THE BUILD UP OF TRUMP’S THREE MONUMENTAL LIES

Donald J. Trump has in a thousand days in office spawned close on fourteen thousand lies. It is impossible to enumerate his life long total as the media only took score after he was elevated to the Presidency. Two of his great lies, which he developed into major themes, preceded his taking his oath. The third monumental lie is designed to get him re elected.

Trump's three grand lies which have become central to his narrative, are: Barack Obama was born in Kenya; Hillary Clinton’s e mails were a major breech of national security; and finally, the one in progress, is that former Vice President Joe Biden used his office to prevent his son going to jail in Ukraine. The Obama lie established him as a national political figure in the twenty - first century and thereby a potential presidential contender, the “crooked” Hillary falsehood helped his election to the Presidency and the latest on Biden, Trump believes will get him reelected. 

A confluence of factors produced the phenomenon of Trumpism including the fact that trust in the whole Washington political establishment had plummeted. Besides exhibiting the traits of salesmanship and showmanship to a tee, he exploited the digital communication revolution with unparalleled skill. In addition the traditional media gave him continuous exposure which they have continued doing to this day. In the main they deride him but have not desisted in providing the wall to wall coverage he craves and needs to remain competitive. They are still in the process of assisting him perpetuating his first two great lies and promoting his next humongous one, namely that Joe Biden is the corrupt participant in the 2020 Presidential election, not him.

HOW TRUMP SPREADS HIS GREAT BIG LIES

How on earth does Trump sustain these falsehoods perpetuating and elaborating on them again and again to become the central focus of the political narrative? The answer to that question is multifactorial. To begin Trump is the most powerful propagandist and demagogue since World War II. Added to that is his innate skill at sensing what is in his cult's gut, then converting their emotions into victimhood and finally pronouncing himself as their savior. 

Like all peddlers of hate there have to be targets they can attack as the scapegoats of the darkness. In these instances they are Obama, Clinton and Biden. The former two are still trotted out but the Satan du jour is Joe Biden. But if his garbage was not on every Cable News Channel 7/24 he would only have Fox News, his Nuremberg Style Rallies and tweets to rely on and he would not be able to control the national narrative to the extent that he does.

Trump’s message is initially generated by the communication revolution his rise to prominence coincided with. His outrageous assertions, lies, conspiracy theories are magnified, multiplied and recycled ad infinitum. Every kook and gullible follower with a computer and hand held printing press can now speak to the world. As Trump himself has argued a four hundred pound individual sitting on a bed can join in the game. The Donald can fan the flames non stop with his tweets which he shoots out on everything and anything. The irony is however that for whatever reason the garbage is reiterated, commented on ad nauseam with reports and panels in the traditional media where it then gains respectability as a subject of legitimate debate. 

“FAKE NEWS” ASSISTS TRUMP IN HIS PROPAGANDA INCLUDING FIRST ON HILLARY THEN ON OBAMA

His crackpot themes are thus given legitimacy by the “Fake News” he derides. They report each and every utterance and outpouring. Then panels discuss each phony lie he utters giving him more and more air time. In so doing they create moral equivalencies that don’t exist. This they did by following Hillary’s e mail scandal hit by hit, thereby helping him magnify this administrative misadventure into a national security crisis far worse than his decades of lawlessness. On the TV Channels experts that should have known better, to Trump’s glee, debated the political, moral and legal implications of Clinton’s ersatz problem. Now that four and a half years later the issue has officially been declared dead by the latest Governmental investigation which was initiated at Trump’s behest, the apologies by the “fake news” media are flying in - on page six.  Needless to say Trump ignored the outcome as he mutated the Hillary lie into another one.

The lie takes a new twist with regard to Hillary as the POTUS now claims that Ukraine assisted Hillary in the 2016 election. In addition he claims that her 33,000 deleted private e mails have been hidden in Ukraine and it was Ukraine not Russia that hacked the 2016 Presidential election. 

Adding to his media attention is the coverage now provided for the preposterous decision by Trump’s lackey Attorney General’s decision to criminally investigate the Justice Department’s enquiry into Russia’s intervention in the 2016 Presidential election. The smear is that good old Obama, (who really was born in Kenya!), planted an agent to pretend that Russia was intervening on behalf of Trump. In addition Barr told a Senate Committee that Trump was spied upon. 

That is all such rubbish. Obama didn’t publicize the Russian intervention during the 2016 Presidential campaign because Mitch McConnell would not join him even though he agreed with the Intelligence agencies' findings. Obama without bipartisan support did not go ahead as he feared that this would be interpreted as intervening in the election on the side of Hillary Clinton. Without going into much detail the near five hundred page Mueller report detailed the Russian playbook and the Republican controlled Senate Justice Committee has just issued a bipartisan report that the Russians intervened in favor of Trump in the 2016 Presidential elections. 

 The eventual outcome of whatever Barr is pretending to investigate will be exactly the same as the enquiry into Hillary Clinton’s emails. The "finding" will be announced in 2023. If Trump is reelected he will ignore this finding in 2023 much as he is ignoring the finding that Hillary Clinton and her handling of the emails was never illegal. 

So the legitimate media must ignore Barr’s bogus enquiry. Jay H. Ell does not want to hear how honorable the investigator John Durham is and what a great big institutionalist he is. He has heard it all before in connection with William Barr. If Durham has any integrity he would have not taken this blatant political hit job at Barr's behest. 

LAST BUT NOT LEAST THE REPUBLICAN PARTY ENABLE TRUMP’S FAKE WORLD

History is not going to be too kind to the folding of the Republican Party National Committee, and legislators, who for expediency sold out their country and its constitution to this corrupt charlatan. The GOP leadership ran cover for this megalomaniac ignoring his corruption, self dealing, incompetence and his pathological lying, thereby risking this country’s national security and reputation. In the teeth of the exposing of his utilization of taxpayer’s money to get Ukraine to back his lie that Joe Biden covered up his son’s Ukrainian corruption, they even resorted to childish behavior to show their support for him. Lindsey Graham and Mitch McConnell are proposing a motion in the Senate Echo Chamber to condemn the Democrats for conducting the impeachment investigation. 

THE LATEST  SCAPEGOAT - THE POTENTIAL DEMOCRATIC OPPONENT IN 2020, JOE BIDEN. 

Trump has not let go of the  bogeywoman Hillary Clinton while the smears against Barack Obama have escalated into a criminal enquiry. These two scapegoats have now been joined for the 2020 contest by Joe Biden. This attack on Obama’s Vice President have been componded by Trump's abuse of power and an attack on the Constitution of the United States of America. 

Trump, for whom no depths are too low to sink, has used the power of his Office, decisions of Congress, the Pentagon, the State Department, the Attorney General and his personal attorney to assist him in smearing his most dangerous 2020 political opponent, Joe Biden. This flagrant unashamed abuse has resulted in the impeachment enquiry where evidence is piling up that he demanded that President Zelensky of Ukraine, assist him in his Biden smears. Failure to comply would mean that Ukraine would not receive moneys voted by the Congress nor would Zelensky gain a much needed WhiteHouse visit. The story becomes even more disgusting as Ukrainian lives depend on the military assistance needed to fight Trump’s newest best friend Putin’s aggression and seizure of Ukrainian territory. 

WHAT IS CHALLENGING THE TRUMP AGENDA?

Besides the damning daily evidence leaking from the Impeachment Enquiry there are legions of court challenges that are beginning to catch up with Trump. The DC Federal Court has instructed the Department of Justice to hand over the documents relating to the Mueller Report. Another Federal Appellate Court viewed the Trump refusal to provide documents on the basis that it was illegal to investigate let alone charge a sitting President, with "shock". Trump’s Counsel argued that not only could the President shoot someone on Fifth Avenue law enforcement could not even stop him! 

There are nearly two dozen court cases in process against the POTUS including civil actions arising out of his alleged sexual attacks on women. Ultimately Trump believes the Supreme Court will rescue him by reversing unanimous decisions forcing Nixon and Clinton to comply with congressional oversight.

Parallel to all Donald’s legal jeopardy are the criminal charges against two close associates, who were assisting his current personal lawyer Rudi Giuliani in the Ukranian project, and the fact that the latter is under a counter intelligence investigation. All of this activity relates to the quid pro quo impeachment enquiry into Rudi’s client the President of the United States of America.

The Senate firewall is showing cracks. McConnell denied outright that he confirmed to the President that his phone call to President Zelensky was “perfect”. The Press are reporting that as of this moment there are eight Republican waverers in the Senate who could vote for the President's removal if the evidence was there. Even backside licker in chief Lindsey Graham is hedging his bets and Trump is apparently furious that Graham is not investigating Biden in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

AT THE END OF THE DAY

The media have not focussed on the fact that the attack on Biden shows that Trump is terrified that in the 2020 election the former Vice President will beat him hands down. Also they must not create a moral equivalency of the ethically questionable business involvement of the Vice President’s son with Trump’s unprecedented corruption. 

The media too should not endlessly ruminate on the abuse of power by Trump and his sidekick Attorney General William Barr in initiating a criminal inquiry in the hope of proving the farcical conspiracy theory that Obama spied on Trump.

Hopefully, Trump’s third great lie will be his undoing. 

Mazeltov to Trump on the killing of ISIS Leader Baghdadi. Like he tweeted in 2012 it was not Obama who killed Osama Bin Laden it was the Navy Seals. 

TRUMP - REPUBLICANS EDGE CLOSER TO THE BRINK

As the Trump Presidency hurtles out of control the Republicans are finally lining up to vote against him as a result of his outrageous actions on foreign policy. His sell out of the Kurds is a byproduct of his collaboration with the Russians as witnessed in the 2016 election and thereafter. His ludicrous rationalizations on his green lighting Erdogan's aggression resulted in Speaker Nancy Pelosi standing up in the WhiteHouse, responding to his taunts, with the devastating assessment, “All roads with you lead to Putin”. John Brennan, the former CIA Director, put the controversy in a historical context when he commented that when Trump was elected champagne corks popped in Russia where they forecasted that they now would have their way in Ukraine and Syria. 

The Middle East policy disaster was just one of the explosive setbacks that struck The Donald Presidency in the third of October. What is finally pushing the GOP legislators to the brink is that their great country has been dishonored and is the laughing stock of the world. Thus far the GOP response has been limited to unprecedented criticism and motions of censure. 

THE REPUBLICAN DILEMMA AS THE TRUMP SWAMP DEEPENS

The Republicans in their ongoing uncompromising and searing attacks on the President believe they are able to straddle the thin line between their increasing criticism of his foreign policy while not supporting his impeachment. Their problem is, as bad as the current situation is, that it is going to get worse. So sooner or later they have to remember their oath to the Constitution. The conventional wisdom is that the GOP legislators need the cover of the Republican base. However their responsibility is to lead and if they make the move it may just be the confirmation that their electorate are waiting for.

With regard to Trump’s abandonment of America’s word and trust, Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate leader did the unthinkable - he attacked the POTUS in an op - ed piece in the “fake news”, specifically in his arch enemy Jeff Bezos’s Washington Post, which newspaper history will show played a central roll in exposing his corrupt Presidency.  

Adding to the President’s infamy in the third week of October was the damning corroboratory impeachment evidence leaked from the Congress hearings. Just in case there was any doubt as to Trump’s quid pro quo demand of President Zelensky for America’s military aid, his Chief of Staff, Nick Mulvaney, repeatedly confirmed that that was in fact what had happened. When pressed Mulvaney said that it was common practice to link political requests to diplomacy exhorting the incredulous press corp, “To get over it”. 

Just in case the news was not bad enough Mulvaney announced that Trump was awarding a massive contract to his struggling Hotel Doral in Miami which would result in millions being poured into the Trump Inc. coffers. (The storm this created resulted in a late night tweet reversing the decision). 

All this taking place while the impeachment enquiry was corroborating the WhistleBlower complaint.

TRUMP’S SELL OUT IN MIDDLE EAST CROSSES A LINE THE REPUBLICANS CANNOT STOMACH.

The betrayal of the Kurds and the abandonment of the US’s responsibility in the Middle East has stunned both sides of the aisle. This action which benefited rogue Russia, terrorist ISIS, and chemical murderer Syria’s Assad is a difficult pill to swallow even for enablers in chief Mitch McConnell and lap dog Lindsey Graham. In the process Trump has wiped out what he had not as yet mutilated of America’s integrity and reputation.  The Republicans that still remain in the House of Representatives - the hardcore that haven’t already lost elections or retired - revolted with a one hundred and twenty - nine joining the Democrats in a three hundred and fifty - four vote to sixty censure which was a wholesale condemnation of the Trump sell out. 

The scandal that shocked the nation to the core resulted in the POTUS’S  firewall of Republican Senate legislators being deeply penetrated for the fist time including by its enablers in chief. Most importantly the guardian of the Trump bunker, Mitch McConnell, on whom Trump depended on refusing even to hold a hearing on the impeachment articles, announced that the Senate would sit for six full days a week to meet the constitutional requirements. McConnell like every GOP Senator who opened their mouths voiced his gratitude to the Kurds adding that he was “sorry”. He maintained that the Trump action would “embolden our enemies and weaken important alliances”.

A distraught Lindsey Graham who has to be exhausted from carrying Trump’s water howled, “He is not listening to his advisors and the military tell him that it is unfair and dishonorable… biggest mistake of his Presidency”. Graham, like everyone was concerned about the outcome of the “cease fire”. The South Carolinian Senator backed the commander of the opposition Syrian Democratic forces who reassured that he and his supporters would never agree to the ethnic cleansing of the Kurds. Graham pledged that Congress would stay very involved and was “extremely sympathetic to the plight of the Kurds”. This is in stark contrast to Trump’s characterization of the Kurds being “no angels” and who backed the “cleaning out” of the area where the Kurds have their home in Northern Syria. Trump reminded Graham that he was the “boss” while Graham countered that he would hold the President responsible. 

The GOP Senator who represents the largest existential threat to the Trump Presidency, Mitt Romney, escalated the attack on the President. He claimed that Trump’s withdrawal was a “bloodstain on America”. The former Republican nominee for the Presidency challenged the POTUS”S leadership and queried his decision making. He called for a public hearing into the infamous phone call with the Turkish prime minister Erdogan. Romney claimed that Trump caved and set into motion Middle East chaos and a diminishing of American influence and power both in the region and in the world. Romney sneeringly asked, “Are we so weak and inept diplomatically that Turkey forced the hand of the United States of America. Turkey?”. In the light of the venal Trump Presidency becoming it is being openly suggested that Trumped rolled over because of his vast business interests in Turkey.

Other Republican Senators are lining up to join the bandwagon including Marco Rubio, Lisa Murkowski, Roy Blunt, Joni Ernst and Jim Inhofe. There is also a bipartisan censorship motion pending in the Senate which also sanctions Turkey. 

Finally, Trump and Pence’s pathetic effort at putting the genie back in the bottle while, thousands die, Americans bomb their own facilities to avoid them landing in the enemies hands, nuclear weapons lodge uneasily in Turkey and ISIS prisoners escape, is not being taken seriously. The cease fire deal is said to have afforded Erdogan all that he demanded.

IMPEACHMENT PROCEEDINGS

In the third week of October witnesses continued to confirm the WhistleBlower’s narrative while Trump himself withheld documents emanating from his immediate circle. Also notable was the continued defiance of Trump’s injunction not to give evidence by a stream of public servants. 

The irony of the week was that the ostensible driver of Trump’s removal, the impeachment proceedings, never made the headlines other than on day one. Those revelations produced shockwaves that are destined to produce aftershocks in the weeks to come. On Monday,Trump’s retired advisor on Russia, Fiona Hill, unleashed a rocket when she detailed that John Bolton, the retired/fired National Security Advisor, registered opposition at the bizarre corrupt dealings with Ukraine which he labelled as a “drug deal”. Bolton instructed Dr. Hill to inform the WhiteHouse lawyers as to the illegal activity. The former security advisor was particularly critical of Trump’s lawyer Rudi Giuliani who had been designated the point man to conduct this bogus “foreign policy” with Ukraine.

 Hill labelled Trump’s EU Ambassador, Gordon Sondland “a national security risk”. The latter is one of the “three amigos” appointed by Trump to liase with Giuliani on wringing dirt out from Ukraine on his political opponents. Another of the trio, Energy Secretary, Rick Perry, defied a subpoena to produce documents while announcing his resignation. The third “amigo” Ukrainian envoy Volker who gave damning corroboratory evidence last week, also has resigned from the State Department.

The centerpiece of the impeachment week was scheduled to be Trump’s EU Ambassador, Gordon Sondland, whom Trump had given another assignment - Ukraine. In a publicly released text message that the Ambassador had sent to the  Charge D’ Affairs Bill Taylor he had reassured the latter that there was no quid pro quo in the Administration’s demands to President Zelensky. Trump had repeatedly quoted Sondland’s text as independent evidence of his innocence.  Sondland mercilessly threw the President under the bus stating that Trump was his source for the no quid pro quo assessment. Sondland criticized the whole Ukrainian misadventure being most critical of the President and his personal lawyer cum unofficial lead negotiator with Ukraine. By the time Sondland testified Chief of Staff Mulvaney had already spilled the beans relegating his testimony to the fourth lead in the media.

Next week sees Charge D’ Affairs Taylor who will give his reasoning as to why he saw Trump’s quid pro quo diplomacy ending in a “nightmare”. 

The proceedings have produced more than enough to impeach Trump but after the investigative efforts the Democrats aim to produce public testimony to increase the support for impeachment from the current bare majority to an overwhelming number.

CRIMINAL ACTIVITY OF GIULIANI AND IMPEACHMENT

Parallel to the investigation of Trump more and more criminal activity has been associated with the President’s lawyer who has publicly argued that everything he does is on instruction of his client, the President of the United States of America. Two of his associates are under indictment for funneling foreign money into American elections. The former New York Mayor is the subject of a counter - intelligence investigation by the Southern New York Attorney General. A counter intelligence probe implies that there may have been support of actions taken against America by a foreign agent. Giuliani has attempted to obtain a visa for the corrupt Ukrainian prosecutor who was forced out by the international community and whom he was relying on to get the goods on the Bidens.

AT THE END OF THE DAY

It is getting closer and closer to crunch time for the Republican legislators who up till now have enabled Trump. But the week that was, ending with Trump’s shameless naked self dealing, has to be too much. (His hurried withdrawal of Hotel Duval as the venue for the G7 meeting is too little too late).

The difference between Nixon and Trump is that the former humiliated and disgraced himself and the GOP while the latter has humiliated and disgraced himself, the GOP and America.

The shame Trump has inflicted on the once proud nation which till very recently strived, albeit imperfectly, to be the upholder of international morality and freedom, will not be ameliorated by op ed pieces by McConnell and fine speeches by Romney. They have to prove to the world and America that they have cut this cancer out. The time for grand standing is over. In case they missed Pelosi’s WhiteHouse moment, “All Roads lead to Putin”.

Trump is decompensating at a rapid rate and will strike out destructively while wallowing in self pity and claiming that the Democrats, the dark state and even the Republicans victimize him. The Republicans need to go into damage control mode.

TRUMP ON THE ROPES - OCTOBER 2019

While news breaks by the minute, the latest being Trump diverting from his impeachment mess with a destructive foreign policy move, an assessment is due as to his status three weeks after Speaker Pelosi initiated an impeachment enquiry.

WHERE ARE WE NOW?

It is fair to argue that in mid October 2019 President Trump’s position has weakened dramatically. True to form the POTUS has doubled down, his furious defense signaling that he would fight the process the same way he won the Presidency, politically not legally. He would go to his people with the aid of his echo chamber Fox News. In addition he still gains comfort from the fact that the Republicans control the Senate that ultimately will decide his fate. Mitch McConnell, the GOP Senate leader, who has delivered to date, is his legislative firewall against the Democratic powerhouse Nancy Pelosi who has outmaneuvered him in the House of Representatives. The POTUS appears more and more helpless against the House of Representative assault on his Presidency as he flails on at the mountain of evidence that grows by the minute. The question on everyone’s lips is, “How is this all going to play out?”.

As of October 2019 four questions remain: Will Pelosi expand the impeachment proceedings to include, for example, Trump’s request for China to investigate the Bidens. Will Trump be the first President to be terminated by the Senate or even resign and if he survives as the 2020 GOP nominee will he be reelected as President? Finally, what will influence any of these outcomes?

WHAT IS THIS ALL ABOUT?

 The essence of the abuse of power charge against the POTUS to obtain illegal foreign aid in an election campaign, is similar to the one pursued by Robert Mueller. While the latter showed that Trump and his campaign asked for, received and welcomed foreign aid in the 2016 Presidential election, (some of his team actually sat down with Russian foreign agents to “get dirt” on his opponent), this latest episode happened in real time in front of an incredulous public. 

The Ukraine narrative is easy to follow and is stripped of Mueller’s detail. In a country which is obsessed with viewing The Mob and their violent modus operandi in countless TV programs, (The Sopranos ran for six seasons being rated in the top hundred tv series ever) and movies, (The Godfather  the second greatest film of all time,) so the electorate don’t need anything spelled out to them - "the favor" that Trump asked for was one that "President Zelensky could not refuse". In the process he used the taxpayer’s resources for his own ends.

Trump has provided documentary evidence to corroborate what the whistleblower alleged - namely while withholding military aid from an ally Ukraine, he asked for favors which included investigating his most likely presidential opponent,  Joe Biden. Since his release of the reconstructed transcript of the Presidential call as well as the Whistleblower Complaint there have been daily corroborations of Trump’s intentions as well as the actions that he and his personal lawyer, Rudi Giuliani, effected to get Joe Biden smeared. As damning are the extensive cover ups that followed his behavior. Giuliani had virtually no response when two thugs who were assisting him in the Ukrainian shake down were arrested. To add to Giuliani woes The New York Times reported that he is being criminally investigated by the US Attorney’s Federal Office in Southern New York. 

Like Nixon the POTUS has involved several members of his cabinet who have to be consulting their lawyers. Chief among the enablers in the Ukraine saga are Secretary of State Pompeo and Secretary of Energy Perry. 

THE IMPEACHMENT PROCEEDINGS

Nowhere more than in the impeachment enquiry proceedings are the wheels coming off. At first blush Trump’s hope that this process would antagonize the electorate middle as well as mobilize his base has misfired. The number in favor of impeaching him has increased by fifteen points within three weeks. Those who have changed their opinions include independents, rural voters and even a few evangelicals. Republican suburbia left in the midterms. 

Trump’s tactic to date, backed by the Counsel to the Presidential Office and the Attorney General of the United States, is that the President cannot be investigated or impeached. Up until the start of his termination enquiry the POTUS ignored twenty - six subpoenas and frightened witnesses from appearing before Congress. This all unravelled when Pelosi declared an impeachment process. The latter is constitutionally enshrined resulting in the subpoenaed witnesses being more fearful of disregarding the law than the rage of Donald J. Trump. To date the former special envoy to the Ukraine has given ten hours of testimony corroborating the WhistleBlower complaint. More devastating was the testimony of the former Ambassador to the Ukraine, Maria Yovanovitch. She basically itemized the inside scoop as to why she was recalled for bogus reasons by the Trump/Giuliani/Pompeo troika. She maintained  that the objective was for Trump to be unimpeded in his corrupt shake down of the Ukrainian Premier. 

There is a ton more to come including most significantly the current ambassador to the EU who authored text messages pressuring US diplomats to assist the aforementioned troika in leaning on Premier Zelensky to deliver Biden’s head on a plate. EU Ambassador Sondland is reported to be going to testify that he was instructed by Trump to deny that there was a “quid pro quo” in his threats to Ukraine. Sondland will be pointing out that he had no idea if the POTUS was telling the truth. First up however is former Presidential Advisor on Russia, Fiona Hill, who will have the drama that unfolded as to how Vladmir Putin’s Russia fits into the picture. 

To add to the misery are other embassy staff including Charge D’ Affairs Bill Taylor who relayed in texts that muscling the Ukrainian Premier to do Trump’s bidding would create a "nightmare scenario". Then there are the string of subpoenaed witnesses from the WhistleBlower report, a number of Trump’s cabinet, the two Giuliani associated thugs that are presently in jail and a slew of other WhistleBlowers in the wings. 

Trump’s legal position can only worsen but for practical purposes he is not relying on Pelosi not bringing articles of impeachment against him, he is meeting the constitutional crisis by going to his people.

THE STATE OF TRUMP IN THE COURTS

Court proceedings slowly grind on. Most notably Congress’s demand for tax returns have already been decided against Trump in a Federal Court of Appeals. There is little doubt that the release of these will have a profound impact on the electorate. The conventional wisdom is that it would make a major dent in the Trump narrative and also outline his involvement with foreign entities. By the end of the week Trump lost a ton of cases relating to his wall and immigration as well. 

Earlier, in a Federal Court ruling, Judge Mareo, in response to Attorney General Barr’s revival of Nixon’s argument that a President cannot be the subject of any criminal investigation, reminded the President’s counsel that the Supreme Court had unanimously ruled in Nixon versus the U.S. otherwise. Trump however contends that the Supreme Court ruled wrongly on US v Nixon. He is aided and abetted by his slime ball Attorney General who mislead US public on the Mueller Report. The two of them incoherently claim that the American War of Independence against a despotic king was to uphold the right of the new country’s President to continue to be above the law! The jury, to coin a phrase, is still out on the question as to how the currently constituted Supreme Court will rule on the issue. However the recent declaration by seventeen legal doyens of the Conservative Republican establishment arguing that Trump should be removed from office is a really big deal and does not augur well for the President.

Trump reflexly following the advise given to him by his disgraced counsel, the late Roy Cohn to attack and litigate has threatened to sue Nancy Pelosi and Congressman Schiff the leader of impeachment. According to a USA report, as of 2016 he had already been involved, either as a plaintiff or a defendant, in three and a half thousand litigations, so what is another few between friends.

THE ROLE OF REPUBLICAN SENATORS PARTICULARLY MCCONNELL AND ROMNEY

The Republican Senators are between a rock and a hard place. They are more than mindful that Trump still controls their base that pitch up to vote in a Primary. Thus backing impeachment might well be curtains for their careers in the Senate. At the same time they are being more exposed to the limelight and are the target of the attacks by the Republican intelligentsia and pundits. Currently they are AWOL, particularly those up for election in purple states. 

Trump more than ever needs a solid Republican legislative wall behind him  He peculiarly exacerbated his wobbly standing by his abandonment of American allies, the Kurds, who were crucial allies in the war against ISIS. He backed Turkey in its militaristic aims for the region. There is little in the local press but being screamed about in the Israeli news media that Trump's action constitutes a threat to that country. His legislative defender in chief, Mitch McConnell was highly critical pointing out that this decision would assist Russia, Syria and Iran. This impulsive behavior as the Turkey crisis escalates may well be the issue that finally gets the Republican senators to revolt. McConnell has warned him that there is a veto proof majority against such actions. 

The public anger of the Republican Senators at Trump’s foreign policy on Turkey, Kurdistan and Syria is in part a reflection of their frustration at not being able to attack him on the UkraInian scandal. McConnell who will one day have to answer as to his enabling of what will prove to be the most corrupt president in history, is currently in a perilous position. He represents a State that Trump won with sixty - two percent of the vote. McConnell’s current approval rating is thirty - six percent. Although, when push comes to shove, not even the most optimistic Democratic pundit is forecasting his downfall he doesn’t need Trump backing a Republican opponent in a Primary. Trump is reportedly calling him three times a day for reassurance as the spineless head of the Senate will be in charge of the articles of impeachment. There was an argument that McConnell could even refuse to hold one. To Trump’s apparent dismay McConnell stated he had no choice. However he could  limit proceedings that would shield El Presidente from excess toxic exposure.

Trump’s biggest problem in the Senate is Mitt Romney who has finally come out in full force attacking him for abusing his office to get dirt on his opponent. Trump tweeted up a hurricane against his nemesis who really couldn’t give a damn. Most significantly Romney, who has a vast war chest as well as the support of many moneyed establishment Republicans, made it quite clear that he would support and run cover for vulnerable Republican Senators. That is code red for Trump because if they support his termination it will slash his election chances whether they win or lose their seats. 

In brief Trump’s unanimous Senate support is a thing of the past. Nevertheless the controller of the Senate is still in his corner but undoubtedly is about as loyal to Trump as the latter is to him.

WHAT IS GOING FOR TRUMP?

Although there is a big bohaai at the rapid change in the poll numbers for impeachment and removal for Trump the numbers, although a majority, coincide with his current disapproval rating of his presidency. Trump still has his base who are stepping up in the tens of thousands at his Nuremberg style rallies. He has held three of these in the past four days. In case anyone needs reminding the last time round he won the Presidency with a minority of the electorate. 

For the moment he seems to have come out tops in the fight within his propaganda arm, Fox News. Shepherd Smith the newscaster who was more and more laying it on the line that Trump was a disaster resigned. This doesn’t solve all Trump’s problems with the news organization, who still are producing unbiased polls chronicling his falling support, but it is a battle victory in his war.

The fact that Trump is at the end of his rope doesn’t impact his cult following. In fact they welcome his lunacy. For the moment they are solidly behind him. He is openly warning all that should he be axed they will be his army in civil war number two.

AT THE END OF THE DAY

Pelosi need not make a decision about expanding the impeachment scope the witnesses are doing it for her. Jay H. Ell believes that the chances of Trump not being the GOP candidate in 2020 are increasing. What however is uncertain is that should he survive to run again whether he can gain a second term or not. Biden’s response to the Ukrainian episode till now has been sub par and he is, as Trump has worked out, the Democrat’s strongest candidate to run against him. 

The POTUS’S most onerous hurdle is survival to run in 2020. If he does it will mean that the mountains of his illegal and corrupt activity being exposed have not forced at least another twenty - five pecent of his base to abandon him. That fact would have allow him a fifty percent shot at reeelction. As each day passes whether it be in Congress or the courts the odds increase against such an outcome. One parameter McConnell will take note off is the polls because to him principle and patriotism are not relevant factors in political decisions even when the country faces the greatest constitutional crisis in a century. Another looming obstacle at wholesale support from the Republican Senate is Trump's bizarre foreign policy. 

One matter for sure is that the constitutional lawyers, Republican or otherwise, are almost ad idem that Trump is trashing American democracy by claiming supremacy over the other two co - equal branches of government - The Congress and The Judiciary. He should be removed from office.

   

WILL TRUMP’S LUNATIC TACTICS AND AGENDA SUCCEED?

With all the adults in the Oval Office either retired or fired, with impeachment in progress, an election in the offing and scandals and investigations galore, America is witnessing Trump being Trump on steroids. Trump has taken on the task of governing America while facing his challenges with only a meager team of sycophants who slavishly and unthinkingly assist him while the spineless Republican legislators stand by as he trashes the Constitution and places his personal agenda ahead of that of “We the People”.  

The forum for Trump’s impeachment enquiry is the nation of Ukraine which had been off the radar until he reintroduced it with his and his team’s corrupt and bribery attempt to enroll a vulnerable ally to assist in him in his reelection. In answer to the escalating evidence of his sleaze his tactics are in tune with his lifelong philosophy, (if that term can be used in relation to Trump), firstly, to deny then sometimes in the next sentence, claim that which he denied is perfectly legitimate and acceptable, what follows is attack and finally, deflection. This panoply of defenses is now in full operational mode. Thus far in the impeachment enquiry the needle has decisively moved against Trump but there is long way to go before the pitiful Republican legislators move to remove him. 

The POTUS has a number of immediate objectives - avoid impeachment, be reelected and deliver to Russia the removal of sanctions against them. To effect the latter he has two major tasks, namely to prove that the whole intelligence establishment as was the Mueller investigation were wrong in their finding that Russia intervened in 2016. Next on the urgent agenda is to force Ukraine into a peace process with Putin. (Of course in addition he has to build a wall, fire the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, shoot refugees in the legs, address mass rallies, attack anyone who criticizes him and generally dish out ex tempore judgements on anybody or anything).

A key feature of his outlandish brazen style is to openly defy the law and constitution in the belief that because he is not hiding his behavior it is “legal”. Jay H. Ell believes that there is method in his madness. He also believes that the relationship between him and Putin is deep and corrupt beyond belief and that his desire to deliver to Putin the removal of sanctions will ultimately be his downfall. The avalanche of litigation and investigations now including impeachment will finally and mercifully put bedlam to rest. Even then The Don reminds Jay H. Ell of the little old lady who took a liver pill everyday and when she died they had to beat her liver to death.

Nevertheless it is not unreasonable to argue that Americans don’t quite know how to respond to this lunacy other than to opine he is unhinged, desperate and finally gone too far. Even his most vocal supporters believe his misguided, unprepared and woefully short staff will be his downfall. To date the prognostications that he is doomed have been premature - to put it at the most optimistic

It is in the milieu that “treasonous” Chairman Adam Schiff is conducting his impeachment enquiry into a Whistleblower complaint that Trump insanely claims that Adam Schiff wrote together with the Whistleblower who with his/her informants should be executed as spies.  And this madness is barely commented upon because it is accompanied by a non stop stream of absurdity emanating from the POTUS that changes the headlines of the news at a giddy speed. Even the highly sophisticated digital up to the minute reporting of daily newspapers who are chronicling minute by minute the unhinged and deranged emanations that he spits out in the form of tweets, cannot keep up with the “Breaking News”.

TRUMP’S TEAM - THE ENABLERS

As a team he has an Attorney General, (AG), that is ad idem with him that his job definition is not to safeguard American society per se but rather to represent Trump. AG Barr who is running around the world to enlist the aid of foreign governments to prove that the Russians didn’t hack the 2016 election should be reminded that Nixon’s AG served time. Then there is a WhiteHouse Special Counsel whose main occupation is covering up for the President, inter alia hiding political embarrassing documents, rather than serving the public’s office of The Presidency. Counsellor Pat Cipollone who has taken on the partisan task of being the POTUS’S lawyer on impeachment should read what his Nixonian counterpart John Dean saw as his patriotic duty even at the expense of going to prison. Added to this corrupt duo is a Secretary of State, Pompeo, who aids and abets the Don’s manipulation of foreign policy and the power of America to serve the President’s ends.  Chief of Staff Mulvaney rather than putting a leash on his charge does all his dirty work such as thwarting Congress’s decision to provide Ukraine with aid. Another inner circle apologist is His Secretary of Finance who is a regular participant on the Sunday morning talk shows sounding like his echo chamber.

If this motley crew are not bad enough the most iniquitous enabler of this madcap show are the Republican legislators led by Mitch McConnell Republican Leader in the Senate and Lindsey Graham whose volte face must be making his life long ally John McCain turn in his grave. McConnell is making moves at the moment anticipating the possibility that this train smash could hit the fan. On the House side there are three Congress enablers who are not to be dignified with having their names mentioned as well as the anemic Minority Leader of the House. Trump has denuded the membership of the Republican House of Congress. Forty percent of the Republican legislators that were there at Trump’s inauguration have either been defeated, resigned or are not standing again in 2020. However even this crowd have not banded together to do the patriotic thing relating to the country that Trump is changing the face of everything America claimed too have stood for. 

Finally there is the Don’s TV lawyer, Rudi Giuliani, his consigliere, his personal lawyer who replaced the previous incumbent who is serving time for a crime that he executed at Trump’s behest. Giuliani is in sync with that celebrated sociopath Roy Kohn who was the infamous Senator McCarthy’s legal counsel as well as Trump and his father’s. Giuliani who is also Trump’s chief advisor adopts the same style and tactics as the POTUS. 

Rudi's behavior too defies any rational critique and he is afflicted from whatever disease Trump is ultimately diagnosed with He is not a member of the US Government yet he his privy to classified information and is tasked with what should be official government business. So far he is the only one savvy enough to arm himself with a lawyer in the event of this whole mess turning sour.  In truth he is not the only member of Trump’s non Senate ratified cabinet - there are the Fox late night three stooges - Hannity, Carson and Ingram whose drivel often becomes Presidential policy the next morning. The Don is nevertheless angry at Fox because their regular daytime newscasters are reporting the news as it is. He has, in case anyone understandably has missed it, lashed out against Fox concluding that as a result of their lack of slavish backing he may have to start his own TV Network. 

WHAT HAS TRANSPIRED SINCE THE IMPEACHMENT PROCESS - TRUMP IS TRUMP AS THE WORLD AROUND INCLUDING MURDOCH’S FOX BEGINS TO SOUR

Within just over a week following the announcement of an impeachment enquiry revelations have intensified apace. Witnesses have corroborated the original Whistleblower complaint and another complaint has emerged relating to the interference in the auditing of Presidential tax returns. Yet another potential Whistle Blower has emerged who claims to be within the White House orbit. Trump has responded with his inbuilt stratagem - deny that that he was demanding a “quid pro Quo” from Ukraine, then  argue that he was perfectly entitled to do so. Following his own playbook he attacked the corruption of Schiff, Pelosi, the Whistleblower and informants and deflected by calling for more investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails and into his potential political opponent Joe Biden’s nepotism. 

The backing of the POTUS from Republicans has been strangely absent except for Lindsey Graham. Even the House troika of apologists are not available on camera for interviews. The key Trump echo chamber, Fox’s Murdoch empire, however has gone rogue. Murdoch's Wall Street Journal is publishing exposes while the news component of Fox is blandly reporting the news as it is. Significantly The Fox News daily online report is prognosticating that Trump has “had it”. 

The following is from the online Fox News Halftime Report October 4:

“The News these days is pretty grim for the Trump Administration and the Republicans in Congress.

The central claim of the whistleblower who came forward to authorities was that President Trump was pressuring America’s Ukrainian allies for dirt on Trump’s chief political rival, Joe Biden.

It has not only been proven true, the president is now doing it right out in the open. He’s even added China to the list of foreign powers he wants to provide opposition research on the Democratic front runner.

Worse, newly related texts between American diplomats show that senior State Department officials believed that Trump was conditioning U. S. aid to the long-beleaguered former Soviet republic on the provision of anti-Biden goodies.

But the potentially worse development so far, it is now alleged that Trump’s personal defense lawyer was dangling a promise of an official diplomatic White House visit to the White House for the Ukrainian President for a public statement from the Ukrainian leader for a public statement to investigate Biden and his family business dealings in Kyiv……..”

Mitch Romney is emerging as the Republican leader in the Senate that who will take on Trump. He has nothing to lose and is the de facto face of what the GOP used to represent. In fact he was the Republican Presidential nominee in 2012.

Within ten days of announcing the enquiry the public mood has swung in favor of the impeachment enquiry. There are more of the electorate that are in favor of impeachment at this stage of the proceedings than were in the Nixon and Clinton enquiries. There is a ten percent swing against Trump already and his general approval rating is slowly dropping. 

AT THE END OF THE DAY

The GOP legislators will have to decide whether to run their re election campaigns defending Trump or defending their decision to axe him. As matters stand they are hanging in with the boss. As the revelations escalate they have to be rethinking the issue daily. Pelsosi has wisely chosen as the only matter for impeachment a foreign policy congress decision on where there was almost unanimous bipartisan support - the backing of ally Ukraine against enemy Russian imperialism. Trump for reasons that are still not clear has as top of his ‘to do’ list lifting sanctions against Russia. This exacerbates the antipathy that the GOP confide in private that they have for him.

As Fox News Halftime Report pointed out Trump is not giving the GOP legislators any room for maneuver - it is “My leader right or wrong…unlike Bill Clinton’s team in 1998 who knew they had to give Democrats a chance to denounce the President’s scuzzy behavior thereby strengthening his position in the Senate..…”. Clinton bolstered his standing among the electorate, his approval rating going up to eighty percent and the GOP lost seats in the midterms - the only occasion in memory when an opposition President was in the White House.

As matters stand Trump will be the GOP’s nominee for President and he is exactly who Pelosi wants to run against. With each day that passes his chances of reelection decrease. The Mob Boss of the Republican Party is not going to fade away and die. He is not going to do a Nixon, who after all was an institutionalist, nor is he going to be contrite like a Clinton, whose impeachment in history will go down as political. 

The Don is accelerating into a height of fantasy that has never been reached before in American history. He will stop at nothing. He is at this moment  implicating self righteous, fawning and obsequious, Vice President, Mike Pence. In so doing he is signifying to McConnell et al, “You axe me Pence goes too and Speaker Pelosi is constitutionally next in line to be President”.

Where Trump has been successful is that the Democrats, playing by the usual rules of politics, respond to his attacks, deflections and justifications. They have to ignore his outporings.

 The Democrats need to hold public hearings. So far these have been stopped by Trump but now there is a distinct possibility that particularly the State Department officials and a reservoir of retired and fired Trump administration would testify before the cameras. Maybe just maybe the wily Pelosi wants matters just as they are because Trump is whom she would like to run against. He can rant and rave to his adoring cult but he has lost those who put him over the top. 

As the way of the world goes this controversy will have damaged Biden. It took him a week to respond to the smears against him and his son. He should have from day one called for investigations into Ivanka, Jared and Don Jnr. He is still the favorite but has been steadily losing his grip on the Democratic nomination which is still undecided. Elizabeth Warren will be the one to beat but it’s a long long way from here to November 2020.

This drama is moving so fast that even Trump and Giuliani have to be worried. Watch out as the significance of the Ukraine saga unfolds.