The crime boss just keeps doing crime boss things.

Good morning field hands.

So this happened while you all were enjoying your holidays.

"Bloomberg) -- A retweet by President Donald Trump, naming the alleged whistle-blower whose complaint triggered the congressional inquiry that resulted in his impeachment this month, was restored late Saturday after being hidden for much of the day.

The post, originally from the handle @surfermom77, was retweeted by Trump around midnight Friday and by Saturday morning was no longer visible in the president’s Twitter feed. CNN first reported late Saturday that the temporary removal followed a Twitter glitch that affected certain accounts, not deliberate action to delete the tweet by Trump or someone with access to his Twitter account.

“Due to an outage with one of our systems, tweets on account profiles were visible to some, but not others,” the social media site posted on its @TwitterSupport account.

As of Sunday morning the message was again visible to Trump’s 68 million Twitter followers.
The tweet identifies a person it says is the whistle-blower: the person who first alerted members of Congress to the president’s conduct in his July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

The poster, @Surfermom77 or “Sophia,” describes herself as living in California and a “100% Trump supporter.”

On Saturday afternoon the account, which posts a variety of pro-Trump and anti-Democratic material, was shown on Twitter as having been “temporarily restricted.” It’s now been restored, and carries Trump’s photo as its profile picture.

The White House didn’t respond to a request for comment on Saturday." [Source]

This is not normal, but sadly, like all things with this president, this too shall pass.

Finally, Don Imus died recently, and there has been a lot of major media figures chiming in to praise his life work and accomplishments.

You will not get any of that here. Don Imus was a racist, sexist, shock jock, whose antics contributed to the climate of hate and intolerance in this country.

I hope he doesn't mind heat, because it will be very warm where he is going.

I'm still out of pocket.

But I will holla at you soon, field- hands.

There is so much to chop it up about.

The stock market is roaring along, and yet more Americans than ever are calling for the impeachment (and removal) of the Orange crime boss.

Thoughts?

Caption Sunday.

Give ma a caption for this pic.




And this one.

Impeached!

The 45th president of the United States has been impeached. Only the third in history.

Was it deserved?

Rebranding the GOP.

Donald trump gave a new name to the Republican party today. In an attempt to rebrand the Grand Old Party in his own image, he has declared that it is to now to be known as the United Republican Party.  It makes sense if you think about it,  because the party has pretty much sold its soul to Mr. trump. 

Now, with impeachment looming, battle lines have been drawn, and republicans, more than ever, are digging in.

No one is happier of course than Donald trump. Because were it not for the blind loyalty and inexplicable devotion to a man who we all know is a con and a grifter, he would be thrown from office and criminally prosecuted. 

Speaking of being criminally prosecuted, trump's buddy, Rudy Giuliani, is the latest of trump's surrogates who is more than likely heading to the big house. He has been all over the globe on behalf of the president, and he has been cutting deals with sleazy characters and governments.

The latest is that he was in the Ukraine to bring back the smoking gun that would vindicate his buddy. And just like the trip to Hawaii to get Barack Obama's birth certificate, this too was a hoax.

American foreign officials are totally frustrated with this administration, because trump has allowed his friends  and surrogates to trample all over the diplomatic community. They said as much in the impeachment hearings, and those of use who were watching it objectively, felt bad for them and what they have had to go through with this administration. 

Of course, the trump minions see it differently:

"Elections have consequences and foreign policy is going to change from the Obama administration to the Trump administration,” Mulvaney said. “And what you’re seeing now, I believe, is a group of mostly career bureaucrats who are saying, ‘You know what? I don’t like President Trump’s politics, so I’m going to participate in this witch hunt that they’re undertaking on the Hill’.”

"Policies" is one thing. Breaking the law, on the other hand, is quite another.






 

Caption Saturday.

Give me a caption for this picture.  

"Dangerous in the extreme".

The following article was written by Jay Bookman for The Virginia Mercury.

It was written right before the Thanksgiving holiday, but given what is taking place in Washington as I write this post, it is more relevant now than ever.

"Donald J. Trump used the power of his office to blackmail a foreign ally into undermining a political foe here at home. Nothing in U.S history approaches that abuse of presidential power, yet the gravity of the charges apparently does not matter.

The overwhelming evidence proving those charges – the sworn testimony, the emails and direct messages, the de facto public confessions by President Trump, his personal attorney and his acting chief of staff, explaining that yes, they did pressure Ukraine to produce political dirt – that too does not matter.

It does not matter because over the course of the past month, GOP officials have made clear their grim determination to protect Trump from all consequences for his actions, and that doesn’t seem likely to change. So the question arises:

Then what?

If the Republican wall holds, if this process concludes without Trump being held accountable for his actions, what constraint – legal, moral, ethical, political­­ – would Trump have grounds to respect in the future? If he has members of his party so uniformly cowed in fear, what new corruption would he and others in his administration not dare to undertake?

Very little, I’m afraid.

A Donald Trump who knows he is unaccountable to anyone is dangerous in the extreme. By nature he will fill any vacuum, leverage any weakness, seize any power left unprotected. When you’re famous, as he once said, you can walk up and grab women by the genitals, and that’s pretty much his modus operandi in every facet of life, including his presidency.

On May 9, 2017, Trump fired FBI Director James Comey for insufficient loyalty. The next day, he held a celebratory meeting in the Oval Office, with Russian officials as his invited guests, whom he thanked by giving them classified information.

On July 24, 2019, special counsel Robert Mueller concluded his testimony to Congress, conceding he could not prove – or disprove – collusion. The next day, July 25, Trump placed his infamous phone call to Ukraine’s president, during which he brazenly pressured for investigations into his American political opposition. When Ukraine’s president asked for Javelin anti-tank missiles, the next words out of Trump’s mouth were “I would like you to do us a favor though.”

He did that because he felt freed, unbound, and he was. He doesn’t see it as cheating, because he doesn’t recognize its existence as a concept. There are the things he can get away with, and those he can’t, at least not yet.

And now that his fellow Republicans have so abased themselves in his service, now that they’ve become a collection of so many Lindsey Grahams, what inner reservoirs of self-respect, courage and patriotism can they draw upon to confront him the next time? None. The only reason we know what we know about the Ukraine scandal is because the American people put Democrats in charge of the House in 2018 – without it, we would all be in total darkness about what happened. And as we’re learning, that check on his behavior has proved insufficient.

Of course, these dangers compound significantly should Trump somehow, by hook or by crook, manage to get himself re-elected. With that validation, with all the mechanisms of check and balance rendered impotent, why would he not gratify his instincts to repress all opposition, to ignore any law he finds constraining?

So that’s where we stand: Through the cowardice and petty self-interest of his own party, a corrupt and maybe crazy president is being granted permission to indulge his worst instincts without fear of repercussion. There’s no way that ends well, not for any of us.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone." [Source]

*Image from lobelog.com

Clouding the facts.

A wise old lawyer gave me some good advice when I started trying cases as a young lawyer. It went  something like this: "Good lawyers try easy cases and settle hard ones. Bad lawyers settle easy cases and try hard ones". 

I thought about that saying today while I was watching portions of the impeachment hearings  running non-stop on cable news. The republican lawyers seemed to be stuck with a hard case, and rather than trying to settle and acknowledge the difficulty of their case, they spent all day today trying their best to try the case in the court of public opinion and to the republican members of congress.

Obviously, from a legal stand point, it didn't go too well.

Clearly the facts weren't on their side, and no matter how much they tried to yell, distract, and throw out straw man arguments, it didn't change what Mr. trump did: Attempt to hold up military aid to the Ukrainian government until he got help taking down a political rival. 

As Keith Ellison eloquently stated: "They've got a really bad case". It's hard to defend the indefensible . I know, I have been there myself a time or two. Unlike republicans, though,  I did not try to slam the process and shoot the messengers. I went with the hand that I was dealt.

But this isn't a court of law, it's a political court of public opinion, and the republicans have been doing their best to play to their base, and the crime boss in the White House. They have tried their best to turn the entire process into a three ring circus.

Sadly, it might be working, because the case against Mr. trump isn't going to be decided by a jury or a Judge. It is a political process.  This case will be decided by the the lazy American press and divided (and distracted) American people. Both of these groups are calling the hearings confusing and boring. (As if the impeachment hearings should be like some daytime game show. )

So while trump may be impeached, he will not be removed from office. The republicans have enough senators who are part of the cult of trump to prevent such a thing from ever happening. As one fellow twitter user recently stated:"The republicans have mastered the art of dangling the keys in front of idiots to distract them."  There are a lot of idiots in America these days.

Caption Saturday.

Please give me a caption for this picture.


*Image from The Palmer Report.

Right on cue, here comes the faux outrage.

 Now comes the first lady (who from all indication, might have entered the country illegally) to declare that she is outraged because an expert witness in the impeachment proceedings made mention of her son, Baron.

Of course, as is to be expected, the conservative faux outrage machine has jumped on the bandwagon as well. "How dare they talk about the president's minor child like this? Children should be off limits. These people have no heart or soul."   

I need a break!

Keep in mind that this is the same Melania trump who supported her husband's racist birther claim against a man who had to had two minor children at the time that this crap was going on. There wasn't a lot of sympathy for the Obama children when Mr. trump was on his racist birther lie tour of the country.

And speaking of children, is Melania aware of all the children who have died while in the custody of ICE because of policies that her husband implemented? Is she aware of the fact that her husband's administration caged children? Rhetorical question. Of course she is. And we are supposed to care about a passing mention of her son during a hearing in Washington? I don't think so.

Melania needs to get her s**t  together and start checking her own husband before she can lecture the rest of us on civility.  And she needs to think about her own past and some of the choices that she made before she points her finger at others. '

What do you think will upset Baron more? Seeing these pictures one day while he is out hanging with his buds? Or watching old reruns of a hearing in Washington and hearing a small reference made to him by one of the witnesses who was making a legal point about the Constitution?

If you choose example one, move to the head of the class. If you choose example two, the right- wing faux outrage machine just might have gotten to you.

Liar in Chief.

"I don't know Prince Andrew" 

Says Donald trump.

Well.....

This is typical of what happens these days here in America. The president tells a lie and the press ignores it. 

In a way, the press has contributed to the culture of lies and gaslighting that has surrounded this administration since day one. 

Check out this list of some of  Mr. trump's greatest hits. 

Thoughts? 

 

Caption Saturday.

Give me a caption for this picture.

Image from the AP in dailymail.co.uk

Break.

I'm on the road field hands.

I will holla at you later.

Be safe out there.

In service to the "chosen one".

 

" Never forget that Russia chose the REPUBLICAN party to destroy America. Why? Because they knew they would sell their souls for power and money." ~@Leeanna Ernest~

I read an article by Max Boot in the Washington Post today, and in it he rightly pointed out that the republican party has turned into a "quasi-fascist party" in service to its leader, Donald trump.

The signs are everywhere. If you watched the impeachment hearings last week and the sycophantish behavior being displayed by the GOP members of congress who questioned the impeachment witnesses, you would know what I am referring to. 

They were not playing to the millions of American watching, they were clearly playing to an audience of one: Their dear leader. The man with whom they have made a Faustian bargain to sell their souls for who knows what. 

Today Rick Perry pretty much confirmed what I wrote above by declaring that Donald trump was chosen by God to lead us.

"Over the weekend, outgoing Secretary of Energy Rick Perry sat down with Fox & Friends host Ed Henry to share his belief that Donald Trump, a thrice-married serial philanderer accused by multiple women of sexual assault, is God's "chosen one," echoing language Trump has previously used to describe himself. " 'If you're a believing Christian, you understand God's plan for the people who rule and judge over us on this planet and our government,' " he says he told the president.

Perry, who announced his resignation from Trump's cabinet back in October, acknowledged that although the man who appointed him is not "perfect," God has "used imperfect people all through history" to carry out his will. In what is likely a first for the official in charge of America's nuclear-weapons arsenal, Perry revealed that he had even authored a memorandum comparing Trump to Old Testament kings Saul, David, and Solomon in order to drive home the point."

What's scary is that trump himself believes this nonsense, and he is starting to act  accordingly. 

Do not be surprised if trump loses the next election and refuses to step down. He will declare that it's not yet God's will that he leaves office, and he still has some unfinished business to do. And before you call me crazy, you must understand that members of his cult are already saying that they would be cool with that, and trump himself has joked said that he might just do it and stick around beyond his term. (*Constitution? What Constitution? We don't need no stinking Constitution.*) 

I honestly do not believe that America could survive twelve years of trump. Heck three years has seemed like thirty under the rule of this lunatic. But there are many in this country who are probably thinking that they can't live without him being in power. He is, after all, God's chosen one. 

Hey, maybe God did choose him. It is said that God works in mysterious ways.  

The thing is, there is no mystery as to who and what Donald trump really is. The fact that so many people can't see it is what should keep is all up at night.  

*Image from knowyourmeme.com and twitter.

  

Caption Saturday.

I need a caption for this pic.


*Image from thehill.com

Is sexual assault an impeachable offense?

  I have been wondering about a particular issue ever since Mr. trump became president.

Here is an article written by Megan Barber writing for The Atlantic about the issue I speak of.

"To watch the public impeachment hearings of Donald Trump is to experience a very particular form of whiplash. The House inquiry has featured a series of collisions, between Democrats and Republicans, yes, but also between accountability and its opposite. Here is a proceeding led in part by lawmakers who have, when it comes to the president, repeatedly prioritized fealty over facts. And here is the key question at hand—did Donald Trump extort a U.S. ally for his own political gain?—chafing against the other questionable matters not being addressed in the hearing: the reported frauds, the well-documented lies, the atmospheric fact of Trump’s bigotries. The precision guiding the House inquiry—bribery, high crimes and misdemeanors—is constitutionally mandated; it is a proportional response. Watching it play out, however, is a little like watching Hannibal Lecter getting tried for tax evasion.

Here is another matter left largely unaccounted for in the proceedings: Donald Trump, currently accused of bribery, has also been accused of rape. He has been accused of other forms of sexual misconduct as well, by more than 20 women, their allegations ranging from kissing to groping and grabbing, all against their will. If you include allegations of nonphysical forms of sexual harassment, the number of accusers grows even larger. The president has, in reply to these claims, issued a blanket denial: The people making accusations against him, he has said, are lying. (That list includes, ostensibly, Donald Trump himself, who has made his own claims about assaulting women: “It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait … Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything.”)

It is easy, in the impeachment hearings’ tumult—the testimonies, the twists, the history made in real time—to ignore those accusations. They are not, after all, a direct element of the inquiry. They are not among the alleged crimes that the House of Representatives has determined to be impeachable. A constellation of reasons, constitutional and political and cultural, explains why the impeachment inquiry is unfolding as it is—at this moment, rooted in this one particular incident of alleged abuse of power. It is nonetheless a sobering thing, to watch the hearings for the one alleged crime play out while the other alleged crimes are, effectively, ignored.

One function of presidential impeachment hearings, my colleague Yoni Appelbaum wrote in a rich and prescient essay earlier this year, is their ability to convene public attention. Americans are constitutionally distractible; the Constitution, it turns out, offers a way to mitigate that. Impeachment, on top of everything else, is a way of cutting through the noise of rumors and conspiracy theories, putting the truths of a president’s actions to the test and determining what, in presidential leadership, ultimately matters. There is a flip side to that power, though. When the question at hand is whether Trump engaged in an abuse of power with Ukraine, his alleged abuse of power with women becomes less relevant. All the other facts of unfitness—the families seeking refuge, torn apart at the American border; Trump’s insistence that the tragedies of Charlottesville, Virginia, featured “very fine people on both sides”; the bigotry; the cruelty; the offenses both casual and sweeping—get consigned to the background.

One function of presidential impeachment hearings, my colleague Yoni Appelbaum wrote in a rich and prescient essay earlier this year, is their ability to convene public attention. Americans are constitutionally distractible; the Constitution, it turns out, offers a way to mitigate that. Impeachment, on top of everything else, is a way of cutting through the noise of rumors and conspiracy theories, putting the truths of a president’s actions to the test and determining what, in presidential leadership, ultimately matters. There is a flip side to that power, though. When the question at hand is whether Trump engaged in an abuse of power with Ukraine, his alleged abuse of power with women becomes less relevant. All the other facts of unfitness—the families seeking refuge, torn apart at the American border; Trump’s insistence that the tragedies of Charlottesville, Virginia, featured “very fine people on both sides”; the bigotry; the cruelty; the offenses both casual and sweeping—get consigned to the background." [Source]

Ms. Barber, we can throw a newly appointed Supreme Court Justice in that mix as well.

*Image from bbc.com

The Vindman effect.

America is in a very bad place. I say this because a decorated Lieutenant Colonel who served honorably in Iraq- and earned a various military commendations- was set up on by GOP senators in an effort to undermine his credibility.

Alexander Vindman  gave damning testimony today when he declared what president trump did in his attempt to shake down the Ukrainian president.

It fits a pattern, as witness after an witness confirm what we already know: The American president committed impeachable offenses in his dealings with President Zelinski of Ukraine.

The trump cultist tried their best to gaslight and throw red herrings, but everyone outside of the cult of trump could see what was going on: The American president was trying to use a foreign power to investigate a domestic political rival.

I guess we can't totally blame the trump cultist, though, I mean let's face it. they take their cues from the president.

"Donald Trump has mocked witnesses at the impeachment hearings – while two of them were testifying – claiming he does not know them and making fun of their clothing.
The president, speaking to the media ahead of a cabinet meeting, was asked about Lt Col Alexander Vindman, a National Security Council expert who was testifying to the House impeachment hearings on the 25 July phone call between Mr Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart which sparked the probe.
Lt Col Vindman was listening to the call, in which Mr Trump appeared to pressure Volodymyr Zelenksy into starting investigations into his political opponents in return for releasing US military aid.

The Iraq War veteran was wearing his military uniform at the hearing and at one point insisted on being addressed as Lt Col Vindman after Republican congressman Devin Nunes called him Mr Vindman.

Mr Trump, appearing in public for the first time since an unscheduled medical visit at the weekend, mispronounced the Iraq War veteran's name and mocked him for wearing his uniform. 
He said: "I don't know him. I don't know, as he says, the 'lieutenant colonel'. I understand that somebody had the misfortune of calling him 'Mr' and he corrected them.

"I never saw the man. I understand now he wears his uniform when he goes in. No, I don't know Vind-e-man at all."' 

Yes Cadet Bone-Spur, unlike you, he is proud of his uniform. Of course you would never understand that, because you were too much of a coward to put one on. 

   

Caption Sunday.

I need a caption for this pic.


Example: "We got nothing."


*Image from pressform.info

Bombshell after bombshell.

So this happened today:

"When Marie Yovanovitch, the former ambassador to Ukraine, testified on Capitol Hill Friday morning during the second day of impeachment hearings against President Donald Trump, it didn’t take the president long to send a tweet attacking her.

“Everywhere Marie Yovanovitch went turned bad,” Trump wrote. “She started off in Somalia, how did that go? Then fast forward to Ukraine, where the new Ukrainian President spoke unfavorably about her in my second phone call with him. it is a U.S. President’s absolute right to appoint ambassadors.”

Yovanovitch was ousted from her ambassadorship back in April after she apparently got in the way of Trump’s efforts to persuade the government of Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden.

Her testimony on Friday was clear, calm, and mostly unflattering to the Trump administration. “As Foreign Service professionals are being denigrated and undermined,” she told members of Congress, “the institution is also being degraded. This will soon cause real harm, if it hasn’t already.” [Source]

You read that correctly. The president of the United States was live- tweeting his impeachment hearing, and he tried to intimidate a witness via tweet while she was testifying. 

Needless to say that Mr. trump's behavior was despicable and bordering on criminal.

Job well done by Adam Schiff for calling out Mr. trump for the entire country to see. 

But let's see what happens. I suspect that the cult of trump will not be moved, and they will continue to go down this very dark road with Mr. trump no matter where it leads. 

This also happened:

"For decades, Roger J. Stone Jr. played politics as a kind of performance art, starring himself as a professional lord of mischief, as a friend once called him. He tossed bombs and spun tales from the political periphery with no real reckoning, burnishing a reputation as a dirty trickster.

On Friday morning, a reckoning arrived, the consequence of his efforts to sabotage a congressional investigation that threatened his longtime friend President Trump.

Mr. Stone, 67, was convicted in federal court of seven felonies for obstructing the congressional inquiry, lying to investigators under oath and trying to block the testimony of a witness whose account would have exposed his lies. Jurors deliberated for a little over seven hours before convicting him on all counts. Together, the charges carry a maximum prison term of 50 years.

In a last-minute bid for salvation, prosecutors said, Mr. Stone appealed to Mr. Trump for a pardon on Thursday, using a right-wing conspiracy theorist who runs the website Infowars as his proxy. Mr. Trump attacked the guilty verdict against Mr. Stone in a tweet on Friday but made no mention of a pardon." [Source]

I hope that the folks in the cult of trump see a pattern here. It never ends well for people who enable and act as sycophants for this crime chief. The people around him continue to fall like flies while he continues to walk free. 

Roger J. Stone joined that club today. The only sad thing about today's proceedings was that he was allowed to walk free and was not immediately taken into custody to await sentencing.  

Fortunately for Mr. Stone, whiteness still has its privileges. 

Impeachment day in America.

Today was impeachment day in America. And for the first time Americans could watch the proceedings live on television.

Two career diplomats pretty much told America that the American president was involved in a scheme to bribe a foreign country to meddle in America's elections, and then he participated in a conspiracy to cover it all up.

Sadly, this won't move the needle very much when it comes to sentiments among the partisans. Republicans will continue to say that trump did nothing wrong (in spite of all the evidence to the contrary) and democrats will continue to marvel at just how deep the cult of trump goes.

But as important as the impeachment news was today, there is other news coming out of Washington which was just as appalling.

For instance, those white nationalist and racist e-mails that were sent by White House adviser, Stephen Miller.

  "WASHINGTON – Stephen Miller, a senior White House policy adviser, pushed white nationalist material to staffers at Breitbart, a right-wing website, through 2015 and leading up to the 2016 election, according to a report published by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The report released by the SPLC is the first installment in a series. More than 900 emails between Miller and Breitbart were examined by SPLC’s Hatewatch. “More than 80 percent” of the emails “relate to or appear on threads relating to the subjects of race or immigration,” the report says.

Miller is one of Trump’s main influences on immigration policies, including restrictions on travel from Muslim majority countries and family separation policies at the southern border. "

There is more to the story. And the more you read it the more you realize that our country is being run by some scary people. The president's right hand policy adviser pushing e-mails with links to white supremacist websites should remind us all why we all fear this administration in the first place. 
Then these was this doozy of a story.

"She claimed to be a Harvard graduate, but she was not. She also greatly expanded the depth of her nonprofit’s scope. When Congress began to question her resume as part of an even larger government job with a one billion-plus dollar budget, that was when things began to unravel.

She lied about being part of a U.N. panel, saying she had spoken at “both Democratic and Republican national conventions and implied she had testified before Congress.”

Her current job in the Trump administration called for her to help manage conflict prevention in politically unstable countries. Her salary is six figures, and she managed a six million dollar budget. She would be required to have a top-secret security clearance for that position, but whether she had one was not clear.

On her State official biography. she claimed to be a graduate of Harvard Business School. She only attended a seven-week course in 2016. She also said she graduated from an Army War College program. Instead, she attended a four-day seminar on national security. She did have an undergraduate degree from an unaccredited Christian School with volunteer teachers, the University of the Nations."' [Source]

The woman even had a phony Time Magazine cover for crying out loud. If it sounds familiar it's because the man she was working for did the same thing. 

The she article is referring to is a senior White House aide to the president, and her name is Mina Chang. And what she did fits a pattern of behavior in this trump administration: Lies, half-truths, evasion, and deceit.

The trump administration came into power promising to drain the swamp. From the looks of it they jumped in the swamp rather than doing anything to drain it.

*Image from the newsweek.com.