Ugly President, Ugly Appointments, Ugly Process

A proven misogynist is the President of the United States. He is also a bigot who tramples the rule of law and undermines the democratic republic by his actions. He is unfit.

The consequences of an unfit President are unfit appointments. In the instance of Judge Kavanaugh, he and the President refused an FBI investigation into Mark Judge, the other man accused of participating in the attempted rape of Dr. Ford. Their refusal is obstructing the facts however they may be.

In the ugly process in which Republicans have from the beginning sought to ram through their pick, Judge Kavanaugh introduced his political belief that "the Clintons" and Democrats were out to get him. There is no evidence of that. In fact, had Kavanaugh not made that statement, he would have demonstrated better temperament. He did not.

The fact is, Kavanaugh and President Trump are looking much like white male abusers of women. Compounding the unfitness of Trump would be the Senate's confirming the Kavanaugh appointment.

Even if they do, there is nothing stopping Montgomery County, Maryland from continuing the investigation into a possible rape case including Brett Kavanaugh and Mark Judge. If investigators and subsequent prosecutors discover that Kavanaugh has lied in his confirmation process, he can be removed from the bench.

The Kavanaugh appointment, should it happen, is not a clean one. He might bring his soiled robe to the US Supreme Court.

The Mid-Term Elections are important to preserve democracy and justice in the US. That requires a change of regime and removing Republicans from office.

Of the same mold.

Trump: True or False

Recall Chicken Little and "the sky is falling?" The chicken yelled so many times that no one believed it. In this case, President Donald Trump has lied so many times, there is nothing to believe in him.

He claims that Democrats have amassed a slander campaign against judicial nominee Brett Kavanaugh. That is another false statement.

Fact 1: A woman came to Diane Feinstein who is ranking member of the Senate Judicial Committee with an allegation of sexual abuse by Brett Kavanaugh when she was a minor and he a seventeen-year-old boy. The accuser has asked for an FBI investigation of her claims as an extension of Kavanaugh's background investigation.

Democrats did not pile on. Senator Feinstein referred the matter to the FBI would not act on the referral without direction from Senator Grassley or the President, apparently. Grassley refused and followed a pattern familiar to women that is to question the integrity of the accuser while presuming the innocence of the accused.

Fact2: A second woman made an accusation that Kavanaugh once exposed himself to her. In both instances, the women alleged Kavanaugh was under the influence of alcohol. She too wants the FBI to investigate as part of an extended background check.

At this point, people opposed to Kavanaugh (many Democrats and women) have observed the third fact.

Fact 3: Kavanaugh apparently lied three times before the committee. The evidence is hidden under the cover of a "confidential label" stamped by Chairman Grassley intended to keep the information from public scrutiny. Senators have leaked the information including Democrat, Corey Booker. Otherwise, the conflict would remain hidden.

True is that Trump and Kavanaugh are liars. True is that Trump is a misogynist. To be determined is the extent to which Kavanaugh is a sexual abuser.

It takes a good man to know one. Trump is not a good man.

A Misogynist Appoints Judges

What is wrong with this picture. Donald Trump faces no fewer than 19 women who allege his sexual violations against their will. When he leaves office, their lawsuits are waiting. As seen and heard on national television, Donald Trump is a wife cheater. He casually has affairs with women while he is married.

For that reason alone, flawed character, Donald Trump should not be in office. Yet, the one thing on which we can hang him is lying. Trump's incessant lying has accrued to a stack of at 5,000 lies that are violations of the law as a federal official.

True is that there are other piles of litigation facing Trump from the Special Prosecutor and States' Attorney Generals. He will have his day in court.

What about all of the appointments and changes in policy that he has made. If and when President Trump does the perpetrator walk, is it not right and just to undo what he has done?

Judicial appointments may not stand. What if the due process of law discovers that Judge Brett Kavanaugh has lied? Will his appointment be rendered invalid.

Today, Donald Trump attacked a sexual abuse victim. Will Americans accept that even for an instant. Most will not. I do not.

Impeach Donald Trump and all who went along.

Image: The Boston Globe

Trump and Sessions Fiasco

When Donald Trump embraced Jeff Sessions as his Attorney General, many knowledgeable Americans were appalled at the choice for good reasons:

1. Sessions has a track record as a "modern" Southern bigot.

2. Sessions was an Assistant United States Attorney in the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama beginning in 1975.

"Sessions' office filed civil rights charges in the 1981 killing of Michael Donald, a young African-American man who was murdered in Mobile, Alabama by a pair of Ku Klux Klan members.[19][20] Sessions' office did not prosecute the case, but both men were arrested and convicted.[21]" 

Wiki

"In 1985, Sessions prosecuted three African American community organizers in the Black Belt of Alabama, including Martin Luther King Jr.'s former aide Albert Turner, for voter fraud, alleging tampering with 14 absentee ballots. The prosecution stirred charges of selective prosecution of black voter registration. The defendants, known as the Marion Three, were acquitted of all charges by a jury after three hours of deliberation." 

Wiki

3. Bill Clinton's Attorney General, Janet Reno, asked for his resignation.

Jeff Sessions has always worked for the government, and is a plant for racism and bigotry, hiding under the guise of conservatism and religious hypocrisy. He is the symbol for what is generally wrong with Republicanism in the USA.

When Sessions recused himself from the FBI's Russian investigation, one may ask why? There are two reasons: 1) he was patently involved in the Trump campaign that would be a part of the investigation, and 2) he wanted to keep the well-paying job and prestige that he longed for. Recusal would ensure that if he could endure the pressure.

"Hill.TV INTERVIEW EXCLUSIVE: Trump eviscerates Sessions: 'I have no attorney general.' 

President Trump in an Oval Office interview with Hill.TV launched one of his most ferocious broadsides to date against Jeff Sessions, suggesting the attorney general was essentially AWOL and performing badly on a variety of issues, 

“I don’t have an Attorney General. It’s very sad,” Trump told Hill.TV in an extensive and free-wheeling interview Tuesday from the Oval Office. 

https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/407358-hilltv-interview-exclusive-trump-eviscerates-sessions-i-have-no-attorney?userid=23145

Image: NBC News

The Selection Process

When I published How to Select an American President by James A. George and James A. Rodger (c) 2017 Archway Publishing, the book describes a systematic process for evaluating presidential candidate resumes. It is intended to assist average citizens in making better choices. The process easily applies to the selecting of Members of the House of Representatives and Senators. It is based on knowing the job and the skill, knowledge, and experience requirements. Since political parties fail to establish standards for the process and since the US Constitution is deliberately skimpy in qualifications, more information is needed to guide voters. 

Today, we are witnessing how Senators evaluate judicial candidates. The process should be transparent, but that depends on the integrity of the Chairman and committee doing the evaluating. Now, the Republican-led Senate is trying to rush the process and to limit the amount of information available for evaluation. In the instance of the judicial candidate Kavanaugh, the Senate leaders tried to limit the time Senators from both parties had to evaluate 42,000 pages of information describing Judge Kavanagh's record and history.  It is a deliberate attempt to conceal his record.

In the final days before the Kavanaugh vote in the Senate, a woman came forward alleging his sexual abuse as a teenage student that she believes threatened her life. Without intervention by another person, she believes she would have been raped and possibly killed in the process.

This circumstance highlights another aspect in evaluating candidates for public office, and that is the character of the individual. I address character as a criterion in my book and encourage all American voters to read it.

"Kavanaugh furor intensifies as calls for new testimony grow
BY JORDAIN CARNEY - 09/17/18 02:06 PM EDT" 

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/407047-kavanaugh-furor-intensifies-as-calls-for-new-testimony-grow?userid=23145

"In an act of courage, the survivor who accused Kavanaugh of sexual assault came forward publicly this weekend. 

One thing we already know about Kavanaugh is that he has no credibility, based on his false statements under oath and his apparent willingness to mislead senators and say ANYTHING to get confirmed. However, his accuser's story is credible -- so credible, in fact, that since she came forward, nearly all of the women who had signed a letter of support for Kavanaugh in the face of the initial anonymous allegations have retracted their support. 

That letter, released last week by Republicans on the Judiciary Committee, was signed by 65 women who supposedly have known Kavanaugh since high school, but now that more details of the story are out -- including the name of the survivor -- almost all of those women have decided not to stand by their defense of the nominee's character." 

People for the American Way (email)

Judge Brett Kavanaugh

Image: Business Insider

Anonymity Doesn’t Last

James A. George

Anonymous 

September 7, 2018

Anonymity Doesn’t Last

Sooner than later, we’ll know who wrote the Op-Ed.

The person who wrote the revealing Op-Ed about The White House Staff encircling the wagons around Donald Trump’s errant behavior was probably one who 1) could not be fired or 2) one who is going to quit anyway. Given those criteria, the author would be Vice President, Mike Pence, or Chief of Staff, John Kelly. Since some of the language and construct of the letter sounds like Pence, it could be him. Or, some clever person planted the seeds to make it sound like him. Would John Kelly do that? No, if Kelly wanted to write the Op-Ed and hang in long enough to try to preserve the presidency, he would do it in his own style.

So, I ask Mike Pence to fess up. “Have some balls,” as they might say, and take the bull by the horns. Why can’t he so that? It is because he is a slime to the bone who has participated in covering up a bad President. Pence has been a part of the charade. He has participated in obstruction of justice. Therefore, he is lying in the weeds, hoping to con some people into keeping the status quo. After all, this is the best job he has ever held.

Palestinian Solution

James A. George

Palestinians

September 4, 2018

Palestinians

Home is where they are.

The Trump administration and US policy toward Palestinians has changed. The change is prompted by two factors: 1. The Palestinian population has grown exponentially, eclipsing the original displaced people; 2. The Palestinian population greatly exceeds what is sustainable for the lands in which they occupy.

The consequence is a massive population of people who are welfare dependent. That welfare burden has fallen on the UN and largely on the US. Arab League Nations have the wealth to attend to the Palestinians. They have the responsibility to lead a political solution and to engineer economic sustainability. Both the US and Israel could and should be contributors to the solution.

The solution does not include divvying up “ownership” of limited real estate. The solution must include tolerance and respect for religious and cultural diversity in the land that is Israel and the surrounding states where Palestinians should be permanently at home.

Still, the great challenges include: 1. Educating and leading to end radical religious extremism that makes coexistence impossible; 2. Engineering sustainable economies where trade becomes the bond among diverse people.

Making these things clear to all parties in collaboration with the principals is the missing link in leadership, beginning with Americans.