Bearing Witness to Trump Week 26

July 16 – 22, 2017

Under the new AG Jeff Sessions, federal forfeiture asset laws become easier for local police departments to seize property, such as cars and cash, of people suspected but not convicted of crimes with little due process of law. Thanks Jeff for re-interpreting the Bill of Rights!

Sessions may hope this distracts from reports that leaked intercepted Russian communications claim that he and the Russians did talk about the campaign, contrary to when Sessions testified in his confirmation hearings that while he may have met with them they did not talk about the campaign or policy issues. Rumor has it that Trump wanted this information leaked to further discredit Sessions who refused to resign last week after Trump berated him in a….

….rambling NYT interview Trump lashes out at his own AG Sessions and Special Prosecutor Mueller saying it was very unfair Sessions took the job then recussed himself, and that Mueller had too many conflicts of interest to be fair. We can hear the drum beats to firing Sessions and disbanding the special counsel to investigate Russian influence on the Trump campaign and administration.

Trump Jr. and a host of administration and campaign officials such as Paul Manafort agree to testify, but of course in private. It comes out that Manafort was indebted by millions to pro-Russian interests from his time as a Ukrainian political consultant.

Trump Sr. continues to tweet away blaming the press, crooked Hillary, liberals, his ex-press secretary, AG Sessions, Prosecutor Mueller….anybody and everybody except the Russians and himself for his own problems. He claims in one of his tweets that remember folks, he can pardon anyone. Perhaps even himself!

In another White House shakeup, Sean Spicer resigns with little notice in protest of the appointment of an ex-Wall Street Financier Anthony Scaramucci as new communications director. His first act was to come out before the press and tell them how much he loves President Trump. Yes, kings, oligarchs, despots, and dictators demand public displays of adoration as a sign of loyalty and submission.

Another Russian is found to have participated in Trump Jr’s meeting during the campaign. This one a rich Russian real estate financier. Of course. Money. Real Estate. Power. Corruption.

During the recent G-20 meeting it is disclosed the Trump and Putin had another previously undisclosed private meeting of an hour in length.  Yet, with all the opportunities to scorn Russia for interfering, they looked to be best of pals.

Trump continues picking on Iran, one of the few Middle East states where they try to have a resemblance of democracy with elections. Trump attempts to enforce new sanctions in a temper tantrum that they cannot claim Iran violated Obama’s nuclear deal. That is all we need, another war with not our enemy, but an enemy of the Saudi’s and Israeli’s. What exactly has Iran done to us to deserve this drum beat to war? Wag the dog, wag the dog.

Trump’s voter fraud panel begins to meet. Not a panel to discuss Russian influence in the election. Not one to understand how poor people working minimum wage jobs and no child care can’t wait in line for hours to vote. Not to look at reforming the broken electoral colleges. Not to look at district gerrymandering. Not to look at voter suppression. Not to allow millions of minorities who have been disenfranchised easier ways to vote. Not to figure out how to make our voting systems safe from cyber hackers. Not to create paths for millions of hard-working immigrants to vote in states that use their residency for electoral college math and increasing the number of House districts, but don’t want them to be able to vote. But all just to investigate and make the case that Trump won the popular vote last Fall. What a charade.

Trump lies again to the public by claiming that he’s number one in the number of bills signed after six months if office. No he is not and that is another lie. And sadly most of the bills he did sign had little to do with making anything better, but instead simply undoing what Obama had done out of spite, meanness, and fragile ego.

The next attempt of repeal and replace Obamacare goes down in flames. Trump says “let Obamacare Fail” without a bit of remorse for the millions of lives impacted by insecurity of healthcare. Trump turns on member of his own party in frustration.

Trump has now turned on members of his former campaign, his current cabinet, his business colleagues, the press, the constitution, his WH staff, the Justice Dept, the national security agencies, the Democrats, and the list goes on. How can anyone of any character and morality work for this man?

Over in the State Department, Rex Tillerson continues to reorganize the agency and is said to be shuttering the war crimes office. Yes, a country that continues to commit war crimes is best not to have an office that investigates them. This same week Exxon pays up for dealings with the Russians that went around sanctions some years ago.

With all the distractions, the Trump administration has only filled a third of all appointed federal positions, less than half of the previous president at the same time period. This is no surprise, as it is clear this President has little respect for a functioning government and acts like a terrorist intent on destroying it from the inside out. Trump blames the Democrats for all this.

The above news items have been taken from a number of international, national, regional, and local news media sources, both print and digital. Additional editorial opinions and comments about these news items are those of this author.