Anyone who bases their judgment on facts knew they were lying from the start.  In fact their entire strategy is based on massive lying.  What am I talking about? Voting.  Republicans figured out a long time ago that their demographic (old, white, angry) is shrinking.  Historically, this is a relatively recent phenomenon, started when the GOP went nuts after Goldwater lost in ’64.  Ultra conservative voices began rising during that time, really more Libertarian and Bircher, and when Reagan beat Carter, the calcification of the party really set in.  From those days to today, the GOP has pushed the entire country farther and farther to the right, pushing everyone not white, not old, not nuts out of the tent.  Trump’s takeover of the party has completed the calcification, adding white supremacy as just another adjective to describe the base.

The GOP base is so demographically narrow that it simply cannot fairly win anymore.  As the country becomes more diverse, our population is moving away from the radicalism and obvious insanity that is now the party.  So, how can they win on a national scale?  It’s two pronged: by keeping the base continuously whipped up and raging about dark-skinned people, and, of course, by cheating.  A lot.

That cheating comes in the form of radical gerrymandering and voter suppression.  Gerrymandering is a fact of life and several cases have been consolidated at the SCOTUS, but, unless Roberts has a sudden fit of rationality, I don’t have much hope.  Voter suppression, though, is just as insidious; keeping Americans from being represented in the Congress, the very basis of our republic.  Voter ID laws have been pushed now for twenty years, based on the lie that there is massive voter fraud occurring during our elections (by dark skinned people) that simply doesn’t exist.  Trump used that same blatant lie to explain away him losing the popular vote in 2016 by 3 million votes.

One of the Republicans pushing this lie is Chris Kobach, a white nationalist (who won’t admit it) and former Kansas Secretary of State.  Kobach was behind faked voter fraud studies in Kansas, and pushed anti-Muslim policies as well as strict voter ID laws.  After he lost the election for governor in 2017, he became an advisor to Trump, bringing his radical ideology to the WH.  And it’s not good.  In 2017 he lead Trump’s bogus voter integrity committee that quietly folded in 2018 after it couldn’t find one shred of evidence of massive voter fraud and being stopped by the states in amassing private data about voters.

One of the tactics Kobach pushed to Trump was adding a citizenship question to the US Census questionnaire.  Sounds benign, right?  Hardly.  The question is specifically designed to scare people who may have members of the family who are not citizens, have a green card, or are undocumented.  Why?  To undercount these populations and disproportionally increase representation to the GOP base (old and white).  Seats in state houses and in the US House are at stake.  Trump and crew have been lying about the reason for adding this question from the very first moment.  Their problem though, is that they’ve now been caught lying to Congress about it.

It turns out that Kobach pushed the citizenship question to the Trump campaign in 2016, long before Wilbur Ross claimed it was introduced in early 2017.  Yesterday, Elijah Cummings, chair of the House Oversight and Reform committee, disclosed details of a closed door interview with Kobach last Monday where he revealed this new detail.  Now we know why Trump has desperately been trying to expand executive privilege over even those who don’t actually work for him, but who just talked to him.  That effort failed and the administration is caught now in yet another lie.

So, Kobach lied until last Monday.  Wilbur Ross lied and stonewalled the House, likely earning a contempt of Congress vote just like Bill Barr did for refusing to testify.  This episode is yet another page in the encyclopedia of lies told by this administration.  Hopefully we can use this lie to shut down another of the GOP’s efforts to win by cheating.

OK, so here’s how bad it is for the Koch brothers….they’re looking for Democrats to support.  That’s right folks, the Kochs hate Trump so badly and understand the damage he is doing to their agenda that they are rebranding Americans for Prosperity as non-partisan.  In previewing the shift at their annual conference earlier this year, Charles Koch said,

“This attitude of holding against others who have different beliefs is tearing our country apart.”

Translation – “We can no longer buy politicians who have sold their souls to Trumpland, so we’re retreating to the middle until we can get rid of Trump and have more successful purchases of politicians.”

When the Kochs retreat, you know that Trump’s takeover is complete.  The conservative wing will have to shed themselves of the cancer that has metastasized in the WH themselves.  Until the invertebrates in Congress manage to stand up, their entire party will be strangled by His Orangeness.  Until that happens, the Kochs will be “non-partisan”.

Yesterday, world leaders gathered in Normandy to commemorate the 75th Anniversary of D-Day. As we’ve already discussed, Trump took the opportunity to make it all about him, including full on insulting of Robert Mueller and Nancy Pelosi on national television with the graves of heroes in the background.  No other politician would have even dreamed of doing that.

As part of the ceremony, world leaders who had gathered signed a proclamation that was intended to be an historic document.  What did Trump do?  I’ll give you one guess…

His Orangeness signed the proclamation at the TOP, when all others signed where you’re supposed to.  God help us until we can rid ourselves of this menace.

props to Sandridge

Today, at the burial site of 9,388 American heroes on a bluff overlooking Omaha Beach, Donald Trump read a speech clearly written by a staffer about the bravery of all those who lived and died on Normandy’s beaches on June 6, 1944 and thereafter.  The bar for Trump is now so low that if he gets through a speech without dropping his pants and wiggling Little Donald at the audience, it’s considered “a major success” and “very presidential”.  He was simply awful, intoning his speechwriter’s words in the cadence of that old Catholic priest droning through the liturgy, just trying to get through one more mass before he drops dead behind the altar and goes to claim that big reward in the sky.  The media gave him props; personally I was having to resist to not destroy my 58″ Samsung flatpanel with my 12 gauge.

The most disgusting event today, though, was Trump’s unbelievably insensitive behavior during this entire event.  From tweeting insults at Bette Midler last night to trashing Robert Mueller and Nancy Pelosi on Fox Noise during an interview ON THE SITE OF THE NORMANDY CEMETERY. Trump embarrassed all Americans, especially in context to his childish behavior and comments to Fox Noise on live television.

Once again, Trump makes the Americans looks like a band of idiots; he’s become a global embarrassment to all of us.

Since his first day infesting the WH, Trump has been trying to produce a militaristic super duper patriotic ceremony to celebrate…himself.  The Pentagon succeeded in shutting down his Soviet style military parade last year, but now he’s decided to co-opt the most American of American holidays and make it about himself.  The National Park Service has announced that, at Trump’s order, they are turning a traditional non-partisan event of American music and fireworks into an event centered on His Orangeness, including giving a speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial, and rearranging the entire holiday celebration to put himself in the middle of it.

My response to Trump trying to take over OUR HOLIDAY to make it about himself?  Fuck you.  I refuse to participate in any way, not even turning on my television for it.  Enough of this nonsense is enough.  He’s turned the entire US government into a reality television show starring him, his criminal cronies, and his entire fucking family.  I’m sick of it. Congress needs to stop this narcissistic asshole in his tracks, get him out of office, and then return our government to some level of normalcy.

For God’s sake, I want my country back from insanity and cheesy reality television.

In a shocking shift that is now appearing complete, the DOJ has morphed from law enforcement to protect the United States to DOP (Defense of the President) against the United States.  Starting under Jeff Sessions, and driven home under Bill Barr, the DOP has turned over 150 years of Constitutional law on its head.  Up until 2 years ago, the DOJ strictly interpreted the emoluments clause, even extending it beyond the president to others in the federal government from receiving ANY funds or gifts from a foreign government.  No more.  After several lawsuits were filed asserting that Trump receiving funds from foreign governments through his hotels and golf courses, his lawyers said that this is perfectly OK since those funds are received by his company in a “commercial” transaction.  They interpreted the emoluments clause as meaning direct payments to the president for actual action from the president; in other words, directly paid bribes.

The DOP has now adopted that very same position, turning 150 years of precedent on its head.  Now that the DOP is 100% Trumpland, along with the Senate, the courts are our only hope, but even that is now corrupted with the radical judges that Trump has succeeded in getting seated on the SCOTUS after McConnell stole a seat in 2016.  The result is that We the People are now completely exposed to Trump’s corruption.  The executive branch is broken; the DOP is corrupted and now representing Trump personally; the legislative branch is broken with the Senate in Trump’s pocket; the SCOTUS is corrupt with grossly unqualified judges political operatives sitting on the court.

What’s needed is nothing short of a complete overhaul of the laws, traditions, and statutes surrounding governance of all three branches of the federal government from campaign finance to ethics rules to term limits for EVERYONE.  Beto has just presented a plan for a constitutional amendment that limits house and senate members to 12 years, and SCOTUS judges to 18.  I would say that’s a good start.