Trumpian sexual assault, nepotism and financial self -interest

This echo editorial published in the Lexington Kentucky Herald Leader newspaper was published in February 2020, but guess what?

This opinion is as meaningful and impactful today as it was when the newspaper first published the opinion! Senator Mitch McConnell and Senator Rand Paul are embarrassments to Americans and to Kentucky voters.  

Evil Trumpziism!

From Kentucky- Could there be anything more embarrassing and depressing than being from Kentucky? First, the senior Senator Mitch McConnell has shred democracy and decency to tatters by announcing a political whitewash of the most corrupt president in U.S. history, then followed it through in an impeachment trial and Republican debacle that would make the Founders weep.

Then there’s the (Maine Writer nurses opinion "asshole") junior Sen. Rand Paul. Despite the fact that every human knows how the impeachment trial would turn out, Asshole Paul spent the last day of the Senate’s impeachment trial, bouncing around like a demented toddler on the Senate floor. 

Spoiled brat. Rand Paul  is upset because SCOTUS Chief Justice John Roberts wouldn’t read his question that identified the whistleblower. So,  Asshole Paul gave the whistleblower’s name, but then denying (aka "lying!") about it in the elevated nanny nanny boo boo oratory that has made him famous: "They made a big mistake not allowing my question,” Paul said, according to Politico.

It’s nonsense to expect us to believe that Donald Trump wouldn’t hold military aid to investigate one of his political rivals. 

It’s as Trumpian as sexual assault, nepotism and financial self-dealing. What’s not clear is why Paul believes that it’s in the nation’s or Kentucky’s best interest for him to embarrass himself and his constituents with this whistleblower nonsense. Can’t he just make up some ridiculous excuses for why he’s voting to acquit like most of the other Republicans?

McConnell venality is utterly depressing. In fact, he didn’t want witnesses, even in the light of new allegations from John Bolton (John Bolton! To think for a few days our hopes for our nation depended on that warmonger) and he didn’t get them. McConnell wanted a quick trial, he sort of got it. He must be feeling as good as he did the day Neil Gorsuch was confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court. McConnell, the man who ensured Gorsuch by blocking Obama’s rightful pick, who has never chosen country above the GOP, actually had the audacity to say Wednesday: “We simply cannot let factional fevers break our institutions.” Thank you, at least, to Sen. Mitt Romney, for showing some guts and principles and voting no with this great line: “Were I to ignore the evidence that has been presented, and disregard what I believe my oath and the Constitution demands of me for the sake of a partisan end, it would, I fear, expose my character to history’s rebuke and the censure of my own conscience.” It is curious that the Republican Senate seems to be assuming that a Democrat will never be elected to the White House again so that person can experience a presidency with immense power almost unchecked by Congress. Have they never heard of “turnabout is fair play?” 

Lock Trump Up!

But, given the mayhem of the Iowa caucus, maybe Republicans have a point. That this all has happened on either side of the State of the Union speech is the cherry on the cake for Republicans like McConnell, who are justified in (hypocritically) gloating alongside Trump.  #CrazyisAsCrazyDoes #CIACD

Yes, yes, Nancy Pelosi tore up Trump’s bogus #SOTU speech, but her theater really cannot hold a candle to awarding Rush Limbaugh, that racist gasbag, the Medal of Freedom in the middle of his speech? Therefore, if you believe that immigrant children shouldn’t be put in cages or that presidents shouldn’t pay off strippers, or that your state’s duly elected senators should uphold federal law and the barest minimum of dignity, it’s been a rough week. It’s amazing to think of the number of people willing to aid and abet and support Trump in the midst of his truly overwhelming crimes, and that Mitch and Rand will probably cruise to reelection in 2020 and 2022. It’s no wonder Kentucky’s voter turnout rarely tops 50 percent. But, I also know there are many, many people who believe in what we used to call democracy, believe in protecting our most vulnerable citizens, our air, our water, our most basic freedoms. Yes, those who understand how government works are depressed; yes, you’re embarrassed by Asshole Rand Paul and Mitch McConnell. 

But, all you can do is get busy. Register to vote! Talk to more people about dangerous right wing extremism. You know what to do.  #VoteBlue

Hillary Clinton has a brilliantly colored logo: She now can charge Republicans royalties

There's a lot of buzz about Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign logo. Regardless of how people feel about the campaign logo, the fact is, the image is copyrighted.  

In my opinion, Mrs Clinton's name is a trademark.  

In as much as she has branded her name, in the "H" logo, Mrs. Clinton has earned the right to claim her name, like any other celebrity's name, as her copyright. 

Consequently, every time Republicans use her name, they owe her royalty payments. That's what I think.

Democrats could accuse the Republican candidates of copyright infringement when they obsess about Hillary Clinton's name.  

It's totally boring to hear the line up of male candidates using Hillary Clinton's name in vain. At the very least, it's very ungentlemanly and plagiarism, at worst.

Paying royalties, every time Hillary Clinton's name is mentioned by a GOP candidate, will deter Republicans from their one note messaging, while they're campaigning for the presidential nomination (without ideas to promote).

Frankly, Mrs. Clinton can raise money for her political campaign by charging royalty fees to Republicans who use her name.  Maybe, by earning money from her copyright name, Mrs. Clinton can challenge the line up of male Republican presidential candidates, to talk about ideas, rather than just name dropping.  

I say, Mrs. Clinton's campaign logo is a copyright and Republicans must pay up every time they use her name.  I suspect a good lawyer could make this case, very effectively.  

Let me think about this. Copyright infringement charges against Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, Chris Christie, Lindsey Graham and Mike Huckabee would create quite a campaign chest for all Democrats....because, after all, Hillary might consider sharing the wealth.  Of course, the alternative to a copyright infringement for use of Hillary Clinton's name is for the Republicans to talk about their no cost, worthless, ideas.  Yawn.

Repubicans - A Political Party that Eats its Young

Washington Post is describing a "Gotham Theory" about the future of the Republican Party. In other words, the confusion and disorganization within the Republican ranks is so profuse, it's best to just stand back and let the entire organization implode, like razing a building to create room for new development.

This theory is too simplistic, because the potentially "new and improved" Republican party, if such a creation is possible, needs to take a course in how democracy works. Understanding the Meaning of Majority Rules is course 101.

My question is this. How does a group of supposedly college educated politicians allow their political party to find itself so confused and disorganized? A political party that can't manage it's message or participate in our American democratic process without causing chaos isn't qualified to hold any status in our nation's democracy. Senator Harry Reid is correct when he described the Republicans who supported the stupid budget sequester, the government shutdown or putting America on the brink of defaulting on our nation's debt as anarchists.  In any other political system, the Tea-Party fringe of right wing extremists who hide beneath the shroud of the Republican Party would be tried for sedition and hanged.

The Washington Post predicts a big showdown looming for the control of the Republican Party in the 2016 presidential election. Although I'm obviously not a soothsayer, I disagree with The Washington Post writer Chris Cillizza. Republicans who care about America, the patriotic people who're intelligent enough to understand how democracy works, wouldn't want to be associated with the ignorant Tea Party zealots between now and 2016. 

An up and coming politician wouldn't want to associate with a political party that eats its young. I suspect Governor Christie and other bright Republicans will disassociate themselves with their party and reorganize as a third party.  Given the recent NBC New American Center party, this potential for a middle of the road party has more opportunity to win elections.  

Meanwhile, the Tea Party and its followers will go down in history as a group of Ku Klux Klan species survivors who decided to walk in the daylight without hoods. They're haunting and frightening specters of the past, who've come back to life as demons who represent racism, isolationism and McCarthyism.

Republicans must shed themselves of the toxic Tea Party poison before the 2016 election. Rand Paul, Ted Cruz,  Marco Rubio and their gang of bullies must leave the party. That's my op-ed response to The Washington Post.

Republican Leadership Line Up

Republican leadership has splintered into the absurd, the paradoxical, the hypocritical and the people who believe in fanciful thinking. 

If they weren't so dangerous, the line up might even be funny. 

 Unfortunately, they're a scary group; all of them must be voted off the "political island" of Congress, where they misuse their positions, to grandstand about right wing extremist causes.

Who are among this GOP line-up of of quasi leaders?

1.  Governor Mitt Romney - Believes 47 percent of Americans are fundamentally free loaders, who want the government to take care of them.  This absurd statement has no merit whatsoever.  It's an embarrassment to Romney and to people who work for a living.  Meanwhile, Romney built a mega fortune on the backs of these stereotyped free loaders, especially those who worked for his Father George Romney, Chairman of American Motors, in Detroit's automobile industry.  Without the working class, who helped build American Motors' fortune, Governor Romney's father might still be living in his birthplace, in Mexico, and Mitt might be trying to figure out how to get through the immigration wall in Arizona. This 47 percent remark was recorded, it was wrong minded and it is counter intuitive, because American workers are the most productive in the world, and Romney knows it.  American workers get more done per hour than anybody, other than the Norwegians.

Romney's 47 percent comments were hypocritical.  His wealth was created on the backs of the working class; but he marginalizes working class people who created his wealth.

2.  Congresswoman Michelle Bachman (R- Minnesota) - She's a Congresswoman who lives in the home  state of American Democratic Leaders (both Vice-Presidents) Hubert Humphrey (1911-1978) and Walter Mondale (she's quite an embarrassment to both men, I'm pretty sure).  But, beyond Bachman's ideological differences with the two statesmen, she's a woman who engages in fanciful thinking.  In other words, she makes things up.  During her failed bid to gain the 2012 Republican Presidential nomination, Bachman told the national media how she believed the HPV vaccine, an effective prevention against cervical cancer, is a cause of mental retardation.  This ridiculous conclusion is based entirely on Bachman's fanciful thinking and without any medical evidence whatsoever.  After criticizing Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R-Texas) for mandating a vaccine for school girls, Rep. Michele Bachmann added some scary charges: She claimed to have met a woman whose daughter suffered mental retardation from the vaccine, that it has "very dangerous consequences" and that it puts "little children's lives at risk."  This is ridiculous fanciful thinking was created so Bachman could capture headlines, but without any merit.

Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky -  This man is a master of paradox. Senator Paul knows the Republican Party is entering a "death spiral" if immigration reform is left undone, but he just won't vote for it, because he doesn't want to.  Paul's reason for not voting for the bipartisan immigration bill are completely nonsensical.  “Without some congressional authority and without border security first, I can’t support the final bill,” Paul said on CNN’s “State of  The Union.”   Maybe, Senator Paul wants to spend even more money to send Congress to police the nation's borders.  Let's remember, America has two international borders, let's not discriminate by only policing one of them.  Unfortunately, Senator Paul is blind to the expensive and enormous anti-immigration border security wall, erected in Arizona, more hideous than the Berlin Wall in Germany; neither does he experience the sadness of law abiding immigrant families, who deserve a path to citizenship, so they can be free of the ominous threat of deportation.

If Republicans, like Senator Paul, don't support the bipartisan immigration reform going through the Congress, the growing number of Hispanic voters will simply stop supporting the GOP. Classic paradox, yet Paul doesn't get it.  

Senator Marco Rubio, Republican from Florida - is the most hypocritical of all, because his family are Cuban refugees; but he won't lead his party out of  its "death spiral", anti immigration positions.  Rubio has no leadership skills. If Rubio were a leader,  he'd stop the GOP anti immigration rhetoric; rather, Rubio is an ethnic puppet for Republicans to dress up and show off in public, to seemingly display how (hypocritically) supportive they are of Hispanic voters.  Cuban voters might buy it, because of loyalty to one of their own, but Hispanic voters see through Rubio's hypocrisy.  Worse, he's ambitious and hypocritical.  

Pope Francis said hypocrites must be revealed.  “Be uncompromising against this spiritual illness (hypocrites). May the Lord not let us be hypocrites. Hypocrites don’t know the meaning of forgiveness, joy and the love of God," he said in a recent post on Twitter.

Republicans have no inspired leadership. Their self appointed leaders are partisan and ambitious zealots. 

Republicans like Party Chairman Reince Priebus must rebrand the party, absent the line up of hypocrites and fanciful thinkers, who pulled the party away from American working class values and ethical immigration policies.