THE EMPERIOR HAS NO CLOTHES

Donald Trump has attempted to stop the publication of the John Bolton book ‘The Room Where It Happened’ based on national security concerns. The book had its prepublication review and Bolton had rewritten excerpts that were the concern of the civil servant reviewer.  She seemed to be satisfied and was about to write a release when a new Trump appointee, and former aid to Devin Nunez, Michael Ellas halted the process.

Bolton being the former National Security Advisor knows security classifications and the added review was an attempt by the administration to halt the publication and has failed.  The book is to be released next week and the fireworks will fly.  Look for some big distraction such as some kind of incident at his rally on the 20^Th.  Bolton wrote that “if this information was known at the impeachment trial he would have been removed from office”  “the pattern looked like obstruction of justice as a way of life, which we couldn’t accept”

Former National Security Advisor John Bolton’s book reveals that Trump is more than willing to sacrifice the economy for his personal benefit.  Bolton says in his book that “Trump’s impeachment inquiry missed other troubling actions”. He goes on describing several instances where the president expressed willingness to halt criminal investigations, ”to, in effect, give personal favors to dictators he liked.” The book cites cases involving both China and Turkey.”…”the pattern looked like obstruction of justice as a way of life, which we couldn’t accept”   

Mr. Bolton had reported his concerns to Attorney General and sycophant William Barr. 

On impeachment, Mr. Bolton explicitly ties Trump and Ukraine to the withholding of aid in order to have Ukraine announce an investigation into Biden and the DNC server.  On August 20^th 2019 Mr. Trump said, “he wasn’t in favor of sending them anything until all the Russian-Investigation materials related to Clinton and Biden had been turned over.” Mr. Bolton writes that “he, Mr. Pompeo and Defense Secretary Mark Esper tried 10 times to get Mr. Trump to release the aid.” 

Mr. Bolton also describes specific times the president sought to intervene with law enforcement for political reasons.  The theme of the book is Trump’s effort to politicize policy, which leads to the intentional division within the electorate.  He describes the president in a continuous election mode and the election and his self-interest guides all of his decisions.

On China he writes about the G20 meeting in Osaka Japan last June: ”Trump then, stunningly, turned the conversation to the coming U.S. presidential election, alluding to China’s economic capability and pleading with Xi to ensure he’d win. He stressed the importance of farmers and increased Chinese purchases of soybeans and wheat in the electoral outcome.”  Bolton continued saying, ”I would print his exact words, but the government’s prepublication review process has decided otherwise.”

  Mr. Bolton thought that was a stunning misuse of his office for political gain.  I am curious, since Xi ate his lunch on tariff wars and since Trump needs a foil, China is ripe for his get even bullying mentality. Xi manipulated the president with flattery and pandering.  As a result, he has no objection to the Chinese building concentration camps for the housing up to 1 million Uighur Muslims. After Xi’s flattery, Trump thought “it was the right thing to do.” 

As far as Turkey goes, Bolton writes, “Trump told Erdogan he would take care of things, explaining that the Southern District prosecutors were not his people, but were Obama people, a problem that would be fixed when they were replaced by his people.”

Mr. Bolton is a staunch conservative entering the Trump administration thinking he could influence policy in the Administration and found out the old adage everything Trump touches turns to excrement.  Comments from readers of the book conclude that the stupidity of Trump and his actions are staggering.

In a statement in Bolton’s book, when talking about media reporters, Trump said they “should all be hunted down and killed.”  Was this said in jest?  Even if it was, he is the president and his words matter, however, if in jest they don’t much matter to him.

Are the actions of the president criminal? Impeachable? It has taken more than just one individual, it would take all the advisors to enable this ignorant and corrupt president and power trip the sycophants and grifters.  Mixing political, business and personal goals in international policy concerning Turkey.  Politicizing criminal prosecutions for a favor to Erdogan making the cases disappear.  Is this as a result of his business interests in Turkey?

Bolton details multiple episodes of presidential misconduct and ineptitude.  “Mr. Trump did not seem to know, for example, that Britain is a nuclear power and asked if Finland was part of Russia.  He came closer to withdrawing the United States from NATO than previously known.”

Trump advisors mock him behind his back.  Mr. Bolton said “during Mr. Trump’s 2018 meeting with North Korea’s leader”, according to the book, “Secretary of State Mike Pompeo slipped Mr. Bolton a note disparaging the president, saying he is so full of shit”.

The book written by a conservative’s conservative confirms my opinion of the Donald as an ignorant corrupt transactional greedy bully with no sense of American values and is unfit for public service and with a lack of any grasp of facts, has no capacity to do the job. Bolton portrays the President as stupid, gullible and someone that is so out of it, that his own aides are mocking him behind his back. World leaders are plotting to lead him by his nose for their own purposes.

By Mr. Bolton writing this book and not testifying in congress is a damming indictment of Bolton putting his future political career and money over the welfare of the country.  Shame on you John, and thank you for the ammunition.

I can’t wait for Trump’s response.  Will it take the form of some huge event that will deflect attention from this literary work?  Can’t wait for the laser pointer and fireworks we will endure for Bolton’s efforts.

THE ONLY THING TO FEAR IS FEAR ITSELF

FDR, a great leader and statesman, uttered the above words.  Mike Pence in an OP-ED piece for the Wall Street Journal took the rhetoric to another level.  Pence said, “there isn’t a corona virus second wave”.  Ok, Mike you are technically correct.  Dr. Fauci of the CDC said recently that “we haven’t gotten out of the first wave”.  Pence also stated that the second wave is the media misleading the public. 

The Vice President’s comments in the WSJ shows the extent the narrative is on tamping down any fear and being upbeat for the optics, at the same time a new estimate was published of projected deaths that are now officially placed at 200,000 by October, as I had previously predicted. 

He said in his OP-ED, “We have slowed the spread. We’ve cared for the most vulnerable, we’ve saved lives, and we’ve created a solid foundation for the future.  That’s a cause for celebration not the media fear mongering”.  Pence is not honest with the American people. We are not putting out embers of the pandemic. This virus is becoming endemic within our borders as I am sitting here.  Look at all other civilized countries and see how our leadership has put us at the top of most categories, and yes Mr. Trump, I’m tired of winning.  Congratulations to the administration for causing 26% of the world’s coronavirus reported deaths and only 4.5% of the world’s population.  You should be ashamed and have no cause for celebration.

The Administration is overflowing with signs of irresponsibility in an attempt to show no fear going into the public unmasked, so as the public will have confidence in going back into the public square.  No masks, no social distancing. It’s “do as I do” as the irresponsible message Pence has.  This message was put out 2 days prior to the Trump Rally in Tulsa.  The administration is pushing the narrative that the only thing you need to fear is fear itself, despite the spike in cases that cannot be totally explained by increased testing and putting everyone’s health at risk.

Pence’s statements are nothing more than political propaganda, expecting everyone to let their guard down, which I feel is the anthesis of poor leadership.  The magical thinking shows they don’t care about public health, but only the optics of a booming economy, until you pull back the curtain.

This attitude can be borne out by the rally attendees having to sign a non-enforceable disclaimer of having the venue exempt from any lawsuits.  The farce of this document is- you cannot relinquish your rights if someone knowingly puts the party in danger and are not willing to fully explain the risks and do everything possible to mitigate the risk, like social distancing.

The administration wants everyone to go back to business as usual despite warnings from the CDC.  There are continued hot spots where they have had a spike in cases and have single day records in Florida, Texas, and Arizona.  All of these states opened prior to meeting CDC guidelines. 

 THE RALLY AND ITS POTENTIAL

The Trump deflection, division, derision, and self-congratulatory show and rally scheduled for June 20^th is to be held in a venue with a capacity of 20,000 people. The crowd is expected to be 60,000, so what could go wrong?  In addition, an 8,000 seat arena is being used for the approx. 40,000 overflow. With 32,000 more gathering outside, what could go wrong?  Is there the potential for protestors?  I wonder what security will look like in an open gun carry state.  What could go wrong?  Will police and security be provoked into violence on peaceful demonstrators?  Will Black Lives Matter BLM and white supremacists clash? 

This could be just another of Trump’s staged events to prove a point?  What is the point?  I understand that his minion are so stupid they will expose themselves, but also the potential spread to others after the rally and launch the virus to the public.  Trump’s plan is to use his base as props, in order to give the illusion that the economy is going full steam ahead.  Trump is knowingly endangering his constituents with this rally and asking them to sign waivers not to sue him after he does.  The pandemic has not abated.  I suppose the elimination of the lower end of the intelligence community that supports Trump, will be useful in helping the unemployment numbers by wiping out some workers. Thanks, natural selection! It’s the Bobby Jindal (R) prophesy coming true “the Republican Party is the party of stupid”.