Augureye Express: April 2019

Insomnia fueled by concern over the human condition had again deprived me of sleep around zero dark thirty this morning. In an attempt to invite fatigue I grabbed a bowl of ice cream, and turned on the TV. Scrolling thru the guide I soon came across an old Jodie Foster drama from 2007 called "The Brave One" in which she played a New York City vigilante out for justice after street thugs killed her boyfriend and very nearly her.

At one point she is getting on an elevator with a crowd of other people, and in the background off-camera you can hear two people discussing the string of recent revenge killings:

"Did you see the pictures of the subway thing?" asks one.

"Gross, he shot another one last night; some pervert this time," says the other.

"Who'll he go after next, Donald Trump? - that would be justified."

My point here is a simple but salient one, even 12 years ago everyone already knew that Donald Trump was a scumbag, it's in the social record of our country. Everybody knows! In fact, taking jabs at Trump is something Hollywood does quite often because he is an American pariah.

Certainly over the last two years Trump has done a number of dastardly deeds which will ensure he remains public pariah #1, but last week he stooped to his lowest level yet with his petty and vindictive promise to release undesirable criminal immigrants into the Sanctuary Cities of his political opponents, specifically San Francisco, Chicago and NYC. Willing even to dump them in his home town just to intimidate and confound those politicians fighting his slow moving coup.

Reminiscent of a spoiled child who pouts and throws fits when he can't have his way, Trump has now gone so low as to exploit asylum seekers as little more than human pawns in a despicable abuse of power calculated to intimidate and instill fear. These are the actions of someone intent upon driving a wedge between the population of this country. These are the actions of one so corrupt he breaks the law in plain sight, right before our astounded eyes, as if daring anyone to do anything to stop him.

Lowering the Barr

Empowered by the republicans who are protecting him, and lap dog attorney general William Barr, Trump now feels like a "Teflon Don" to which no criminal charges can stick. He continues to lie every time he opens his mouth; saying things like the Mueller report completely exonerated him. Let's be clear about one thing right now: If Mueller's report "completely exonerated" Trump it would be the lead story on every Fox news program...and they would of course show the un-redacted report for all to see. If the report totally clears Trump don't you think they would show it to us? Why are they hiding it even as Trump continues saying it exonerated him. I'm beginning to think that "exonerated" is just one more word he doesn't know the meaning of. We should all remember that during Watergate Nixon "summarized" the tapes with a string of lies; but when the facts finally came out Nixon was forced to resign.

Last week the Democrats officially requested several years worth of tax returns from Trump, and he flatly refused. This is the first time in 40 years a sitting president has refused that specific request. He first trotted out his worn out excuse of being audited by the IRS to explain his refusal; even though the IRS has said many times there is no law prohibiting releasing taxes returns during an audit. So this week Trump and his band of lying talking heads are saying he won't release his tax returns because they are simply too complex for any of us to understand. Big boy stuff run by his un-named accounting firm which is, he says, "Feet Tall." WTF? More nonsense from a rattled and addled and crippled brain. did you hear the gibbering idiot recently when he was trying to say the word "origins" but kept saying oranges instead? Something is seriously wrong with Trumps brain, and yet nobody wants to address that particular elephant in the room, when the entire heard of pachyderms have taken up residence.

Trump is a genius but we cannot see his school grades, an innocent man who refuses to testify, and a billionaire but we can't see his taxes. Seems a bit dodgy to me, and yet every time he is challenged Trump holds himself as being untouchable; totally above the law. Trump claims that a sitting president cannot be indicted or arrested, but that is just another lie because there is no such law or rule. It has always been avoided to keep america from looking weak or vulnerable to our enemies, but its not a law, and Trump knows that, which is why he asked if he could pardon himself and kids. Such a scumbag!

Trump's band of plunder monkeys are busy 24-7 trying to hide the things he wants kept secret, specifically his dealings with Russia and Deutsche bank. It is the only bank (outside of Russia) that will give Donald Trump a loan because of his history of defaulting on bank loans. He is a bad risk, and yet this one bank not only continues to loan him money, it is the only bank Trump uses; while other billionaires spread their assets across several different banks.

Now we hear Trump saying repeatedly that he wants to get rid of judges & courts. Of course he wants that, because he doesn't want to be held accountable for his crimes, past, current, or future. He has done everything possible to elevate himself above the law and is showing no signs of sanity or slowing down. But hold on here just a minute, there was once another maniacal dictator who also wanted to abolish judges and courts for mostly the same reasons. History shows us how well that worked out; and if we cannot learn from history we are destined, and doomed to repeat it.

Of course Trump also has several other things in common with that historical dictator; like wanting to ban certain ethnicities from entering this country, and calling the press the true enemy of the people. Then there is the desire to imprison political adversaries that both dictators have in common, What about the constant lying, and the desire for world domination. Perhaps this explains why Trump keeps a copy of Mein Kampf on his night stand.

Trump recently told border agents to break the law, and lie to judges; told them to tell judges that we simply have no room for more immigrants...(except of course for those sanctuary cities.) Over the last 2 years Trump has removed every law he doesn't like everywhere he could, and the laws he can't remove he just ignores because he wants to be unaccountable, above the law.

Simply saying there is no room for more immigrants completely misses and glosses over the real issue of sustainability. Earths population is nearing the eight billion mark, with over 70 million births a year, or put another way, 200,000 births a day. That's a lot of mouths to feed and has history has repeatedly shown the best way to control a population is with food, or the lack of it.

Mueller wasn't the only one holding investigations into all things Trump, as there are currently 17 other such investigations underway, specifically in New York; and while tradition may protect Trump now, that protection will vanish the moment he leaves office. So, suppose by some miracle or act of divine deliverance Trump loses his bid for re-election, will he even consent to leaving office? What then if he doesn't? The house republicans currently shielding Trump aren't doing it from a sense of loyalty, but rather because they are just as guilty as he is, so they may very well continue trying to protect him even if he loses the next election. Don't forget that every time Trump feels the law bearing down on him his first tactic is to threaten civil unrest and rioting from his base. Trump is a deranged cult leader with delusions of grandeur and a host of mental issues which make him totally unfit to hold office. He will do anything he needs to do to remain in office, even if he is voted out of office thru some miracle.

Trump is a master at gaming the system and circumventing the rules to get his way and he applies that in his new political life. What on the surface appears to be a chaotic administration with top level cabinet officials leaving or being fired in a revolving door circus parade of fools; is actually just an elaborate con to get around those pesky and inconvenient confirmation hearings. The law says that someone holding a cabinet level position in an "acting" capacity awaiting a permanent appointee may only serve for 200 days. This is why Trump's administration has "acting" department heads in five crucially important positions: chief of staff, defense secretary, homeland security, UN ambassador, and interior secretary. When someone's 200 days is up Trump simply appoints another "acting" official to take their place, again immune from confirmation hearings.

Innocence is shown no mercy
As the revolving door continues to spin, there is one in the white house so cruel, vile and reprehensible that he not only remains, he is thriving and rising in power every week. I refer here to Steven miller, mastermind of kids in cages and resident ghoul. Not only is Miller a white supremacist some are speculating a certain vampire fetish also sets this lad apart from the herd. It is almost certainly his idea to bus "undesirable" immigrants to sanctuary cities; and as he gains still more power I shudder to think of the coming atrocities we will bear witness to.

Perhaps the most unsettling part of the Trump regime is watching him commit all these crimes and high treason right in plain day, right in our faces, as if taunting us, daring us to stop him. In his narcissistic self love Trump truly sees himself as special and above the law...he thinks HE is the law, and now you have a better understanding of his adoration for other dictators & tyrants.

With all his conniving schemes and the full protection of house republicans Trump thinks he cannot be defeated. You can always tell when that belief begins to falter because that is when he turns extra nasty and tries to intimidate with fear. Certainly by now you must have noticed how it is that whenever Trump can't get what he wants his first tactic is to threaten. Whether its a threat to shut down the government, close the border or ship immigrants to sanctuary cities doesn't really matter. What matters is the threat, and that it seems to be the only card in his diminutive little hands. Threats, intimidation, and force are all he knows, all he's ever had to work with, and that may be just fine for a cowardly bully but is most repulsive and unbecoming in a president.

"When the law does not apply to the lawmakers,
You aren't being governed, you're being ruled,"

With all the crimes committed in the open for all to see, and any unwanted truth blasted as "fake news" many of us are beginning to feel as if we're witnessing the death of Democracy. Where are all those constitutional checks & balances that are supposed to protect the country from criminals such as Trump. A still better question is where are all those patriot militia groups from the 90's who swore to defend America from exactly this kind of threat? what ever happened to them?

Covering up ones corruption is a time honored American tradition as old as the country itself. We grew up with it and became accustomed to the fact politicians lie to us all the time, it's the American way. We're just not yet used to this new tactic of a president committing crimes right before our eyes and then lying as if video does not exist. Feeling he is above the law, Trump commits obstruction of justice almost daily, then denies saying things he is seen on video saying. He also tells us to believe his version of reality over our own eyes & ears; straight out of Orwell's novel, 1984.

There is this growing pervasive feeling across America that nothing matters anymore when the response to Trumps growing list of crimes is simply to ignore them and carry on with business as usual. One hand protecting the other as they clench ever tighter around our collective throats.

Is it still corruption if everyone is in on it, or is it just the new way of things...for a while, because in the end something will replace it; not to say that whatever that is will be any less cruel or soul-less.