Tag Archives: donald trump

McAllister Loses One

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My confidence in Vermont jurisprudence has been somewhat bolstered by the news that Judge Michael Kupersmith has denied attorney Robert Katims’ motion on behalf of Norm McAllister to dismiss prostitution charges against him, “in the interest of justice.”  Pul-lease!

The disgraced ex-senator’s second trial on the same charges is expected to proceed in April.

You may recall that  three women accused him of sexual crimes ranging from soliciting for prostitution all the way to rape. All of his accusers were epically unlucky and poor. They had been forced by their circumstances to rely on McAllister, a landed farmer and politician, for housing or employment. One of his accusers died before her complaint could be heard.  

A second accuser, who was a teenager at the time of her alleged assault, was persuaded to come forward despite the fact that she was mortified by the prospect of testifying in public. After a grueling cross-examination in which she was further victimized, she perjured herself on an irrelevant detail which she feared would damage her relationship with her then boyfriend.

The state’s attorney dropped her complaint like a hot rock and she was allowed to sink back into the woodwork, alone with her humiliating memories.

The remaining complainant was herself put through the brutal experience of testimony and cross-examination, but the state was not allowed to share any of the other allegations against Mr. McAllister; nor even audio recordings, made under police supervision, of Mr. McAllister admitting he had engaged in coercive sexual behaviors with his accuser.

Without ever having to, himself, testify,  Mr. McAllister was convicted on only the least punitive of the prostitution related charges against him.  

Not content with that lenient outcome, McAllister insisted his attorney challenge the verdict on a technicality.  The attorney’s arguments were successful in getting the judge to void the conviction and tentatively schedule a new trial.  

Mr. McAllister’s next move was to request a full dismissal.  If all had gone as he had learned to expect from his prior experiences with the justice system, he was undoubtedly expecting to get off, scott-free.

Thank goodness Judge Kupersmith has a stronger instinct for justice than does Mr. McAllister:

“(McAllister) was a member of the Vermont Senate,” the judge wrote. “The Court must infer that he had a measure of political experience and power by reason of his attaining that office…It would significantly erode public confidence in the judicial system if the public could infer that the Court dismissed the charge as an act of political favor.”

A lot has happened in the interim since the first case against McAllister was brought to trial in 2016.  Donald Trump was elected, Bill Cosby was convicted and the “Me Too” movement elevated public awareness and indignation over sexual abuse which had, until recently, been enabled by misogynistic tropes and cultural apathy.

Here’s hoping Mr. McAllister will finally feel compelled to take the stand.  If he wants us to believe he is so blameless, let’s hear how he answers questions under cross-examination.

 

Why does he get away with this stuff?

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Donald Trump wants freshman Congresswoman Ilhan Omer to resign over a single objectionable tweet?  Congresswoman Omer has apologized and accepted responsibility.

Decades older and holding the highest office in the land, Donald Trump, on the other hand,  has made countless far more offensive comments . He has never apologized for any of them, so we must assume that he stands by those comments, violating social norms in so many directions.

He has called for Hillary Clinton to be “locked-up,” but after lengthy investigation by the Republican Congress and the FBI, it was concluded that she was not guilty of any crime.  

Donald Trump, on the other hand behaves like a racketeer.  He has packed his campaign and his administration with a  cast of shady characters who might easily populate a spy or crime novel; has displayed a conspicuous bias toward Putin while disparaging US intelligence bodies; has shared sensitive information about Israel with a Russian official in the oval office; and has boasted to the Russian that he fired James Comey in order to relieve himself of the collusion investigation.  

He has lied at an ever accelerating rate, about everything from the trivial to the monumental, throughout the first two years of his administration, so that the number of lies is now over 8,000 and counting. 

Corruption in the Trump administration exceeds that of any administration in living memory.  Apart from that, aspects of his businesses, his administration, his campaign  and his personal finance  are under investigation by at least three different bodies, which have already resulted in multiple inditements of individuals acting on his behalf.

And that’s just the short list.

If we are pressuring elected officials to resign for racial insensitivity, the racial insensitivity and all-out race-baiting  of Donald Trump is certainly equal to if not greater than that of any of the others.  If we are demanding resignations from elected officials for past allegations of sexual assault, there are even more unresolved allegations against Donald Trump, whose credibility is reinforced by the witness of his own words on the “Access Hollywood” tape.

How can we hold anyone else accountable for these misdeeds unless the President himself, our chief executive, is held accountable in the same way?

Never mind impeachment, if the Republican Party re-nominates Donald Trump for a second term, Democrats should demand that every one of their congressional members resign.

While we are on the subject of enabling, let’s not forget the role the mainstream media (most especially CNN) played in electing Donald Trump in the first place.

CNN seems guilty of short-term memory loss.  They’re doing a fine job now of fact-checking Trump; but throughout the campaign, they gave him unlimited airtime to propagate mistruths with only the weakest attempts to reign him in. 

There is one thing the mainstream media can now do to address Donald Trump’s worsening habit of demonizing them: don’t cover his rallies.

Having a corral of press, ringside at these carnivals of self-indulgence, only provides Trump with a handy target and foil for his vitriol.  He LOVES press coverage and will become apoplectic if he is denied their attention.

If the mainstream media doesn’t show up, he will be left with the likes of Fox News and Breitbart, outlets that receive little respect and credibility beyond the base that already attends his rallies in dwindling numbers.  

Once having moved freely between the Democratic and Republican parties as a “harmless” business buffoon, Trump now finds himself, on the whole, socially isolated.  Still, he continues to crave and court approval (from his dead father?) and, to that end, seeks every opportunity to make a spectacle of himself.

Like a child starved for attention, the 73-year old refuses to do his homework, lies prodigiously, and is devoid of any strategy other than bullying.   “Look at me!” he seems to be saying, “Ain’t I something?!”

It’s not as if we learn anything new about Trump from analysis of his rally footage.  It’s always the same appalling intolerance, misogyny and misinformation.  

If nothing he has said or done so far has provoked the GOP to reject him in defense of their constitutional obligations, there is no earthly excuse for providing his lies with a mainstream media platform.

It diminishes us as a nation to indulge his appetite for sensation; and, as the attack on the BBC cameraman clearly illustrates, it is building to a dangerous place.

 

Condemn Ralph Northam for what he did, not for what he said.

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There is no question about it, Gov. Ralph Northam certainly has a lot to answer for in his insensitivity about blackface, but it is interesting how inartfully Donald Trump avoids condemning him for that and chooses instead to focus on remarks the pediatric neurosurgeon has made with regard to life-and death decisions concerning non-viable fetuses.

As I understand it, the remarks that Republicans have chosen to seize upon in embracing the call for Northam’s resignation are the following:

“[Third trimester abortions are] done in cases where there may be severe deformities. There may be a fetus that’s nonviable. So in this particular example, if a mother is in labor, I can tell you exactly what would happen,” Northam, a pediatric neurosurgeon, told Washington radio station WTOP. “The infant would be delivered. The infant would be kept comfortable. The infant would be resuscitated if that’s what the mother and the family desired. And then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother.”

What Northam was saying essentially, is that, if a baby comes into the world either braindead or afflicted with a birth defect so severe that it could not survive and would potentially suffer if life were extended artificially, the parents and the doctors have to make a decision of conscience about whether or not to resuscitate.

This is true of end of life decisions for braindead patients and the last hours of the terminally ill.

I think you will find that the majority of Americans agree that these decisions appropriately belong to loved ones, informed by clergy and doctors of their choice.

In this instance, Dr. Northam was just stating the painful truth.  As a pediatric neurosurgeon he would probably be the first to argue for extreme surgical intervention if there was even a chance it could succeed.

This is a stupid issue on which to prosecute the governor’s fitness for office.  

In elevating this argument so that they can make a case to demand Democrat Northam’s resignation, the GOP faithful demonstrate their utter insensitivity to the real issues of racism at the center of the controversy.

Why am I not surprised?

Donald Trump: The Moscow Candidate

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What a week it has been! While federal workers continued to struggle with the Trump Shutdown, made all that more real by their first zero-sum paycheck,  two venerable news sources, the New York Times and Washington Post revealed damning evidence that Donald Trump may indeed have a sinister relationship with Russia.

It may be shocking to hear out-loud speculation from the mainstream media that the American president could be a kind of “Manchurian Candidate” for Putin’s Russia, but it can no longer be dismissed as far-fetched.  In fact, with very little effort it is possible to reconstruct one’s very own forensic trail contributing to this alarming conclusion.

As a convenience to our GMD readers and with a quick Google search, I’ve compiled a few handy links for your interest.

Searching “Trump 1987,” yields, among other things, an account from Politico that appeared in 2017. It’s very interesting; reminding us that on his first visit to Moscow, he seems to have been  cosseted by the KGB.  This has probably been mentioned many times before but deserves special attention in light of this weekend’s revelations.

In the same search, I came across a curious piece from the Hollywood Reporter claiming that, in 1988, Trump was angling for Reagan to appoint him ambassador to the Soviet Union.  I offer the link here with no idea how valid the assertion may be.

The New York Times provides an exhaustive timeline of intersections between Trump-world and Russia.  Of course it ends in December 2018, well-before the new bombshells hit, but covering Donald Trump’s indiscretions seems to be a never-ending job.

Another good read comes from New York Magazine, “What if Donald Trump has been a Russian Asset since 1987?”  It even has a pictorial chart!

Exactly how might Trump have given service to Russian handlers over the years, even before reaching the White House suggests some additional data points.  Trump has been a public fountain of misinformation through much of his adult life.

Remember the Central Park Five? What prompted the stingy mogul to invest $85,000. in advertising to gin up hatred for these wrongly accused young African American men and advocate for their execution?  This, from a man who is notoriously un-philanthropic and won’t even pay his bills on time.   Why did he appear to care so uncharacteristically much? 

One can’t help musing that this would have been an ideal way to introduce a future candidate to the hate lobby.

This was followed by accusations that President Obama wasn’t born in the U.S. and the repeated suggestion that, if the accusation was true, his presidency was illegitimate.

He let that insulting calumny hover out there in the hate realm, without an apology, long after it had been effectively debunked.

Then, leading up to the 2016 election, he repeatedly attacked the integrity of the electoral process.  Most people just assumed he was making excuses for why he would most likely lose the election, but what if this was part of Putin’s plan to delegitimize the U.S. democratic process?

Anyway,  it’s quite a pattern; and Trump himself doesn’t display the cunning or even the simple attention necessary to sustain such a prolonged assault on our norms.  It is far more likely that he is simply the corrupt vessel through which Putin has delivered poison to the very roots of American democracy.

Trump-proofing U.S. Democracy

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With the Southern District of New York essentially confirming that we have a felon for a president, the focus of pundits seems to be evolving rather quickly from can he or can’t he be indicted to what the hell happens AFTER Donald Trump.

I read an interesting, if depressing piece shared by Will Martin on Business Insider, predicting that U.S. capitalism and, more importantly, the institutions of its democracy, might be forever changed by the spreading corruption of Donald Trump.

Others are speculating that, despite Trump being exposed as the most dishonest and corrupt American president in modern history,  Democrats might actually find it difficult to unseat him should his presidency survive to 2020 for a second go-round.  Some say that the only way to defeat him is with a candidate that exceeds or at least duplicates his savage populist style.

I’ve gotta say that, if that is the case, maybe the U.S. no longer deserves democracy.

The shameless Republican Party, with one foot in the Third Reich,  has somehow succeeded in redefining basic democratic aspirations like a living wage, universal healthcare and education as “far left” pipe dreams to which only a fool would give allegiance. Why do we let tham do that?

Objectively, they haven’t a leg to stand on, having surrendered every remaining ounce of integrity in the service of the Emperor Who Wears No Clothes.  Somehow, though, our tradition of fair play, maintained only on the left, gives the toxic claims of the GOP-in-denial, equal time before the media court of public opinion.  

With an entire television outlet (Fox News) and innumerable right-wing tabloids and websites slavishly devoted to defending and promulgating even Trump’s most conspicuously false statements, why does the rest of the media even give GOP talking heads the time of day?

How is it that in the face of multiple ongoing scandals of treasonous portent, and having made innumerable xenophobic and unsavory comments, Donald Trump somehow still enjoys close to 40% approval? 

Has our national character descended so far since wartime audiences embraced “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington?”

Instead of asking the question, how can we defeat Donald Trump in 2020, we should be asking the question, how do we defeat him for all-time?

When the GOP began its assault on public education and cultural institutions, we should have paid closer attention.  We kind of let that slide.  The end result is that we have a population that is progressing toward greater ignorance, which makes them more pliant to populist extremism.

The only insurance against ignorance and lies laying waste to our democracy is a rigorous and liberal education for all.  Beyond that, we have some serious fence-repair to do in the legal framework of the presidency.

Even China has recognized the importance of education and made great strides in raising its population from poverty, so that it is now evolving into a technology giant.   

We have been doing the opposite.  There will ultimately be an overall economic price to pay for concentrating public policy on further enriching the top 1% earners at the expense of better educating the masses and elevating an informed electorate.

Banana Republic or Docent of Democracy?  The choice is ours alone to make.

Is Donald Trump too ugly for a presidential bobblehead?

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I was trolling around the White House Giftshop website, trying to find out what became of those commemorative coins Trump ordered to celebrate his “historical” (read: “hysterical”) meeting with Kim Jong-un.  In case you, too, were wondering, they ship August 30.

My question answered, TrumpChristmasBobble-7TI came across something infinitely more entertaining: the first in a a new series of Presidential Christmas Bobbleheads , representing (you guessed it) the current Bobble-Head-in-Chief.  Amusing as that may be for obvious reasons, a picture of the novelty gave rise to all-out hilarity around our house which I thought I’d share with our generally glee-less readership.

Now I ask you to be the judge.  Look at the slim youthful figure, luxuriant blonde hair and boyish grin.  That’s the spitting image, not of Donald J. Trump, but of Bill Clinton on his first campaign, before he put on that “freshman fifteen” pounds in the Oval Office.

Then I read the promotional text, cut-and-pasted here for full effect:

Donald John Trump became the 45th President of the United States on Friday, January 20, 2017. He was sworn in with his left hand on both his personal and also on the Lincoln Bible. Trump’s path to the presidency was long and reasoned. Intimations of his presidential potential appeared as early as 1987 when a large group of supporters gathered outside a Rotary Club meeting in New Hampshire and waved signs: Trump for President and Trump in ’88.

We have chosen three symbols to represent President Donald J. Trump’s first White House Christmas:

1. The Christmas Tree represents Trump’s campaign promise to evangelical Christians, “We’re going to start saying Merry Christmas again.”

2. The portrait of Abraham Lincoln represents President Trump’s respect for Lincoln as the quintessence of American Presidents. As Trump stated, “I can be more presidential than any president … except for Abraham Lincoln.”

3. The diorama scene with President Trump in the State Dining Room at hearth and fireplace represents President Trump’s entrepreneurial spirit and iconic successes in the hotel and hospitality industry. The hearth is redolent of the fire that heats a home as well as suggestive of Trump’s enormous passions as entrepreneur and now as President of the United States.

We hope you will enjoy this first diorama in your new, ongoing, and sophisticated limited edition diorama collection of the White House Gift Shop, Est. 1946 by permanent memorandum of President Harry S. Truman and volunteers of U.S. Secret Service Uniformed Division.

Merry Christmas and Seasons Greetings

Anthony Giannini, Executive Director

The White House Gift Shop, Est. 1946®

Mr. Giannini is also credited as the creator of the series, but formatting clumsiness and errors in the overblown text suggest that, if Donald Trump didn’t actually compose it himself, one of his “best people” was in charge of the roll-out.

(By the way; why was Trump’s left hand on his “personal” and the Lincoln bible?   Doesn’t that mean he was touching his “personal” to the Lincoln bible?  ‘Must violate more than a few archival rules, I would think!)

‘Hope this turns that frown upside down.  Happy Tuesday.

‘Tis the Reason to Say “Treason”

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Kudos to BP for doggedly re-focussing us on Vermont’s timely issues.  These days, it is beyond me to do the job.  

I’m like the clueless cat who is so easily distracted by fast moving objects that he walks into walls.  Every morning I learn about some new outrage that Donald Trump has unleashed on basic American values and I’m off in hot pursuit.

So, please bear with me while I work through my indignity, time and time again.  

If you haven’t been surfing the underbelly of legitimate news sources, you may not have caught yesterday’s head-slapper du jour.  From The Washington Post and The Guardian, we learn that Russians are praising Scott Pruitt for removing restrictions on ASBESTOS(!) and showing their gratitude by marking bales of the carcinogen for export with Donald Trump’s face and name!!

Better than the Onion; you simply can’t make this stuff up.  In the story lie two reminders of the way in which the 45th president has so far managed to keep Republicans on his leash.

What, in any other administration, could singularly bring about ruin becomes nothing more than a forgotten anecdote when enmeshed amongst layer upon layer of daily scandal, violation  and incompetence.  Asbestos, the scourge of a healthy living environment throughout the late 20th century, has apparently been given one of Donald Trump’s famous pardons and is now poised for a comeback!!

It’s all but forgotten today because Donald Trump has spent the past two days ripping the pins out from under NATO and all of your traditional alliances, and shows every indication that he will kiss Putin’s pinkie when they meet privately later this week.

IMHO, it is time to break out the “T” word.  Surely it is treason for any president to take advantage of his presidential privileges in order to serve the counter-strategic interests of our most powerful adversary.

Still, the GOP has made its deal with the devil and is clinging to him like stink to garbage.  Most are so complicit at this point that they must inevitably be touched by the “T” word as well.

I was interested to read yesterday in the Messenger that one-term Republican Senator Carolyn Branagan, who filled Dustin Degree’s vacated seat when he was appointed to a position in the Scott administration, and who had earlier announced that she would not run again in 2018, announced that she was now considering running as an Independent.

No mention was made of her reason for dropping GOP endorsement, but Branagan is known to be a moderate and I’d like to believe that she has simply chosen the moral high ground.

Being a woman must be additional motivation to run far, far away, even from the Vermont GOP.

One has to wonder how many Republicans in regional races have made a similar decision to leave the party’s branding (and funding) behind.  Just how toxic will the GOP label prove to be in the coming years?

Requiem for the Soul of the Republican Party

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Today is the United States’ traditional birthday, and pollsters are scrambling to take the patient’s pulse even as we feebly attempt celebration amid record heat induced by unchecked fossil fuel consumption, and try not to notice the cries of refugee mothers and their children separated by “baby jail.”

According to CNBC, which could never be mistaken for a liberal source, less than half (47%) of U.S. adults call themselves “proud to be American.”  That number has dropped 10 percentage points in just the last five years.  

That’s despite our supposedly booming economy and all the “greatness” Donald Trump insists he is bringing back to the nation.

A CNN poll reports that half of all Americans view Donald Trump as a racist.  Is it any coincidence that, also according to recent surveys, close to 90% of Republicans approve of  the policies of Donald Trump while almost no one else does?

One can not resist reflecting on the other half of Americans who apparently do NOT see him as a racist.  In order to subscribe to that position, one must either have never read any of his own comments on brown and black people; or must themselves be racist.  Both possibilities are inescapably damning for the future of the democracy we attempt to celebrate today.

Every single day since and including his inauguration, another demonstration (or three) of his willful ignorance, epic narcism, unabashed dishonesty or pure unadulterated abuse of power has turned the nightly news into a spectacle not for the faint of heart.

Even today, as the Senate Intelligence Committee finally delivered its verdict in agreement with all of the nations intelligence agencies, that Putin’s Russia did indeed interfere in the 2016 election for the purposes of getting Donald Trump elected; Republicans, from Mitch McConnell on down to the last man standing, are doing all they can to avoid acknowledging the truth.

Such a demonstration of unquestioning allegiance to a complete scoundrel like Donald Trump pretty much confirms for me that they share all of his most odious positions, and that includes racism. 

He’s their sick puppy; whether he plots to invade Venezuela, sleeps with our enemies, chokes our allies, maintains the most corrupt and incompetent cabinet in recent history, and ultimately destroys ten years of economic growth; he is aided and abetted by the party of Lincoln.  Now isn’t that the greatest irony?

Let it henceforth be agreed that the Republican party is not only the party of Baby Snatchers and liars, but it is also the party of racists.  Sorry, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and John McCain.  I appreciate your heroic efforts to save the soul of your party, but if you lie down with dogs, you’re going to wake up scratching.

Happy Fourth of July. 

Trump hires “ideal” replacement for Hope Hicks

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The departure of so-called Trump Whisperer, Hope Hicks, from the West Wing has left many staffers anxious about what new chaos tomorrow will bring.  It was therefore with great relief that they received the news that a new “Communications Director” has been hired.

The almost preternaturally silent Hick’s replacement will be a giant PEZ dispenser in the image of…you guessed it, Donald Trump.  

311924350743The lanky orange and yellow sweets dispenser will be aided in sartorial responsibilities for the president by a Deluxe Personal Valet Station from Hammacher-Schlemmer.

Henceforward, the Commander in Chief will be alternately soothed and steamed by the best team of passive enablers he could ever hope for.

St. Valentine’s Day Massacre 2018

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“St. Valentine’s Day Massacre” has a whole new meaning this year. Was the connection  intentional for the shooter who killed seventeen people and wounded fifteen others in one of the worst school shootings in history?  We’re already learning of a white supremacist association with the shooter,  so who knows what else is in his pathology?

Perhaps Donald Trump thinks its sufficient to opine on the shooter’s mental health and skirt the issue of gun control altogether, but I believe that says more about the Presidents’ own mental fitness than anything else.  After all, the shooter’s white nationalist ties make him one of the President’s peeps.

What is wrong with this country? For years now, the disfunction has been apparent to people all over the world. We Americans simply will not do anything about the availability of “weapons of mass destruction” in our own communities.

There are several possible reasons why foreign enrollment in U.S. colleges is trending downward, not the least of which is the poisonous quasi-official attitude toward non-white foreigners emanating from the White House, and the decline in government support for education in general. But compounding the problem must surely be the steady stream of horrific gun violence stories peppering the news. What parent wouldn’t think twice before allowing their child to study abroad in a country wracked with senseless violence?

The NRA has such a stranglehold over the GOP that even with a “normal” Republican president and congress, there would be absolutely no hope of any action on sensible gun control. They won’t even discuss it; and Donald Trump, always more of an instigator than a leader, is scared to even mention the word “gun” in his response to the horrific shootings…
quaking-in-his-boots scared.

In the absence of courage to discuss the obvious remedy, he and others in his party lay down a bunch of platitudes about mental health; but even that is a sham because the whole mess of them has been hell-bent on defunding every aspect of health and the social safety net at their first opportunity. We’re left with nothing but meaningless words.

Donald Trump wants a military parade and a useless wall: to hell with funding for social services and mental health initiatives.

Law enforcement’s big idea is to increase surveillance of all citizens in order to spot possible perps and presumably do a mental health intervention. Isn’t this a movie plot?

What happens when, inevitably, some future Donald Trump decides those interventions should not just happen to people who say they are going to kill somebody, but extrapolates the legal argument to people who express opinions against government policies or make art lampooning “Dear Leader?”

It’s the damndest slippery slope, but those who hug the second amendment couldn’t give a fig about the first.

Rational gun control isn’t rocket science. Strict permitting requirements should limit access to weapons like that AR-15, and the so-called “bump stock” modifications we heard so much about recently, to security professionals and sportsmen who have passed rigorous safety and mental health screening checks. All firearms should, at minimum, be registered every time they change hands. Why should the most lethal of our constitutional rights also give the broadest license to abusers?

 
I am disgusted.