Swamp News, Week 9
When our grandchildren and great grandchildren read about this week in their history books, we’ll be able to say with a sigh, “I remember it well!” I for one have seen things this week I’ve never witnessed before in our country and never dreamed could possibly happen here. Never before have we had a president under investigation for treason; and never have we had a president who is a pathological liar, who every day becomes more ensnared in the web of lies he has spun. David Gergen, who knows a lot about presidents, made the statement, “This may be the worst 100 days we’ve ever seen in a president.” Ya think? Perhaps that’s because 45 is the most unqualified person ever elected to that office, who doesn’t have the knowledge or temperament to achieve so much as a mediocre job performance even if he gave it his best try. We’re only 60+ days into that critical first 100, but from Monday through Friday—FBI report to crash and burn of the Trumpdontcare health care bill–we’ve had a front row seat to watch the making of history.
Let’s take a look back.
- On Friday, March 17, German chancellor Angela Merkel visited the White House. She’s been there before, of course, and been warmly received by both President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama. Neither of those two humiliated our country in the eyes of the whole world as 45 did with his rude, churlish, infantile, and dementia-like behavior. The video that’s been circulating on the Internet of 45 and Merkel sitting in the familiar side-by-side chairs prompted Michael Gerson to express the opinion in the Washington Post: “When President Trump and Angela Merkel sat together in the Oval Office, we were seeing the leader of the free world — and that guy pouting in public.” Many writers have echoed the sentiment that it is now Ms. Merkel who holds the esteemed title “Leader of the Free World” and not the POTUS. That to me is the most crushing thing that happened during Week 9.
- The calendar week began with FBI Director James Comey’s stunning confirmation on Monday that the FBI has, since July 2016, been conducting an investigation into “whether there was any coordination between the Trump campaign and Moscow while Russia was interfering in the presidential election.” This statement makes two things clear: One, the FBI has already established as fact that Russia interfered in our election and that their efforts were specifically aimed at defeating Hillary Clinton and electing Donald Trump; and two, the question that remains unanswered and which the current investigation hopes to resolve is whether Trump and his associates participated in, coordinated with, colluded in those efforts. If so, I think we know the name for that, right? We call it treason. Here’s the constitution’s definition of treason: “Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort” (Article 3, Section 3, Clause 1). Oh, yeah, and the penalty for such “high crimes and misdemeanors” is impeachment.
- The big DUH for the week comes from that same report by Comey: The FBI finds “no evidence” to support allegations that Trump Tower was wiretapped during the campaign. We know by now, of course, Trump’s never met a fact that can shut down one of his lies; so in his own inimitable way he has continued to defend his claim, making much of his use of quotation marks in the original tweets. “Wiretapped” in quotes doesn’t mean the same as wiretapped without quotes. With the quotation marks, it can mean any form of surveillance; and since his claims can be affirmed retroactively, as with the Sweden statement, any tidbit of information is now fair evidence of his credibility. If this were not so tragic, it would make a hilarious Bill Murray movie, possibly titled “What about Donnie?”
- And then there was the time when Devin Nunes, California Republican who chairs the House Intelligence Committee (which has come to sound like an oxymoron), decided it would be intelligent to brief 45 on information regarding the U S intelligence community’s possession of information on Trump’s transition team before updating members (Democrats) of his own committee. Gee, I don’t think that sounds too suspicious, do you? Maybe this means it’s time to turn the case over to an independent investigator?
- With the Russia investigation now public knowledge, Paul Manafort returned to center stage this week. You remember him? The guy Sean Spicer said played just a minor role in 45’s campaign. Being campaign manager for roughly 4-and-a-half months is no big deal, right? I’m sure he didn’t have too much influence. Manafort’s ties to Russia are well documented and far too numerous to mention here, but we’ve all heard them. It seems the current focus in his investigation is what he did with all that Russian money he’s earned. The words “off-shore accounts” and “money laundering” have come up, and evidence has led to a bank on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, “once known as a haven for money laundering among Russian billionaires,” according to the AP. Rachel Maddow will keep us posted on this one.
- Evidence of Trump’s Russia connections is also mounting. In contradiction to his vehement denial of having any business dealings with Russia, the Huffington Post reported this week: “But in the United States, members of the Russian elite have invested in Trump buildings. A Reuters review has found that at least 63 individuals with Russian passports or addresses have bought at least $98.4 million worth of property in seven Trump-branded luxury towers in southern Florida, according to public documents, interviews and corporate records.” I’m sure we’ll be hearing more on that.
- Monday through Thursday, the spotlight shifted a bit to the Senate confirmation hearings for Neil Gorsuch, 45’s nominee to fill the stolen Supreme Court seat for which President Obama nominated Merrick Garland, the guy all of the Republicans refused to talk to. With the Huff Post describing Gorsuch’s responses as a “steady stream of non-answers,” resentment among Democrats over GOP treatment of Merrick Garland still fresh, and a load of philosophical concerns over trends of the Roberts Court, no one could say the hearings went smoothly. On Thursday, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer threatened to filibuster the nomination and urged his fellow senators to follow suit. An air of inevitability hangs over the process, however, since filibustering is the only hope for a defeat and so far Schumer’s bandwagon is not filling rapidly. The committee is expected to vote on April 3 and the full senate sometime around mid-April.
- The one piece of good news this week came Friday afternoon, following a week of desperate pleas by Paul Ryan for the necessary 216 votes to send the American Care Act–or ACHA–on to the senate, threats by 45 of repercussions for Republicans who would choose to vote against the bill, demands by 45 for a Friday vote in spite of the flaws in the bill and the lack of time to make effective revisions, and the overall mania that consumed our capital in anticipation of the first vote on a major Trump campaign promise. Ryan conceded defeat on Friday afternoon and chose to withdraw the bill rather than suffer the further embarrassment and political damage of a failed vote. Yay, one for us!!!
- And now that the ACHA is dead, let the Trump spin begin! The whole problem, he says, is that they had no Democrat support. If those darned Dems hadn’t been so stubborn, it could have happened, because Trump and Company had “a very, very tight margin—so, so close”; but they “just couldn’t get there” because no Dems were willing to rob 24,000,000 people of their health insurance. Imagine that! Not a single Democrat would vote to make millions of families miserable and helpless. Now, according to 45, they’re just going to “sit back and watch Obamacare explode”; and the Liar-in-Chief says it’s already exploding, so they won’t have long to wait. And after it explodes, the Republicans will create something “great” to take its place; never mind that they’ve already been working on it for 8 years and couldn’t pass the bill they wrote. Once again displaying his utter lack of understanding of how things work—or how anything works—45 forgot to mention what will happen during the gap between the explosion and the time the GOP finally comes up with this much-anticipated “great” plan. After all, what’s really important is winning, not helping sick people.
- The week ended with both a champagne celebration as the AHCA crashed and burned and the discouraging announcement that the administration has given the go-ahead for the Keystone XL pipeline: “’TransCanada will finally be allowed to complete this long overdue project with efficiency and with speed,’ Trump said. ‘The fact is that this $8 billion in investment in American energy was delayed for so long demonstrates how our government has too often failed its citizens and companies over the past long period of time.’”That reverses Obama’s rejection of the pipeline in 2015 on the grounds that “it was not in the national interest and that approving it would undercut the country’s leading role combating climate change.” Once again, big business trumps environmental protection.
Tweet of the Week goes to Senator Bob Menendez: “Hey Republicans, don’t worry, that burn is covered under the Affordable Care Act.”
I think we can expect Week 10 to include a lot of Trump tweet storms, finger pointing, and more lies as 45 tries to cover his large posterior after his humiliating defeat. He’ll probably even throw a couple more “rallies” to restore his wounded ego and feel some love. One thing is certain: It WON’T be boring!
Keep fighting the good fight! The AHCA withdrawal was a “yuge” victory, but the battle is far from over. Keep the calls and letters going! See you next week!