WHY THE RETRENCHMENT AFTER MUELLER?

Dr. Common Good

News reports seem to be saying that the Mueller testimony was a setback to Democratic impeachment goals and there is a retrenchment underway. Why is that? Why is the Democratic Party so poor at taking advantage of what it has and communicating well about it? Regardless of what kind of witness Mr. Mueller was, if you pull out key soundbites they are powerful and damning:

• Trump is NOT EXONERATED, period.

• The Russia investigation is NOT A HOAX. Anything but. In fact, Mr. Mueller was highly animated in describing it as a systematic threat to our democracy that continues at this moment.

• The Mueller investigation was NOT A WITCH HUNT, period.

• The president COULD BE CHARGED WITH OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE AFTER HE LEAVES OFFICE. There is a clear message in that statement.

• Trump’s conduct in inviting cooperation from WikiLeaks and from Russians is, in Mueller’s words, “problematic…that’s an understatement. It’s criminal.” Yes. No doubt about it. And unethical, as he also agreed.

• Mueller confirmed that Trump refused to testify in person and that his written responses (to only some of the issues) were generally FALSE.

• While a lot of this was likely confusing to many viewers, Mueller confirmed everything stated by Democrats (from the report) about at least five of the obstruction instances, and confirmed the many contacts with Russians and Trump campaign officials and lies about those contacts.

So, I ask, what is the problem? Democrats should be jumping up and down! There are more than enough soundbites to counter almost every lie Trump and Barr have put out on this matter. Yet there is hand-wringing, disarray. Right now, if not two days ago, Democrats should be blasting clips of the above segments on every possible social media channel, and linking with every Democratic-friendly organization across the country to coordinate dissemination of those clips. It should be coordinating a media strategy in which those clips are transmitted in short, easily understood form everywhere possible, each one directly contrasted to Trump/Barr lies. Is that happening? If it is not, Democrats do not deserve any better.

As noted in previous posts, Democrats cannot seem to get a handle on the basics of effective communication. They should never have relied on the Mueller testimony in the first place to get the message out to the American people. They should have mounted an effective counter campaign the minute Barr mischaracterized the report. (Do not, I repeat, do not rely on hearings.) But now that the hearings are done and there is so much to work with, get it out there! In order to even consider impeachment, Democrats need to pull in the public, and so far they have been highly ineffective in doing so.  

HAVEN’T WE HAD ENOUGH?

Dr. Common Good

Really, how much of this can the nation take? This president is and has been an insult to all that this country purports to represent, however imperfectly. Just in the past two weeks:

• He openly said, dismissively, that he could “wipe Afghanistan off the face of the earth if he wanted to.” What president of the United States, much less any other country, says such things?

• He held, and reveled in, a grotesque and ugly rally in North Carolina following a string of racist tweets demanding that four duly elected Congresspersons “go back to where they came from,” prompting the crowd at his “rally” to chant “send them back, send them back” as he basked in the success of his manipulation. He followed this rally with a transparently phony attempt to reframe his actions, then reversed himself and bragged about the “great chant” by “great patriots.” The last time the country has seen such noxious and contemptible public discourse was when the openly racist George Wallace was running for President, way back in 1968.

• As a direct result of Trump’s ignorant, disgraceful and unjust “policy” (if it can be called that) regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Israelis just callously knocked down buildings housing Palestinian apartments near East Jerusalem, in Palestinian territory, forcing all within to lose their homes – with no recourse. The Israelis claimed that those buildings were a security risk. This continues, very openly, the ongoing pattern of human rights violations committed by Netanyahu’s Israel, aided and abetted by Trump policy – or lack thereof (I do not even count Kushner’s “Palestinian Economic initiative”).

• This week, an army of white-shirted thugs brutally beat Hong Kong protesters with metal rods. The thugs are widely held to have come from China at the behest of the Chinese government. Trump’s reaction? A shrug, and a nonchalant statement that things have been “peaceful.” His utter lack of any principled statement of concern is a result of a previous, obsequious promise he made to Chinese president Xi Jing Ping that he would not interfere in whatever China chose to do in Hong Kong. It is also completely consistent with his fundamentally un-American embrace of authoritarians and dictators.

• In a television interview, Trump, with his usual smirk, commented that he is the “best thing to happen to Puerto Rico.” Nauseating.

• In the past several weeks, multiple investigative reports and even testimony from Border Patrol staff have revealed once again the depths of Trump’s crude, inhuman, and despicable “internment camps” for people fleeing from Central America. He is completely ignorant regarding the circumstances prompting their migration, racist and vile in his characterizations of these children and families, and his senior political advisor Stephen Miller is now calling for an end to all refugee admittance to the U.S. Are there no depths to which he will not go? Is there no respect for American history and values? 

• Once again, regarding the impending Mueller testimony, Trump repeated his brazen, outlandish lie that Mueller is “conflicted” because he wanted to be Attorney General and Trump did not pick him, and because of a “business dispute” at one of his golf clubs. He will make up any vile, base and manipulative lie to position himself as the one always on top. Of course, he finished off that specious tale with his usual fabrication — “no collusion, no obstruction.”   

• This week the Congressional Budget Office announced that the budget deficit under Trump has grown to $22 trillion, up about $2 trillion since Trump took office. This year’s deficit is $750 billion, up 25% over last year. Where art thou, o fiscally conservative Republicans? Nowhere. Cowered by Trump. Why? He is a venal coward unworthy of any respect whatsoever.

• The Iran nuclear deal negotiated under President Obama, which had clearly been effective with respect to its goal of controlling Iran’s nuclear program, has truly began to unravel and Trump’s sanctions are driving Iran to new alliances with China and Russia, and to aggressive actions in the Gulf. This is ignorant and dangerous, and prosecuted by his Secretary of State Pompeo, whose transparent focus on Iran stands in stark contrast to his tacit acceptance of egregious human rights violations by Saudi Arabia, acceptance of Israeli violations of Palestinian rights, and total lack of objection to Assad’s revived, brutal reign in Syria, supported by the Russians (and, to be fair, by Iran’s Hezbollah surrogate as well, which is a fully legitimate subject for criticism of Iran).  

• With no replacement plan, Trump and his fellow Republican minions are litigating a case against Obamacare that they hope will be the final blow, resulting in the loss of health insurance for millions of Americans.

• Trump’s Department of Agriculture proposed new rules that would cut some 3 million people from the food stamp program, continuing a trend of cutting funds from programs for poor and vulnerable Americans — even while previously passing a massive tax cut to corporations.

• Recently, the Trump administration is seeking to fire key scientists who work on climate change from the Agriculture Department, following previous cuts in science staff and the advisory board at the Environmental Protection Agency and other agencies. His climate denial and destruction of regulations benefits when Americans know less.   

And this week, last week, and all the weeks since his campaign and election, Trump continues to disgrace the name and standing of the United States in the world.

TRUMP MAKING THE U.S. UGLY, VENAL, AMORAL, UNDEMOCRATIC, AND JUST PLAIN STUPID

Dr. Common Good

Here’s just a sampler, and I will be blunt. The list is so long it would require a voluminous tome, and it just keeps getting longer every day to the point that it is near-impossible to track the litany of outrage, violation, or scandal that happened just days before. 

Ugly, venal and amoral…

• The lying, the lying – so constant, so brazen, and lying even in the face of video or other evidence that documents, for example, a previous statement or sentiment that Trump subsequently denies. His routine, wild exaggeration and invention of numbers and statistics. His penchant for making false statements and attributing them to “they say” or “people are saying” or similar lame and specious sources. Along with that, the ridiculous charlatan boasting, as in a recent speech where he claimed that he invented the concept of “forest management” (which he described as “keeping forest floors clean, like forest countries do”).  
• The juvenile, repulsive name-calling and disrespect – We have seen this from the outset, from his treatment of fellow Republicans in the primaries, his repugnant characterizations of John McCain, calling African and other countries “shithole countries,” and on and on. Most recently, he called Republican Justin Amash – the lone Republican with enough courage to publicly advocate impeachment, a “lightweight” and a “loser, and he called the British ambassador (yes, the British ambassador!) “a very stupid guy” and a “pompous fool.” Just yesterday, he tweeted that Congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar and two others should “go back to the …broken and crime infested places” from which they came (they are, of course, all citizens).
• Coddling dictators and rejecting friends – Trump’s brand of “most favored nation” treatment has been given, consistently, to Putin’s Russia, Kim Jong Un’s North Korea, and to Saudi Arabia, despite the latter country’s egregious murder of a U.S. – based journalist and routine violations of human rights. And this is combined with a habit of spurning our longtime allies, who have, collectively, helped to keep us safe. 
• Trump’s Secretary of State Pompeo starting up a commission to “review the role of human rights” in U.S. foreign policy. This, from a country that was a founding member of the United Nations.  
• How we treat migrant children on the border – This is unconscionable, inhuman, and a violation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Trump has shown the world America the Ugly, putting children in crowded, dirty cages, separating them from parents.
• Staging sickening displays of obsequious cabinet member servitude – I have never, ever seen anything like the televised sessions in which Trump’s advisors and cabinet members stand around and, on-call, praise some policy or action of his. It is unprecedented, and as for so many other things, unfathomable. Why would otherwise respected individuals consent to such humility?
• Staging an ego-driven 4^th of July – That was just plain disgusting. Trump, like the little, spoiled boy that inhabits his psyche wanted a military glorification of himself (not America). He could not get his parade, so he settled for this, at an estimated cost (to taxpayers) of $5.4 million, with a VIP section where only his political supporters were invited. No other president in recent memory has ever done anything like this at an event that is traditionally supposed to celebrate all of America’s best qualities.  
• Siding with hardline right wing Israeli policy at the expense of Palestinian rights – I do not care how Mr. Kushner or anyone else involved in the Trump Administration’s so-called Israeli-Palestinian initiative packages it. There is no semblance of equal or just treatment of Palestinian rights as enshrined in multiple UN resolutions, no framing of a political solution, and no pressure whatsoever on Israel to stop the human rights violation of continuing settlements and appropriation of Palestinian territory and property. Trump’s ambassador to Israel is David Friedman, a bankruptcy lawyer with no foreign policy experience and well-known hard-right views, and he went ahead and moved the embassy to Jerusalem — in conflict with every previous American president since Israel became a state, all of whom have understood the nuance of including the expressed desire by Israel to have its embassy there in general policy planks, but not actually taking that step because of its inflammatory message. 
• Constant pandering to the extreme right – Another consistent Trump characteristic. There was his rabidly racist and shameful labeling of Latino immigrants (as rapists, criminals, etc.), Charlottesville of course, this past week’s White House “social media summit” to which no major social media organization was invited, only a collection of conservative and extreme right-wing media, the likes of Bill Mitchell (radio host and promotor of the QAnon conspiracy theory), James O’Keefe (Project Veritas), Carpe Donktum (a right-wing troll organization), and others, and just this weekend the series of ugly and racist tweets mentioned above denigrating several Congresswoman who are his vocal opponents – the ugly tone of which was actually echoed by Senator Lindsey Graham and other Republicans.  
• Immigration policy – His blatant attempts to exclude immigrants from countries whose people are culturally, ethnically or religiously different than his view of acceptable immigrants, such as those from Norway. His repeated, outrageously false and racist characterizations of immigrants.

Undemocratic (putting his interests above those of the country)…

• Almost everything he does or seeks to do, basically. His general stance is that “America” is essentially “Trumpland,” and he would like free reign to make it that way, free from interference by the press (which he constantly mocks and criticizes) or courts (which he constantly denigrates when decisions are not in his favor), or any opposition in Congress.
• The entire obstruction of justice pattern – The multiple attempts to block evidence and testimony, the intimidation of witnesses, influencing witnesses by holding out potential pardons, the attempts to exert influence over judicial proceedings, all well-documented in the Mueller report.
• Constant executive orders and assertion of executive privilege – To be fair, most Presidents use executive orders from time to time. Obama did. But Trump is using those as a routine means of governing, and using executive privilege to withhold evidence, obstruct justice and obstruct Constitutional oversight. His latest – the use of an executive order to try and get around the Supreme Court’s decision against including a citizenship question on the 2020 Census.
• Finding and deploying a compliant attorney general who is like no other I have ever seen, more a mafia henchman than attorney general of a country. He made false statements to Congress about the Mueller report, mislead the American people about that report, and has spearheaded a campaign to persecute those who initiated the investigation of Trump campaign Russia ties.
• Colluding with adversaries to gain advantage in his election, and openly showing a lack of concern for a repeat in 2020. These actions are clearly documented in the Mueller report.

Just plain stupid…

• Wide-ranging ignorance – This is not an “elite” judgment. Trump knows nothing about global history, diplomacy, U.S. history, the Constitution, climate science, economics, or much else – all the while proclaiming himself a “genius.” The one thing he does have is a well-developed sense of how to manipulate and bully.
• Pulling out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership – While this was indeed advocated by some Democrats, it is plainly evident that doing so was and remains senseless. What President Obama had conceived as a part-trade and part-strategic initiative to cement our relationships with nations close to China and in turn serve as a check on China’s rapid expansionism, is now left as an empty vacuum that China is only too happy to fill, as these countries now have no counterweight.
• Ill-informed diplomatic initiatives designed for Trump’s ego, not serious political results – That in a phrase, describes his overtures to Kim Jong Un of North Korea, who has only gained, at Trump’s expense.   
• The ignorance of climate change, pulling out of the Paris Accords, and rejection of a move to a green economy – This is unfathomable, as well as stupid. Not only for all the environmental and security reasons that are well-documented, but because abdicating a key global leadership role has simply opened the door for others to step in and lead, not only in a political sense but in an economic one. And, again, because Trump, as the representative of the United States, exhibits such a colossal ignorance and lack of concern, he situates the U.S. as a backwater nation.
• Discounting and mocking the advice of his entire national security team, repeatedly, when the professional and evidence-based conclusions of that team contradict the picture he wants to paint – as in the “no Russian interference in his election” scenario. This is not only stupid, but dangerous, and a dereliction of duty.
• Ignoring the extant and growing cyber-threat – Trump, the ostensible commander-in-chief, dismisses this major threat to U.S. security and the security of allies. It’s all about ego – he does not want to concede that any such activity contributed to his election. Again, it is Trump uber alles, and monumentally stupid.
• Pulling out of the Iran deal – a deal that by all counts, and by all reputable evidence, was working, at least regarding its primary purpose of stopping Iran’s progression to a nuclear weapon. Instead, this idiotic move has dramatically increased tensions with Iran and in the region and started Iran back on the path to nuclear weapons.  
• Lack of any strategic or productive Middle East policy or strategy, other than an apparent strengthening of ties to Saudi Arabia and the Israeli hard right. In Syria, simply handing the Russians control, more or less, and leaving Bashir al-Assad in control. The lack of any sensible Israeli-Palestinian policy substantially decreases the likelihood of peace, and has ruined whatever credibility the U.S. had as a force for peace.  
• Tariff policy – Colossally stupid, and no way to conduct trade relationships, with anybody. He has slapped tariffs or threatened to do so on our allies (Canada, the EU, Mexico) as well as China and others. No one disputes that there are issues to be addressed in China’s trade policies, but the reliance on tariffs sets a terrible precedent, and has thus far produced little if any benefit. In fact, it is hurting American exporters and beginning to dry up markets that American exporters – particularly in agriculture – worked hard to gain. Yet, in total ignorance of how tariffs work, Trump routinely and flagrantly lies, claiming that the tariffs are bringing in “billions.”
• The tax cut – Sure, there was some short-term benefit. The economic numbers seem to bear that out, though it is hard to separate the drop in unemployment from the continuous dropping of that rate ever since the recovery began under the Obama administration. But few people have actually seen any pay raise, and corporations – according to Forbes magazine — have not put the massive gains they received into raising worker pay or re-investment in their companies to create new jobs. Instead, it has largely gone elsewhere, including to stock buy-backs which pump up the value of stock (hence the stock market rise). On top of that, the tax cuts have slashed the amount of money available to the government and led to the largest federal deficit ever.
• Lack of any immigration policy other than enforcement and a “wall” – There are almost no words to describe how stupid this is, and how ill-informed (that is putting it nicely) in terms of the causal factors driving immigration.