TRUMP - “IT’S LAW AND ORDER - STUPID”.

Donald J. Trump is not one to bow down to the inevitable. He had already in 2016, interrupted the arc of progress but even with all signs pointing to him being deposited into the dustbin of history he veers from one strategy to another to avoid his fate as decreed by the Gods and more significantly the electorate. As the election day progresses, although he proclaims it is going to be rigged by the US Postal Service, who presumably are part of the Deep State and in Jeff Bezos’s pocket, he still is doing whatever he can to win. 

With the economy in tatters, its plunge having been precipitated by his disastrous management of the coronavirus, the wall being a bit of a dud, with America being the polecat and laughing stock of the world and with him losing control of the Republican Party legislators, he has changed his line of attack dramatically. He maintains that the real threat to the country is rampant anarchy in the Democratic City streets. The protestors were terrorists and he was the “Law and Order President”, in case you forgot.

IT’S LAW AND ORDER - STUPID

Lest there was any doubt as to where Trump was going he tweeted out again and again three words - LAW AND ORDER. What was ominous about his and his sidekicks interpretation of that imperative is that it smacks of totalitarianism and the term “Stormtroopers” has been liberally used. In addition The Daily Beast maintained that the time has come to use the F word in relation to his policies. That  F word is fascism.

The Law and Order issue really is the bottom of the barrel as a policy to run on in 2020. It worked for Nixon in 1968 but America literally was on fire with the Vietnam protests. It barely makes the lists of the priorities of what is uppermost in the electorate’s minds. Health care especially with the coronavirus raging is number one closely followed by the economy and jobs. (It is no use blaming the virus because for four months he pretended it was a “nothing burger”). 

No one is obsessing on violence and unrest at the moment. There is almost a consensus as to what was elegantly and scientifically proven by Steven Pinker, in his tome, “The Better Angels of our Nature”, namely that violence has dramatically decreased in America. The protests have all but died down except in Portland and Seattle. But  Trump had two strings to his bow the “Black Lives Matter” protestors that were burning America and the violence in the streets of the cities of the Democratic States. So he set out to prove that “he alone” can save America from being overrun by gangs and the anarchistic leftist agitators ,whom the Democrats unconditionally backed. 

What Trump also didn’t compute was that the overwhelming majority of Americans believe in peaceful protests and the citizens in the swing states of Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Florida to name but a few don’t give two hoots that it is unsafe to go into the South side gang neighborhoods of Chicago. Trump is going all out to convince them that they are wrong  As there is really no Law and Order crisis in America he is about to create one, one way or another.  Maybe his “control efforts” will create a chaotic situation. The evidence is that since he has unlawfully intervened in Portland the violence has increased there exponentially. 

EXPERIMENT NUMBER ONE  IN LAW AND ORDER - LAFAYETTE SQUARE AND THE PHOTOGRAPH

 The Commander in Chief stood in front of a peaceful protest flanked by his Consiglieri Barr, the Chairman of the Military Chiefs of Staff. Mark Milley in battle fatigues, and the usual flunkies. This was way back on June 1 so Trump and Barr felt comfortable to promote the theory that the anarchistic protestors was stopping the POTUS from posing before a church with a bible for a photo op. Armed forces in riot gear unceremoniously cleared the peaceful George Floyd protestors. Implicit in this move was more than a ridiculous photograph of a heathen holding a bible in front of a church that did not welcome his supposed symbolism. There was the “Law and Order” President instituting Law and Order. 

All hell broke loose across America and the world with comparisons to his good friend Boris who had also cleared the front of the Kremlin from protestors. What put an end to this move by Trump and Barr was that it hadn’t even been thought through nor had they bothered to caucus support for it from the people that mattered. 

What really resonated was the response from the dramatis personae that were central to the maneuver who realized they had been duped. The Secretary of Defense made it quite clear that the military would not be involved in internal political disputes while the humiliation of Trump from General Milley was devastating. Just before Trump was to address the West Point graduates, having needlessly risked their health to attend a public graduation, the Chairman of the Military Chief of Staffs publicly apologized to the enlisted men for being dragged into a political photo op. He stated that his presence was a “mistake and created the perception that the military was involved in domestic politics”. He stated that he should have not been there.

The one constant of Trump and  Barr is that they cannot be shamed. They just move on and Portland was the next stop. 

EXPERIMENT NUMBER TWO IN LAW AND ORDER - PORTLAND OREGON

Portland Oregon has a population of round about six hundred thousand, about the same number of officially diagnosed coronavirus cases at the time of Trump’s big move in Portland. Once again he was about to exhibit that “he alone” could maintain “Law and Order” in the country which was at the brink of being run over by anarchists. His options no longer included the military so he had to rely on the law officers that he had under his and the Acting Secretary of Homeland Security control to provide the muscle to take on the protestors in the far North Western corner of America. 

Portland has a long history of protesting in a country that had been born in protest. The citizenry anger against the George Floyd murder had not abated after fifty days. This was the ideal place to restore “Law and Order” and prevent America from being overrun by terrorists. So the group of Federal law agents most loyal to the POTUS from the Immigration and Custom’s Units were sent in. If you can lock children in cages you can handle some left wing flakes. Ostensibly they were there to protect Federal Buildings but they tear gassed and assaulted protestors. They even tear gassed the Mayor of Portland. They wore unmarked uniforms, refused to answer questions as to their names and what law agency they represented. They whisked protestors away by force to unmarked SUV’s simply just releasing several of them later There were casualties broken bones and the like but law enforcement has to do what it has to do.

A setback to the public perception to the Trump narrative was the formation of a line of interlocking of white suburban moms who put themselves between Trump’s militia and the diverse group of protestors. One FaceBook call for volunteers brought a spontaneous outpouring of over five thousand willing to join in. Within two days they were joined by a line of Vets who were prepared to interpose themselves as well.

Once again the condemnations were instantaneous, widespread and unequivocal. Even the United Human Rights Commission condemned the United States Government for their assault on peaceful protests. All this at the same time that the pompous Secretary of State Pompeo was condemning the Chinese for their Hong Kong clampdown. 

The American legal consensus was what he had done in Portland was illegal. Trump had marched in with an anonymous force that was not invited by the city, county or state legal offices. To quote Judge Napolitano, the Fox News legal analyst, “Feds may not deploy police or military domestically unless the Governor requests it”. Then retweeting a Washington Post story Napolitano argued, “This is how totalitarianism begins”., He continued further that the Feds’ acts are unconstitutional because they are arresting people without probable cause. 

The question is whether or not Trump et al care. They are on a mission and they had in fact incensed the mob so they had indeed to effect some Law and Order. 

EXPERIMENT NUMBER THREE YOU NEED A LAW AND ORDER PRESIDENT TO CLEAR UP THE CRIME IN THE DEMOCRATIC CITIES.

Some cities have been battling to clear up local crime for decades. Trump following the Portland misadventure maintained he would now cooperate with the local authorities. He  even reassured Sean Hannity of Fox News that he would only intervene if invited. However that reasonableness seemed to be contradicted by his statement the very next day that he had sixty thousand law enforcement officers to ready deploy. Whatever all this mumbo jumbo meant he was still going to Chicago with two hundred officers.

Chicago on its South side has had a decades’ old problem with gang fighting resulting in high death rates. There has been police training, changing of Police Chiefs and an increase in the minority make up of the thirteen thousand police force as some of the efforts to combat this blot on the City. The new African American female Mayor has made resolving the situation a priority. Initially, tongue in cheek she said would not oppose “the help” if there was cooperation  and that their actions would be coordinated with the local police. Nothing has been forthcoming from Trump other than his contribution would be two hundred law enforcers, about a hundred who are already in Chicago and will be redeployed. It is banal to point out the insanity of this all

Whatever is going to happen in Chicago and all the other Democratic cities only time will tell. but Trump has not honed down the rhetoric. In order to reinforce his role as a Law and Order President he claimed on July 22 that he was going to send Federal Agents to Chicago and Albuquerque, New Mexico because violent anarchists  together with radical left Democrats are responsible for a shocking explosion of shootings, killings, murders and heinous crimes of violence - “This bloodshed must end. This bloodshed will end”. Insanity is a masterpiece of understatement, as even Trump, although he can repeat five words in a row, appears to have lost it.  

The only conclusion is that one way or another he seems determined to pursue this Law and Order theme together with conspiracy theories that foreign countries are printing ballot papers with a cross next to Biden’s name.

EXPERIMENT FOUR - ONLY A LAW AND ORDER PRESIDENT SUPPORTS THE POLICE.

Mike Pence is off to Pennsylvania with the objective of fraternizing with the police. This is part of the narrative that the Trump campaign is masterminding that if you vote for Biden you are for the eradication of the police. The Defund the Police campaign that is a popular slogan of the protestors is being thrust upon Biden’s shoulders. While the debate really centers around using some of the money for mental health and or domestic emergencies that the police are called too Biden has wisely rather than clarify the matter come out against it, period.

TRUMP BY THE NUMBERS HANGING IN THERE - ONLY JUST

However as long as he has anything to excite his base they hang in. And as long as they still tell the pollsters that they are going to vote for him he reckons, with voter suppression and the mail and the illegal immigrants ….. he can once gain snatch the rabbit out of the bag.

Although about forty percent still are going to vote for him there is a disconnect between those numbers when nearly seventy percent support Biden to manage the pandemic rather than him with a similar number believing the Black Lives Matter protest movement would be handled more constructively by the former Vice President. In every other parameter Trump’s figures are between thirty and thirty five percent with the exception of economic management where he is barely ahead of his challenger. 

There are plenty of factors to make those cult supporters to let go - Trump changing his policy on the virus and masks, the worsening economic and health crises, the beginnings of open disagreements with him and the Republican legislators, some of whom are fighting against one another. Then of course the very fact that he is spending his time on a crisis that doesn’t exist and even if it did does not impact the voters in the swing states. That rather than applying his mind fully to the health and economic crises may well lose him votes. 

AT THE END OF THE DAY

Trump is still convinced that dividing the country is his path to victory. His strategy at the moment is through Law and Order! This is a dangerous strategy because it can lead to ongoing violence as evidenced in Portland. 

Any hope he had of the military backing him has been dashed. He can hardly order the other miscellaneous law agents to secure the country for him after the rigged election. 

The one nagging worry is the section of his cult that he labelled the “second amendment people” who he claimed would have been the only response to a Hillary rigged election win. What has really surprised Jay H. Ell is their absence in the sixty day “Black Lives Matter Protest” and the dismantling of Confederate statues. Where are Trump’s “Good people” that were at Charlottesville. Perhaps they have more sense than their fearless leader and know what is inside the KoolAid. 

TRUMP - POST NOVEMBER THE FOURTH 2020?

All the results were not in but the conclusion was decisive, Trump had lost to Biden in a landslide, the Democrats had retaken the Senate and held the House with an increased majority. Everyone was speculating what the POTUS might do. So was Trump, mindful of the fact that he was still the President and Commander in Chief till Wednesday January 21, 2021. 

Uppermost in everyone’s mind was whether he would accept the results and what his response might be. He had refused to commit as to whether he would honor the outcome prior to the election, claiming, without any proof, that with all the mail in balloting the election would be rigged. He had claimed in 2016, even when he won the electoral college, without any evidence, that the result had been rigged. His lie being that he had won the majority of the vote because three million illegal immigrants had voted for Hillary. There was little doubt that he would not accept the validity of the process. He would rile up his cult. However as Commander in Chief he could go one further and declare an Emergency so as to call out the military claiming that a coup d’etat was taking place. 

Everyone knew what he was thinking at any given moment because his Twitter Feed was the portal to his fevered mind. The stream of consciousness had spattered out like machine gun fire since ten o clock of the night of November the Fourth. He certainly wasn’t going to take a deep breath and resignedly instruct all his departments to prepare working papers so as to create a smooth transition because they had done very little and every department had been denuded of personnel. Nor was he about to prepare a concession tweet.

It soon became obvious that there was no grand plan to put into place for this very likely outcome of the election. But then he never ever planned very far ahead. All he did was react to what happened and then respond through the lens of his distorted view of reality. 

In the background Fox News’s Hannity, Tucker and Laura were arguing with Chris Wallace and Judge Napolitano, their legal analyst, about the legitimacy of the election. The latter two hanging onto their conviction that Trump had no legal grounds  to challenge anything. Another TV set had a semicircle of wise CNN commentators, socially distanced apart, commenting on the results. However they were far more focussed on what Trump’s grand gesture might be.

 The conversation was always about Trump regardless of what happened. He was the news and, if he had any say in the matter, he would always be the news. Biden, who was after all the President elect, had issued a statement thanking his supporters while reassuring all that he would be the leader of all Americans. Whatever his original statement was it was chopped into a thirty second banal segment - less than the time that was alloted to Trump’s tweets about sleepy, corrupt Joe who had been assisted by the dark state, China and Iran in his campaign.  Biden, who with the Clintons and Obama should be behind bars was the steady diet he was feeding the faithful.

Trump even more unhinged than ever was veering between the paranoid victim and the accuser screamed at the tiny circle around him. There was Ivanka and Jared, Attorney General Barr, Jay Sekolowski his impeachment lawyer, Mark Meadows his Chief of Staff, his campaign manager Bill Stepien and good old Mike Pence. Melania had gone to bed long ago.

For the moment his attention was more focussed on his cell phones. In-between tweeting how much the election had been rigged he was fielding calls from Roger Stone and Rudi Giuliani who had loads of advice about declaring emergencies and bringing out the military. All this while he was trying to get hold of Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham both from deep Southern States whose Senate races were too close to call at the moment. He was ignoring attempts by Paul Manafort’s lawyer who wanted him to issue a pardon now. Manafort had been arguing for months now that he had more to hide than Roger Stone. Jerry Falwell Jnr who had solidified Evangelical support for him wanted him to know that he was in his prayers and to reassure him that the Lord would not desert him. For the tenth time in an hour he contacted the Chairperson of Republican Party, Ronna McDaniel, to learn whether the hundreds of lawyers that had been sent out to monitor the voting had reported any voter fraud,  Also the “second amendment people” were waiting for the word….

Trump carried on cussing about the Chinese conspiracy. They through the Corona virus and other mechanisms had plotted to unseat him. He blurted out that his Intelligence Agencies were quick to report on the supposed Russian aid to him but now they were colluding with the Chinese to elect Biden. He glared at Barr who had not indicted Biden and Obama before the election. Barr like everyone else even in that small circle knew that his favor with the President extended as far back as “what have you done for me lately”. He snapped at Barr surely you can get a Special Counsel to investigate “Sleepy Joe”.

Then there was that sanctimonious Fauci who he  had just not simply got rid off. Mark Meadows who had advised him against that course could sense that was what the POTUS was cogitating about now. Trump regarded alarmist Fauci with the same disdain that he had afforded to the microorganism Coronavirus that had sealed his fate. Fauci had accentuated his ignorance, arrogance, incompetence, narcissism and blatant lack of empathy to the millions who had been afflicted medically and economically and the hundreds of thousands who had succumbed. 

Trump turned to Stepien who had provided him with internal polling that had given him a chance. The latter was the Campaign Chairman’s fearful interpretation. If Trump had actually looked at the numbers he would have questioned Stepien as to why he still was putting him within striking distance of gaining an electoral college majority. He need have gone no further than to circle the yawning gap between him and Biden in Florida to realize that was all “Sleepy Joe” needed to put him over the top.

Whichever way Trump cut it he was going to lose. The question was what he was going to do about the elephant in the room at the WhiteHouse and the subject for discussion on the airwaves.  Trump rather than immediately face the reality that he was a loser found it easier to lapse into paranoia, conspiracy theories and to apportion blame. Trump bemoaned his fate that everyone had sold him down the river from the Generals to Sessions to the civil servants in the dark state. Everyone had turned against him even Republican Governors who had all to a lesser or greater extent not opened their states from Day One and just accepted that people were going to die. Then the GOP candidates deserted him only a few asking for his support. In all the races that mattered. They had either scapegoated or ignored him. He then mused as if he just had an epiphany - Brad Pascale he had lied to him about Tulsa. Made a fool out of him. Maybe he was the leaker all the while. He did the right thing about firing him and everyone else.

While he wallowed in self pity intermittently tweeting his plight, the country held its breath as to whether he would create a constitutional crisis. Would he rally the right wing “Second Amendment People” to go into the streets. Would he call out the military? If he did the latter would he do so as Commander in Chief bypassing the Secretary of Defense. For the moment he just kept up the tension replying to media queries that he was weighing all his options in the knowledge that Biden had rigged the election with mail in ballots.

AG Barr had stood silently by as all the other sycophants, particularly Pence, Jared and Ivanka, in the room agreed with the deranged  POTUS. Consiglieri Barr was more than mindful of the legal options and had already been at the receiving end of Trump’s bile for not criminally charging Biden and Obama. As his niece had titled her book “Too Much - And Never Enough”, there was never enough that one could do for the POTUS. He had delivered big time. If it wasn’t for him Trump would have been impeached with the Mueller Report.  What was ringing in his ears was his glib reply to a journalist who had asked him whether he was bothered how history may view him. “History” he had countered, was written, “by the winners”. He was definitely on the loosing team at the moment. He was jolted out of his introspection by Trump’s aggressive query as to why they couldn’t go to the Supreme Court to have the election declared null and void with all the mail fraud that had occurred. Barr the ultimate toadie responded that the reports from the lawyers were not in yet.

Stone was on the line again stating that he could rally thousands of the “second amendment people’ if Trump just gave the word. Stone wondered whether he had called out the troops yet. That would be the last call he would accept from his ally. He wasn’t gong to be pressured by Roger. He hadn’t thought all that through. He knew that the Secretary of Defense would never go along with calling out the troops. He should have fired him too.

Stone’s request was leaked - probably by Stone - and the pundits on all the stations were having a field day discussing the biggest crisis America had faced since the Civil War. Biden reiterated what he had maintained throughout the campaign that Trump would be escorted out of the WhiteHouse should he not want to leave. 

Stone, his calls being rebuffed, began communicating with the POTUS through the media. He broadcast that hundreds of thousands of Americans were willing to follow Trump and restore law and order in America by revoking what he Trump had called a rigged election. This created chaos in the media rooms. Defense Secretary Esper claimed he had no instructions to bring out the military nor did he envision that any were forthcoming - shades of Watergate.

The pressure was now building on Trump. He turned to the lawyers in the room. Jay Sekolow his personal counsel answered that what Stone was suggesting was treasonous. Trump could well face legal jeopardy if an antagonistic Attorney General emerged after the election if he supported protestors with guns in the street. Biden had said that he would not pardon him as it was. 

Trump was no hero. He had gone into the bunker when protestors were at the WhiteHouse fence. He would have to join the revolutionaries perhaps wrapped in the Confederate flag. Nor did he have the managerial skills to put together a revolution. He was a coward. Perhaps his Vietnam deferment was still valid. What he would do was just carry on screaming about the election fraud. 

He would hang in till inauguration day when he would issue a pardon to himself and clear off to Mar a Lago. The legitimacy of that move would be fought over for years. His problems would only then be with the New York State Attorney but he could drag that on forever. Meanwhile he would start a new hotel chain for the lower income voters that had formed part of his base. Build massive new churches for the Evangelicals and go and preach there every so now and then. He would start a TV Station.... 

He would blame the virus, the fraud, the deep state for stealing the election. Then he would get back at all those like Mary who turned against her family for money. He would carry on his real estate business with the Russians….

He looked at the photograph on his desk of his father smiling at him. How he missed him. He yearned for the return of the family consiglieri Roy Cohn. They were the people who made America Great.   Maybe he would even stand again in 2024…..

AT THE END OF THE DAY

This blog may seem chaotic but that was only because Jay H. Ell was trying to get into Trump’s mind.

TRUMP’S LAST HOPE - ATTORNEY GENERAL BARR

America, since the beginning of July, has been in a Trumpian dystopian whirlwind. Everyday evidenced one or two major news stories that would have, in a different age, dominated the news cycle for months. The Supreme Court dissed the Trumpian and Barr contention that the POTUS could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue in New York in the judgement that his financial records could be subpoenaed. They were apparently not cowered by the earlier Trump tweet hurricane that followed their negation of his order to expel the eight hundred thousand Latino adults that had been brought to America by their parents and their ruling that members of the LGBT community could not be discriminated against by their employers. Lieutenant Vindman, who gave evidence at the Trump impeachment hearing, resigned from the army citing Trump’s bullying and retaliation. Then there was the bombshell of the tell all expose by his niece that chronicled his life long sociopathic behavior that prior to being on the market is already the  number one best seller.  On top of all this was his ever worsening poll numbers.

 In addition the news was dominated by his gross ignorance, incompetence bordering on criminality of the management of Covid 19. Six months into the pandemic crisis the country recorded its highest daily number of cases, - seventy thousand. The number of victims in the United States exceed three and a quarter million and deaths are up to a hundred and thirty six thousand. It is not forgotten that less than six months ago Trump said there were only fifteen cases and soon there would be none. He is still in total denial blaming the high numbers on increased testing. He is more and more in open dispute with the chief government expert on the virus, Dr. Fauci. The latter is trusted by close on seventy percent of the country while less than thirty percent approve Trump’s handling of the epidemic. Trump looks about to make another major blunder by axing his leading trusted voice on the pandemic.

Trump has only one last hope and that was Attorney General William Barr. Barr has always tried to create a distance between himself and the President. Ostensibly he and the President are at odds over the latter’s sensational decision to commute Roger Stone’s jail sentence. But the bottom line is to date Barr has been the agent putting into effect Trump’s Orwellian world and giving his daily drivel some reality. Barr has also spent nearly two years planning to reverse history in line with the Trumpian narrative.

 Barr’s power is illustrated by just one quote from someone who is right in the mix, Lev Parnas, Rudi Giuliani’s indicted associate.  Parnas is the insider who produced video confirmation of Trump and Giuliani working on a plan to obtain dirt on Biden from the Ukrainians. Parnas then stated in a TV interview that no one was scared of Trump but since Barr was appointed as head of the Justice Department he had gained inordinate power.

CONSIGLIERI BARR

The attempt by Trump’s consiglieri Barr to discharge Michael Flynn before his sentencing was appealed by presiding Judge Sullivan to be heard by the full bench of the Federal Appeal Court. That blatant effort to subvert the rule of law preceded Trump commuting the sentence of his life long co conspirator Roger Stone in what was on its face a bribe in return for not ratting on him. Stone admitted to journalist Howard Fineman that he expected to be commuted for resisting the heavy pressure to spill the beans. Stone was the conduit between the Trump campaign and Wikileaks. Attorney General Barr had previously arbitrarily withdrawn the Prosectors’ sentencing recommendation on Stone and replaced it with a more lenient one of his own. 

The head of the Justice Department was yet again the center of a Trump controversy when he gave the order to disperse a lawful gathering in Washington to allow Trump to have a photo op at a church. Barr was involved in one further initiative in Trump’s interests at the end of the week of the tenth of July and that was the replacement of the Federal Attorney General of Eastern New York who was in the process of investigations into Trump related crimes. 

THE BARR AND TRUMP GRAND PLAN

Trump is behind in the polls by double digits and respected political commentators are forecasting not only a blue wave but a blue tsunami. Biden is infuriating Trump by not rising to his baiting as he needs the responses to feed off. Obama’s former Vice President has preempted Trump by providing a detailed plan with numbers as to how he is going to get America to work again. 

However Trump has one more card to play and that is to smear Biden and trash him and Obama. Significantly he has the aid of William Barr who can act with the full power of the Department of Justice. The plan is simply to “prove” that the “Russian hoax” was a conspiracy cooked up by Biden’s and Obama’s dark state. Barr is currently conducting a criminal investigation into what lead to the instigation of the Mueller investigation. He is also scouting the world to obtain data on Biden and his son’s Ukrainian involvement. Then he, with the aid of Rudi Giuliani,  could go on to “prove” that Biden was involved in corruption in Ukraine thereby exposing the Ukrainian hoax. 

To illustrate Jay H. Ell’s point this is the Trump tweet that followed his nakedly corrupt unprecedented Presidential commutation of Roger Stone’s Jail sentence:

Roger Stone was targeted by an illegal Witch Hunt that never should have taken place. It is the other side that are criminals, including Biden and Obama, who spied on my campaign - AND GOT CAUGHT!

For those who have short memories Barr at a Senate hearing claimed that the Trump Campaign had been spied upon.

WILLIAM PELHAM BARR - ATTORNEY GENERAL UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Barr had been Attorney General to George HW Bush and had been instrumental in a number of decisions which raised eyebrows at the time. They were not enough however to draw undue attention. In case there is any question as to his integrity - he has none. To illustrate the point succinctly he viciously attacked the Clinton administration for their criticism of Kenneth Starr’s probe into the Whitewater affair which then morphed into the Lewinsky scandal. Barr claimed that it had, “…the improper purpose of influencing and impending an ongoing criminal investigation and intimidating possible jurors, witnesses and even investigators”. Barr hypocritically criticized the Mueller investigation and passed on the almost daily criticism and vicious onslaughts Trump had on Mueller’s probe. So much for the alleged integrity of Barr.

All his supporters from the previous Departments of Justice had placed much hope in the fact that he was an “institutionalist”. However the claim that he is merely someone who believes in absolute power in the Presidency, per se, is all so much hooey. He did not punt this concept in the eight years President Obama was in Office. He had ample opportunity to do so as Obama was attacked again and again for executive over reach. It will be interesting to know if he believes that Biden could also shoot someone in his Delaware basement and not be investigated or prosecuted. 

BARR JOINS TEAM TRUMP AND IMMEDIATELY ASSUMES THE POTUS IS A KING

It didn’t take long for Barr to stamp his disdain of the Legislative Branch of government. He instructed members of the Administration not to pitch up to hearings and withheld documents and the like. The House of Representatives took the rare decision to hold him in contempt of Congress in frustration to his scant disregard for America’s tricameral constitutional system of government. To this day to get him to pitch up is a rare feat. He is scheduled to be at a Congressional Hearing at the end of the month in answer to a request weeks ago. There is little doubt that Trump’s instructions to all and sundry not to respond to subpoenas, provide documents or cooperate with the Legislature was with the backing of his head of his Justice Department.

BARR BEGINS HIS JOB TO PROVE TRUMP’S NARRATIVE OF A DEEP STATE.

Barr began the long haul in rehabilitating the Trump narrative that he was a victim of the Deep State and that the Russian investigation was a hoax. He put the Mueller report in mothballs for a month  and then he misinterpreted it to exonerate the POTUS. Mueller the consumate public servant made a rare public response to Barr’s willful distortion of his report, maintaining that he, Mueller, had purposefully provided an executive summary to present to the public and that his report had been misrepresented,  

According to the New York Times the subsequent redacted Mueller report axed three important components of the nearly five hundred page investigation. Barr left out, that Mueller listed that Trump had several motives to obstruct justice, that the report twice indicated that there was knowing and complicit behavior between the Trump campaign and the Russians and that Trump could be subject to indictment after leaving office. The most heinous of Barr’s pronouncements was that Trump was cleared in full by the Mueller investigation. Barr’s efforts in relation to the report were castigated by Bush appointed Federal Judge Walton who was concerned that Barr had made a calculated effort to distort public opinion to favor Trump. 

From then it was systems all go for Barr’s objective to purge the world of the Russian hoax. He has appointed a prosecutor to investigate the origins of the investigation and why it took place at all. His long held opinion was that there was no basis for the probe and that fact is the argument for his intervention in the prosecution of those who were shown, by Mueller, to have broken the law

BARR INTERVENES IN TRIALS ARISING FROM MUELLER’S RUSSIAN HOAX INVESTIGATION

Ironically Barr’s first attempt was to undermine the conviction of Michael Cohen. In that indictment the prosecution had alleged that Cohen had acted under instructions from an unnamed individual that was obviously Trump. Then Barr following Trump tweets that his mate Roger Stone was the object of a miscarriage of justice withdrew the career prosecutors recommendations for sentencing Stone. This resulted in the resignation from the case of the prosecutors who had conducted the trial. Two thousand former Department of Justice employees called for Barr’s resignation while the one thousand members of the Federal Justice Association called a meeting to discuss the problem of Barr and Trump’s interference in politically sensitive cases. 

In spite of the fact that Barr criticized Trump for his “interference” he made the stunning decision to withdraw charges against Michael Flynn who had twice pled guilty and was awaiting sentence. Judge Sullivan has appealed the ruling from a higher court that he should go ahead and discharge Flynn after he had received a voluminous opinion from a former Federal Judge that the Justice department were acting politically in this matter.

Jay H. Ell believes it is only a matter of time before his former campaign manager Paul Manafort is pardoned. Currently he has been released from prison presumably because of Trump’s newly found awareness of the Covid risk in prison.

THE UKRAINIAN HOAX

Barr’s has an undoubted skill of seemingly being off stage but Trump put him front and center in his infamous phone call to the Ukrainian President Zelensky where he insisted on a quid pro quo for the aid that Congress had voted to Ukraine for defense against the Russian invasion. Trump told Zelensky to liase with Barr or Rudi Giuliani his personal lawyer. In fact Barr has been careering around the world presumably to sort out both hoaxes and gain dope on the Bidens. 

Lindsey Graham made a revealing statement in that regard at the beginning of the year. He stated that he had learned that Barr was obtaining information from Rudi Giuliani on Ukraine. Barr apparently had created a process whereby Rudy’s information could be verified. Giuliani had long boasted that he had the “dope” on Joe Biden and his son Hunter. 

BARR KNOCKS OUT PROSECUTORS THAT WERE INVESTIGATING TRUMP AND HIS ASSOCIATES INCLUDING GIULIANI.

In quick succession Barr has removed the three Federal  prosecutors that were involved in investigations into Trump Incorporated’s corruption. These were the attorney generals of Southern and Eastern New York and the District of Columbia. One of those, Geoffrey Berman, testified before Congress that Barr forced him out. He claimed that Barr announced that he, Berman, had resigned when he had done nothing of the sort in spite of Barr’s pressure and threats. Ultimately Barr when confronted by Berman fired him maintaining it was on Trump’s instructions. 

MUELLER COMES OUT FROM THE COLD AND CHIMES IN

To add to Trump’s woes and Barr’s receding credibility the highly respected Special Counsel Bob Mueller made another rare damning public statement following the commuting of Roger Stone’s prison sentence. He stated inter alia:

“The work of the special counsel’s office - its report, indictments, guilty pleas and convictions - should speak for itself. But I feel compelled to respond both to the broad claims that our investigation was illegitimate and our motives were improper, and to the specific claims that Roger Stone was a victim of our office. The Russia investigation was of paramount importance. Stone was prosecuted and convicted because he committed federal crimes. He remains a convicted felon and rightly so.

The Russia’s action was a threat to American Democracy. It was critical that they be investigated and understood. By late 2016 the FBI had evidence that the Russians had signaled to a Trump advisor that they could assist the campaign through the anonymous release of information damaging to the Democratic candidate……we now have a detailed picture of Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. The special counsel’s office identified two principal operations directed at our election; hacking and dumping Clinton emails, and an online social media campaign to disparage the Democratic candidate…..”

The highly respected Mueller’s unexpected intervention into the Barr and Trump conspiracy to rewrite history has dented the latters’ credibility even further

AT THE END OF THE DAY

There is little doubt that the plan to totally trash the Russian investigation and exonerate all its participants is well under way. Mueller, Attorney Berman and Judge Sullivan are putting up stout opposition to that scenario and it is all not going as well as planned. Next on the agenda is to move onto obliterating the Ukrainian hoax. The “evidence” that Giuliani produces would, under Barr’s imprimatur, implicate the Bidens as being as big a crooks as the Clintons were. Trump could then once again rise Phoenix like and once again promise to drain the swamp!

Barr is in a predicament himself as the word is out that he counseled Trump not to commute Stone as this was a righteous prosecution. How he comes to that conclusion G-D knows as Stone is central to the Russian hoax. Barr should resign especially if the Justice department revolts as he reportedly said it would. But no - one is expecting that.

Jay H. Ell is uncertain whether “exposing" whatever Biden has allegedly done will change anyones mind as they are sick of Trump and there is no mystery as to incompetence and corruption.  Society is preoccupied with the escalating pandemic where only one third polled approve of Trump’s management. The situation can only get worse.

TRUMP AND BIDEN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY

Trump’s principle objective on the Independence Day weekend was to divert attention from the coronavirus pandemic and the fact that Russia had put a bounty on American soldiers in Afghanistan. In that he succeeded. Whether spouting his unhinged lunacy about the Confederacy was any better for his Presidential prospects than claiming that the virus was conquered and that he doesn’t read his security briefings remains to be seen. So far his Hail Mary move does not seem to have provided him any salvation.

The Fourth of July, the day that Jefferson published his aspirations for the new Republic, is traditionally the occasion that the POTUS announces his agenda on uniting the nation and advancing the vision of the Declaration of Independence. The Forty - fifth President Donald J. Trump punted his interpretation of the document in an oblique fashion. He inferred that the Founding Fathers were totally correct in limiting “equality” to white men.Trump’s narrative jarred with the majority of Americans coming to terms with its racism, brutality and colonialism towards the African Americans and native Americans. This national awareness recognized that those who expressed their sexuality in a different fashion were also “created equal”.  Trump with his demagoguery denied the fact that America, in Martin Luther King’s words, were nudging the arc of history towards the Founding Fathers’ vision, not his own. 

As Donald Trump’s disconnect with reality widens the question in the Biden and Democratic camp is what should their response be and how should they present their agenda, ever mindful that Trump has the microphone and will seize on the remotest perceived weakness. Bereft of his own ideas the POTUS relies on distorting his opposition to be the danger to America that he in fact represents. 

To date Trump has found that the wily Biden is playing The Donald like Mohammed Ali played his opponents in “rope a dope” fashion. Biden is emulating the canny prize fighter who danced around teasing and barely countering his frustrated challenger as the latter lashed out in frustration. While the World Boxing Champion just bobbed and weaved and bounced off the ropes, Biden just sits in his basement periodically exiting to lay a wreath or conduct a virtual town hall. He punctuates these appearances by making dignified presidential like statements contrasting himself with the Ignorant, narcissistic, mendacious  President, thereby reminding America that they were Great till this buffoon arrived on the scene. 

So what are Donald and Joe facing and how are they reacting on the two hundred and forty - fourth year since the Declaration of Independence?

DONALD TRUMP ON THE FOURTH OF JULY WEEKEND

The POTUS on the weekend of the celebration of Independence Day declared mission accomplished and victory for the first four years of “Making America Great Again”. While foreign leaders planned their strategy for a world bereft of  American leadership and their secretaries of state placed travel bans on Americans visiting their countries, Donald, in front of Jefferson, Lincoln, Washington and Teddy Roosevelt’s gigantic effigies, inferred that the message of those four Presidential giants had been misunderstood. The Democrats’ interpretation was a “hoax” as the Founders got it right when they didn’t include the black man, the indigenous American and all women.

While his health care experts begged the rest of America to stay home on this hallowed holiday cautioning that if they ventured out they should socially distance and wear masks, Trump held two great big jamborees doing the opposite. Trump’s massive cook out on the WhiteHouse lawns on The Fourth was obscene in the light of the over a hundred and thirty thousand that have died under his watch. He pointedly ignored the fact that his eldest son’s significant other had contracted coronavirus as had his Secretary of Housing at his damp squid indoor rally a few weeks ago. That gathering had been held in Tulsa Oklahoma at a time which was particularly sensitive to African American history. At Mount Rushmore he was doing more of the same with close on eight thousand people, maskless and sitting on top of one another in sacred Native American territory in South Dakota. 

On both days America suffered a record number of positive corona virus cases - over  fifty thousand. He obviously was in denial that nearly eighty percent of those victims were now in red states. He had been warned that the virus could mutate from blue to red. But as far as Trump was concerned the pandemic was over, the curve flattened and all that was happening was that too many tests were being performed. So while the hospitals, ICCU’s, and ventilators were at or near full capacity in his red states of Florida, Texas, Arkansas, Georgia, Alabama and the like he organized fly overs and bands playing lustily to celebrate his Great America. He left the Governors of those States who had heeded his advice not to shut down or to open early, to stew in their own juice. 

The Commander in Chief was celebrating a return to the Great America that he envisaged. While America in general was coming to terms with the fact that  the Confederate figures who had fought to retain slavery and who had revolted against the then Federal Government were not “heroes” but traitors, even if they were part of American history Trump was venerating them as THE Founders of the America that he wanted to “Make Great Again”. 

TRUMP’S HOLIDAY MESSAGES

Finding it increasingly more difficult to smear his opponent Trump went for all who made up his opposition. They were turning his world upside down. At Mount Rushmore he warned against “far left fascism that was involved in a merciless campaign to wipe out our history, defame our heroes erase our values and indoctrinate our children”. The next day at the WhiteHouse he underlined what the faithful were up against, “ … the radical left, the Marxists, the anarchists, the agitators, the looters and the people…. who have absolutely no clue what they were doing”.

He brought to the consciousness once again that he longed to return to the old Confederacy. While the American world was once and for all dumping any remnant of the pro slave regime, even with a bipartisan motion to rename army bases with Confederate connections, he railed on went on and on about the “real Americans”. This at a time when the closest institution to this culture, NASCAR racing, banned the flag from its tracks and cars - which of cause Trump had condemned. All of this was over the top as more of the institutions and corporations tried to correct their discriminatory past towards minorities including the indigenous Americans. Finally sports teams were lining up to remove the “Red Indian” connotations to their names. A plea that had been disregarded for ages inspite of entreaties by the native Americans. 

TRUMP’S STRATEGY ON INDEPENDENCE DAY

In his messages he ignored the pandemic which was front and central on everyone’s mind in the hope that a cure and a vaccine will bail him out by November. Inexplicably he is narrowing his base by this throwback to the Confederacy. Central to his chances he believes is to suppress the vote,  In this effort he is aided and abetted by the GOP legislators who don’t need a massive turnout either. Then there is the hope that the economy as opposed to the stock market, which even he now knows his base are not reliant on, will miraculously come back. And that is it. The re election policy ls really that thin. 

What the POTUS has to be praying for, because his finances are the only topic that could turn him religious, is that the Supreme Court will not allow the release of his taxes. He has to be holding his breath for the reaction to his niece’s revelation on his life, “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man”, which is due out on July 14. It is already the number one best seller on Amazon books surpassing the other public relations disaster by his former National Security Advisor John Bolton.

Trump has William Barr running cover for him in the Courts axing prosecutors who are involved in exposing his involvement with Russia and Ukraine, his finances and a host of other activities. Also there is the suggestion that those who were involved in “The Russian Hoax” may be prosecuted - So What! Whatever happens on that front is not going to change one voter’s mind to pull the lever for him. 

All in all the strategy is two fold: Firstly, denial of any subject that adversely impacts on him, Secondly standing around hoping that lightning will strike twice in the same place again as it did in 2016. Incidentally if he had any insight he would wish that the Supreme Court would ignore his plea to end Obamacare.

BIDEN’S STRATEGY ON INDEPENDENCE DAY

In a video Joe Biden exuded calm, dignity and vision. He referred back to the ideals of the Founding Fathers while acknowledging their shortfalls. He argued, “We have a chance to rip out the roots of systemic racism. We have a chance to live up to the words that founded this nation”. Alluding to the Foundational document, he reflected that the words, “All men are created equal have gnawed at our conscience and pulled us towards justice”.

In contrast to Trump flouting science and risking spreading the virus by his two weekend extravaganzas Biden stated that he would follow Public Health guidelines and listen to science, in the management of the pandemic. He also placed the blame on Trump for throwing the country off course, arguing that ,”He finds new ways to tarnish our democracy”. Biden undertook to deal with the economy, health care and fairness in society, leaving his comfort zone to state that his Administration would be transformative.

So Biden is doing what he has to - namely leave it to Trump to traipse around the country with his stale message while exacerbating the growth of the  pandemic with its economic consequences. He quietly reassured the nation while offering the sane alternative to the current mayhem. 

All he has to make sure that he cannot credibly be targeted as a “Socialist”. While the Party’s left wing have had their successes the Democratic electorate have made it abundantly clear that they don’t want any obstruction to the removal of Trump. Also he needs to not only announce a Vice Presidential candidate but his cabinet as well. He has a well of talent and never before has the opposition been so united to rid America of Mary Trump’s uncle. 

AT THE END OF THE DAY

At the end of the day the Trump enablers in Congress need to let society know that they can no longer support Trump’s bigotry and bizarre foreign policy. They are sunk anyway so they may as well emerge with some tattered integrity.  Maybe they should have to attend live readings of the two current best sellers…

After the weekend Trump tweeted  - LONE WARRIOR

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