Diapers And Despair

Real wages have been dropping for decades while eighty percent of the wealth of this nation has floated up into the hands of the wealthiest two percent of our citizens. Furthermore, the loss of manufacturing jobs that required only a high school education makes it tempting to put blue collar workers on the endangered species list. Add to this the Republican Party selling fear and loathing and obstructing all of the Democratic Party's* efforts to get us out of Bush's recession and it is not surprising that the result is the elevation of people who would be laughed at in saner times. The problem is that Donald Trump and Stephen Bannon are far too destructive to be funny. But that is the whole point if you are a Trump chump. “Burn it down,” they shout. “Burn it all down!” There is no reasoning with hard core Trump supporters; facts and logic cannot penetrate the fog of despair or the wall of anger they have erected! There is a reason why we often use mad an anger interchangeably. Figuratively speaking the Trump chumps are rioters burning down their own neighborhoods and destroying what little they have in protest over what they feel has been taken away from them. “That'l show 'em, -- those snooty billionaires, corrupt politicians, and know it all intellectuals.”

Most Republican politicians know we have never had a President who so boldly flouts his conflicts of interests, his ignorance and his incompetence. Most Republican Politicians know that Donald J. Trump is so unsuited for the office that he presents a serious danger to our country. Unfortunately Senators such as Flake, Corker, and McCain who will publicly criticize Trump are the rare exceptions. Most Republican politicians quake in fear over the 30% of the voters who are nihilistic Trump chumps and now control the Republican Party. In cowing to those base supporters, the Republican politicians are putting their careers ahead of the best interests of this country, and in doing so they can no longer be called “public servants.”

What has brought all of this to mind is House Intelligence Committee Chairman Diaper Devin Nunes' (R-Calif.) recent announcement of a joint probe by his panel and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee into the uranium deal that Senator Grassley is also looking into. How absurd this probe is can be seen by the fact that “at a news conference, Nunes grew testy as multiple reporters asked him how his role in the probe jibes with his pledge earlier this year to step aside from his panel’s investigation into Russian interference.” Furthermore, as Mother Jones also reported, Dianne Feinstein and other Democratic members Judiciary Committee have finally had enough of what they rightly consider the “GOP efforts to pursue matters Democrats see as gambits to distract or provide cover for the Trump administration.” The straw dog that finally broke the camel's back as far as Dianne Feinstein is concerned is Grassley's focus “on inquiries into matters such as the sale of a uranium company to Russians while Clinton was secretary of state, and allegations that the Justice Department soft-pedaled its Clinton probe.” Like most of the public, Senator Feinstein obviously thinks the real issue is Russia's interference in our election. It should also be pointed out that Snopes found the allegations about Hillary Clinton and the sale of a Uranium company to Russia to be false.

Another indication of how much the Republicans are trying to hinder any investigation of Trump or his campaign is the case of Barbara Ledeen. “Barbara Ledeen, a longtime conservative activist who works for the Republican senator Chuck Grassley on the Senate judiciary committee – which is now investigating alleged links between the Trump campaign and Russia” decided in 2015 to launch her own investigation into Clinton’s use of the server. At the time, she was a staffer on the Senate judiciary committee.

“She sought out the help of an unnamed defense contractor and also turned to Newt Gingrich, the former Republican speaker of the House, for help. According to the FBI notes, Gingrich 'wanted to speak to others about the project' and asked Judicial Watch, the conservative activist group, for financial assistance.

Judicial Watch allegedly turned to another, unnamed, contractor who was familiar with the 'deep web and dark web', according to the FBI files. The parties were concerned about what they would do if they came across any emails that contained classified information. According to the FBI investigation, the project was later halted.”

Barbara Ledeen is still on Senator Grassley's staff although he claims she is no longer involved in the committee's Russia investigation.

It is difficult not to despair over an entire political party, the Republican Party, acting like a diaper covering Trump's ass, but that is where we are. Fortunately, we still have the Mueller investigation. We can also work hard to replace many of the soiled diapers during the elections of 2018. Perhaps I am being too optimistic but I disagree with people who say that a huge loss in 2018 will not cause the Republicans to impeach Trump. If the Republicans see the threat of losing general elections by supporting Trump to be at least as great as the threat of losing primary elections by impeaching Trump there are bound to be Republicans of conscience who will do the right thing. A good example of this is Watergate. The impeachment of Richard Nixon was a no win situation for all Republicans. Since they had nothing to lose by doing the right thing they did the right thing!


*I hate to get Trumpian about this but I have heard one too many Republican moron call the Democratic Party the Democrat Party. I guess the tag line for that should be Re-pube Party speak!