TRUMP FATIGUE

It is hard to believe that Trump has only been President for a year. He has bombarded the media to such an extent that one can hardly recall when he wasn’t President. It is a sad state of affairs that when Trump appears on TV, or a team of pundits discuss his latest tweet - that supposedly represents a policy statement, that the sheer exhaustion and frustration at the same old same old sends one grabbing for the remote. An op -ed piece appears in a newspaper debating his position like he is an adult or a blog appears on the internet extolling or decimating his virtues receives similar treatment. 

Sad because Trump is the President of the United States of America that up till a short time ago was the leader of the free world.

WHY THE FATIGUE?

You see there are already over two thousand lies documented in Fact Checker in his first year in Office, so what is the sense in documenting and debating yet another one?

He changes his position on virtually every subject without batting an eyelid. The most recent example, on TV, in full view of the nation he undertakes to sign any legislation on DACA brought to him by a bipartisan group. In less than a few days he is outright rejecting a hard worked out compromise brought to him by senior senators Durbin and Graham. So why take note of what he has just said?

With monotonously regularity he embarrasses his office and the country with obscenities that he follows up with justifications then denials. That behavior is coupled with untenable alliances and positions that are totally at odds with America’s tradition of fair play and democracy. So better ignore it all and just let the world know that he is a minority President and we are ashamed. 

To a very serious breach of America’s security by the Russians into the integrity of America’s democracy he instinctively lashes out at the Security and Justice apparatus that the country is dependent on for its safety and sanity. In Goebbel’s style he screams at the mounting evidence of his entanglement with Russian thugs and evidence of their assistance in his ersatz election. He claims that the State apparatus entrusted with law and order and protecting the nation are in a conspiracy, with Hillary Clinton to bring him down. When on the topic of the investigation he punctuates every second sentence claiming that there is “no collusion” claiming that the whole endeavor is a “hoax”. Likewise he responds to the overwhelming evidence that he obstructed justice with, “everybody knows there was no collusion” Who needs to hear this all yet one more time?

To a certain extent his egregious behavior has been accepted as the norm. A book detailing the chaotic inner workings of his day to day relationships and decision making, (sic), closely followed by shocking revelations of pay offs to women to shut up, barely can sustain the headlines for two days running. So why wait to hear his customary denials and threats to litigate? 

Every appearance is dominated by his narcissism and rationalizations. His past devastating failures are characterized as triumphs. So who wants to be regaled, once again, that his four bankruptcies totaling close on a billion dollars illustrated his genius at manipulating the American financial and business scene and therefore qualifies him to be President of the United Sates? 

If The Davos bound Donald knew one line of Shakespeare it would be, “All the world’s a stage”.

To sum it all up, “Who the hell can believe a word he says?”. Jay H. Ell will tell you - about thirty percent of the electorate who come hell or high water are part of the cult that represents Trumpism. The “believers” fall into several categories.

THE BELIEVERS.

 While obviously several of the members of the Trump cult have more than one motivation for their much appreciated “loyalty”, for simplicity sake Jay H. Ell will divide them into groups. 

At the one end of the spectrum is the angry sector of the electorate that feel neglected and have suffered as a result of changing economic circumstances. They were particularly antagonistic to the existing “self serving” Washington Establishment - the swamp. This is Trump’s true base who can hear no evil let alone speak any. Here Trump in his Nuremberg style rallies successfully sells his bill of goods as an “outsider” - populism, nativism and the scapegoating of immigrants.

On the other end of the spectrum are the legislators who hold their noses, enable and kiss the ring so as to get Republican legislation passed. A sub group of these are running heavy interference to the Mueller investigation by helping to smear the key members of the agency and delegitimize the whole security establishment. They are arguing that Hillary Clinton is really the one who colluded with the Russians, presumably to get Trump elected. Added to this group are the door revolving crowd in the WhiteHouse who have not challenged Michael Wolf’s assertion that a hundred percent of them treat him like a child.

Then there is the alt right wing delivered by Bannon and backed by the paranoid pundits like Anne Coulter and Rush Limbaugh who are waiting for the wall which they believe will be Trump’s defining legacy.

Another group that cynically backed a President that made Bill Clinton look like a vestal virgin were the Evangelicals. The thrice married POTUS, an unashamed adulterer who had backed abortion and Planned Parenthood and whose fornication credentials are kept continually in the public eye, most recently with his exploits with porn artist Stormy Daniels was considered a prime candidate for redemption.

WHAT AND TO WHOM HAS TRUMP DELIVERED?

The major beneficiaries are the Evangelicals with a host of life time judicial appointees including Supreme Court Judge Gorsich. It would take a lot to persuade them that Trump cannot be saved from damnation.

The tax bill is getting the full treatment as an achievement. However this is not Trump policy it is traditional Republican policy as interpreted by Paul Ryan. Trump’s financial legislation was supposed to be populist and for the little man. This predominantly helps the fat cats, the swamp. It also remains to be seen whether trickle down economics will really work - it never has. In addition prepare for major inflation with a weaker dollar and all this money now in circulation. Added to the borrowing needed to make up for tax loss, interests rates are going to go higher than anticipated.

There are the executive order sops to the deregulators, financial free marketeers, the climate change disbelievers but most of all for the immigration bigots and believers of Make America White Again.

He has gained much support for backing Israel and declaring Jerusalem the capitol. By so doing he may be ending any hope for an American brokered peace solution, but that is Bibi’s problem. He is more than mindful that the Jerusalem move pleases his Evangelicals more than anyone else, even Jared. They are the most intensely Zionist group in America believing that without Israel there can be no messiah. 

WHERE ARE WE NOW?

The group that have fled the Trump coop and are helping rake up the dramatic electoral reversals are the Independents, the blue collar workers that originally believed his spiel and moderate Republicans who can no longer hold their noses. 

The Mueller investigation is speeding up apace. The polls are all over sixty percent in favor of Trump testifying. This Russian investigation, one way or another will be Trump’s undoing.

AT THE END OF THE DAY

What makes the whole situation so banal is that the Trump responses are always the same - unbridled narcissism, lies, crooked Hillary, no collusion and smearing the opposition.  All so predictable and infuriating - leading to Trump fatigue and reaching for the remote or turning the page….SAD

WHY TRUMP’S IMMIGRATION “POLICY” MUST FAIL

If there was any doubt as to what Trump’s immigration policy was it was dispelled this week. In two separate statements he once again made it quite clear, as Jay H. Ell has said again and again that Make America Great Again is code for Make America White Again. As a backdrop to the current debate on immigration he asked “Why can’t we have more immigrants from Norway rather than the “shithole” countries Haiti and those in Africa”.  (The same sentiments are conveyed whether it was “tough talk” or whether he mouthed “shithouse” instead). 

While even by his standards this outburst was unsubtle and crude beyond comprehension it is merely a perpetuation of the only consistent stream of consciousness exhibited by Trump since he started out some years ago with his disgusting “birther campaign” against America’s first President of color, Barack Obama. (As an aside the apoiltical national newspaper, The USA, after he had all but called Senator Kristen Gillibrand a whore, editorialized that he was unfit to clean President Obama’s toilets). Trump’s well known record of attacking racial minorities needs no repeating, one just has to visualize him descending the escalator screaming obscenities against the Mexicans. 

The irony however, is, even if the Republican Party remained in the gutter with him and did not legislatively stop him in his racist campaign there is no way Trump can turn back the clock or buck reality on the changing racial composition of America. The American white, predominantly Anglo Saxon, majority is destined to cease in the middle of the twenty - first Century. Trump’s futile cruel campaign shows a lack of understanding of the motivating factors as to why people immigrate and the impact his policies will have on the American economy.

Ironically, on Martin Luther King Day, where Trump issued a proclamation honoring the Civil Rights champion, he threatened to expel nearly a million Latinos who were brought into America as children and know no other home. In so doing he would be guilty of a gross betrayal of faith as these “illegals” were promised sanctuary if they subjected themselves to background checks by the American Administration under Obama. Now the “least racist” President America has ever seen is going to drive out innocent members of an ethnic group that he had previosly labelled as being predominantly murderers, rapists and drug dealers. This action threatens to create civic unrest.

BACKGROUND TO THE RISE OF TRUMP’S  RACIST POLICIES

As the changing American demographics became more and more apparent, with forecasts that the traditional white American majority would no longer exist by 2050 and following Romney’s defeat against Obama, the Republican Party commissioned an autopsy report arising from their “Growth and Opportunity “ Project. The ninety - seven page  despatch focussed on, inter alia, the GOP’s alienation of minorities, the favoring of the rich over the workers and its ideological rigidity. It is fair to say that this had been commissioned by the Republican  Establishment by the then Chairman of the Republican National Committee, (RNC), Reince Priebus without taking other right wing party factions into account. There was a resolve, however by the RNC to follow through on the recommendations to correct the Party’s deficiencies, specifically by being more accommodating to minorities.

Contemporaneously the Conservative movement was growing and the National Committee’s approach did not take into account their agenda. More significantly a Leninist anarchist figure named Stephen Bannon emerged as a factor on the national scene. The latter was backed by billionaires and seemed to have a lock on the alt right through his news outlet Breitbart. He was made campaign manager of the Trump campaign and till fired was the Chief Presidential Advisor. Bannon more than anyone saw the danger of the loss of America to the blacks and the browns. Interestingly his first major disciple was Jeff Sessons, the current Attorney General, who was the only important Republican figure to back Trump from the get go. While Trump has abandoned nearly all of Bannon’s populism the immigration policy still remains.

The plan to fight the inevitable was simple - change the immigration policies thereby limiting the new  immigrants to the “right sort” and throw out as many of the “wrong sort” that were currently in America - you know the “murderers, rapists and drug dealers”. 

 DEMOGRAPHIC MAKE UP OF AMERICA AND IMMIGRANTS TO AMERICA SINCE 20th CENTURY

Currently forty - two percent of Americans, (thirteen percent of the population), are foreign born of which eighteen million are naturalized citizens and another thirteen million are documented. This leaves eleven million “illegal” or undocumented. There are also a number of very vulnerable “protected” groups that have recently been in the news since Trump served notice that he is going deport them.

 Between 1986 and 2012, three hundred and eighty - three thousand immigrants came from the UK, sixty - nine thousand from Italy with a lesser amount from France, a hundred thousand or so Israelis made aliyah to the USA, the Netherlands thirty - five thousand and Australia about twelve thousand. That adds up to less than a million probable white souls, with none from Norway, out of a total of over twenty - six million total immigrants for that period - that is less than four percent.

The fact that the white Western Europeans are still shunning America is reflected in the latest statistics. Of the approximately one million immigrants to America in 2015 less than nine percent came from Europe. Most of those came from Eastern Europe and not from the traditional white Western countries that originally settled the country. Forty percent came from each of  the Americas and Asia while about ten percent were originally domiciled in Africa. Happily for Trump about five percent came from Australia and Oceania. These figures more or less reflect the sixteen year period from 1986 - 2012.

So when Trump harks back to the good old days he is really talking about the seventeenth to the beginning of the twentieth century. Since then it has been down hill for Western European immigration. There were attempts to restrict the unfavorable sort of whites from Russia, following the Bolshevik revolution - mainly Jews. So there has been no large white pool that has entered America for over a hundred years.

Now there has to be a reason why since about 1910 nice white Western European immigrants are not flocking here in there hordes and battalions. 

WHICH PEOPLE IMMIGRATE?

Study after study shows that immigration, whatever the circumstances, causes major stress. Mass immigration occurs when there are highly aggravating circumstances such as civil or natural disasters. It would appear that no catastrophe occurred in Western Europe, after the beginning of the twentieth century that warranted a mass exodus toAmerica. Not even after the First World War were circumstances deemed so bad as to rush across the pond. Following the Second World War the Brits in particular chose Canada and Australia. There was a bump in Eastern European immigration after the breaking down of the Iron Curtain. But that is it for the European whites en masse since the turn of the twentieth century.

 In addition to those under life threatening duress there are a relatively small number of individuals who are so well qualified that they can advance academically or commercially in the rich, resource laden and powerful country that America is, that emigrate. It requires guts and courage to make the move. If the situation is “normal” back home there have to be very powerful motivating factors to take the plunge. To leave family, friends and familiar surroundings is a wrench. Your immigrant thus is a unique individual whatever the circumstances. (This has to be a major factor in America’s success).

America has benefited from all immigrants but the emphasis has been on the disadvantaged as Emma Lazarus summed up in her poem which was immortalized on the Statue of Liberty:

“Give me your tired your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless tempest - loss to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door”.

So other than the desperate browns and blacks and those few who are in a position to advance their horizons where is the pool of “good old white boys” Trump imagines can’t wait to be part of Trumpism? Unless there is another potato famine in Ireland or the like, the POTUS has to work the other end of the equation to keep America white by removing the non whites from the continent. The obvious target is the eleven million illegals - something he promised time and again on the campaign.

WHAT TRUMP CAN DO TO EFFECT HIS POLICY AND ITS IMPACT

The President has two strings to his bow, change the current immigration policy and throw anyone he can out. The former requires Congress and is relatively complex while the latter has some low hanging fruit allowing him to produce results with Executive Orders. The reason those “immigrants” are “protected” and “temporarily” are here is as a result of a “disaster”at home or factors beyond their control. They are identifiable as they are registered with the administration. This vulnerable faction include a group of eight hundred thousand Latinos, who were brought into this country illegally, as children, by their parents. They were granted a form of amnesty by President Obama on condition they came forward and registered themselves. The program that granted their status was entitled Deferred Action For Children Arrivals or DACA. Another registered group and easy to victimize are two hundred thousand El Salvadorians who have been in America for two decades and are fully integrated into the economy. They have been eighteen months to leave. The next “protected status” bracket to be given the heave ho are the Haitian refugees who were rendered homeless and were victims of devastating earthquakes. Added to this lot are fifty - seven thousand Hondurans and two thousand Nicaraguans. 

Most of this approximately one million Latin American population have been in the country for years and are well integrated into America’s social and economic life. The entity that is going to be the biggest political issue for Trump are the children of DACA who know no other country than America. Expelling them is reminiscent of the South African apartheid policy of sending Africans back to their “homelands” most of whom had never ever been there. Eighty percent of Americans are against expelling this group and the Democrats will go fill tilt to protect them even to the extent of shutting down the Government.

 If Trump goes ahead with the DACA expulsion there will be a crisis in the country not seen since the Vietnam war. All the major cities in the country have declared themselves “sanctuary cities” vowing to protect these citizens. Tom Cook of Apple as well as other major companies have announced that the Immigration authorities will have to come into their campuses to fetch DACA victims. Churches have echoed this cry. The protests will be humongous and this will make the stand off at WACO look like a Sunday picnic. Trump’s problem is that he has been all over the show on the subject and his latest attitude is one of defiance. He is putting himself in a position where it is difficult to back down.

An attempt to expel all eleven million “illegals” will have such devastating, economic, social and political consequences that it is not being seriously contemplated at the moment. If The Donald was determined his Justice Department would be prosecuting the employers of “illegals” with a vengeance. Trump with Sessons, who is fulfilling a life long ambition on immigration policy, will just conduct random cruel raids, concentrating on easy to find undocumented workers or weak companies such as Seven - Elevens.

AT THE END OF THE DAY

Once again the Republicans in the legislature are on trial. How much longer are they going to enable this man who opposes every value they purportedly represent? In addition are they going to take away his ability to unleash a pre emptive nuclear strike as well as his “power” to end the Mueller investigation?

PAUSE FOR THOUGHT

It has to say something about how grotesquely dysfunctional a Presidency is when the established fact that two women he had affairs with were bought off with payments of six figures to shut up, is hardly news. 

CHURCHILL - THE MAN WHO SAVED CIVILIZATION

The movie The Darkest Hour has gravitas beyond words and in the current situation where principled knowledgeable experienced leadership is on back order, Winston Churchill stands out like a beacon for the ages. Director Joe Wright’s characterization of that dramatic period when the future of the United Kingdom and Jay H. Ell believes Western Civilization, hung by a thread illustrates how history sometimes is inextricably controlled by one man. The bulldog character of the wartime Prime Minister, masterfully reincarnated by Golden Globe winner Gary Oldham, depicts the human, emotional and political drama that lay behind his defiant declaration, against impossible odds, to “… go on to the end..whatever the cost may be,.. to fight them on on the landing grounds…. on the beaches…. in the streets…..in the fields..and in the hills - “We Shall Never Surrender”.

None of this came easily and was a culmination of Churchill’s long career in politics, journalism, the military, and as an author, all of which had begun before the turn of the twentieth century. It was touch and go whether Winston would triumph. Had he not done so the world as we know it today would have not have been. 

WHAT MOTIVATED THE BRITISH WAR TIME PREMIER

There are two main interpretations of his behavior - on the one extreme he was discarded as a narcissistic, self serving, cynical opportunist and on the other an altruistic, noble, sincere public servant. Whatever side of the equation one veers to there is no doubt that Churchill was in the political doldrums as a result of his early “obsession” with Hitler and the rise of fascism which cause he took on with full force as early as the 1930’s. 

The only matter all could agree on was his unparalleled command of the English language which was matched by his transcendent oratory skills. Notwithstanding all his political skills his experience and his understanding of Hitler’s psyche and where it would lead to, it would be his communication skills that would ultimately allow him to tip the balance of destiny. Behind his success was his belief, commitment, patriotism, empathy, love of democracy, country and its peoples. The reverse side of the coin was his abhorrence of totalitarianism and facism.

THE DECADE OF THE BATTLE BETWEEN APPEASEMENT AND CONFRONTATION WITH HITLER

In the decade prior to the crucial determination to defend the democratic value system rather than strike a deal with Hitler, whom he perceived as the devil incarnate, the beleaguered Churchill stuck to his guns. Running against the tide and seemingly, without insight, it appeared that he was ending what little was left of his distinguished political career by his preoccupation with the threat posed by the Fuhrer. To give this conduct some context he had been a towering figure in politics soon after the turn of the nineteenth century and was the Lord of Admiralty in 1911 and Chancellor of the Exchequer, (Secretary of Finance) in 1925. Now he was an eccentric nonentity not helping his cause one bit by obsessing on an apocalyptic future.

He warned that “Dictators ride to and fro on tigers which they dare not dismount. And the tigers were getting hungry”. Following Hitler’s annexation of Austria in 1938 a weary Winston rose to his feet in that historic House of Commons, that has its origins in the thirteenth century, to remind his colleagues that, “For five years I have talked to the House on these matters - not with very great success. I have watched this famous island descending, incontinently, fecklessly, the stairway which leads to a dark gulf…. Look back upon the last five years - since Germany began to rearm in earnest and openly seek revenge. Historians a thousand years hence ….will never understand how it was that a victorious nation… suffered themselves to be brought so low and to cast away all that they had gained by measureless sacrifice and absolute victory…”

 In 1938 in a radio speech to Britain and the United States he argued, “The Stations of uncensored expression are closing down; the lights are going out; but there is still time for those to whom freedom and parliamentary government mean something, to consult together….” A message that fell on deaf ears in his own Parliament till mid 1940 when in view of his prophetic reading of the impending disaster he was called upon to lead Britain. In the United States it took much longer.  It was the Pearl Harbor Attack in December 1941 and a Japanese and Germany declaration of war against the USA that finally allowed Franklin Roosevelt to join in what would result in a strugggle that would save Western civilization.

CHAMBERLAIN’S APPEASEMENT OF HITLER IN MUNICH SEPTEMBER 1938

Neville Chamberlain the British Prime Minister who firmly believed that he could do a deal with Herr Hitler met with the latter, Benito Mussolini and the French Premier Edouard Daladier in Munich, in September 1938. The British PM whose assessment was the diametric opposite of Churchill’s trusted Hitler as a “gentleman” whose word was his bond. He had met with the Fuhrer prior to the meeting. Chamberlain then persuaded the French leader to accept, what Hitler claimed as his “last territorial demand”, the Sudenteland of Czechoslovakia. Chamberlain alighted from the plane following the sell out waving his accord shouting, “Look what I got from Hitler… Peace in our time”.

It didn’t take long for the German dictator to swallow all of Czechoslovakia. Then followed, in 1939, the rape of Poland and the subjugation of Norway and Denmark. Chamberlain was totally discredited. France, Belgium and Holland were also in the firing line as the blitzkrieg thundered across the European planes The most bitter pill for the proud Prime Minister was when war was declared on Britain. It was the end and his stunning miscalculation lead to his resignation.

THE SUCCESSION

The action that followed the repeated German betrayal of the Munich Accords is where The Darkest Day dialogue really picks up the story. Chamberlain is hounded out of the Commons by a furious opposition. The latter agree to form a government of national interest on condition that Chamberlain resigns. The outgoing Premier in a caucus meeting of the top brass of the Conservative Party, which was the way succession was effected in that era, offers the position to his right hand man Viscount Halifax. Halifax knowing full well that having supported Chamberlain in his appeasement efforts that he would be unable to have legitimacy with Churchill still around, refused. Obviously before the Viscount could become the leader Churchill would have to be be discredited. The reluctant conclusion of the conclave was that Chamberlain would relay to King George VI that Churchill was the choice.

Churchill as Premier stuck in the crawl of the establishment including the reigning monarch. He had denigrated and mocked his own Party’s efforts at appeasement and their failure to prepare for the war, a theme that he had eloquently hammered and hammered again and again. Also there was the ever present criticism that his judgement was impaired and his decision in World War one on the Dardanelles Campaign where 50,000 British and Commonwealth troops had died had haunted him throughout his life. Churchill had argued that his tactics were not to blame but the conventional wisdom backed up by a Commission of Enquiry was that the invasion had been poorly planned. Added to that was his previous party hops from Conservative to Liberal Party and now back with the Conservatives, which lack of loyalty was not in line with the true blood behavior expected by that establishment. Then to top it all was his eccentric behavior and his arrogance at the dunderheads who had been proved wrong. 

So it was with grave reservations that His Majesty and the Conservative Party accepted Winston Churchill as the head of the British War Time Cabinet. 

THE WAR CABINET

The newly elected PM quickly proceeded to elect a war cabinet which included both his nemeses Chamberlain and Halifax as well as members of the opposition Liberal and Labour parties. The military situation became bleaker as the Germans advanced and the mood in the underground quarters became darker and darker. Halifax became more and more strident in demanding a deal with Germany with the then neutral Italy acting as brokers. Churchill procrastinated on making a decision first ordering a nearby troop formation to decoy the German forces so that he could bring back the three hundred thousand stranded British troops from the beaches on Dunkirk - a feat believed to be impossible anyway as the Brits just lacked the transport wherewithal to deliver. He went onto the hotline to Roosevelt who told him his hands were tied so he could not help with ships or planes - even those the British had paid for. 

It was time for a Hail Mary and Churchill instructed the Admiralty to seek help from civilian craft to assist in the retreat. During this period the new Premier was less than honest with the citizenry about the deteriorating political situation. The pressure reached a boiling point as Halifax, who had been negotiating with the Italian ambassador, went for the jugular demanding a decision on the Italian option. A Churchill filled with self doubt had to think out of the box. To do so he shrewdly resorted to canvas with those that had forced Chamberlain out in the first place and had made him the leader. On the face of it, even though the circumstances had worsened, the fact that Halifax was continuing championing the very policies that the Parliament had rejected and had lead to his mentor’s ouster, would be bizarre to any outsider. However, in the bunker like atmosphere of the underground war rooms the world views were drowned out. 

CHURCHILL RECEIVES BACKING FROM PARLIAMENT, THE KING AND COUNTRY

Buoyed up by the unexpected backing by King George, who had come to agree with Churchill’s assumption that dealing with the sociopathic fascist Hitler was signing one’s own death warrant and that one may as well take one’s chances, slim as they may be, thereby maintaining hope, honor and dignity. So the Premier rallied his “outer” Cabinet and any other parliamentarians interested to explain to them that he was going to continue the fight. The country was behind this policy, (rather ingeniously but not historically accurately depicted in the movie), and he would present this to the whole House of Commons.

In one of the greatest orations in history the Premier offered the country, “blood, toil, tears and sweat” while not holding back on the devastating European set backs and a possible Nazi invasion. He however was optimistic as he rallied the nation:

“I have, myself, full confidence that if all do their duty, if nothing is neglected and if the best arrangements are made, we shall prove ourselves once more able to defend our island home, to ride out the storm of war, and to outlive the menace of tyranny, if necessary for years, if necessary alone. At any rate, that is what we are going to try to do. That is the resolve of His Majesty’s Government - every one of them. That is the will of Parliament and the nation. The British Empire and the French Republic, linked together in their cause and in their need, will defend to the death their native soil….”

He would end as this piece began “We shall never surrender”.

THE DARKEST HOUR - THE CINEMATIC NARRATIVE

The movie depicts this seminal juncture in twentieth century history in a climatic and suspenseful manner. Cinematically it is played out like a Shakespearian drama with all the dramatis personae exhibiting their dysfunctions and ambitions. It is a must see. If there is one criticism it is that Churchill’s eccentricities were overdone. Nearly every scene sees him running through one or other dysfunctional behavior. Historians and biographers have recorded his personality in detail but Jay H. Ell was under the impression that his idiosyncrasies punctuated his day to day life rather than dominated it. 

WHAT MATTERS AT THE END OF THE DAY

So words matter, leadership matters crucially, but most of all integrity, honesty, the pursuit of justice and the resistance to evil matters most. 

HIGH NOON: TRUMP VERSUS ROMNEY AS BANNON JUMPS SHIP

Of all the bad news Trump could have received this New Year, the fact that his arch rival Mitt Romney is about to enter the Senate in 2018 has to be the worst. (Just in case this wasn’t bad enough Stephen Bannon, his guarantor for his alt right support, unleashed, in an about to published book, a string of devastating negative exposes on him and his family. This catastrophic turn around, for the moment, drowned the far more significant impact of the Romney news).

The POTUS had done everything to avoid the impending Romney disaster by pleading with the current Utah Senate incumbent Orin Hatch to run for another term. At taxpayer expense he  schlepped the octogenarian around in Air Force One flattering and fawning as if he was a Russian oligarch customer interested in buying a Trump Tower in Siberia. Hatch reciprocated the largesse by publicly parroting Trump’s claim that he was the greatest President - up there with Jefferson and Washington but he said it was time to hang up his gloves. 

The reasons for The Donald’s angst are Romney’s stature and gravitas within the old Republican Party and the threat he could represent to the looming possibility of impeachment. All this was coupled with the Russian scandal worsening rapidly and the accepted wisdom that the Democrats are going to win, at least, the House of Representatives. The Bannon threat is more immediate because his revelations impact on the President’s credibility and ability to run the country. Trump just tossed the disclosures off claiming that Bannon had lost his mind. He also issued a futile legal instruction to Bannon to “cease and desist” claiming that Bannon had violated a non disclosure agreement. The Romney announcement has far more long term danger to the President even though it has taken a back seat to the Bannon drama.The latter is in print in journalist Michael Wolff’s exposure of the Trump WhiteHouse entitled, Fire and Fury. Trump’s army of tired lawyers have warned the publishers of Wolff’s book not to release it thereby increasing its significance even more.

DEMOCRATS AND GROUNDS FOR IMPEACHMENT.

Impeachment starts in the House Judiciary Committee and is controlled by the majority party in the House of Representatives. As matters stand at the moment, even without Mueller’s report, there is more than enough to impeach Trump. It is in the public square that if the Dems win Congress impeachment is the first order of business. Unlike Nixon you don’t need tapes to clinch the deal as Trump blurts out the incriminating evidence to the world. All that is then required is to provide corroboratIng evidence that Trump meant what he said.  

Without going into too much detail let us see what is out there in the Obstruction of Justice charge. The POTUS maintained that he fired Comey because of “The Russian Thing”. Comey has detailed contemporaneous notes, that he shared, that Trump asked for personal loyalty which he refused. He asked the FBI Director to go easy on Flynn who was knee deep in “The Russian Thing”. This only after he had cleared the room of witnesses. (Flynn is now cooperating with Mueller’s investigation)

Again, without delving too deeply, there is more than enough out there to lay conspiracy charges in that he and his campaign conspired with Russia during the election. The wheels are coming off the POTUS’S “no collusion” Russian story and that Clinton paid for the dossier that started it all.  An Australian diplomate indicated to the FBI that George Papadopoulos, a Trump Foreign Policy Advisor, had confided to him, months before the dossier’s existence, that he knew Russia had dirt on Hillary Clinton. (Papadopoulos is cooperating with the State as a result of pleading guilty to a lesser charge). ).

 It has also become clear that the reason that the FBI were interested in the Trump dossier was because it corroborated information they already had. One of the many of the dossier’s predictions that came true was that a quid pro quo that was asked for and delivered was the softening of the Republican Party’s policy on Russian involvement in Ukraine. 

The owners of Fusion GPS, who had commissioned the Trump dossier, went public demanding that the Republican controlled Committees release the transcripts of their twenty - one hour testimony to them. Inter alia they brought to the Congressional Committees’ attention the need to investigate the bank records of Deutsche Bank and other banks where Trump did business. They claimed that Trump was involved with “dubious Russians” that “raised questions about money laundering”. Evidence was provided on Paul Manafort’s financial ties to Russian oligarchs. The Fusion GPS executives emphasized that their investigator Christopher Steele discovered that there were extensive Russian efforts to get Trump elected and that he, Steele, felt obligated to report this to the FBI. 

AND NOW BANNON HAS JUMPED SHIP

If there is a canary in the mine as to the mess Trump is in, it is in the revelations by his guru, Stephen Bannon. The former Presidential Advisor and Chief Strategist had already prophesied that there was only a thirty percent chance that Trump would serve out his term. Now he has just let loose on the Trumps in a forthcoming book written by a Michael Wolff. Most damning was his corroboration of Fusion GPS’s claims of money laundering and Manafort’s role in relationships with the Russians.  Bannon further maintained that the June 2016 meeting with the Russian operatives hosted by Donald Trump Jnr. and attended by campaign chairman Manafort and Presidential son in law advisor, Jared Kushner, was “treasonous” and “unpatriotic”. He also argued that the chances that the son did not run this by his father are zero thereby heralding another obstruction of justice charge. There is also more than a hint that the Trump Jnr statement, that his father was involved in composing, represented yet another instance of obstruction of justice.

Bannon has added to Trump’s woes in other dimensions. Not only has Trump a cleavage between him and the Republican Party establishment, a massive one is now looming in his base. This will be between him and the alt right that Bannon delivered. In addition Bannon has the ostensible backing of billions of dollars from the Mercer family who also supported Trump. It is unlikely that Bannon would have moved without their support. Bannon’s Breitbart news was one of the main barrel organs that backed Trump right or wrong and was, up till now, maintaining that the Mueller investigation was illegitimate.

SO WHERE DOES ROMNEY FIT IN?

The House may impeach Trump but it needs sixty - seven votes in the Senate to carry through with what in fact are indictments thereby removing Trump as President. The process thus has to be bipartisan. Romney may be able to do what Senator Barry Goldwater accomplished with Nixon.

Mitt Romney was the Republican nominee for President in 2012 and has always been regarded as a well respected leader of what used to be the Republican Party. He carries a lot of weight and could well meld the anti Trump dissidents into a cohesive force. What is more he is not just an operator like McConnell and has articulated a tough position on Trump from the word go. He pleaded for a combined opposition to him by Cruz and Kasich so as to stop The Donald from winning the Primaries. He advocated that the Republican Congress should not ratify the Trump nomination and then finally supported an Independent candidate in the Presidential Election. Mitt could not stop the thundering train but the latter has slowed down and is going uphill.  What is more the future Utah Senator has been scathing in his criticism of Trump calling him a “conman - a phony whose promises are as a valid as a degree from the Trump University”. 

There was an opportunity to heal the rift as Romney desperately wanted to be Secretary of State and Trump went through the motions. After rejecting him for the job he belittled the very proud politician claiming that Romney would have gone down on his knees and begged Trump for the nomination. To add to the insult Trump appointed Romney’s niece as head of the Republican Party National Committee on condition she dropped the usage of the family name Romney which she had always gone by. 

So whether the Republicans or the Democrats control the Senate there still needs to be at least sixteen or seventeen Republicans to send Trump packing. This was more or less the situation with Nixon in Watergate when Senator Goldwater and the Minority Republican heads of the Senate and House went to Nixon and told him that there were not the votes to save him. Goldwater, who like Romney was a previous Republican nominee for President, added that that included him.

AT THE END OF THE DAY.

Trump, to quote Bannon is a street fighter and he has nearly a year to try and wreck Romney’s nomination in the Republican Primary process. His task has just been made that much more difficult with Bannon himself adding fuel to the fire. The latter has to believe that Trump has sold out on the populist cause with his grotesque Tax Bill and that “The Russia Thing” is no longer defensible.

The spirited effort by a number of Republican legislators to attack the FBI for fomenting a Trump coup de etat has to become more intense with the news that the anti Trump legislators have found a champion and that the POTUS can no longer rely on Bannon. Trump and his echo chamber will use every stratagem in the book to topple the Mueller investigation. If the Democrats win the House and Romney is in the Senate their efforts will be meaningless as the facts will all still be available. For example there is all that testimony to the Committees that Representative Castro claims reveals criminal activity, Furthermore does anyone believe the contents of the Mueller probe will stay sealed?

 Bannon has been excoriated and smeared of the face of the earth by Trump - just another one added to the growing list. Romney might just have to wait his turn.

Trump has one devastating option to gain control and that is literally the nuclear option - a preemptive strike on North Korea. The Republican Congress better take his preemptive striking powers away or a nuclear war will make Mueller and everything else irrelevant.

And while they are about it they should protect Mueller if for the only reason history needs to know the full extent of the perfidy so, that like with Nixon, there can be closure.

Just when you think you have seen it all….