Post-Election Post 2020 - Not Quite a Blue Wave

 

"Not So Blue" The View up Mercury Passage, Tasmania, Australia by Colin Chick

And yet, it is pretty blue! And very pretty at that.

My body is pretty well oxygenated as I have been taking a lot of deep breaths since the election was called yesterday morning by the Associated Press recognized as the impartial leader of the constitutionally protected Free Press in the United States. It appears to be a solid win with some votes still to be counted in the tight races of Georgia, Arizona, Pennsylvania, etc. Votes are certified by each state and the electors convene in December to make it official. In American tradition when the outcome is clear, the losing candidate offers a graceful concession to the winner. That will not happen this election.

It remains to be seen how blue the Senate will be until after two run-off elections in Georgia later this year. They are in newly blue Georgia so don't count out the Democrats yet.

But even if there is a Republican Senate led by the Obstructionist-in-Chief McConnell, there is so much good that will happen and so much bad that will not in the next four years. The President will not be constantly tweeting outrageous lies and insults. No matter how evil and corrupt you believe the Biden Family to be (and I don't think they're too bad) it will be nothing like the horrible example of moral turpitude we have had these last four years. I have yet to understand why so many millions voted for him. I know some say it's not for him but the conservative "policies" but still....

Conspiracy Theory Is Not the Way to Go

There are a couple of books out by Matthew L. Harris of Colorado State University - Pueblo. One was noted in a link I shared in a Facebook posting that I will copy here because it led me to state my political interpretation rather succinctly.

[linking to an article "How did Mormons become so Republican?]:

Hopefully, we're finally getting out of this philosophy of one man....

Ya know it's interesting that no one of that stature has ever taken the extreme positions and conspiracies theories he did. Sure, there was that guy in the dorm and more than one crazed Utah politician, but nobody of the same stature in the church. What's that thing about paying attention to living leaders and not dead ones?

I'm going to be very blunt here. As blunt as Steve Schmidt has been with trump.

The Conservative Mormon fallacy has been:

My Declaration of Retirement

There is a tradition in retiring from our office of federal employees for the U.S. Department of the Interior (National Parks, Indian Affairs, Fish & Wildlife, Public Land Management, Reclamation (western water dams and management), Geological Survey, etc.) to send of a farewell email to All-Employees. They are usually friendly little good-byes with the occasional long diatribe of political sentiment pent-up in the "non-political" civil service until that day of release.

Mine was this:

That was a last-minute and appropriate replacement for my diatribe. I thought it best to save that for this blog. My post-departure comments are in [ ],  i.e., brackets. Here goes:

Book Report: Seth Abramson's "Proof of Collusion"

The good news is that America will survive.

The bad news...

...we are being governed by a criminal conspiracy compromised by a foreign adversary, Putin's Russia.

Abramson's book is unique in historical journalism. He is not an investigative reporter as were Woodward and Bernstein. Well, both of those guys are still around, but not like they were in the days of Nixon. Abramson provides in disturbing detail a narrative from the public record of the crimes of #Individual1 (donald j. trump) and his associates. Most importantly, and as Rober Mueller has now concurred in court filings, the quid pro quo is revealed that the trump family and presidential campaign conspired with Putin's Russia to elect #Individual1 and with the promise of financial rewards in Russian real estate deals in exchange for the removal of sanctions against Russia for the invasion of Ukraine and interference in U.S. elections.

The book is disturbing and hard to accept, except that Abramson has been proven correct in his predictions and reporting to date. Abramson's book is basically a narrative of the long Twitter threads he has been providing over the past couple of years analyzing the alleged crimes of #Individual1. There is some cosmic justice that a well-researched and reasoned Twitter feed will help bring down a president who has a dynamic and occasionally damning presence on Twitter. This modern political world is blessed and cursed by new technologies.

I could only read this book after the revelations in court last week confirming the criminal conspiracy far exceeding the Watergate break-in and cover-up. And there's some satisfaction in writing this on the day #Individual1's personal attorney and fixer, Michael Cohen, was sentenced to three years in prison even though fully cooperating with the investigations (Mueller had recommended lighter sentencing, the US Attorney in the Southern District of New York recommended a bit harsher treatment in the financial investigations and prosecutions ongoing there).

Amazingly as he was sentenced, Cohen said he was finally "free."

Worse than Benedict Arnold

Benedict Arnold in Continental Army Uniform

It could be argued that Benedict Arnold was simply loyal to King George III as the king still claimed sovereignty over the American Colonies and had sent an occupying army to suppress a colonial rising. And fortunately, General Arnold's plan to deliver the fort at West Point on the Hudson was foiled by exposure of the plot.

I suppose one could also argue that Individual 1 is merely loyal to his highest interest, his own view of a great America with him at its head. It all revolves around him and it's all in his head under that mass of highly controlled hair cover which must take so much work it helps explains why the rest of his appearance is so slovenly.

Gun Love Kills

Just sent this message off to each of my Senators and Congressman:

Gun Love has gone too far in this country. There is no need to ban all guns (just assault weapons). There is blood on the hands of the NRA and all who resist any attempt to regulate weapons of quick and easy destruction of school children. My wife teaches at Mueller Park Jr. High in Bountiful where last year a student blasted a hole in the ceiling of a classroom which could have gone so much worse. We must stop the gun culture in this country that promotes guns as tools for problem solving. Guns are not the problem. The Love of guns and gun money is.

These are the Tweets and FB messages I sent off on yesterday's Valentines Day Massacre:

1. Grant L. Vaughn‏ @Whistlestar_PMM 24m24 minutes ago
   

   Gun Love Kills

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2. Grant L. Vaughn‏ @Whistlestar_PMM 11h11 hours ago
   

   Just one more. The infamous St. Valentine's Day Massacre in 1929? Seven dead. 7. Not seventeen. 7.

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3. Grant L. Vaughn‏ @Whistlestar_PMM 14h14 hours ago
   

   Hearts bleed in Florida and all over this country because people love guns more than other people.

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4. Grant L. Vaughn‏ @Whistlestar_PMM 14h14 hours ago
   

   Guns don't have Rights, People do!

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5. Grant L. Vaughn‏ @Whistlestar_PMM 15h15 hours ago
   

   The @NRA @HouseGOP @SenateGOP @utahsenate @utahhousegop all have blood on their hands. Gun Love has gone too far. Gun Rights require Gun Responsibility. You stand condemned!

Why I Hate Government

Evil everywhere

Yeah, really I'm no different than anybody else. Except I seem to be the one idealistically bashing my head against the wall trying to make things better.

Last night we watched an episode of The West Wing in which the usual crises appeared and circumstances were such that there was no good way out or to solve the bigger problems of evil.

I have a difficult work assignment in personnel law, an area of the practice that I've been trying to get out of for a good 20 years now but can't seem to do so because there is no one else to do it and I have the experience and I'm stuck. I can't resolve the problems of right and wrong any more than an attorney in the practice of domestic relations (at least I have that to be grateful for, but personnel law is second only to divorce on the civil side for horrible situations - thank heavens I don't deal with too much criminal!!)

And then there's fired FBI Director Comey's testimony coming up this morning. Today will not be the end of the most disgustingly corrupt and morally evil man to inhabit the White House since maybe Warren G. Harding. Or what I'm afraid of is that trump is actually the worst ever. The Republican Congress still controls. They will not likely turn on trump as long as they think they can squeeze through things to help the wealthy or those who think they are or want to be wealthy (like a lot of Americans) to the disadvantage of the poor and especially disfavored minorities. There is some overlap there in the electorate. Kansas is starting to figure that one out. But it takes a lot of thought and some bad things happening for most people to get it.

The Latest Revelations on Jared Kushner

Would you buy a used car from these guys?

The latest news reporting on trump scandals is that first-son-in-law, Jared Kushner, may have attempted to set up secret, back-channel communications with Russian officials during the transition. This is reported independently by the Washington Post and Reuters who claim sources (i.e., leaks) from within US Intelligence Agencies.

This immediately tells us that trump's war with US national security interests is not over and they are fighting back. The leaks are troubling, not as much as leaks but what they appear to reveal.

First, they reveal that US security agencies do not trust trump and his family. Whether the underlying facts are true or not, there are powerful elements of the US government who are undermining trump. Some of these disclosures may be technically illegal. However, all federal employees, political or career, sign an oath that their highest duty is to the Constitution of the United States. It is not to the President or any party or political view. It is to the Constitutional Union of these United States. (If you need a Hollywood explanation, try the scene in Clear and Present Danger in which James Earl Jones playing he CIA Director (the voice of Darth Vader) tells Harrison Ford, playing  government agent, Jack Ryan (not Han Solo) that his highest duty is to the Constitution, not to the President. Now, it's still very troubling that this appears to be a silent coup of the security forces by leaks to the press and likely formal and appropriate revelations to Congressional Committees and the new Special Counsel. This is really big time.

What the WHAT!?

So, in case you somehow haven't heard, trump fired James Comey, the Director of the FBI for, get this:

Lying about Hillary's emails!

OK. I can't help it if I find it hilariously funny in a dark humor sort of way.

I just got an email from a friend who has been walking the world since retirement from my office. He says:

We got through Nixon. We will get through this. I am more concerned in the long term about global warming than I am about Trump.

He has a couple of good points there.

The Art of No Deal

Let's face it, trump is a fraud. The spectacular failure of "repeal and replace" brings that home today. It's not a good day for Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, either. You should at least be able to get the support of your own majority party. The bill was withdrawn because neither the ultra-conservative "freedom" caucus would support it nor the more "moderate" Republicans in the House who might like to get re-elected in districts that went for Secretary Clinton.

Two of my predictions about trump as president have already come to pass. (And I'm hoping some of the others don't!)

It has been seven long years since Obamacare passed and the best the Republican Party could come up with was a last-minute, slap-dash fraud of a bill that would reduce coverage for millions and be a nightmare to administer.

Remember, trump said he would repeal and replace with something much better with less expensive coverage for all! And if you believed that, I've got some steaks, vodka, and a college degree to sell you.

Tweeting trump's Speech to Congress

1. Babysitting Grandkids, this was the best I could do tonight. It's a miracle I could watch a whole hour-plus of a man frowning while reading from a teleprompter!
2. 1. Grant L. Vaughn‏ @Whistlestar_PMM  2h2 hours ago
      

      "A Great GREAT Wall!"

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   2. Grant L. Vaughn‏ @Whistlestar_PMM  2h2 hours ago
      

      Harley Davidson will make America great again?

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   2. Grant L. Vaughn‏ @Whistlestar_PMM  2h2 hours ago
      

      The National Academy of Science calculated cost of immigrants to precisely "many billions of dollars."

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