A "Ferocious Murder" in the White House

After nearly three weeks of denials, the White House has finally admitted that Lady Liberty, the symbol of freedom and American ideals who welcomed visitors to the New York city harbor, was murdered inside the White House.

Lady Liberty, a gift from the French government who had lived in the United States since 1886, went missing after visiting the White House on October 2 to have her first face-to-face meeting with Donald Trump and to lobby the President on the issue of immigration.

Unbeknownst to her, eighteen high-level Trump administration officials and advisors—Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, former Trump advisor Steve Bannon, Vice President Pence, counselor Kelly Anne Conway, White House lawyer Rudy Guiliani, White House chief of staff John Kelly, senior advisor Stephen Miller, FBI director Christopher Wray, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, media personality Alex Jones, national security advisor John Bolton, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson, Fox News commentator Sean Hannity, prominent white supremacist David Duke, Republican operative and wife-swapper Roger Stone, evangelical leader Franklin Graham, and Chris Cox, the founder of Bikers for Trump—had arrived at the White House earlier that day in separate cars for a secret meeting with Donald Trump.

Second-hand accounts of the meeting with Trump vary somewhat, but all agree that the President’s message to the attendees followed these lines: Lady Liberty had outlived her usefulness, she was too closely associated with criminal immigrants, as a European she was not the right symbol for Trump’s nationalism, she carried a book that wasn’t the Bible, she was “off brand” because she wasn’t “hot enough,” she was “a weird green color that didn’t look American,” and that Trump “wanted her head.” After Trump retired to his private residence to watch an episode of “Judge Judy,” the attendees were ushered into the White House’s ultra-secure Situation Room.

At that moment, about 2 p.m., Lady Liberty was checking in at the main White House entrance. Video footage, widely broadcast since her disappearance, clearly shows the copper icon entering the building.

The White House was strangely empty. Employees had been told that morning that they could take advantage of a surprise day off. The only people in the building besides Lady Liberty were the eighteen elite Trump loyalists. In their minds, what was about to take place—the killing of Lady Liberty, ordered by the President—was never going to be known beyond the walls of the White House.

What they didn’t know was that reporters from the Washington Post were listening in. Just how this was accomplished—whether the Post focused a directional microphone on the building from the outside or successfully leveraged a bug planted in the Situation Room by Omarosa Manigault—has not been established. One of the attendees may have taped the event and leaked it. Another theory is that Lady Liberty gave her cell phone to a Post reporter before entering the White House and may have broadcast her own abduction via her iWatch.

The Post isn’t saying how it was obtained, but the newspaper obtained a live audio soundtrack to what happened inside the Situation Room and has published these details:

Lady Liberty was seized by Vice President Pence and chief of staff Kelly immediately after entering the White House and taken to the Situation Room.

In the course of seven minutes Lady Liberty was first tortured by Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Kellyanne Conway, then had her arms cut off with a blowtorch wielded by Steve Bannon, and was finally dismembered and killed by former surgeon Ben Carson using a concrete saw. As the mutilation began Carson put on headphones and was heard to say to his colleagues: “When I do this job, I listen to music. You should do that, too.” At this point the Situation was flooded with the tunes of Kanye West and the volume turned up to drown out Lady Liberty’s screams.

When the Washington Post first broke the explosive story of Lady’s Liberty’s brutal demise, the White House insisted that she had left the White House via an exit in the rear of the building after meeting with and getting her photo taken with Trump.

A few days later CNN broadcast White House surveillance videos of a man dressed as Lady Liberty leaving the rear of the White House. Post reporters believe that this man was Stephen Miller wearing Lady Liberty’s clothing.

After several days of silence, the White House finally admitted that Lady Liberty had been killed on the premises by a “rogue operation.” The following day Sarah Huckabee Sanders claimed, with no evidence, that Lady Liberty had been killed accidentally after “a fist fight.” The next day, Sanders told reporters that the Lady in the Harbor had died after being put in a chokehold by Rudy Guiliani during “an interrogation gone wrong.” President Trump said that he found these explanations “credible.” FBI Director Christopher Wray noted that, while tragic, Lady Liberty’s death could not be investigated by the FBI because she was not a citizen of the United States. Republican members of Congress have not commented on Lady Liberty’s demise or the White House’s role in it.

This morning several news sources reported that Lady Liberty’s body parts had been discovered in a scrap-metal yard in South Carolina owned by Alex Jones.

Amidst the unraveling of the many versions of the White House’s official story, President Trump just tweeted this: “The cover-up—done by the Deep State—was the worst in the history of cover-ups. I am firing the man responsible—deputy attorney general and big-time fink Rod Rosenstein—forthwith. Bad guy!”

We Are the Terrorists

This is an emotional day, and we don’t yet know the identity of the terrorist or terrorists, but it is possible to catalogue the indisputable facts behind the situation.

Live explosive packages were sent to former President Obama, Hillary Clinton, George Soros, former Attorney General Eric Holder, Representative Debby Wasserman Schultz, Representative Maxine Waters.

There are also unconfirmed reports of other suspicious packages being mailed to other individuals and groups.

The early word from law enforcement is that there are similarities between these packages. We don’t yet know for sure, but given that these packages were mailed inside the United States, this is likely domestic terrorism.

What we experienced today is REAL terrorism, not to the fake terrorism constantly spun up by our government for political benefit.

This is concerted terrorism that is politically motivated.\

The link between all of the people and organizations targeted by this terrorist or terrorists is the fact that all of them have been the targets of vicious attacks from Trump and the Republican Party that go beyond political attacks and into the realm of threats. This is a fact. Trump and the Republican Party have made threatened these people and organizations with imprisonment, called them “the enemy of the people,” claimed that they were not actual Americans, accused them of coddling or colluding with ISIS and other terrorist groups, threatened to remove their Secret Service protection, and relentlessly branded them as the biggest threats to America.

Trump has instigated violence against his opponents at his rallies, referring over and over again to the “good old days” when political opponents were “taken care of.”

Trump has praised the vicious, and murderous treatment of political opponents by the tyrannical leaders of other countries, including Saddam Hussein, Kim Jong Un, Rodrigo Duterte, Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, and Vladimir Putin.

There is no morality, much less moral leadership, in the Republican Party. They have, and will continue to be, purposely silent about Trump’s fascist message as long as they can win primaries.

Today’s GOP is the party of white supremacy, authoritarianism, domestic terrorism, and treason.

Trump and the GOP have yet to pay a real price for abandoning core American principles, and they won’t change their ways if this does not happen. It’s not at all clear that they will change even if they DO pay a price.

Trump and the Republicans are just the most public faces and the loudest cheerleaders for all that is dark, monstrous, and un-American in this country.

We are the terrorists. The millions who support Trump and vote for Republicans are endorsing domestic terrorism, institutionalized racism, and fascism.

Trumpism has already claimed a life in Charlottesville.

Trumpism will lead to more violence and more deaths.

That is not a political or a partisan statement. It’s not a declaration of war against people I don’t agree with. It’s the plain, obvious truth.

Thirty Days

Spent this afternoon canvassing for Carolyn Long, who is running for Congress in Washington State's 3rd District.

One month left before Election Day.

Sexual Assault Hotline Calls Spike During Kavanaugh Hearing

I am a man and I have never experienced a sexual assault. I am really, really struggling today.

One in six women in this country have experienced a rape or an attempted rape. There are more than 26 million women in this country who are reliving those experiences.

I'm going to visit my 90-year-old mother today. She's devastated. I have nothing for her except my sympathy.

Real progress is measured by actions and results, not by empathy. We have not made any progress since Anita Hill came forward in 1992. We keep destroying and re-assaulting the brave women who come forward and we keep rewarding known sexual predators with our most powerful jobs, including seats on the Supreme Court and the Presidency. And let's be honest—Donald Trump is not the first sexual predator to hold that office.

It's impossible not to struggle when you have to face the reality that at a single point in our messy history as a country every institution--the voting citizenry, the courts, the executive branch, the Congress--that you've counted on in some fashion to keep us progressing and to provide some kind of balance has failed utterly. Constitutionally, today, there is no there there.

In time, I'll resurrect my hope that the 2018 midterms will give us a Congress that actually works, if only to keep myself from becoming completely disoriented.

What do those 26 million women have to hope for? How do they keep their sanity? What are we going to do for them, and when?

Republican Suicide Watch

It’s hard to imagine how Thursday’s Senate Judicial Committee hearing with Kavanaugh and Ford will be anything but a shudder-inducing orgy of GOP self immolation. Once again, we will watch open mouthed as the Eleven White Male Republicans on that Committee voluntarily push their faces into the whirring blades of a fan of female fury. When the Republicans have to grapple with women’s issues in public, the one thing you can be sure of is that they will leave their anemic blood splattered all over the walls.

You can’t fault them for not wanting anyone in America to watch Orrin Hatch interrogate Ford or to have to apologize for him the next day. Very bad optics, indeed! But their solution to that very real problem—to hire an outside female to do their dirty work for them—will leave each of them with a great big “C” for cowardice carved into the middle of his forehead. Instead of having the guts to do their jobs and question their tormentor themselves, they will literally hire a queen of the Quislings to complete the rape that Kavanaugh couldn’t finish. They will bravely hand their jobs over to the one person in that room on Thursday who will definitely know the least about what happened. As students of the Confederacy, they will be borrowing a page from the official slaveowner’s manual: when one of your human chattel needs a whipping, double the punishment by forcing another slave to wield the lash.

Supposedly each Senator will get five minutes—five minutes!—to question each witness. So viewers will see the Democratic senators, two of whom are former prosecutors, asking their own questions, as if they were real U.S. Senators, and then watch as each of their Republican colleagues cedes his time to the Great Inquisitor With A Vagina and then sit, mute, peeking through her skirts like the close-minded, sexist sphinx that he is.

Who on earth thought up this shit?

The horror movie won’t stop there. The Republicans will adamantly contend that they are defending an innocent man, but their actions will show them to be scuzzy mob lawyers who you can always count on to know an unlicensed doc who can patch up gunshot wounds on the sly or to create new, phony rules to “ram this thing through.” An innocent man would welcome the facts, but there will be, unlike other confirmation hearings, no FBI investigation. The only other person in that bedroom in 1982, Mark Judge, is in hiding and won’t be called as a witness. Nor will the corroborating witnesses of Dr. Ford. Nor will the second accuser and her corroborating witnesses. Nor will the former classmates who came forth yesterday to counter Kavanaugh’s claims of spotlessness in his Fox News interview. Nor will the third accuser who has hired Michael Avannati and is expected to explode upon the scene tomorrow night with tales of gang rape. But you can be sure that the Democrats and Dr. Ford will mention these people, and often.

Thursday’s hearing will be a sickening tableau, something between the Salem witch trials and the Stalinist show tribunals, but less entertaining.

Twelve hours later, on Friday morning, those eleven male GOP senators will nevertheless approve, thanks to their one-vote advantage on the committee, Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination, after which they will retire to their Washington, D.C. watering holes and strip clubs to savor the sweetness of their victory.

But there will be two more votes ahead of them. The vote on Kavanaugh by the entire Senate, and the vote on November 6th. That’s when the reviews of Thursday’s Grand Guignol spectacle will finally come in.

Bad Old Joe

Joe Biden is one of the front runners for the Democratic nomination for President in 2018.

What the hell?

This is the party that a year and a half ago nominated an emblem of its past who then lost an election to an outfront psychopath with no political experience.

This is the party that supposedly champions the needs of younger voters.

This is the party that supposedly champions the rights of women.

So why would Democrats even consider running a 76-year-old white man in 2018?

Many older Democrats are so nostalgic for the past that they confuse it with their future. These are the folks who were attracted to Hillary Clinton in part because she was a talisman from the Good Old Days Of Bill, who look fondly upon Joe Biden because he was part of the Golden Age of Obama, and who are ready to vault any Congressman named Kennedy right into the White House because they still swoon for the Camelot or yore, when Democrats were suave and sexy. The flip side of this myopic homesickness is that these people overlook the fresh talent in the Party. This childlike sentimentality would be almost charming if it wasn't so deadly dumb politically.

Other Democrats feel good about Biden because he is a true genius at personifying the Regular Guy Union Democrat that used to win elections for the party. This is a real skill that seems genuine and not an act, and it's attractive in an era in which the Democratic Party has lost such voters, but it's also speaks to a yearning for a demographic that has already left the building and for unions that the Party allowed to be crushed.

Another attractive--and absolutely genuine--quality of Biden's that has helped his popularity is his empathy for his fellow human beings. This is also powerfully attractive today, given the heartless bastard who lives in the White House and the sneering viciousness of the Republic Party.

And there are Democrats who like Biden because for the past ten years he has been enjoying the quiet, out-of-the-fray womb of the Vice Presidency, where he has been identified with zero-downside causes like a cure for cancer.

Today NBC is airing an interview with Biden in which the old everyman and Obama sidekick shows why his 2018 Presidential campaign (he's definitely running) will end up as--just like his disastrous runs in 1988 (thirty years ago!) and 2008--in a smoking ruin.

NBC predictably asked Biden about his role in the public lynching of Anita Hill by the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1991. Those who weren't alive or politically cognizant then would do well to look into that sordid chapter and Biden's behavior at that time. Biden, the chairman of the committee, enabled Hill's testimony and in the end voted against Clarence Thomas, but during the publically televised hearings Biden stood back and let his Republican colleagues viciously slander Hill and destroy her reputation.

So today's interview was a great opportunity for Biden to forthrightly address, here in the very real MeToo era, his role in the character assassination of a victim of sexual assault. He could have shown his human side and admitted the obvious--that in 1991 he was not sufficiently empathetic to either Hill or the issue of sexual harassment, that he didn't do anything to help the search for truth during those hearings, that in the interim he had educated himself and faced up to his shortcomings, that this period of education and self reflection led to his sponsorship of the Violence Against Women Act and other efforts, and that he had apologized to Hill.

Instead Biden reverts to the Really Stupid Joe who had to quit his first Presidential campaign because of plagiarism and lying about his law school record and his last because he finished FIFTH in the Iowa caucuses. Biden insists in the interview that he not only relates to the MeToo movement now but that "I think I got it in 1991"--which, if true, would make his actions even more inexcusable. He lamely blames his inability to protect Hill from a public lynching or to allow other, corroborating witnesses to testify, on the rules of the Senate--a truly cringeworthy dodge, even by political standards. And he repeats a comment he made last December--that he owes Anita Hill an apology.

He's never apologized to her. Anita Hill says that whenever her doorbell rings unexpectedly her family jokes that it must be Joe Biden come to apologize.

What the hell?

Obstructing Justice in Broad Daylight

Trump has issued an unprecedented order to publicly release classified materials--selected material targeting individuals who Trump is trying to smear--that are part criminal investigations that have not yet been concluded. This material, which includes emails by and from those individuals and selected portions of FISA warrants, will not be redacted (which will reveal the secret sources of the FBI and the DOJ) or scrubbed for purely personal information that has nothing to do with the investigation, which is, for all kinds of good reasons, the standard practice.

Trump has the legal right to do this, as he is the final arbiter of what information is classified or unclassified.

But this is the latest attempt by Trump to obstruct justice--out in the open and in public--and is certainly, without a doubt, grounds for impeachment. Unless, of course, we have a situation where a President under investigation is actively partnering with members of the House, who have the responsibility to bring impeachment charges, to obstruct that investigation. That's ANOTHER impeachable offense.

FBI Director Christopher Wray and Deputy Attorney General in charge of the Mueller investigation Rod Rosenstein have been attacked for months and threatened with impeachment (oh, the irony) by GOP Congressmen and Trump co-conspirators Dennis Nunes and Mark Meadows for not turning over this classified information.

On May 1 Rosenstein issued this warning to the Trump Gang:

“I can tell you that there have been people that have been making threats against me privately and publicly for some time, and I think they should understand by now the Department of Justice is not going to be extorted. We’re going to do what’s required by the rule of law, and any kind of threats that anybody makes are not going to affect the way we do our job."

Trump has finally issued his order. Will Christopher Wray and Rod Rosenstein finally live up to their oaths to uphold the Constitution over the interests of the President and their party and provoke a Constitutional crisis? Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff hinted yesterday that a revolt is at hand, but we have waited nearly two years for Republicans within the government to stand up for the Constitution.

We'll know very soon whether we still have a Department of Justice or an FBI.

Swing That District

I've been helping to man the phone banks at the headquarters of the Carolyn Long for Congress campaign in the Third District in Washington State, one of the many swing districts that are critical to the Democrats taking over Congress this November. It's been great to finally put my time where my mouth is. Volunteering is not only action, it's a great way to fight the -everyone-in-this-country-has-lost-their-mind malaise that Trumpism has brought. I have met a slew of smart, passionate, energetic and funny people within the Long campaign. We have our work cut out for us, but morale is very high.

Find the swing district nearest you and get involved NOW. Mail-in ballots drop in Washington State in only THIRTY-FIVE DAYS!

Resist!

The coup against the Constitution

What kind of "adult," when faced with living with an addled patriarch/arsonist who is actively engaged in burning down the house, decides that their proper response is to suffer through the destruction of the living areas and all the family heirlooms as long as Crazy Pappy doesn't torch the filing cabinet in the basement containing Grandma's recipes?

The courageously anonymous White House insider who wrote the flabby, self serving, and ethically compromised opinion piece in the NYT says that it is important that we Americans "understand that their are adults in the room," but this creature is an even more terrifying figure than Donald Trump because he or she still contends that a constitutional crisis is worse than having an amoral wild man with his finger on the nuclear trigger.

The founding fathers understood that once they went the route of a popularly elected President, there was the risk that a lunatic or a crook would be elected. So they came up with the 25th Amendment and the impeachment process, respectively, to deal with those two scenarios and crafted the balance of powers that we Americans have long felt made this country something special.

We elected a President who is a crook AND a lunatic.

We elected a Congress that understands that the President is systematically destroying the rule of law in this country but that will never impeach and convict him.

One wing of that Congress is about to approve a new Supreme Court justice who will ensure that a solid majority on that Court will decide that the President is not subject to the rule of law.

This President chose a Cabinet that understands that their boss is dangerously deranged but who will never take steps to implement the 25th Amendment.

The carefully wrought balance of powers crafted in 1789 has failed, and failed utterly. Each of those powers--the Executive branch, the Congress, and the Judiciary--has, without a shred of conscience or hesitation or patriotism and with no fight, treasonously abandoned the country in favor of a crazed, crooked despot.

We need to stand up and take on the hard work of removing every one of these traitors--election by election, appointment by appointment.

The face of a new Democratic Party?

The narrative being promoted by much of the media and some moderate Democrats that Andrew Gillum, the new Democratic nominee for governor in Florida, is an extreme-left candidate is predictably bogus. My Facebook feed is replete today with posts from traditional Democrats contending that Gillum's victory was a huge mistake and that he will take the party down to defeat.

Bernie Sanders brought a compelling progressive platform and a small army of devoted followers to the Democratic Party in 2016. Not surprisingly, his insurgency angered many Democrats, because he didn't register as a Democrat until he ran for President. In turn, Clinton's victory incensed many Sanders supporters who bought into a false narrative that Clinton had stolen the nomination. Sanders' progressivism did not attract enough minority voters. Clinton did not inspire enough younger voters or independents. The biggest danger the Democrats face in this fall's midterms is a continuation of the Sanders/Clinton divide. The ideal Democratic dynamic for November's critical election is one in which the two sides move past 2016 and create a majority coalition, and candidates that represent that coalition, to take down Trump.

Gillum is not a far-left extremist. He is, in fact, the personification of a new, bigger-tent, post-2016 Democratic Party.

Yes, Bernie Sanders endorsed Gillum, as did pro-Sanders groups Democracy in Action and the Working Families Party. But Gillum was a strong Clinton supporter in 2016; he spoke on her behalf at the Democratic convention. Gillum's Florida candidacy was endorsed by Julian Castro, BlackPAC, Color of Change, Tom Steyer's Next Generation America, and Moms Demand Action--who all supported Clinton in 2016.

Gillum could lose in November. The Florida gubernatorial election will be the most pathologically savage campaign that we have ever seen. But the old practice of nominating candidates indistinguishable from Republicans or former Republicans like Crist led to losses in 2010 and 2014. Gillum and Stacey Adams in Georgia are committed to a strategy of not apologizing for being a Democrat and of running on a progressive campaign that could unite the opposition in Florida. The outcome will say a lot not only about the future of the Democratic Party but about the future of the country.

The ugliest, meanest campaign ever

Fasten your seat belts.

Andrew Gillum, the black mayor of Tallahassee, won the Democratic nomination for governor in Florida tonight.

Like Stacey Adams in adjacent Georgia, Gillum is an aggressive progressive who will run a general election campaign focused not on attracting Trump voters but on turning out the vote across the potential Democratic coalition: liberals, moderates, minorities, and millennials. Gillum supports legalizing marijuana, single-payer health care, abolishing ICE, and impeaching Trump. Gillum, who campaigned for Clinton in 2016, was endorsed by Bernie Sanders, George Soros, and Tom Steyer. His opponents spent $90 million (!!) on this primary. Gillum spent $4 million. Like Adams, Gillum's opponent will be a hardcore Trumpist.

Florida is always a brutal election battleground, but the stakes are incredibly high this year. Florida is one of the most populous states in the country and its Electoral College votes could determine the 2020 Presidential contest. The state's Congressional Districts will be redrawn during the next governor's term.

Trump told evangelical leaders at a dinner last night that if the Democrats win the House, they will unleash antifa to violently attack the general population. This is where the GOP is already at 70 days away from the November midterms. If signs of a blue wave continue to persist, this fall will see the most vicious, howling, bare-knuckled elections we have seen in this country in a century. The Republicans' only accomplishment has been a phenomenally unpopular tax cut. The Trump gang will soon focus full time on what they do best--scaring the shit out of their base by applying massive, relentless doses of outfront, shrieking racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism.

Edit

Swing the midterms

It's imperative that Democrats retake Congress to begin reclaiming our country from the nightmare that is Trumpism. I urge all of my friends to find the Congressional swing district nearest to you and to donate and volunteer for the Democrat in that race. In my case, since I live in solidly blue Portland, the swing district nearest to me is the 3rd District across the Columbia River in Washington State, so I will be volunteering between now and November for Carolyn Long, the Democrat who is running for Republican Jaime Herrera Beutler's House seat. If you live in the Portland/Vancouver Washington area, please join me in contributing to, and working for, Carolyn Long's campaign. It's critical that we all get personally engaged and active in the most critical midterms of our lifetime. Only 70 days until the elections. Resist!

John McCain

None of us can even comprehend what John McCain went through as POW in Vietnam. He was broken under relentless torture. He was honest about his experience and he spoke out tirelessly and eloquently against the senseless practice of torture by the American government. Anti-war leader John Kerry was a close friend, as was Democratic lion Ted Kennedy. As many in his party openly embraced racism, McCain defended Barack Obama as a worthy opponent and a fellow patriot. Like most of us, McCain was a complex, imperfect individual, but because of his service and sacrifice he understood more than anyone what really qualifies as a life-and-death struggle, and he never put politics in that category.

Trump Gang says that families cannot be reunited

Last June Federal Court Judge Dana Sabraw set a deadline for the Trump Gang to reunite all the nearly 3,000 children they had kidnapped from their parents.

That deadline was two weeks ago. FIVE HUNDRED AND FIFTY NINE children still remain separated from their parents, including 46 children under the age of five, who the Trump Gang claim are "ineligible" for reunification--in many cases, because the Trump Gang deported their parents and now can't locate them. Many of these children will NEVER be reunited with their parents.

Please donate to the ACLU, which is leading the fight to reverse these kidnappings, keep agitating on behalf of these young victims, and remember this vicious policy when you vote in November.

What the hell is a "perjury trap"? It used to be called lying.

According to Rudy Guiliani, Fox News, and the alt-right, a “perjury-trap question” is a real thing, and it’s not good. It’s a trap, a devious trick sprung on innocent people by super smart, slick prosecutors and special counsels. To hear them tell it, these questions are so cunning that they can force blameless folks to lie and give the prosecutors—who are supposed to go after criminals but instead, according to the alt-right, spent most of their time trying to trip up Republicans—the grounds to send them to jail.

“Perjury-trap question” is now a term in the political lexicon. You can’t watch cable news for two minutes without hearing some talking head discussing “perjury-trap questions” as if they were a legitimate subject. They’re not.

This seems to beg another one of those basic civics lessons about something that we all thought was common knowledge until we were all propelled into Trumpworld in 2016.

PERJURY is what is real. Perjury is making an intentionally false statement, either spoken or in writing, that could affect the outcome of a proceeding.

Because perjury can sabotage legal cases, especially when capital punishment is a possible outcome, it has always been a serious crime in the United States. In the early days of our nation, penalties for perjury included death, banishment, and cutting out the liar’s tongue.

Such lies often follow a question, but the question is not the issue. The issue is whether the person who answers a question under oath tells the truth or not.

People become perjurers not because of the questions they are asked or by underhanded prosecutorial black magic. They become perjurers when evidence from other sources is presented that proves that what they said was untrue.

So dodging “perjury-trap questions” is not a problem for a witness under oath because there is no such thing. They are just questions.

Faulty memory is not perjury. Perjury requires willful intent.

Inconsequential false statements, even if there was intent, do not result in perjury charges. If Trump was to lie under oath about his hair or his age, a greased slide won’t open up under the witness seat to take him to Perjury Land. The lie has to be a conscious one, and it has to be about something that could change the decision of the judge or the jury.

A titanic myth at the center of this “perjury trap” is that it infers that Mueller is focused on nailing Trump as a perjurer. This is that notion, again, that evil prosecutors can get innocent people to lie. Mueller has much bigger fish to fry. He is investigating whether Trump worked with the Russians to rig the election and whether Trump has obstructed justice. Trump has much bigger charges to fear than a perjury rap.

If Mueller is supposedly setting a perjury trap, he is doing a really, really poor job of it. He has been negotiating with Trump’s lawyers for months on getting Trump to answer questions. He even gave Trump the questions IN ADVANCE. He’s offered to allow Trump to submit written (by whom?) answers if he can ask follow-up questions. Worst entrapment scheme ever!

Trump’s lawyers have responded that the President should not be asked questions about possible obstruction of justice.

Here are those questions that Mueller wants to ask Trump about possible obstruction of justice:

• What is your knowledge of calls that Gen. Flynn made with [former Russian ambassador Sergei] Kislyak late December 2016?
• What is your reaction to press accounts Jan. 12, 2017, Feb. 8-9 2017?
• What did you think and what did you know regarding Sally Yates’ meetings on Jan 26-27 regarding Gen. Flynn?
• How was the decision made to request the resignation of Gen. Flynn on Feb. 13?
• What was the purpose of the meeting with James Comey on Feb. 14 after the Homeland Security briefing?
• What did you say to Comey about Gen. Flynn?
• What did you think and what did you do about the Comey June 8, 2017 testimony regarding Gen. Flynn?
• After Gen. Flynn resigned, what calls or efforts were made by people associated with you to reach out to Gen. Flynn or to discuss Flynn seeking immunity or possible pardon?
• What was the President’s view of James Comey during the Transition with respect to job performance?
• What did the President think and do in reaction to James Comey’s briefing on January 6, including the intelligence community assessment?
• What was the President’s reaction to Comey when they met alone regarding what they called other ICA matters (the Steele Dossier)? Also, what was discussed [regarding] ancillary reports?
• What was the purpose of the Jan. 27 dinner meeting you had with Comey?
• Was loyalty discussed? Did you communicate with Comey concerning his status at the end of the dinner? What was your knowledge of the Gen. Flynn and Russia investigation in days leading up to the March 20 testimony of Comey before House Intel Committee?
• What did you think and what did you do in reaction to the Comey testimony on March 20 before House Intel Committee?
• Describe outreach to Intel chiefs [Mike] Rogers, [Mike] Pompeo, and [Dan] Coates?
• What did you say to them?
• What was the purpose of the reach-out on March 22, 25 and 27?
• What was the purpose of your calls to Comey on March 30 and April 11?
• What was the purpose of your statement to Maria Bartiromo on April 11, 2017?
• What did you think and what did you do regarding the May 3 Comey testimony before the Senate Intel Committee?
• Regarding the decision to terminate Comey, when was it made, why was it made, who on your staff played a role in decision, and how was it determined to make it public?
• What did you mean to communicate during your May 10 meeting with Kislyak and [Sergey] Lavrov (concerning ‘pressure off’ and ‘nutcase’)?
• What did you mean regarding your statements to Lester Holt regarding Comey and Russia?
• What was the purpose of May 12 tweet that Comey better hope there are no tapes?
• What was the purpose of the September and October press statements, including tweets, regarding an investigation of Comey? Also, Sarah Sanders statements regarding same?
• What did you think and what did you do regarding AG Sessions recusal?
• What efforts did you make to try to get him to change his mind and reverse?
• Did you have a discussion about whether the AG was going protect him and reference other AG’s?
• What did you think and what did you do in reaction to the news of the appointment of the Special Counsel? – Including your reaction to AG Session’s resignation?
• What was the purpose of holding AG Sessions resignation until May 31 and with whom did you discuss it?
• What did you think and what did you do in reaction to the June 20, 2017 determination that the SC was speaking to Rogers, Pompeo and Coates?
• What consideration and discussion did you have regarding terminating the Special Counsel in June of 2017?
• What did you think and do in reaction to January 25, 2018 story about the termination of the Special Counsel and Don [McGahn] backing you off of the termination?
• What discussions did you have with Reince Priebus in July 2017 about obtaining the Sessions resignation?
• With whom did you discuss obtaining the AG’s resignation?
• What was the purpose of the public criticism of Sessions via tweets during July 2017?
• What was the reason for your continued criticism of Comey and McCabe, even till today?

No tricks or traps here. Every one of these questions is an entirely predictable query that goes to the heart of determining whether Trump has obstructed justice. Many are based on Trump’s own words, and they are all focused on Trump’s own actions.

The Trump legal team and Fox News aren’t worried about “perjury-trap questions.” They are worried, with damn good reason, because their guy is incapable of telling the truth. About anything. Given that remarkable fact, ANY question posed to Trump under oath is literally a “perjury-generating question”—not because of the trickiness of the question, but because the answer will come directly out of that “truth-free zone” that is Trump’s mouth and mind.

Trump's not on the ballot in November. So why vote?

If we turn out and vote, the Democrats have a good shot at winning the House and a very slim chance to win the Senate.

This won't result in the Democrats stopping the Republicans' legislative strategy, because they literally have none.

It won't result in Democrats passing legislation, because Trump will veto any bill that passes and the Democrats won't be able to get the two-thirds majorities to override.

It won't mean that Trump will be impeached, because the Democrats won't be able to get 67 votes in the Senate. Not a chance in hell that will happen, no matter WHAT Trump did or does.

So who cares? Why vote?

Because of what it will mean to Trump's reelection chances to have all the House committees and the power to serve subpoenas and hold public hearings. If the Democrats win the House, they will:

• Use their chairmanship of the tax committee to get access to Trump's tax returns, which they could reveal to the American public by reading them into the Congressional Record from the floor of the House.

• Launch investigations into the blatant corruption in Trump's Cabinet--Wilbur Ross' shady business deals and attempt to politicize the 2020 census, Ryan Zinke's ethics charges and politicization of offshore drilling decisions, Ben Carson's hiring of family members, and Betsy DeVos' connections to private prisons, Mnuchin's travel and ties to the banks and Wall Street--there is literally no end to this work.

• Investigate Devin Nunes' treasonous activities.

• Re-open the Intelligence Committee's Russia investigation, hold public hearings with the Trump Gang under oath, subpoena Trump's Deutsche Bank records, and expand it to include Russian interference in the 2018 election.

• Protect Rod Rosenstein and Robert Mueller.

• Hold floor votes on common-sense gun control, immigration reform, tax reform that favors the 99%,, Medicare for all, abolishing ICE, universal college tuition, the environment, DACA and other votes that the Republicans have been purposefully avoiding for years. None of these bills will survive Trump's veto, but GOP members of Congress will finally be on record on these issues, which will be vital in the Democrats' to increase their margins in Congress and remove Trump (kicking and screaming, no doubt) from the White House.

Kidnapper Trump

Today was the deadline for the Trump Gang to return the children they kidnapped to their parents. They succeeded in reuniting only slightly more than half.

The Trump Gang says it released 378 children to someone other than their parents. Who were they released to?

The Trump Gang says that 711 children are INELIGIBLE to be reunified with their parents. In what moral universe, under what conditions, under what circumstances, are children ineligible to be reunited with their parents?

Twenty-one children, the Trump Gang says, had parents with "red flags" in their background checks, but these were not explained. What are these "red flags"? What will happen to these children?

Forty-six children, according to the Trump Gang, had a parent with a "red flag" that didn't show up on their background checks. What are these "red flags"? What will happen to these children?

Seventy-nine children, says the Trump Gang, have parents who "were released into the U.S. and could not be reunited." This means that the Trump gang can't find the parents, because they had no system that linked separated children with their parents. What will happen to these children?

The Trump Gang swears that the parents of 120 children "declined to be reunited." Who believes this? Who will check with these parents--if they can be found--to check the accuracy of this claim? What will happen to these children?

The Trump Gang told the court today that they already deported the parents of 431 children and that they are not responsible for reuniting these families. The Trump Gang is refusing to pay the cost of flying these children out of the country. What will happen to these children?

The Trump Gang admits that it can't find the parents of 94 children. What will happen to these children?

The Trump Gang says that seven children were impacted by a different court case. What will happen to these children?

These numbers don't add up to 711. The Trump Gang hasn't explained the discrepancy.

Interviews with the separated families by the ACLU and Families Belong Together offer evidence that the Trump Gang was not honest with many of the parents and children who were separated.

This is heinous. It's heartbreakingly clear that some of these children will NEVER be reunited with their parents. This disaster is on Trump and the Republican Congress, which has refused to allow a vote on immigration legislation.

Why aren't the members of the Trump Gang being prosecuted for child abuse and gross negligence?

Contact your Senator and Congressperson. Contribute to the ACLU and Families Belong Together (familiesbelongtogether.org), who are the organizations working on behalf of these families. March. Protest. Show your anger!

Stop With The Freud And Start With The Fighting!

The frantic Trump resistance, the Democratic Party, and the inherently analytical legitimate media are literally killing themselves trying to figure out Donald Trump, especially since the Surrender Summit.

After a year and a half of Trumpworld, we who inhabit the Other Reality have overthought ourselves into exhaustion, disorientation and existential hospice care from trying to process a daily avalanche of lies, cruelty, doublespeak, jaw-dropping incompetence, upside-down-and-backwards nonsense, arrivals and departures on the hectic Trump train, open collusion with Russia and every manner of slimy despots via the worldwide media, and other treasonous and unnatural acts.

At this rate, we won’t survive to topple Trump. All the collective cognitive power and energy that we should be expending on bringing Trump down is being wasted on trying to define him so that we can have the right game plan for going toe to toe with him. Trump, who despite the typhoon of daily chaos he generates lives a remarkably stress-free existence thanks to being born without the part of the brain that gives most of us memory and a conscience, will at this rate clearly outlast us all. In fact, that may be—really and truly—his re-election strategy: to destroy the opposition by making our heads explode.

It’s fair to contend that you need to know your enemy in order to fight him effectively, but we can conclude this debate about Trump now and move on to the battle plan.

The various schools of thought around our Chief Executive can be boiled down to four core profiles:

• Trump #1: The successful business man beholden to no one who has sacrificed an impossibly sweet private life to come to Washington as the first President with the guts and deal-making ability to take on the more-than-two-hundred-years’ reign of the swamp-dwelling deep state. (This is the version of Trump that his core supporters pray to.)
• Trump #2: A deeply flawed but brilliant con artist who managed to hijack the Republican party, give it enough energy/momentum/support to retake not only the White House but Congress in the bargain, and, following that unbelievable trifecta win, completely remold it in his own pompadoured and painted image to the point where he downside any disloyalty to him on the Republican side means instant political death. (This is the perception of Trump held by professional, office-holding or office-aspiring Republicans.)
• Trump #3: A brilliant strategist for all that is bad, truly evil, or just plain stupid about America. The Monster of Mar-a-Lago, the cunning commandant of the screaming flying monkeys, the apocalyptic communicator who is swiftly making his hillbilly hordes proud flag wavers for racism and fascism and methodically destroying governmental institutions and the very rule of law. (This is the bogeyman Trump feared by many who despise him.)
• Trump #4: A lazy, unprincipled, moronic, and unbelievably weak narcissist who can’t even comprehend, much less realize, the standard human survival skills of hard work, preparation, knowledge and empathy and who is driven not by a brain but by some kind of awful, prehistoric lizard gland—a supremely crude mechanism that our species supposedly left behind eons ago and was thought to now only survive in lampreys, vampire bats, guano-eating beetles and those blind fish that live at great depths in underwater caves--that enables him to improvisationally careen, second by second, through a world inhabited only by himself, completely clueless about the wreckage he leaves in his wild wake. (This is the imbecilic Trump familiar to the Russians and those who have worked closely with him.)

We can quickly dispense with Trump #1. Trump parlayed a multimillion gift from his old man to finance four bankruptcies before being hired by NBC as the star of a television show. He IS a tenacious press agent (he actually used to call up reporters using a fake name and pretend to be his own spokesperson) and he knows how to make money licensing his name, but he’s a wizard at bankruptcy, not at business.

Trump #2 is part myth and part reality. Winning the Republican nomination against the likes of Jeb Bush and Ted Cruz doesn’t require brilliant political instincts—more qualified candidates can be found in any high school student council slugfest. It’s absolutely true that no one—no one—thought he would win against Clinton. But he lost the popular vote by a considerable margin and won the Electoral College by getting 70,000 more votes in three pivotal states. The key point about the election is that no one was more stunned by his victory than Trump himself. A failed run at the Presidency was, in Trump’s version of career planning, designed to get him a Fox New contract after the cancellation of “The Apprentice.” But since his improbably victory Trump has completely hypnotized 35% of Americans, which means he completely owns the Republican Party, the NRA and Fox News.

Trump #3 is based on a complete myth but otherwise spot on. The true part is the demagoguery and Trump’s effort to make racism and fascism okay again. The mythic, bogus part is the brilliant strategist piece. Trump has no strategy. He rewarded the far-right Republicans who supported him during the campaign with Cabinet-level jobs and has allowed them to gut their departments and allow themselves and their cronies to loot the government till, but in no way is he managing these people or orchestrating an overarching plan to destroy government. He is actively using his demagogic skills to attack the rule of law, the intelligence agencies, and the Justice Department not because of any personal philosophy or credo but because those are the people who could put him in jail.

Trump #4 is completely and utterly accurate.

So the most accurate composite of Trump the politician political is a pathological, lazy moron completely driven by self interest and self promotion who has connected in a profound way with the sizeable portion of the electorate that is driven by racism and a taste for authoritarianism over the rule of law, and who has used that base of support to complete the transformation of the Republican Party and Fox News as white supremacist, fascist gangs. This connection is what makes this hopelessly random goofball the most dangerous internal threat in American history.

As we can see by reviewing the perceptions of Trump, it’s impossible to separate his politics from his personality. To cut to the chase and get to a final Trump diagnosis, then, it is appropriate to leverage the centuries of research compiled by behavioral scientists. Not surprisingly, they have formally codified a personality type that fits Trump like one of the Vaseline-filled gloves with which he covers his tiny hands: the narcissistic sociopath.

Behold the specific traits identified by the medical community that characterize the narcissistic sociopath, which scientists categorize as “a malignant personality.” According to the experts, the presence of any five of the following characteristics means that you’re dealing with a narcissistic sociopath:

• A grandiose opinion of themselves and a belief that they are superior to other people. Narcissistic sociopaths will state that their goal is to rule the world. They believe that they are all powerful and all knowing and that, when it comes to getting what they want, that the end justifies the means.
• A marked tendency to lie pathologically and make false promises to build up a complex belief about their own powers and abilities—to the point where they can pass lie detector tests.
• An excessive and persistent need for others' admiration and praise coupled with a strong, often violent, response to negative feedback.
• A hostile and domineering personality and a tendency to humiliate others.
• A noticeable lack of regard for the rights of others and a tendency to violate those rights.
• A lack of a conscience and empathy for others. An inability to show remorse, shame, or guilt or to apologize. A lack of religion and morality in their lives.
• A marked tendency to divide and conquer by smearing people and pitting people against each other.
• A marked tendency to employ other people with psychological problems.
• An inability to take responsibility. Whatever the problem, it is always someone else’s fault.
• The inability to display emotions like love, warmth, compassion and humor.
• Poor listening skills.
• A marked tendency to impulsive and reckless behavior.
• A marked tendency to be sexually promiscuous.
• A marked tendency toward extreme paranoia.
• A marked tendency toward drama and the association of that drama with “bad” people.

Trump, obviously, exhibits every single one of these traits to an extraordinary degree.

The diagnosis of narcissistic sociopath is not armchair psychobabble. This profile not only suits Trump to a T, it also explains his politics. Narcissistic sociopaths are NEVER going to defend the country if that doesn’t help them personally. They are going to be racists. They are going to think that they, and they alone, understand the problem enough to fix it. They are going to be secretive and authoritarian. They are going to admire other tyrants. They are going to make war on anyone who dares to question or counter them—anything but an ass-kissing festival is going to be “fake news.” They are going to despise the rule of law because they can’t control it and because it is a threat to them. They are going to hire sycophants and yes men, and then fire them willy nilly. They are going to divide people. Their policies are going to be cruel. Above all, they are not going to have a strategy about anything because their reaction to events and to others will be improvised depending on how they are affected by them personally.

Okay, Doc, you’ve nailed it. Trump to a T. In fact, we’ve seen all these traits in Trump for nearly three years now. We have our diagnosis and we can close his file. But you can’t stop there—you’ve got to tell us how to best deal with this lunatic. After all, he’s not just the biggest asshole at work or the shittiest neighbor in the apartment building—he’s THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. Literally the entire world wants to know how to live with—or effectively take on—this malignant wild man.

The behavioral scientists have this advice for dealing with narcissistic sociopaths:

• Realize that you will never change them.
• Pay attention to your instincts.
• Cease contact. Take steps to protect yourself.
• Do not try to reform them or give them more chances.
• Realize that it’s not your fault.
• Don’t wait for them to agree or ask you permission.
• Don’t feed their ego.
• Don’t wait for them to overpower you—take control whether they like it or not.
• Give up fear—respond with reason and calmness.

There is a framework here for the next phase of the resistance—the actually-doing-stuff phase.

Stop thinking about Trump and start fighting him. Don’t ignore Trump’s hourly lies and crimes, and be ready to show up in the streets to protest particularly odious actions and policies, but don’t obsess about them or let him or the GOP sap your energy or destroy your morale. Swap cable news and Facebook time for hours spent volunteering on the front lines.
Don’t expend ANY of your finite energy engaging with Trumpists. The vast majority did not vote for him because of his economic platform (whatever that was) or because the Democrats didn’t care about them (which is true). They are white people who voted for him because they didn’t like the prospect of the end of white supremacy in this country. Uncle Joe didn’t pull the lever for Trump because you didn’t give him an effective counterargument—not your fault!—and we don’t need him, anyway. We can beat Trump without converting a single Trump voter, because they are still the minority in this country. Our task is to make our election results look like the electorate. Given the GOP gerrymandering, this will take an enormous get-out-the-vote effort by all of us. Focus on that.

Take action now, because soon it really will be too late. Vote for Democrats. Don’t nullify your vote and your opposition to Trump by voting for write-in or third-party candidates. Volunteer in your neighborhood and city to get anti-Trump people elected mayor, to your city council, and to your local school board, and donate to their campaigns. Work and donate within your state to get Democrats elected as governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state (a role that is vitally important, as it oversees elections), and state legislator. If you live in a Congressional swing state, you are especially important and influential—work for, and donate to, the Democratic candidate.

If you live in a completely safe Republican district, sign up with SwingLeft (https://swingleft.org/) to find the swing district nearest to you and learn how to volunteer for Democrats there.

Join or start an Indivisible group in your city (https://www.indivisible.org/), the group that has created a powerful template for local political organizing that really works.

Join and donate to the ACLU (https://www.aclu.org/). The courts have already shown that they and the rule of law can be major disruptors to the Trumpists’ agenda, and the ACLU has been the most aggressive and successful group to leverage the courts to throw sand in the GOP’s gears.

Subscribe to legitimate news outlets. There has been some incredible reporting on Trump that has helped to counter his lies and Fox News and to publish new details of his crimes.

Keep expressing your anger to your elected representatives (https://countableaction.com/ and https://democracy.io/#!/).
Don’t expend any energy on being afraid. The best antidote to fear and anxiety is to join like-minded people and take action. There are more of us than there are of them.

Treason Time

Why don't we just move the U.S. capitol to Moscow?

I read the most recent Mueller indictments, which lay out the Russian interference in our elections in staggering detail. (Every American should read them.)

I just watched the press conference with Trump and Putin.

Our President stood before the world on foreign soil with the corrupt dictator of a third-rate nation, thereby putting the United States on the same footing.

Our President stood before the world on foreign soil and established a moral equivalence between the United States and Russia, as he established for the white supremacists in Charlottesville.

Our President stood before the world on foreign soil and took the word of a former KGB agent who is attacking the United States over the massive proof of Russian interference compiled by American intelligence and law enforcement agencies and validated by the Senate and House intelligence committees.

Our President stood before the world on foreign soil and gave Putin the green light to continue his interference in our elections.

Our President stood before the world on foreign soil and called a request by Putin to allow Russian intelligence officers to interview their American counterparts "an incredible offer."

Our President stood before the world on foreign soil and happily accepted the gift of a soccer ball from the leader of a country that is currently attacking us.

Our President stood before the world on foreign soil and made it crystal clear that he will not protect the United States from foreign attacks.

Kudos to the press corps for asking, in clear, blunt language, the fundamental questions.

There is no longer any wiggle room for any American when it comes to Trump. Trump is a traitor, and any American who supports him or works for him shares that status.

As far as the rest of us, we need to work with MoveOn, Indivisible and other groups to organize and participate in massive public protests to demand that our elected officials take a stand.

Mission Accomplished

Congratulations to Vladimir Putin on his unimaginably successful campaign to use the United States to implement his global strategy.

In just a year and a half, Putin has managed to help elect Donald Trump, pit Americans against each other, use U.S. government officials to try to shut down the Mueller investigation, establish a private communications back channel with the President of the United States (including private meetings with him), isolate the United States and diminish its influence on the world stage, and to use the President to sabotage the NATO alliance and drive wedges between the U.S. and our allies.

Putin has accomplished all of this despite operating from a position of striking weakness, with a Russian economy that lags far behind that of western nations, a long period of diminishing Russian influence, and the ascendancy of China as the strongest non-western nation. And the key to Putin's against-all-odds success is not any brilliant overt actions or leadership on his part. He was just a corrupt leader of a third-rate country until his aspirations were attracted the energetic, willing assistance of the President of the United States and the Republican Party.