Why "I Can't Support Trump"

One Mr. Jim Sathe, of Idaho Falls, Idaho, says it so well.(click on picture for easier viewing).

And then there's the extortion attempt he made with Ukraine.

And the utter smashing of the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution.

Etc.

Happy Thanksgiving

One More Thing to be Thankful for This Year

The Trump/Ukraine Funding: A Timeline

(click picture for larger picture, easier reading)

See?

He did nothing wrong.

Entertainment Overnight: It's Been a While

Happy Veterans Day: Let's Start REALLY Honoring Them

So yes, first thing, absolutely, HAPPY VETERANS DAY. First and foremost.

But then, after that, let's start really, actually honoring them, as a nation.

Let's:

• End the war in Afghanistan. This is our 18th year there. We are gaining nothing. It is our longest war in the history of the nation.
• End perpetual war
• End the empire
• Bring more of our soldiers home from across the globe. 
• Let's stop creating new wars to send them off to

Check this out:

The United States still maintains nearly 800 military bases in more than 70 countries and territories abroad—from giant “Little Americas” to small radar facilities. Britain, France and Russia, by contrast, have about 30 foreign bases combined.

It's insane.



Let's bring all we can, home.

Conservative, Right Wing Republicans on this President

Herewith, I give you, as said above in the title, two Right Wing, very Conservative Republicans and what they have to say about this Republican Party President. First up, George Will.

George Will: No Republican Who Supports Trump Should be Re-elected

It's an excellent, I think even important column with lots of good to great information and points but, following here, I'll only post this one paragraph from the end:

In 13 months, all congressional Republicans who have not defended Congress by exercising “the constitutional rights of the place” should be defeated. If congressional Republicans continue their genuflections at Trump’s altar, the appropriate 2020 outcome will be a Republican thrashing so severe — losing the House, the Senate and the electoral votes of, say, Georgia, Arizona, North Carolina and even Texas — that even this party of slow-learning careerists might notice the hazards of tethering their careers to a downward-spiraling scofflaw.
Next up, as we go into the beginning of the public hearings from and in the House of Representatives on this President and possible impeachment this week, finally, keep this in mind, too.

Former GOP Sen. Chuck Hagel Says White House Officials Defying Subpoenas Are Obstructing Justice

And now, from very deeply Right Wing, Conservative, Republican Bill "I Usually Support All Republicans Blindly" Kristol:

Republican Should Challenge Trump in 2020

From earlier this year:

Manchester, N.H. — For the good of the country and the Republican party, Donald Trump has to be challenged from the right in 2020, Weekly Standard editor-at-large Bill Kristol told a friendly crowd of business executives and political insiders here Wednesday morning.

“I don’t know if a challenger would succeed. In my view, I think it’s important to have one just to force the debate,” Kristol said. “I think if Trump were to lose in 2020 it would allow for someone to step up and say, ‘Well, here’s a different way forward than just kind of trying to redo Trump over the next several years.’”
Kristol was the second prominent Never Trumper in as many months to appear at the Politics & Eggs event series, which puts political speakers in front of an audience of New England business leaders who tend to show up in charcoal suits, wearing name tags that flash impressive job titles. Senator Jeff Flake’s anti-Trump speech here at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics drew a standing ovation in April. Attacking Trump from the conservatarian right, Flake flirted with the idea of challenging Trump for the nomination in 2020. (Kristol, who rejects speculation that he might run himself, says he prefers to help find the right challenger, and thinks John Kasich is the most obvious and potentially formidable one.)

After that, let's please, please all keep in mind that it was this President, Donald J "The John" Trump who, this week, was penalized by a judge for--get this--taking 2 million dollars from a charity. And not just any charity, either. This was a charity for American Veterans.

The man given 493 million dollars from his father felt he needed to also take 2 million dollars from a charity for our Veterans.

To date, Republicans have expressed zero regret or remorse for this man.

Zero.

Finally today, I have to ask, in what bizarro world could or would it possibly be okay if a President of the United States were to ask the head of another, foreign nation to investigate any private U.S. citizen, let alone the son of one of his foremost political rivals in the coming national election?

Additional links:

FBI investigated how Trump's actions seemed to benefit Russia

Putin's Payout: 12 Ways Trump Has Supported Putin’s Foreign Policy Agenda

Supreme Court Lawyer Says Trump Will Be Impeached, Won't Even Be On 2020 Ballot

Trump makes history — First President to Never Reach 50% Approval Rating

Trump has More Than 2,500 Conflicts of Interest and Counting, Live Tracker by Watchdog Finds

A Scathing New Pentagon Report Blames Trump for the Return of ISIS in Syria and Iraq

Former Federal Prosecutors Call for Giuliani to Be Disbarred, Possibly Indicted

Quote of the Day -- On this President and Privilege and Much More

Seriously.

Quote of the Day -- Timely Edition

“Choose your leaders with wisdom and forethought.

To be led by a coward is to be controlled by all that the coward fears.

To be led by a fool is to be led by the opportunists who control the fool.

To be led by a thief is to offer up your most precious treasures to be stolen.

To be led by a liar is to ask to be told lies.

To be led by a tyrant is to sell yourself and those you love into slavery.”

― Octavia E. Butler, Parable of the Talents

Reason to Celebrate, Kansas City!

Kansas City, nearly unbelievably to me, anyway, given the coverage of our shootings and killings, didn't make an ugly list recently.

Murder map: Deadliest U.S. cities

Herewith, some highlights--

• Wichita, Kansas, 58. Stunningly tied here with MIAMI, FLORIDA.
• Topeka, tied at the 50 spot with Columbus, OH.
• Dallas 49. Houston, 47.
• Tulsa at 30, tied with Fort Wayne, IN.
• Oakland, CA at 27.
• Atlanta, GA 23.
• Peoria, IL 18.
• Little Rock, AR, 17.
• Chicago, 16.
• Washington, DC at 10.
• Memphis, 6.
• New Orleans at 4.
• Detroit at 3. Not the worst.

St. Louis, Missouri at the number one worst spot of deadliest cities in the nation.

Even little old Springfield is there at number 61.

But no Kansas City.

Yahoo.

One for a win.

I'll take it. We'll take it, for sure.

Kansas Makes Clear What Our Problem Is

There's an excellent, even important article on the Topeka Captiol-Journal website presently that points out the biggest problem in our states but in Washington, DC, too.

Conflict-of-interest questions swirl around Kansas GOP senator

Here's the situation taken from a Facebook friend's, Davis Hammet of Loud Light, page today.

After becoming Chair of the Kansas Senate Commerce Committee, Sen. Julia Lynn got a job working at Allied Global Services (AGS). Sen. Lynn endorsed and confirmed Brownback’s Commerce Secretary Soave who later was found to be steering government contracts to his friends. AGS got over $13 million in government contracts the last few years. As that scandal came to light, Sen. Lynn used her Chair position to block an investigation into those deals. When questioned about all this she said that she’s exempt from conflicts of interest... This story just made her resign from the corporate job, but she hasn't resigned from the Senate.

Money.

Money is our problem here in Kansas. And Missouri. And all across every state in the nation and, as I said above, especially in Washington, DC.

It's money that has made our health care system tied to profit instead of being universally available as all other Western, industrialized nations have. 

It's money that got us the outrageously priced higher education system we have now that also shuts people of modest or little means from being able to participate.

It's money that has our legislators writing that legislation and our laws for the already-wealthy and corporations, not for the people and nation.

For Kansas and across each state, here is what we need to do to fix this, taken from the same Facebook thread:

Lauren Smith-Sessions    It's time to address paying a livable wage to legislators so that we can elect good people that care about Kansas more than personal gain.

It's just not that complicated.

Pay our representatives at the state level enough to be there and do the work. Then, along with it, make any funds taken from any other person or company illegal.

Then, in Washington, in our Federal Government, we need to, first, overturn Citizens United. Then we need to end campaign contributions entirely. We have to think the unthinkable.

Other nations have done and do this. The UK is an excellent example. By making campaign contributions not just possible but legal, we have effectively legalized bribery. It's insane. It's not true, representational government. It's not "for the people."

Ironic, isn't it? We, the US, the "world's wealthiest nation", being crushed by money.

Link:

National Elections: What the UK Does Right and We Americans Do So Wrong

Quote of the Day -- Presidential Edition

"This president will be in power for only a short time, but excusing his misbehavior will forever tarnish your name. To my Republican colleagues: step outside your media and social bubble. History will not look kindly on disingenuous, frivolous, and false defenses of this man."

--Justin Amash

Dealing With Republicans of Late

Impossible.

Logic, facts, common sense, heck, even laws and the Constitution make no matter or difference to these people.

Maddening.