Donald Trump’s Black Eye

04/29/2019 by Pat Shiplett 2 Comments

No matter how guilty of obstruction of justice Donald Trump may be, Robert Mueller did not have the authority to indict him.

His hands were by tied by Trump Justice Department policy and by the president’s handpicked attorney general bent on protecting him.

Mueller said he would have declared the president innocent of obstructing justice if he had confidence that was true — but he didn’t reach that judgment. The special counsel did not exonerate the president. Far from it.

In fact, given what he knows, Robert Mueller made a point of suggesting that Donald Trump can be impeached by Congress now, or criminally indicted the minute he leaves office.

Mexican Billboard

04/14/2019 by Pat Shiplett Leave a Comment

Fear is not a policy.

Hate is not a strategy.

Attacking the character and the sincerity of people fleeing violence and poverty will not secure our borders.

For two years President Trump, along with a Republican House and Senate, did nothing, nada. The result has been an unprecedented spike in migrant-family crossings.

Instead of workable solutions, Donald Trump resorts to bigotry and lies; dehumanizing the ninety million neighbors with whom we share a 1,954 mile border and who constitute our third largest trading partner.

One of six American families is Hispanic or Latino. They contribute, they serve. The crime rate among immigrants remains lower than the U.S. at large – homegrown supremacists are a more immediate threat.

We teach that the Creator endowed us with uncommon virtues as the source of our ‘American Exceptionalism.’ Reagan called America the shining city on the hill. Lincoln called it the last best hope of earth.

When our children hear politicians vilify Mexicans, Guatemalans, Nicaraguans and Hondurans as a group — pimping hysteria to win elections — they are learning the opposite lesson.

Warn your children about Donald Trump.

Electoral College Billboard

03/29/2019 by Pat Shiplett 2 Comments

Two of our last three presidents won with fewer votes than their opponents.

There’s an unfairness built into our constitution that gives people in less populous states more say in choosing a president than people in larger states.

The Electoral College has recently favored Republicans — every Republican president elected after 1988 has lost the popular vote — but it threatens all of us. Both red-state Texas and blue-state California are cheated from fair representation

It’s a simple numbers game.

Texas has 45 times more people than Wyoming but both have the same number of senators — two each — so a Wyomingite enjoys four thousand, five hundred percent more clout in the US Senate. That advantage carries over to the Electoral College which has overruled the nationwide popular presidential vote five times.

It all goes back to our founding. The smaller colonies held off from joining the republic until they were given extra representation to protect them from the larger ones. The cruel irony is that exactly the opposite has come to pass. To this day a minority exercises a privileged leverage over the majority.

There’s almost no chance of amending the Constitution because the smaller states aren’t about to end their sweetheart deal. But a movement is developing among the states that could get around that problem. They would simply agree to assign their Electoral College votes to the candidate who earns the popular election.

COUNTERPOINT BY JACK PAINTER Read more…

Second Worst President

02/15/2019 by Pat Shiplett 6 Comments

Our worst president may be yet to come. He or she will build on the damage Donald Trump has already done.If Congress doesn’t stand up to the abuses of President Trump, he will become the ‘new normal’ for our elected officials.

Our future worst-ever president will double-down on the Trump strategy of declawing the justice system, judicial review, checks-and-balances and the Bill of Rights.

Trump 2.0 will threaten endless national emergencies and shutdowns, and will fill a cabinet with fixers and family members totally unqualified to face a real emergency.

She or he will go full Orwell, making hidden payments to dictate media content and bribing favored media outlets with special access.

Our children will encouraged to hate entire populations and religious faiths, and to scapegoat billions of people as rapists, murderers and drug runners.

If the 116th Congress doesn’t go on record and signal to future Americans — through impeachment — that this president is lethal to our democracy, we’ll be punished with an even worse Donald Trump.

God help us if that one is smart and industrious.

Wait To Impeach?

01/31/2019 by Pat Shiplett 2 Comments

We can’t assume Bob Mueller is going to save us. The success record of special prosecutors is anything but encouraging.

A sitting president wields enormous power — indictments against Donald Trump could remain sealed until he leaves office. His handpicked attorney general and Supreme Court Justice have suggested he’s immune from prosecution.

And we can’t assume that Donald Trump won’t be reelected.

The Russians will meddle to help him again and the FBI could again make false, last-minute charges that destroy his opponent. The advantages of incumbency, and the shredding of the popular vote by the Electoral College could guarantee a second term.

Our best defense lies in the Constitution and our power to impeach.

President Trump

did side with Vladimir Putin against U.S. Intelligence’s unanimous verdict on Russia’s rigging of our elections

did did fire Comey and force Sessions to resign during Russian investigation

did conspire with Manafort, Flynn, Gates, Papadopoulos, Stone, Cohen, Corsi

did divert campaign money to silence sexual partners

did discredit CIA findings linking Saudi Prince with murder of U.S. based journalist

did lie to undermine 2016 vote count, accusing millions of voting illegally

does profit personally from foreign powers, Emoluments Clause

did break pledge to show tax returns

did make thousands of false and misleading statements