Senate Banana Republicans Will Let Trump Go Free, And In The Process, Damage Themselves

Banana Republicans in the United States Senate do NOT, and will NOT need, “smoking gun evidence” to convict Donald Trump of Insurrection, because in their warped imaginations, he did nothing wrong.

Those feckless individuals have not merely bowed the knee to Trump, or fallen prostate at his feet to lick his boots and the ground he walks upon, but by so doing, they have unambiguously signaled that they are not merely corrupted, but are traitorously and treasonously aligned, as well.

Allan Lichtman

Their fealty, their loyalty, their oath, though it may have appeared so, is NOT to the Constitution, but to some other nation, some other government, one that is NOT the United States of America – The Cult of Trump.

The benighted Moscow Mitch McConnell and his equally benighted Kooky Kentucky Klown pal Rand Paul are still up to no good.

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Here Is The Smoking Gun Evidence To Back Impeachment Of Donald Trump

By Dr. Allan Lichtman, PhD, opinion contributor
02/08/21 10:00 AM EST

Allan Lichtman is a Distinguished Professor of History at American University, and an election forecaster. He is the author of “The Embattled Vote in America: From the Founding to the Present.” He tweets @AllanLichtman.

While the House impeachment managers have focused on events leading up to the Capitol breach, it was the real time response from Donald Trump to the rioters which yields smoking gun evidence of his intent to incite the insurrection. Trump failed to promptly call off his followers or to summon timely assistance for the police, despite pleas from his fellow Republicans caught up in the mayhem. His final words that day connect his incendiary statements about a “stolen election” to the storming of the Capitol.

As he watched the insurrection unfold on television, with some delight according to witnesses, Trump made no immediate demand that the rioters leave the Capitol. He failed to heed the pleas of Republicans in Congress, who desperately tried to call him with no response. “We are begging essentially, and he was nowhere to be found,” Representative Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio said. We know Trump did call Senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama after mistakenly dialing Senator Mike Lee of Utah. Trump called Tuberville not to ask about his safety or to offer assistance, but to discuss a strategy for objecting to the count of electoral votes.

When rioters breached the Capitol in full view of cameras, Trump did not appear on television to denounce them or tell his followers to cease and desist. Instead, he stoked the incitement with a tweet to attack his vice president and double down on claims about a stolen election. He wrote, “Mike Pence did not have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our country and our Constitution, giving states a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones.”

Trump later sent a tweet in the passive voice, “Stay peaceful!” He sent a similar message more than half an hour later. He still had not appeared in person on any medium at this point. Trump eventually released a video that told his supporters,

Rand Paul Reads Disallowed Impeachment Question On Senate Floor

Kentucky Republican Senator Rand Paul today read his disallowed question from the Senate Impeachment Trial of Donald J. Trump, President of the United States.

His pertinent comments while on the Senate floor are excerpted, in part, below.

The essence of what he is saying, is alleging by questioning (asserting, would be more like it), is that, there was an impeachment conspiracy being cooked up by governmental officials against the President, long before the President’s now-infamous July 25th phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

He points to several faults with the FISA Court system, and what was very likely FBI abuse of that court system to “spy,” as he puts it, upon American citizens, and extrapolates from there.

To further bolster his case, Senator Paul points to open testimony given to the Senate by then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper on March 12, 2013 in response to a question by Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat.

Senator Wyden asked, “Does the NSA collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans?”

Mr. Clapper replied, “No sir … not wittingly.”

We knew that Mr. Clapper lied because he later obliquely stated that he did in an interview with NBC’s Andrea Mitchell who asked him why he answered the way he did.

Clapper answered saying, “I thought, though in retrospect, I was asked ‘when are you going to … stop beating your wife’ kind of question, which is … not answerable necessarily by a simple yes or no. So I responded in what I thought was the most truthful, or least untruthful, manner by saying, ‘No.’”

Senator Wyden had also earlier given Mr. Clapper advance notice that he would ask that question, so in a sense, he was “putting him in a box,” and expecting him to either deny it, or admit it in his testimony. Senator Wyden is a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, so he was regularly briefed on Top Secret programs, and knew the answer would be ‘YES’ before he asked it. He was simply giving Director Clapper an opportunity to be forthright about the matter. Director Clapper could have answered more circumspectly, or even use more finesse in his response, though he did neither.

But more to the point, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul does raise some interesting questions, although, on the whole, it certainly seems as if he’s

How Radical Has The GOP Become? Listen To Mike Huckabee To Know.

Having read that Mike Huckabee made a veiled remark suggesting that he would “send the FBI or the National Guard to close down abortion clinics” (specifically, he said “We’ll see when I’m president” in response to the question), it didn’t surprise me one iota.

I’ve warned that those folk – the GOP – are radicals, and are Hell-bent upon transforming our beloved nation into their warped version of a “free market” state. We’ve already entered into the beginning phase of Gilded Age v2.0 with the advent of Ronald Reagan, because it was during his two-term tenure that the seeds of these ideas were sewn.

Former Arkansas Governor, and Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee speaks at the American Legislative Exchange Council 42nd annual meeting Thursday, July 23, 2015 in San Diego.
(AP Photo/Denis Poroy)

As one type evidence, note that alternative energies, solar, etc., were ousted from official White House consideration. Witness that he had the solar hot water heating panels and collectors removed from the White House. Had we doubled down on recycling, and other forms of energy – wind, geothermal, etc. – we would be LIGHT YEARS ahead of where we are now with respect for our energy independence.

Another type of evidence was the successful repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, which was originally enacted

Right Wing Nuts in Amurka: Cliven Bundy speaks… GOP retreats.

“I want to tell you one more thing I know about the Negro…”

Hey, hey, hey!

The GOP’s “Big Tent” has let in all sorts of krazees and they like it, they love it, and want more of it.

Not sure why they run away from the nutzos they attract.

After all, shit draws flies.

That’s just great!

Here’s to the GOP’s Radical Right Wing pseudo-Libtardtarians modern-day Wild, Wild West American hero… Cliven Bundy.

Yeah.

It’s not difficult to imagine a bunch of rabble-rousing, gun-toting freaks on horseback out in the Desert Southwest of Nevada saying stupid things like that. Dehydration will do strange things like that to a man.

Just in the case you’re not aware of the news, Cliven Bundy is a “rancher” in Nevada who has, to this point, defied several federal judge’s orders as far back as 1990, called together his misfit band of brothers in civilian arms to support his efforts to continue defrauding “we the people” of the United States government.

To wit, he has admitted owing over $300,000 in arrears of grazing fees – established by then-President Ronald Reagan – to the Bureau of Land Management, and against court order continues to allow his cattle free range forage on federal land, without paying for the privilege. In other words, he had admitted he is a thief.

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A Defiant Rancher Savors the Audience That Rallied to His Side

By ADAM NAGOURNEY
APRIL 23, 2014

BUNKERVILLE, Nev. — Cliven Bundy stood by the Virgin River up the road from the armed checkpoint at the driveway of his ranch, signing autographs and posing for pictures. For 55 minutes, Mr. Bundy held forth to a clutch of supporters about his views on the troubled state of America — the overreaching federal government, the harassment of Western ranchers, the societal upheaval caused by abortion, even musing about whether slavery was so bad.

Bundy speaks as Sympathizers & armed White Supremacists surround him – (Cliven Bundy, flanked by supporters, has become a celebrity, drawing hundreds of sympathizers. Credit John Locher/Las Vegas Review-Journal, via Associated Press)

Most of all, Mr. Bundy, 67, who was

If government IS the the problem, then the Constitution is the BIGGEST problem. Therefore, abolishing the Constitution would solve all problems.

Contrary to Ronald Reagan’s assertion, government is NOT the problem.

Government is OF the people, BY the people, and FOR the people.

If government were the problem, the Constitution would be the BIGGEST problem.

Essentially, that argument – the one that claims “government is the problem” – is a self-refuting idea (aka self-defeating argument). In other words, it inherently & naturally contradicts itself.

The observant (astute) reader will recall that it was Ronald Reagan who made that specious claim.

Again, if “government is the problem,” then anarchy is the answer; for anarchy is the total absence of government.

So… there’s your GOP “logic.”

As I continue to write, and opine, and explain, the GOP has been taken over by radical leftists who are Hell-bent upon destroying government.

Again, I have written, if government is evil, then those involved in government are evil. Why then, would someone admit they are participating in, and desire to participate in an evil process?

That too, it self-contradictory.

And that too – that government is evil – is a GOP argument.

It’s pure idiocy.

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On Defense In Era Of Anti-Big Government Sentiment

by NPR Staff

Listen to the Story / All Things Considered [11 min 29 sec] / Add to Playlist / Download / Transcript

September 2, 2012

In 1936, President Franklin D. Roosevelt was making the case that government was a necessary and positive part of American life. Contemporary Democrats are having less success with the argument.

Democrats today, for the most part, balance between two slightly competing ideas: that government is part of the solution, while still acknowledging that it can be part of the problem. Meanwhile, they’re up against a long-running Republican messaging campaign against “big government.”

The concept of big government goes back to around the beginning of the 20th century. Princeton historian Julian Zelizer traces the idea to the Wilson administration and its initiatives, including the creation of the Federal Reserve.

“Woodrow Wilson, who is still conservative by modern liberal standards, does allow for a pretty dramatic expansion of government,” Zelizer tells Guy Raz, host of weekends on All Things Considered.

The real turning point, though, was

Is Government & the process of governing really evil, truly corrupt, and criminal?

Those who assert that government is evil, yet participate in the process by and through their own candidacy & election, are admitting they are evil.

Ironic, eh?

And yet, it’s pure logic… something sadly & noticeably absent in the GOP.

For years I have shared this (astute & regular readers will recognize my quote, and the category of the same name), that

“Politics is the art of compromise, and first begins in the home.
For neither Daddy, nor Mama, nor children always get their way all the time.
On occasion, however, Daddy gets his way, Mama gets her way, and by mutual agreement, the children get their way.
And by this effort, in which on occasion everyone gets their way from time to time, no one is harmed, the family is not harmed, and everyone learns how to get along, to love, and cooperate with each other, and to help one another.
In that way, we teach children how to love, to live, to respect, and increase our own sense of love and respect for each other.”

Regular readers of this blog will also recognize the song which I’ve been singing, which is that the Republican party – since 1964 – has been, as then-Governor Nelson Rockefeller said at the RNC convention at Cow Palace in San Francisco, “The Republican party is in real danger of subversion by a radical, well-financed and highly disciplined minority.” {Ed. note: I encourage the reader to also read the entry of November 10, 2009 entitled “These extremists feed on fear, hate and terror.”}

Further, those who tear down things are destroyers, although through our process of governance, there are some who are hell bent upon deconstructing it.

It always takes more creativity, energy and effort to maintain and operate a thing, than it does to create it, simply because maintenance efforts are ongoing and continuous, whereas once a thing is made, there is no further energy or effort required to make it, for it is already made.

In the same way, our nation’s governance requires more effort now than in 1776 (when it was 2,500,000 – in contrasting comparison, NYC’s population is now over 8,400,000) to operate for several reasons, not the least of which is that our nation’s population is in excess of 300,000,000 (300 Million) – a mere drop in the bucket when compared to China or India – both nations which have 1,000,000,000 (1 Billion) more people each.

Logically and rationally, with the proliferation of inventions, discoveries & patents, it is utterly absurd – so much so as to be insane – to assert that in this era, with all the continual increase of those same inventions, discoveries & patents multiplied by our population – that somehow, we will have fewer laws, smaller needs, and a decrease in any kind of governance, rule, regulation or law is beyond the scope of any rationality or comprehension. Analogously, it’s like asserting that adults should – and can – wear children’s sized clothing.

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How ‘Government’ Became A Dirty Word

by NPR Staff
September 1, 2012

Listen to the Story
All Things Considered [11 min 29 sec] / Download / Transcript

The message at the GOP convention this week was clear: Government is too big, too expensive, and it can’t fix our economic problems.

President Ronald Reagan and his wife, Nancy Reagan, in the inaugural parade in Washington, D.C., in January 1981. In his speech after being sworn in, Reagan called government “the problem.”

“The choice is whether to put hard limits on economic growth, or hard limits on the size of government. And we choose to limit government,” said Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan.

There’s nothing new about the message. Anti-big government sentiment is practically part of the American DNA, and it has deep roots in the Republican Party.

“Republicans, dating back to the New Deal, had always voiced their opposition to the expansion of government,” says Julian Zelizer, who teaches history and public policy at Princeton. “It was always part of the party the idea that centralization was bad, bureaucracy was dangerous, taxes were bad.”

But before the 1960s, the Republican Party also had a liberal wing, Zelizer tells weekends on All Things Considered host Guy Raz.

“They had New York Republicans, they had a lot of Midwestern progressives, who still said government is good for a lot of things,” he says.

Extremism ‘Is No Vice’

At the 1964 Republican convention, the party showed a shift away from

Rand Paul, Conscription, Slavery, & Health Insurance Reform

Recently, U.S. Senator Rand Paul, a “TEA Party” Republican from Kentucky, and ophthalmologist specializing in cataract and glaucoma surgeries, LASIK procedures, and corneal transplants, was quoted as saying that “a right to healthcare… means you believe in slavery.”

Dr. Paul is the ranking member of the Senate HELP Subcommittee on Primary Health and Aging subcommittee, and made his comments at a Wednesday, May 11, 2011 hearing about emergency room use in American hospitals.

He said that, “With regard to the idea whether or not you have a right to health care you have to realize what that implies. I am a physician. You have a right to