This, Too, Shall Pass

The Dark Jester

by T.K. McNeil

“Every empire turns to dust and every ego will be crushed”
Martyn Jacuqes, The Crack of Doom

No one can see the future. Just ask stock traders, poker players, or the weather man. One method used to predict future events is trends. Unfortunately, trends come and go. Be it good or bad, there is a tendency to be trapped in the current scenario. Which is why when it came to imagining transportation of the future, Futurists of the 19th century described what was basically a horse and buggy with a mechanized horse.

The very concept of the internal combustion engine was so far beyond the context that they knew it was difficult to foresee a time beyond it. In the throws of the Second World War the National Socialist regime referred to their administration as “the thousand-year Reich.” While the Nazis were only in power for 12 years there was no reason not to believe the “thousand-year” rhetoric at the time.

Donald Trump is president but it will not be forever, even though it already feels like it has been.  The Nixon administration was truly abhorrent and seemed like it would never end but it did, because people took action. Remember George W. Bush? Me neither. Not unless I really try.

It is both funny and somewhat tragic to realize that we thought W. was as bad as it could get and Obama arrived just in the nick of time to save us all. It was warm and fuzzy while it lasted.  But, going from Obama to Trump was a shock that the country has not yet recovered from.  The ‘he’ll never win’ complacency that let him do just that hangs over every day of his presidency.

Cultural amnesia can be a terrible thing that can allow us to get used to anything, but we can’t allow it. This is not normal and it is not right. This is exactly why our systems has checks and balances like the two houses and the judiciary as well as two term limits on the presidency. To keep the unfit from ruling too freely for too long.

No matter what happens we need to remember that. The power is ultimately ours, as is our destiny. It might hurt but we need to remember everything Donald Trump has said and done. Hold it our hearts and minds and make sure he does not get away with it. It is a dark time now but this, too, shall pass. Hopefully sooner than later.

Afghanistan, Now And Forever?

Afghanistan:

Now And Forever?

D. S. Mitchell

President Trump has just embraced 16 years of war in Afghanistan and promised the American people more of the same: with a new troop build up, diplomatic pressure on Pakistan and outreach to the Taliban to entice them to the negotiating table.  These are all old familiar strategies used by his two predecessors with no success.

Donald Trump, several years ago advised then President Obama, to get the hell out of Afghanistan and spend time and resources rebuilding America. After months of deliberations with his generals Trump has been persuaded to stick with a conflict that he has vocally opposed in the past. In fact, during the campaign Trump claimed he would wind down America’s foreign wars.

Trump and his military team believe that with the Afghanistan government losing large sections of the country that the U.S. has no choice, but to dig in.  Trump reiterated that there would be no publicized withdrawal time table, as there had been with President Obama. An issue that Obama has been criticized for.

Trump’s announcement came Monday night in a 26 minute televised  address to the nation from Fort Meyers, VA.   There was a sense of bravado to his comments, one of those, “I got this” as he proclaimed “In the end, we will win.”

Trump is the third president to struggle with the Afghanistan problem. In 2001 George Bush sent special forces into Afghanistan to rout the Taliban government and track down al-Quida terrorists. Since that first commitment, actions in Afghanistan by the U.S. has cost the American people $715,ooo,000,000, 2,400 lives and another 20,000 wounded in a 16 year adventure in foreign occupation. A very heavy price for such humble results.

Afghanistan is a country besieged by ethnic, religious, cultural and tribal factions that have blocked foreign armies for millennia. Trump indicated in his address to the nation that the mission was not to re-take territory, but rather the focus would be on training Afghan Special Forces and the Afghan regular army.

In my opinion, the announcement of the troop build up was a lame effort to redirect the conversation from Charlottesville, VA.  and his own schizophrenic behaviors of the last week, to  a topic that has in the past earned him a bump in the polls, bomb strikes.

Trump has surrounded himself with generals.  He appears to defer, in some instances, to their ability.  The warning in this case would be, the military will always offer military solutions and promise victory, that’s what they are trained to do. The basic truth is that there will be no victory for the United States in Afghanistan because there is no sustainable government in place that can administer the country, and be an ally to the U.S.

Trump is vowing to “win” what seems to be an unwinnable war.  I don’t want us there, just to “win” with no specification of troop numbers, strategy, or time commitment.  Trump pointedly declined to show how many more troops will be dispatched to extend the longest war in U.S. history.  Trump indicated it would no longer be a “time based” war, but rather a “result based” conflict.

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More Of Trump’s Plan To Eviscerate The EPA

More On Trump’s Plan To Eviscerate The Epa

D. S. Mitchell

Trump promised during the campaign there would only be “little tidbits” left of the EPA when he was done with the agency. He has, now as president used every device available to make that campaign promise a reality.  Among some of his actions has been to take steps to revoke the Clean Power Plan and delay implementation of mercury and air toxics standards.  Additionally, there is the 2018 budget.  Trump’s proposed budget slashes EPA funding by 31%, effectively crippling the department.

 

1.) CLIMATE RESEARCH: EPA’s Science Advisory Board budget would be slashed by 84%, due to sweeping cuts to scientific programs.  People will be more vulnerable to, and less ready for extreme weather events. Lack of data will hinder the ability of other agencies to monitor Green House Gas emissions and forecast floods and hurricanes.

2.) STATE AIR QUALITY PROGRAMS: Significant funding for local monitoring comes from the EPA.  It allows health officials to warn of “Code Red” days when the air is dangerous for people with asthma. Trump budget would cut funding by one-third. An estimated 125 million Americans live in communities with unhealthy levels of air pollution. Local governments will be charged with maintaining air quality but may lack the money to do it.

3.) CRIMINAL AND CIVIL ENFORCEMENT: Trump argues that states should oversee their own state’s environmental laws.  The president wants to cut EPA’s enforcement office by 40%. Trump’s budget would cut the grants that allow states to conduct that enforcement by 45%. Fees, fines and penalties will no longer be assessed or collected.

4.) SUPERFUND CLEANUP: There are more than 1300 toxic Superfund waste sites and 450,000 brownfield hazardous sites across the United States.  President Trump’s budget cuts would reduce the Superfund cleanup program by nearly $200,000,000.  Towns like Amesbury, MA that depend on federal funding to keep their citizens safe from groundwater contamination that will suffer from projected cutbacks.  De-funding the EPA also threatens redevelopment and restoration in many communities across the country.

5.) REGIONAL WATER QUALITY: Trump’s projected cuts would eliminate $400,000,000 for programs to clean up America’s greatest yet most threatened bodies of water–the Great Lakes, Chesapeake Bay and Puget Sound.  It is expected that critical estuaries and the fishing industry that depends on them–like Chesapeake Bay crabs and oysters will be seriously harmed.

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Trump Lives In A Facsimile Universe

Trump Lives In A Facsimile Universe

D. S. Mitchell

Last week President Trump set off another Twitter firestorm when he began a vicious  attack against MSNBC TV hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough. Trump’s bad behaviors and odd proclivities have made for interesting chatter on their early morning political news show, ‘Morning Joe’.  The Twitter attack came after several months of negative Trump coverage by the two TV hosts.

The heat of the outrage following Trump’s disgusting attack came from a wide swath of the public, Capitol Hill and the media. At the height of the Kerfuffle, Joe and Mika came on their own show as “guests”. The pair answered  a slew of questions from their regular panel.

In short order,  I watched the story shift from Trump’s questionable  mental capacity to an even darker and more sinister sets of behaviors. Behaviors that support the James Comey’s recent testimony; threats and bullying being standard practice by the thug from Queens.

Joe and Mika told a hair raising tale ‘on air,’ of being excessively pressured, or  “blackmailed”, by several White House officials.   The staffers were demanding Joe and Mika call and apologize to the President, for their recent unflattering reporting of Trump on their show.

The pair described many ominous phone calls being made to their children and other family members threatening publication of an ugly National Enquirer story.  Mika stated that White House staffers made frequent phone calls to her, telling her to back off  the negative reporting of Trump.

Not only was there pressure to change reporting, but also to call the president and apologize.  All they needed to do was cave to the threats by the White House thugs.  If Joe made that apology call he was told the negative National Enquirer story would be scrapped.

Joe told his television audience that he had called Jared Kushner directly.  During that conversation  Kushner, confirmed, “All you need to do is pick up the phone and call and apologize, and the National Enquirer story will disappear”.  Joe said he refused to apologize, and things deteriorated into Trump making the subsequent disgusting tweets attacking the two TV hosts.

The Trump attack against the commentators soon segued to how can Trump control what is published in the National Enquirer and how is he using that power to control and manipulate reporters and the news itself?

It is well-known that National Enquirer, CEO  David Pecker has been friends with Donald Trump for decades. Despite Pecker denials of biased reporting favoring Trump it has been obvious for many months that The National Enquirer and TMZ are having a print love affair with Trump. And Pecker has been allowing his personal relationship with Trump to effect editorial decisions at the tabloid.

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Russian Scandals Dog Trump

Russian Scandals Dog Trump

By D. S. Mitchell

Swamp Life

It’s Saturday afternoon, and I look out to wind and rain. I’ve had all morning and most of the afternoon to think about the current administration. There are multiple simmering scandals bubbling up. Just about everywhere you look there is a swamp creature bobbing its head through dark sludge. It has become impossible to avoid them, they are everywhere you look.

An Inside Joke

Donald Trump ran for office proclaiming he would “drain the swamp”. It was an inside joke to all who knew the man. Trump has been a swamp creature his entire life, conning and grifting at every turn. However, I doubt that even the most skeptic of his critics, ever imagined the morass he would  surround himself with if elected president. Putrid and corrupt, the rot that is consuming the Trump presidency began before the election.

Follow The Money

I’m trying to bring sense to all the emerging scandals.  Once we find the decaying corpse of corruption that links Trump to Putin we may discover the truth about the Russian involvement in the 2016 election. And what I expect is a continuing effect on Trump’s daily decisions.

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