COHEN BOMBSHELL - WHITAKER TOO LATE TO SAVE TRUMP

The POTUS with his customary lack of subtlety believed he had put into place his antidote to “that Russia thing” by firing his Attorney General and replacing him with a hack legal nonentity whose only qualifications were that he agreed that the Russia probe was a “witch hunt” and “crooked Hillary” should be behind bars. The new nominee, filled the shoes of a consiglieri that Trump, like every mob boss, always appoints to cover his back. The trouble was that Mathew Whitaker’s appointment was far too little too late. The dye had already been caste.

Following Trump’s submission of answers to the Special Counsel’s interrogatory questions, the latter let loose with a series of revelations. First he showed some of his hand by directly linking Roger Stone, a long time ally of the President’s, and his side kick, Jerome Corsi, to Wikileaks and the Russian hacked documents. (There is evidence that Stone and Trump were in constant contact in the campaign). Then followed the thunderbolt with the Cohen plea and submissions that Trump was involved in business negotiations with Russia and Putin’s office during the Presidential election. In addition the simultaneous raids of Deutsche Bank, that financed Trump to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars and laundered money from a Russian bank run by a Putin oligarch could not have been just be a coincidence.

What has to terrify Trump and his family was not what was in the court documents of the court proceedings but what Mueller had to back the assertions up. Trump’s lame rejoiner that Cohen is a liar and that even he did negotiate it wasn’t a crime, is just not going to cut it. Also there are the indictments at least of Stone and Corsi to follow as well as the family members that have not yet been interviewed which is customary with targets. 

Finally, Trump faces the fact that the House of Representatives is now in control of the Democrats that have promised to investigate Trump, his administration and business interests. Then there are all the legal challenges that Trump and his organization face at the moment. Just too many moving parts even for this unparalleled operator. 

WHITAKER FOLLOWS A LINE OF TOUGH CUSTOMERS

Trump’s first consiglieri was the notorious sidekick to Joe McCarthy, that iconic distorter of reality and ruiner of lives and careers by asserting guilt by association, Roy Cohn. Then came the tough Michael Cohen who from early on had connections with fringes of the law. Maybe Michael learned from his near namesake Cohn, who when he needed a favor from Trump, was rejected. Cohn summed up his former boss in a few words, “Donald pisses ice water”. Michael, in spite of his public protestations of loyalty, “I would take a bullet for Trump” must have seen the Geico ad and took insurance instead. There were tapes and troves of documents so when it hit the fan and Trump had already dumped him, as now he was President, our boy from Long Island New York had his Damascus moment and decided to come clean for family and country. 

Cohen’s successor, Whitaker, who is just a half-baked fraud artist, is out of his league and if he has any sense he would bail out now before he obstructs justice and joins the close on forty indictments that have emanated from  Mueller’s “witch hunt”. 

Apparently Whitaker was informed as to what was going to transpire in the Southern District of New York’s Federal Court. Understandably he did nothing about it.

DONALD TRUMP VERSUS THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Donald J. Trump who with videotaped interviews and campaign appearances backed by a slew of non stop tweets followed by a succession of actions is already guilty of obstruction of justice. Unlike with Nixon the Special Counsel does not need to subpoena the smoking gun tapes Trump produces the evidence in plain sight. He has made it quite clear that he wanted to stop the Mueller investigation because of the Russian thing. In case there is any doubt of his intent and that his words and actions were his First Amendment expressions, the WhiteHouse Counsel McGahn, who was interviewed by Mueller’s team for ever, stopped him from firing Mueller by threatening to resign if he did. 

It is also salutary to be reminded that one of the articles of impeachment of Richard Nixon was lying to the American people.  Trump has executed close on five thousand “lies” in less than six hundred days.

 The Donald is now being swamped with evidence of “collusion” with Russia. “No collusion” he defiantly screams and angrily tweets in capitols. He is right in a way the legal term is conspiracy. If the revelation of the Trump Tower meeting was the beginning of the end the Cohen plea and revelations herald the end. And then there is so much in between. From now on it is rapidly downhill. 

The grudging implicit concession that Trump has now made to reality is that Russia hacked the election. The latter in spite of publicly belittling his whole intelligence establishment that he believed Putin, “who strongly denied” that Russia was involved.  Sarah Sanders, his intrepid Press Secretary, announced that the POTUS had not colluded. No longer is she denying that there was "no collusion", period, rather that Trump hadn’t. 

So Trump holds his breath while he awaits whether or not the second shoe will drop. This will be along the lines that he was involved in a conspiracy with a foreign country in order to subvert the democratic process in the United States of America and that he had a business motive to conspire with the Russians to become President.

THE CIRCUMSTANTIAL AND OTHER EVIDENCE OF A CONSPIRACY BETWEEN TRUMP AND HIS CAMPAIGN WITH AN ADVERSiRIAL FOREIGN POWER TO IMPACT THE 2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

• The 2016 Presidential election took place in a circumstance that Russian economy was severely compromised as a result of sanctions put into place by the Obama administration. 
• Hillary Clinton, Trump’s opponent, was seen by Russia as a candidate that would continue this strangulating policy.
• Donald Trump, by contrast, as he indicated in the Presidential campaign, was very supportive of Vladimir Putin and for cooperation with Russia. At the same time he stated that he had no business interests with Russia.
• Throughout the presidential campaign and in the transition period members of the Trump team had contact with the Russians and sanctions relief was discussed. This included discussions with Wikileaks who strategically dumped the Russian hacked e mails when Trump was under heavy pressure with the Access Hollywood tapes.
• The only change the Trump team insisted on in the Republican Policy Election Platform was that the strong sanctions against Russia would be scaled down.
• During the Presidential campaign Trump pursued his largest monetary prize, a Trump Tower in Moscow. It was even mooted that Putin would be given the $50 million penthouse. Several books have detailed Trump’s long business relationship with Russians. These books include The House of Trump and The House of Putin and Russian Roulette.
• It is incontrovertible that Russia intervened in the Presidential election in favor of Donald Trump. It has been even alleged by former CIA Director John Brennon that the Russian sophisticated hacking, propaganda to target audiences and the Wikileaks release of e mails was directly responsible for Trump’s minority victory.  Trump's ascendancy to the Presidency was effected  only by a total of seventy thousand votes in three states.
• In the campaign Trump made public appeals for assistance from Russia.
• Following his election Trump made it quite clear that he didn’t want the Intelligence finding that Russia had intervened in the election pursued. To this end he pressured then fired FBI Director Comey and admitted both on American TV and to the Russian Ambassador that this was in order to terminate the investigation. 
• In the Mueller probe, which was instigated by his Deputy Attorney General, there have been indictments that have proved that the Russians did the hacking, that there was Trump campaign contact with the Russians during the elections and sanctions were discussed and that Trump had a conflict of interest in that he desired to erect an apartment building in Moscow. 
• Mueller has several cooperating witnesses, either under indictment or not, that have appeared before him and or the Grand Jury. These include, Trump's campaign manager and his deputy, his national security advisor, his chief advisor, (Bannon), the Chief Finance Officer of the Trump Organization, his former lawyer, his American/Russian business partner, Felix Sater who worked with Cohen on the Trump Tower Moscow deal, the WhiteHouse Counsel, as well as a host of other characters. 
• There is a fear in the Republican camp that however broadly Trump’s  lawyers answered Mueller’s questions they could have exposed him to perjury in the light of the developments. 

THE IMMEDIATE REPUBLICAN RESPONSE

The Republicans were generally stunned into silence but the results of the midterms with its rejection of Trumpism had already had had its impact. The Republican Senate, which due to the circumstances of the election had suffered no damage, revolted against the POTUS. Sixteen Republican Senators voted with the Democrats to withdraw support for the Saudi Arabian genocidal war in Yemen. One of the motivations for this vote was articulated by Trump lapdog, Senator Lindsey Graham, who maintained that he “was pissed” at Trump’s obsequious acceptance that the Saudi Price was not involved in the murder of Washington Post journalist, Jamal Khashoggi.

The nearest the body politic could learn what Trump’s supporters believed was on Fox News. In general the channel trumpeted their fearless leader’s mantra - Cohen was a liar trying to save his own skin. Once again it was their conservative judicial correspondent, Judge Napolitano, who brought them down to earth. Cohen, the Judge explained lied to help the President which leads one to ask why? Also Fox and Friends were educated to the fact that Mueller would have corroboratory evidence and that there was more to follow.

AT THE END OF THE DAY

Mathew Whitaker whom Trump appointed to end the Russian investigation seems to be paralyzed in inaction. Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein, up to time of going into print. is still in control of the Mueller probe.

The ball is in the Republican Congressional legislators court. They need to get on the right side of history to avoid further damage to what is left of their brand. 

There are still revelations to come that will rock the nation. For example how much money did Russia launder during the campaign to Trump interests? 

The Democrats have control of the House and all the investigatory powers necessary to publicly investigate Trump up the ying yang. 

At the end of the day one cannot imagine that Trump is going to be able to see his term out. At the same time The Donald is not going to fade away and die. Maybe he will go ballistic and fire Mueller himself! If not now perhaps when he indicts one of the kinderle. 

RACISM AND ANTI SEMITISM IN TRUMP’S POPULIST AMERICA

There are many that would argue that Trump is just a symptom of a world wide phenomenon towards populism which has been triggered by waves of uncontrolled illegal immigration…that the movement which has swept across Europe spawned a Brexit and a slew of right wing regimes just bounced across the pond to America and voila out popped The Donald. Not only is  the explanation simplistic it is inaccurate.  America for starters was not facing the millions of displaced from the Middle East wars and those fleeing chaotic Africa.

 At heart of the European experience was a retreat to a movement of exclusive nationalism accompanied by a growth of racism and anti semitism unimaginable eighty years after the Holocaust. Besides the hate and violence spawned across the continent, the United Kingdom has a political party, on the cusp of becoming the Government, which is being investigated by the UK Justice Department for anti semitism.

Trump’s nativism was thus not precipitated by a sudden uncontrollable influx of refugees from the Middle East. He just needed to ensure that America retained its traditional demographic make up. His objective was to decrease the existing traditional immigrant influx, legal and illegal, and to rid the country of the current “illegals” who have been integrated into the economy for decades. This he and his guru Steve Bannon believed would be enough to keep America white. The major similarity that Trump’s populist America has with the European experience is that it is attended with a similar surge of racism and anti semitism.

RACISM AND DISCRIMINATION CANNOT BE COMPARTMENTALIZED.

 The lesson of history that racism or discrimination against any one religion, group, gender or the like cannot be compartmentalized to just one entity is one that is never learned. That which the German theologian Pastor Niemoller chronicled in 1946 is as valid today as it was then and has been throughout history:  

"First they came for the Socialists and I didn't speak out for I was not a socialist

Then they came for the Trade Unionists and I didn't speak out for I was not a Trade Unionist

Then they came for the Jews and I didn't speak out for I was not a Jew

Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me"

There are many variations and additions to the Niemoller poem which included that “they came” for the Communists, incurable patients, the retarded, Jehovah’s witnesses, the gypsies and the homosexuals. 

The crisp point is racism and discrimination is not divisible and those who believe that they can espouse it against one group and ostensibly not against another are in denial. 

TRUMP, ANTI SEMITISM AND RACISM

The issue of racism and bigotry in modern day America is far from being only associated with Trump but let the discussion begin with him. 

Trump’s strongest argument that he is not an anti semite is that he has a daughter, son in law and three grandchildren to prove it. Moreover he unconditionally backs Bibi Netanyahu and his vision of Israel. (He ignores the fact that the majority of American jews have grave reservations about the Netanyahu government). He boldly put into effect the policy of every American President by physically moving the American Embassy to Jerusalem thereby acknowledging the latter as Israel’s capitol. It does no harm too that the biggest donor by several multiples to the midterm Republican election campaign was Bibi Netanyahu’s close friend, Sheldon Adelson, who wrote checks for a $118 million dollars. 

The POTUS’S response to any criticism that he is a racist is that he is protecting legitimate Americans’ jobs. He further rationalizes what he espouses is in national security and to prevent crime, drug dealing, rape and murder.  However his behavior on the issue of discrimination projects another picture.

Trump is on the record with overt words and actions against one group or another starting from his announcement of his Presidential bid to this very day. The Mexicans were first singled out as having inferior status and who were ostensibly pouring into the country. (The irony is that there has been a net emigration of Mexicans from America for the past few years). He continued this line in spades. Then he followed this with a proposal for a blanket ban of all Muslims entering the country. His outbursts against African Americans especially women is there for all to see and all African countries are “sh…holes”. He claims that he is a Nationalist with all the connotations that label has, arguing it is just another term for being a patriot. 

Trump wants it both ways. He argues that he is not a racist but because of his actions the racists have embraced him unconditionally and he has done very little to disabuse their support. 

THE RACISTS INCLUDING ANTI SEMITES BELIEVE TRUMP IS A RACIST. 

Throughout his campaign right wing groups flocked to The Donald with a vengeance. The former Grand Wizard of the Klu Klux Klan, David Duke, led the way. He claimed that voting against Trump was “really treason to your heritage”. While Trump had condemned Duke in years gone by he initially claimed he didn’t know who he was and didn’t know anything about white supremacists. It took a full court media press over days for Trump finally disavow Duke. A few days later, again under duress, he responded in the affirmative to the question as to whether he unequivocally renounced the support of white supremacists. 

Seven months into his Presidency a landmark event occurred which to this day has left an indelible impression as to his attitude to those who behaved, in the words of Bob Woodward, in a manner akin to the Nazis of the 1930’s. White supremacists and nationalists had gathered in Charlottesville Virginia to protest the removal of a confederate leader’s statue shouting, “Jews will not replace us” and the Nazi slogan, “Blood and Soil”. The torch bearing activists were seen on video menacing the counter protestors. One of them drove into the crowd brutally killing a young woman and injuring nineteen others. Needless to say the incident created a storm of protest and indignation.

Trump initially issued a number of statements which were characterized by the fact that he did not condemn the racists.  Most notable was his final comment, “We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence, On many sides….”.  The equivalence he adjudicated between the violent Neo Nazis and the counter protestors unleashed a backlash from every sector of the body politic including Republicans John McCain, Speaker Ryan, Lindsey Graham and Vice President Pence. Most telling was the comment by the Republican Senator from Ohio, Orrin Hatch, “ My brother didn’t give his life for Nazi ideas to go unchallenged at home”. With regard to the incident Trump was warned by David Duke, "To take a good look into the mirror and remember that it was White Americans who put you into the Presidency not radical leftists".

The pressure on Trump to clear up the mess his position had put him into crescendoed. He finally conceded and backed down by condemning racism as evil specifically calling out the KKK, Neo- Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups. His distaste at this back tracking was exacerbated when he heard a Fox correspondent describe his action as a “course correction”. As reported in Woodward’s best selling book “Fear”, he subsequently castigated his Secretary Rob Porter who orchestrated his concession, “This was the biggest f…ing mistake I’ve made. You never make these concessions. You never apologize. I didn’t do anything wrong in the first place. Why look weak?”

HATE CRIMES UP IN THE USA ESPECIALLY AGAINST THE JEWS.

While the reporting by local police agencies is woefully inadequate the number of “hate crimes” for 2017 represents an increase in 2017 from 6,200 to 7,100. ( For example nationally reported incidents such as the murder of Scrinivas Kubchibhotla whose assailant pled guilty to a hate crime and the Charlottesville scandal were not on the list.) The most alarming increase was in anti semitic incidents which were up thirty seven percent from 2016.

 Twenty percent of the hate crimes are based on religion of which 58% are anti semitic in nature. About a quarter of the religiously motivated crimes are against Muslims.These are astonishingly high numbers bearing in mind that jews and muslims only represent 2% of the US population respectively. The occurrences were predominantly in the major cities, notably New York which has the largest Jewish presence. 

The infamous Pittsburgh Synagogue Tree of Life massacre where 11 worshippers were gunned down by a right wing bigot brought the problem of racial and religious hatred to the forefront. The assassin was motivated to act urgently by the President’s claim that the immigrant caravan of South America refugees represented an existential threat to America. The gunman alluded to the fact that the Tree of Life synagogue supported a Hebrew agency that assists all immigrants and refugees. The caravan he argued was financed by George Soros. This was his motivation for the attack where he exclaimed that there should be, “Death to all Jews”.

CAMPUS AND OTHER ANTI SEMITISM

There was close on two thousand incidents of anti semitism on campuses in 2017 a rise of close on sixty percent from the previous year. Most of those were cloacked as being anti Zionist. The Anti Defamation League noted a doubling of white supremacist literature on campuses for the 2017 - 18 College year. Far left groups are also involved in several of the attacks. The unpopular views of Netanyahu are used as propaganda and rather than attacking them per se the narrative is that Israel and by extension the jews have no right to exist. The illegality of Israel’s existence is led by the National Students For Justice in Palestine. The BDS, (Boycott, Disinvest and Sanction) campaign is often the basis to put an end the existence of the Israeli State. Another reported subject matter used in the religious attacks is Holocaust Denial. Besides intimidation, defacements and the like, meetings and debates are broken up by the antagonists. 

The Louis Brandeis Center for Human Rights is investigating legal recourses to the College intimidation and attacks. Thus far there is been a limited willingness for either the police or the Universities to get involved. It is against Criminal Law to forcefully break up a meeting which infringement is common. The key legal mechanism to put a halt to the limitation of free speech is Title VI. The latter is a Civil Rights Act which is designed to prevent a “hostile environment”. The Universities have a responsibility to enforce this on their own campuses and their failure to do so could invite outside intervention. 

Another unlikely group which has been accused of failing to condemn anti semitism is the highly successful Women’s March that radicalized and organized a wave of opposition to Trumpism culminating in the successful repudiation of Republican candidates in the midterms. Three of the Women’s March Vice Presidents have close ties with Nation of Islam’s Louis Farrakhan. This has resulted in the movement’s failure to disassociate themselves from his extremist anti semitic views. The issue came to a head recently when Farrakhan denounced “Satanic Jews” claiming that “If you want something in this world the Jew holds the door”. Thus far the issue has not been resolved. The irony that results when the left wing groups have as their bedfellows the white supremacists, who are certainly out to get them as well, is apparently above the heads of Farrakhan and his supporters. 

AT THE END OF THE DAY

While America has not the same existential immigration problem that precipitated European populism, the latter has reared its head in the form of the election of Donald J. Trump as its President. The concomitant racism, particularly anti semitism that accompanies populism is, however, alive and well in America. Trump has claimed that his exclusivism does not extend to the jews. This apparent disconnect is obviously not a deterrent to the ultra right who see him as a racist and white supremacist. 

The upshot of Trump’s attitude is that racism including anti semitism thrives in this milieu. The American President occupies a unique position in American politics and culture as a leader so that he can legitimize any behavior or trend. 

Trump will not change but the lesson for all those who are excluded from his invective is the lesson of history as articulated by Pastor Niemoller. Similarly those groups that are peculiarly anti semitic need to realize that their legitimacy as fighters for equality and justice is compromised by their stance. Ironically, as history has shown, a disproportionate number of jews were often part of the struggle that helped liberate the very groups that are now vilifying them and are now part of the right wing anti semitic coalition. 

TRUMP, “ELECTION FRAUD”, VOTER SUPPRESSION AND DEMOCRACY

The President is behaving more and more as if he is under siege. Following a disastrous mid term electoral reversal and being regarded as lacking in decency and even worse irrelevant in Paris he is lashing out with as vengeance in a manner not as yet ever seen - and that is saying something! In addition he is tweeting up a storm on the Mueller investigation which is obviously perilously close to him and his family. His legal jeopardy is exacerbated now that his legislative firewall is no longer.

 The main burden of his unhinged barrage is that the election system is rigged - only the contests where the Republicans are in danger of losing seats, that is. The President has inter alia tweeted ten times that Senator Nelson of Florida, who is behind in the vote count, wants to steal the election. He is twelve thousand votes behind out of eight million cast which situation is subject to a mandatory recount. Nelson’s insistence that the electoral procedure follow its course is being used as an excuse to denigrate him and accuse him of cheating. 

Central to Trump’s current bile is the outstanding inconclusive election results in Florida and Georgia. Arizona has been removed from the hit list as the Republican candidate much to the ire of the protestors has conceded the Democrat takeover in that State. So now that red Arizona has turned blue the anti has been upped for the Florida Senate seat and the Georgia Governorship big time. In the unlikely event that Florida goes the wrong way then in addition to losing close on forty House seats the Republicans will have gained almost nothing in the Senate in return. 

It would be too much to ask the POTUS to accept that counting votes is not akin to stealing elections. What is ominous for the country’s democracy is what is playing out is the playbook Roger Stone, the Russian hackers and echoed by Trump that if he lost they would all cry that the elections were rigged and stolen by the Democrats. 

As the GOP has already sustained seven Governorship reversals the Georgian race assumes even more importance. Trump strongly supported the Republican Gubernatorial candidate for Georgia, Brian Kemp and repeatedly abused the Democratic African American female candidate in terms that he reserves for that racial demographic. So Trump is heavily invested in the outcome of the Florida and Georgia elections. 

The irony is that the probability is that the GOP will win both of these outstanding contests and the obscene grandstanding is part unbridled frustration, part tactic to obscure the substantial midterm losses and part the ongoing exhausting firing up of his diminishing base.

TRUMP AND GOP THIRD WORLD TACTICS AND ITS IMPACT ON DEMOCRACY

The irresponsible unproven attacks on the electoral process, lead by the President, claiming that there is voter fraud and that Georgia’s Democratic Abrams and Florida’s Democratic Nelson are trying to steal elections is outrageous. It is instructive to report that judges in both Florida and Georgia have maintained that there is no evidence of fraud and every vote needs to be counted. Florida’s Circuit Judge Truter called for a ramping down of the rhetoric as it eroded public confidence in the elections. Lest anyone forgets it was the bombastic Donald himself that claimed the midterms were a referendum on him. If the Senate can only reflect, at most a two seat gain, then by his own definition he is a “loser”. Especially as the Dems are on track for a nearly forty House gain, have won seven Governorships and three hundred and fifty State Legislative constituencies. 

What is even more dangerous to Democracy than the President behaving like the head of a banana republic, is the obsequious slavish support that he is getting from the administrative arm and the elected representatives of one of the two major political parties - the Republican Party of Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and more recently Ronald Reagan. In Florida the GOP Senatorial candidate, Governor Scott, the other Floridian Senator, Marc Rubio and Trump’s newest lap dog Lindsey Graham are all publicly joining in behavior more akin to Zimbabwe than America.

TRUMP’S CURRENT FRUSTRATIONS AS MUELLER LOOMS LARGE

What frustrates Trump is that he seized on the GOP massive electoral advantage in the Senate clash to concentrate his campaign efforts in that arena, The belief was that there just had to be big gains and he could claim credit. Speaker Ryan could then take the blame for the expected House of Representatives loss and he the great big poohbah could still wear the mantle of invincibility. 

Added to his disgruntlement is the fact that the Mueller investigation is closing in. His lawyers are reviewing, with him, their answers to questions that the Special Counsel wants answers too. It is widely believed that Mueller may well follow up with a subpoena. Then as elections have consequences he has to fear the Democratic controlled House which has all the power in the world to probe into all the dark corners of his life. Then he is facing at least three major lawsuits that involve Constitutional breeches including a near consensus that his appointment of a lackey Attorney General is not constitutional either. This is besides litigation which involves him and his close family in relation to his fraudulent defunct Foundation. 

The WhiteHouse is in a bigger shambles than even reported in BobWoodward’s book, “Fear” with Sessions already been fired and Kristen Nielsen, Homeland Secretary’s Head publicly on the chopping block. The recurrent rumor that John Kelly his Chief of Staff is on his way out and the fact that Melania Trump has joined in and demanded that her husband fire his Deputy National Security Advisor Mira Ricandel has added to the chaos. Finally, he by his sulking petulant behavior was made to look like a fool and even worse irrelevant in his recent European trip. 

In the light of Trump’s full court press on claiming Democratic malfeasance it is instructive to look at the background of Republican voter suppression operating in Georgia and Florida which incidentally is illustrative of their modus operandi.

GEORGIA

At the outset the Republican candidate for Governor in Georgia, Brian Kemp, in his capacity as Secretary of State oversaw the electoral process that he participated in. Anticipating the changing demographic tides in his State, Kemp, between 2012 and 2016 purged the voters roll of well over a million voters for flimsy reasons. He denied that this was a calculated move to eliminate minority and lower economic voters even though those demographics were in the bulk of the removals. He shut down over 200 polling stations making it more difficult for poorer and blacker voters to get to the polls. That transparent discriminatory move was coupled with providing fewer voting machines in the lower economic areas which resulted in long waits to exercise the franchise. These efforts and stricter ID laws forced many voters to have to execute provisional ballots which subsequently needed a court order to force him to count them. Georgia is one of the few states that does not keep a paper record of the vote so there is no recourse for any fraud that Kemp, the overseer of the election, might perpetrate. He then had the audacity to allege with no proof that the Democrats had attempted to hack the electoral system. 

A Federal Judge finally ruled that all the provisional ballots had to be reviewed and wanted answers as to why so many had to be issued. Stacy Adams, the Democratic candidate, needs 20,000 more votes to force a rerun of the election - a tall order in this circumstance but she claims there are a lot more than that that have not been counted and or unfairly been sidelined.

Whichever way this is viewed Georgia, which in all probability, by hook or by crook, will remain red this cycle, will not remain in the Republican column for perpetuity. 

FLORIDA

Like his compatriot in Georgia, Governor Rick Scott who is the GOP’s Senate candidate is ultimately in charge of the Florida’s election that he is participating in. He has been calling all the shots in this post election saga. The Secretary of State in Florida who is nominally overseeing this nail biter is also a Republican. Scott like Kemp has been actively been involved in purging the voter’s rolls, disproportionately removing Latinos and African Americans. Other initiatives that he has employed that impact on the ability of minorities to vote are making registration onerous and decreasing voting days. 

Scott, taking a page out of the President’s playbook has claimed fraud and general malfeasance by the Democrats. He like the POTUS believes that the law enforcement agency in his State is his personal army. He instructed them to investigate the Democrats for their fraud and objective to “steal” the election. The latter responded that there are no credible allegations to pursue and declined. He has multiple court cases in progress and won a few minor victories but lost all those that matter such as alleging fraud, to impound the voting machines and generally to hamper the recount. 

The big Florida voting controversy centers around Broward County which has over two million population. This county is overwhelmingly Democratic. The electoral officer who is under siege is Brenda Snipes a Bush appointee whom Scott and or his Secretary of State could have thrown out if she is as crooked as they allege. If half their allegations were true they were negligent in not replacing her. The Republicans led by the POTUS and Scott have done nothing to dampen down the rumors spreading in the right wing blogosphere such as there are ballot boxes being smuggled in. To quote Trump’s most oft spurted out summation, “It’s a disgrace”.

Florida like Georgia is also living on borrowed time as a Republican State. On the Florida ballot was a referendum on reinstating the vote to one and a half million felons who have served their sentences and who were not initially convicted for major crimes. Both Scott and the newly elected Florida Governor whose victory is also subject to a recount opposed the reinstatement. The referendum was instituted by a non political group and was supported by the Democrats. Those deprived of votes were disproportionately from lower socio economic and minority groups. This sizable group of citizenry is separate from those removed from the rolls for other reasons.

AT THE END OF THE DAY

Close election results always create tension, disappointment, recriminations and even accusations. In the normal course of events there are mechanisms to resolve and confirm or overturn the initial result. After the election in Florida in 2000, when George W. Bush won Florida by five hundred and seventy one votes, and as a result the Presidency, the Republicans created near riot conditions to prevent a recount, legislation was enacted defining when a recount would be mandatory. (The 2000 election was subsequently decided by the Supreme Court. The latter’s decision will live on in infamy when on a partisan decision by five votes to four they declared Bush President and stopped the vote counting.) 

So with mechanisms in place to resolve any doubts the repugnant and vulgar bohaai following the midterm elections was nothing but bullying and intimidation. All that should have happened is that the statutory process should have been put into effect. Georgia also has its own mandatory provisions in the event of the winner not attaining fifty percent of the vote and under what conditions a recount may be instituted. The leader of the country by his behavior has degraded the most sacred of all the institutions of democracy - the electoral system. The electorate who gave him a resounding vote of no confidence in this election for this type of behavior are obviously taking note and will, at the next opportunity, reinforce their disgust. 

It is insructive to view the latest poll on the percentage of voters that believe that Trump should have a second term. Only thirty seven percent are prepared to give him the nod. Maybe this represents the beginning of the erosion of his base. 

TRUMP'S DELUSIONAL TAKE ON THE MIDTERMS AND MUELLER

Regardless of the outcome of the midterm elections Donald J. Trump was going to declare victory. He was going to, and did, take exaggerated credit for any positive result and  place disproportionate blame on others for the failures. He outdid himself by braggardly asserting that those Republicans that didn’t "embrace" him were (deservedly), beaten and those who “embraced” him were, (understandably) triumphant. He summed up his performance as being “very close to complete victory.” 

Of course this assessment was amplified by his Fox echo chamber, his red capped warriors and sadly the remains of the GOP Congress who have drunk the Trump Kool Aid. Mystifyingly the Democrats were half mirroring the POTUS’S assessment and other than gung ho Nancy Pelosi retreated to their corners. In fact the Democrats had a remarkable conclusion to their herculean effort in terms of victories in the House, in Governorships, State legislature races, electorate share, the expanding demographic supporting them, acceptance of their narrative and results of ballot referenda. Not to mention that they received well over ten million more votes than the Trumpites. 

Trump’s triumphs, such as they were, were attributable to his disgraceful racist tactics and only succeeded in making red states redder at the expense of losing all the other demographics. The Democratic supposed weak win was associated with the disappointing narrow losses of their marquee and exiting new young candidates in Red Texas and Georgia and Trump won state Florida. Trump’s achievement was a pyrrhic victory while the Dems disappointment was magnified out of proportion and in effect the result of those three races had many positive features. In fact two are so close that a winner has yet to be declared.

Trump acted swiftly in relation to his impending legal jeopardy and fired Attorney General Jeff Sessions replacing him with an nonentity whose only qualification was that he was openly antagonist to the Mueller probe.

TRUMP NOT IN TOTAL DENIAL AND MOVES AGAINST THE MUELLER PROBE

Just in case anyone believed that Trump was in total denial as to the jeopardy he is now in with the most powerful legislative body in the country, which has card blanche to investigate him, he responded by firing his Attorney General. The latter's crime was that he had refused to intervene on his behalf in the Mueller investigation. He warned the Democratic Party congress members lest that they should delve into his affairs that he would hit back at them through a body, that is apparently under his control, namely the Senate no less. He then tried to bully the Press core. What the POTUS doesn’t realize that the only crowd he can frighten is his own party. 

Sessions's successor is a lawyer, Matthew Whitaker, who has stated that Mueller should have all resources removed from him. Just in case the new Acting Attorney General’s credentials were not unambiguous enough, he has pontificated that he personally would have charged “crooked” Hillary. But the cherry on the top of his resume was that he has concluded that there was nothing wrong with Donald Junior’s meeting with the Russians “To get dirt on Hillary”. It was perfectly legitimate. He has tweeted that the President’s lawyers should not cooperate with Mueller’s justice team who were a lynch mob. Many are interpreting this move as the beginning of the axing of Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Senator Manchin has declared it a constitutional crisis.

THE MID TERM ELECTORATE 

The turn out was at a historic high. A hundred and thirteen million citizens pulled the lever of which was thirty million more than in the 2014 midterms. Ten million of those had never voted in a midterm before. In that demographic there were twice as many Democrats as Republicans. For the first time only fifty percent of the white women voted for the GOP. This compares to fifty seven percent in 2016. It is reliably reported that a majority of white women in the suburbs were the factor in the Democratic wide spread success in urban and suburban constituencies across America. College educated women in particular as well as all those in the higher educated demographic voted in greater numbers against the party of Trump. In fact the only sectors where the GOP received higher numbers were white men and the elderly. They had their support mainly centered in rural areas while the Democrats prospered from the growing urban and suburban centers across the whole country. 

To sum up the Trump effect created the generic GOP Trump voter who was more likely to be rural, white, male and elderly. Each sector of that profile is diminishing. The POTUS’S election coalition has already diminished by the loss of independents, Republican intellectuals and of course suburban and more educated women. There is very little room for growth as particularly the rural areas are being denuded of population and the old are passing on. 

This resulted in a seven to eight percent advantage in the electorate by the Democrats. To show the impact of the Republican gerrymandering of the districts with that differential the Republicans picked up sixty - five seats in a previous midterm contest. 

THE RESULTS -  A BLUE WAVE

At the time of writing this blog the Democrats were on the path to win up to thirty five seats, but it could well be more as there were 5 outstanding House results in California. The Republicans will be rewarded with two to four seats gained in the Senate. But the real gains for the Democratic Party was in the State elections. They were seven gains in the Governorships - Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Kansas, Nevada, Maine and New Mexico. Added to Pennsylvania, these results mean that the Mid Western states that put Trump over the top in the electoral college are in the hands of the Democrats. Looking at the Governor and Senator  races in Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Ohio and Illinois won eleven of the 12 Midwest Statewide contests.  That firewall puts Trump’s 2020 bid on life support. 

 But even more significant, for the moment, was the Democratic gains in the State legislatures.The Democrats flipped about three hundred and fifty State House seats which lead to alterations in the power structure in several states including becoming the majority in an additional six State legislatures. They won either Governorships or one or both Chambers in Wisconsin, Kansas, Michigan, New Hampshire, Maine and Minnesota. They removed the possibility of the North Carolina Legislature to override the Democratic Governor’s veto by cutting meaningfully into the Republican majority.

The key demographic that the Democrats are placing their future hopes on, women, were elected to both national and State House in a record numbers. Of the approximately hundred females in the House of Representatives, eighty - two are from the Democratic Party. 

STUNNING RESULTS NOT IN A VACUUM

Most significantly it has to be realized that all this did not all happen in a vacuum. From Day One of the Trump Presidency action groups sprouted up like weeds. They were heralded in by the Women’s March when millions marched in co ordinated efforts throughout the country. The organization behind that militancy has continued. The non profit body that merged as the center and co ordinator of the protests was the organization, Indivisible. They assisted groups throughout the country to form in opposition to Trump's agenda. They issued a booklet which showed, step by step, how to make an impact. Each unit functioned in their constituency, inter alia protesting, attending town hall meetings, visiting their congress representatives, educating and going door to door. In less than two years there are six thousand entities that have been established across the country. 

 Michael Moore set up a Resistance Calendar where all local activities of the activist groups were reported. A ten page folder set out a road map, “The Michael Moore Easy To Follow Ten Point Plan to Stop Donald Trump.” It was around that time that a determined effort was made to encourage and recruit potential candidates for every conceivable office. Women particularly were singled out. None of this infrastructure folds now. Rather they have been spurred, by success, to redouble their efforts to finish the job and Stop Donald Trump. 

The civil rights activists have already mobilized with regard to the Sessions firing. Within 12 hours of hearing of the Sessions firing they had organized almost a thousand protest meetings.

THE CENTRAL ISSUES IN THE ELECTION

The number one issue on the ballot was the fearless leader both by design and necessity. Seven out of ten voters claimed he was a major influence in their decision. Of those twenty - five percent more voted against the Republicans than voted for them. Then the Democrats primary election message, health care, was favored by virtually every voter as one of the decisive factors in their decision making. The Republican obsession with reversing Obama’s Affordable Care Act proved to be a major handicap to the Trump candidates and the voters voiced their opposition. This resulted in Republicans, including the President reversing their positions almost mid sentence. Stricter gun control was another topic that the Republicans were on the wrong side of - sixty percent of the electorate being in favor and thirty seven percent being against. 

Immigration, Trump’s trump card was supported by only fifty percent of the voters and forty three percent had it as their number one issue. Kavanaugh the other Trump triumph was a motivating factor in forty three percent of the electorate and demotivating in fifty percent. 

The voting percentages for and against on these central issues more or less reflected the share the two parties received on November 6. This analysis confirms that all that Trump and Kavanaugh did was just bring out the base who would have come out anyway and this was reflected in the few Senate gains in red states. The Democrats picked up suburban and urban Republican women, independents and the majority of new voters as reflected by their large gains in the House, governorships and State legislatures. 

“THE MAJOR DISAPPOINTMENT” - FAILURE TO WIN IN THE THREE MARQUEE RACES 

What contributed to the perception and the Democratic buy in that this was a lukewarm victory was the unrealistic expectation that the three Democratic wunderkinder in Florida, Georgia and Texas didn’t emerge triumphant. That was not the way fairy tales are expected to end. However the reality was that Georgia and Texas were red hot States that Trump won by about ten percentage points. Texas was won by Trump in the Presidential election and heading the ticket was a highly popular retiring Governor who distanced himself from Trump and had compromised on a number of issues including gun control. 

The polls consistently showed that these races would be close. In fact Beto O’Rourke, in Texas outperformed the predictions cutting his percentage loss by half to three percent. Mayor Gillum in Texas was up one or two percent in forecasts and then lost by half a percent, well within the margin of error. Both the Texas Senate race and Gillum’s Governor race are headed for a recount as more and more votes are being counted. 

The remarkable Stacey Adams was always a few percent behind in the polls and as matters stand is less than a percent behind with votes still to be counted as there are in the Texas Senate race. Neither Senator Nelson in Texas nor Stacey Adams and now Mayor Gillum have conceded defeat. Both in Texas and Georgia the Democratic wave heralded House seat flips in the wake of the marked inroads the exiting candidates made into the Republican party’s previous performances.  

All in all pretty impressive performances by the three future leaders of the Democratic Party who will be heard from again and again in the future. In fact the pressure on the charismatic O’ Rourke to run for President will be massive. So by virtually all parameters the results were excellent. 

TRUMP THE ILLUSIONIST

The forever underrated, to his opposition’s disadvantage, POTUS has perfected another skill to his armamentarium - illusionism. The latter is defined as performing tricks that deceive the eye, (and ear). All illusionists achieve their goals by diverting attention from what they are doing or what is happening so as to deceive you. This has been illustrated in recent days. Trump focusses on the few Senate gains and marquee races helping to create the illusion that his caravan tactics was responsible for the GOP's non existent “triumph”. Before that can be analyzed he diverts attention by firing Sessions who becomes the story. He then deflects attention from that disaster to abusing and censoring the media generally and a CNN representative specifically….. and so it goes, hopefully not forever.

AT THE END OF THE DAY

With all that in place and Trump’s stultifying effect on the Republican Party the Democrats can only expand their representation across the country in years to come. Special elections prior to 2020 will see them expand their gains, In fact one wonders how long it will take the Republican Party to recover, if ever, and remove the Trump sign from over their headquarters. 

Trump is steadying himself for the fight of his life as he attempts to shield himself and his family from Mueller. What hope the Republicans have left to salvage any honor is at stake. One positive sign is that Trump’s old nemesis Mitt Romney who was elected the Senate has already tweeted that the Mueller investigation must be protected. Also Jeff Flake of the GOP and Chis Coons of the Dems have called for the Senate to shield Mueller.

The Democrats have to play their cards carefully combining a legislative agenda and their investigation of the President with just the right balance.

By the way has anyone heard or seen of Rudi Giuliani?

Where is he now that Trump really needs him? 

Now that you mention it what happened to the impending invasion from the South. The President is not talking about it any more......