Dear John,

I’m writing this open letter to you today because you’re the only mature adult in the US Senate representing my home state of Texas.  I’m not writing to Ted Cruz, our other senator, because he is exclusively a self serving, narcissistic shitbag whose only goal in life is to continuously run for president, because, well, he’s Ted Cruz, and he is all that matters – to Ted Cruz.

That out of the way, let’s get to the point – When are you going to get up off your fat partisan ass and do your goddam job?  Today, the President of the United States denied colluding with Vladimir Putin while colluding with Vladimir Putin on television in front of the entire world.  This spray painted, hair-weaved star of cheesy reality television actually took the side of Russia against every single US intelligence agency and even your own Senate intelligence report about their interference with our elections.  Our elections.  While lavishing praise upon this murderer, Trump actually called the United States foolish and took RUSSIA’S side, idiotically harping on his election victory over a year and a half ago, babbling incoherently about why the FBI didn’t get “the server”, and insulting everyone from Hillary Clinton to the Democratic Party to the Justice Department.  I was personally humiliated and actually fought off the urge to vomit as I endured, along with millions of other Americans, the spectacle of a US President making a complete ass of himself in front of the entire world while siding against the American people.

I’m over 60, so am old enough to have witnessed the catastrophes of the Viet Nam War that tore the country apart, Watergate that eventually destroyed the Nixon presidency, Iran Contra that damaged the Reagan presidency, the sex scandals that nearly took down the Clinton presidency, and the invasion of Iraq based on trumped up (no pun intended) evidence that crippled the Bush II presidency.  However, those disgraceful scandals pale in comparison to the slow motion train wreck of this administration.  Donald Trump governs the US government as if it’s a reality television show.  He actually spews silly nonsense on an hourly basis on Twitter insulting everyone from television personalities to allies to political foes.  He continuously repeats demonstrably false statements that damage our reputation among friend and foe alike.  His conduct has degraded our political discourse to the point where his followers feel it’s open season on everyone not like them.

And the real tragedy?  The invertebrates in Congress, including YOU, have enabled this shameful chapter of our history.  Up until today, you and others have dismissed his shameful behavior, apparently afraid to attract his Twitter wrath or the anger of your mouth-breathing base which keeps returning you to Do Nothingville, DC to actually do nothing.  Enough is enough.  Trump has gone from embarrassing, to dangerous, to now treasonous.  Get off your ass.  Impeach this son of a bitch before he burns down the planet.

Sincerely,

An Old Texan Sick of Your Bullshit

Today, Trump announced he is pushing the G7 to re-admit Russia to the group of allies.  Russia was expelled after Putin lead the military intervention in Ukraine and annexed Crimea in 2014.  Trump has already estranged the US from the G6 by imposing tariffs and poking the other countries in the eye.  Now, in a blatantly pro-Putin move, he has urged the group readmit Russia.  Just another outrage – it must by Friday.

The New Yorker has published a depressing piece by Evan Osnos, about how Trump has stupidly ceded global leadership and how China has rushed in to fill the vacuum.  Trump can very likely become our version of Gorbachev, who, you will recall, oversaw the unraveling of the Soviet Union into a loose amalgamation of oligarchies and totalitarian states dominated by Russia.  From the very first moment of his term, Trump has set about unraveling our country’s generations-old leadership position in the world, and China has gladly Hoovered up every opportunity to exercise its new found world position.
One notable of example of this phenomenon was the World Trade Organization conference in Marakesh last October, convened to update international trade rules.  We’ll let Osnos tell this sorry tale:

“The Trump Administration, which has been critical of the W.T.O., sent an official who delivered a speech and departed early. ‘For two days of meetings, there were no Americans,’ a former U.S. official told me. ‘And the Chinese were going into every session and chortling about how they were now guarantors of the trading system.’”

Trump continually boasts about “Making America Great Again”, and “Putting America First.”  The problem is that he simply doesn’t understand what that means and has made idiotic decisions that has diminished our country, and creating opportunities for other countries, especially China and Russia to jump into the breach.  Exiting the TPP was stupid.  Now American beef comes second to other beef producing countries like Australia.  Withdrawing from the Paris climate accords has damaged our reputation and stature throughout the world.  China is also negotiating to create the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, which will form a 16 country free trade zone.  The US is NOT one of the 16 countries.

The damage that Trump has inflicted and continues to inflict will be multi-generational.  Some of the damage may never be repaired.  The US’s unilateral surrender of its prominent position as world leader has emboldened other countries to take over that prominence.  Protectionism and isolation never works, especially in the new, interconnected global market.

Trump has ranted and raved about North Korea and “Little Rocketman” this year, has severely criticized China for not being tougher, and for continuing to truck and ship fuel oil into the country.  Visibility to that practice and further sanctions have served to choke off fuel to the Hermit Kingdom.  For a while, North Korean ships were loading in Russia and delivering into the country.  When that was discovered, surely that would choke off Kim Jong Un’s oil and drive him to the negotiating table, right?  Not so fast.  It’s now come to light that Russia has been loading fuel oils in Russia and then…wait for it…transferring those fuels to North Korean ships on the high seas.  That’s a direct violation of the UN sanctions agreed to by all, including Russia, and now they’ve been caught red handed smuggling into North Korea.  Trump’s response?  Dead silence.  Not one tweet or threat has been made since the news hit the wires today.

Now what is his orangeness to do?  Does he criticize Putin for violating international sanctions risking disclosure of the Pee-Pee Tapes, or does he stay silent, confirming his fealty to Russia?  We’ve never, in the history of the US, had such a compromised and ignorant buffoon infesting the White House.

God help us.

Well, this is kinda fun.  The only damn thing that Congress can agree on is that Donald Trump cannot be trusted.

Congressional leaders have reached an agreement on sweeping sanctions legislation to punish Russia for its election meddling and aggression toward its neighbors, they said Saturday, defying the White House’s argument that President Trump needs flexibility to adjust the sanctions to fit his diplomatic initiatives with Moscow.

So here sits Donald Trump.  If he vetoes this sucker, that means that he’s in Putin’s pocket.  If he accepts it, Putin’s pocket is gonna get kinda tight around Trump’s patootie.

It’s not written in cement yet.

There are still hurdles to clear. Neither Speaker Paul D. Ryan nor Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, immediately issued statements on Saturday to give the agreements their blessing.

It will be fun watching those two bless one side or the other.

Ted Cruz refuses to say that Russia is our enemy or that Trump did anything wrong.

So you gotta wonder:  what does Trump have on Ted Cruz?  Do you think maybe Cruz’s dad really did kill Kennedy?