior, writing an essay in the New York Times, summed up nicely why that CDC press conference was so damning: That news conference was … the most frightening moment of the Trump presidency. His preening narcissism, his compulsive lying, his vindictiveness, his terror of germs and his terrifying inability to grasp basic science — all of it eclipsed his primary responsibilities to us as Americans, which was to provide urgent care, namely in the form of leadership.

Donald Trump cannot lead a nation of frightened citizens. He is incapable of exhibiting an ounce of the qualities we seek in our president at times like these.

Many of us saw it coming the moment he rode down that escalator in that shiny skyscraper to announce he would seek the presidency of the United States.

I told you so.

national news

Missing this kind of PDA from POTUS and FLOTUS

I just know I am going to catch grief from critics of this blog … but, what the heck. I am going to say this anyway.

I miss seeing this kind of funny display of affection from the first couple of the United States.

These pictures showed up on my Facebook news feed. I figure they were snapped in January, when Michelle Obama celebrated her 56th birthday. She and her husband were goofing off, exhibiting a good natured public display of affection.

I vaguely recall the occasional stuffed-shirt criticism that came at them when Barack Obama was president and Michelle Obama was first lady.

Their White House successors haven’t shown this kind of public affection for each other that I can remember.

Pictures such as these demonstrate a level of humanity in our elected leader and his spouse. It’s a refreshing sight to see, even from a former POTUS and FLOTUS.

national news

This POTUS will stay with us … for what will seem like forever!

I am trying to imagine the unimaginable.

Donald John Trump won’t be president of the United States forever, even though it is likely to seem like forever even after he leaves office.

I hope he leaves sooner rather than later. The “sooner” might occur on Jan. 20, 2021, when his current term expires and he hands the White House keys over to whomever succeeds him. The “later” — heaven forbid! — might arrive four years later, in 2025, when he walks away after a second term.

What is unimaginable is the thought of Donald Trump fading quietly into the sunset, into the woodwork, that he’ll not be seen or heard except only on rare occasions.

Ohhh, no. What is more likely to occur is that we’ll never escape Donald Trump for as long as he draws breath. No one lives forever, although Trump might want us to believe that he’s the exception to that hard-and-fast rule.

Recent previous presidents generally have subscribed to a certain rule: They’ve had their time at the center of power; then they hand it over to someone else and they disappear from public view — more or less. President George H.W. Bush was famously quiet when he gave way to President Clinton in 1993; Clinton has maintained a bit of a public presence, but has been mostly out of the limelight since turning it over to W. in 2001. President George W. Bush was quiet during his successor’s two terms, and President Obama has kept quiet during Donald Trump’s term.

Does anyone expect the current president to follow the model set by so many of his predecessors? Does anyone seriously expect No. 45 to keep his Twitter fingers still while whoever succeeds him engages in policymaking, let alone if the next president decides to undo some of the decisions that Trump and his team implemented during his time in the White House? Imagine, for instance, the next president reinstituting some of the environmental regulations that Trump summarily terminated and then Trump sitting quietly while that happens.

Donald Trump vowed to be an unconventional president and, by golly, he has made good on that pledge. I am concerned, though, that he’s going to be an equally unconventional former president who’ll be unable or unwilling to just fade away.

My hope is that we get to find out quickly.