I Am not Ashamed: I Consider Trump a Menace

ONE OF MY conservative Facebook friends got mad at me this week. He said I was “biased” against President Trump. My critic was a former student and added that he was sorry he had ever learned history in my class.

 

I’m a veteran, and he said I should be “ashamed” for failing to support the commander-in-chief.

This got me thinking.

*

FIRST, let me say I am not ashamed. I taught (mostly American history) for thirty-three years. I was pretty good, too, which is why I’m “friends” with about 1,500 former students. I remember the gentleman who says he’s sorry now, as a bright young guy and a pleasure to have in a classroom.

I would wager he’s a good man, too.

At any rate, I had been thinking about putting together a list of the “Top 25” reasons, I’ll be voting against Trump in November. But the more I pondered my shame—or, rather, lack of—the more the list grew. So, in no special order, here are a “few” of the reasons that make it impossible for me to register anything more than complete disdain for the current President of the United States.

Am I “biased?” I guess I am. 

I don’t like assholes.

REASONS I’M NOT ASHAMED

1. Trump is a coward. He was happy to avoid serving in Vietnam. I don’t think he had bone spurs at all.

2. I enlisted in the Marines on December 28, 1968. I remember my mom weeping, the day she and my dad drove me to the induction center in Cleveland.

3. In the summer of 1969, I volunteered twice to go to Vietnam. (I’m not arguing here that I’m not dumb.) Only the fact my staff sergeant was a racist and wanted to get rid of a black Marine kept me out of harm’s way. 

Me in my youth. I ended up a clerk in a supply unit. Later, when I became a teacher, 
I told students, "I defended the country with a staple gun."

4. The “pussy-grabber” tape made me think. Would I want a guy like Trump around my daughters? Never. (Did you know Trump later theorized that the voice on that tape wasn’t him?)

5. I wouldn’t want a guy like Trump to be my car mechanic.

6. I was appalled when he told Bill O’Reilly that Vladimir Putin wasn’t such a bad killer. Putin has had journalists tossed off fifth floor balconies. Bulgarian authorities have just charged three Russian members of an assassination squad with poisoning several people.

7. Trump sounded pathetic when the Saudis had the journalist Jamal Khashoggi cut up with a bone saw.

8. I’m a fan of the free press even when I don’t like what the free press is saying. For example, Laura Ingraham and her nightly howling. Trump, by contrast, has said—forty times, alone, on Twitter—that Fake News media is the “Enemy of the People.” I don’t trust any politician who calls critics the enemy of the people. As a former history teacher, I hear the echo of fascism.

See, for example: Hitler and the “lügenpresse.”

9. Trump calls Kim Jong-un a “friend.” I find that very strange, since Kim is a homicidal maniac.

10. Trump has been accused of sexual improprieties by twenty women. He’s being sued by Summer Zervos, one of his alleged victims, for defamation. His lawyers are trying to delay the case because he’d be forced to give a deposition.

11. Friends of Trump’s, like Roger Stone, describe Trump having to give a deposition as Trump walking into a “perjury trap.” In reality, the man can’t stop lying. And Stone knows perjury! (See #106.)

Zervos, the accuser, left. Trump, the grabber, right.

12. Following the slaughter of 17 teachers and students in Parkland, Florida, Trump said GOP lawmakers were “afraid of the N.R.A.” Turns out he was, too. Nothing has been done since to address the issue of rampant gun violence.

13. After Trump insulted Sen. Ted Cruz’s wife’s looks, the senator called him a “sniveling coward.” Score one for “Lyin’ Ted.”

14. My former student should probably consider how much “respect” Citizen Trump, the pillar of “birtherism,” showed for Mr. Obama. The secret ingredient in that recipe, I have always believed, was half-a-cup of racism.

15. When Trump finally had no choice but to admit that Obama was born in America, he blamed Hillary for making him say, repeatedly and for years, that he didn’t think Obama was born in America. You might have thought Trump was nothing more than a ventriloquist dummy.

16. In a hacked email, General Colin Powell said if Trump was elected, he’d be “a national disgrace.” Prescient, I’d say.

17. The Trump Foundation, purportedly a charitable institution, has been shut down by the courts and ordered to repay $2 million in misused funds. That includes the $10,000 spent to purchase a giant portrait of Donald J. Trump. Don Jr., Eric and Ivanka were also named in the lawsuit. The president called prosecutors in the case “political hacks.” Because, of course he did.

18. In the 1980s, Trump hired undocumented workers from Poland to build Trump Tower in New York City. He got his cheap ass hauled into court after failing to pay all their wages. He fought payment for years; but lost in court.

19. Trump University: a scam operation.

20. Trump hated it when President Obama played golf. As of today, he has spent 259 days on the links since taking office.

21. Trump claimed he saw thousands of Muslims in New Jersey celebrate the fall of the Twin Towers. No one has seen the tape Trump says he saw since.

22. Trump claimed in late 2015 that there were 93 million Americans out of work. All the good jobs reports coming from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which made Obama look good, had to be “rigged.”

22. Trump brags about creating more than seven million jobs since taking over. His source: The Bureau of Labor Statistics. Trump also claimed that Ivanka had created 14 million jobs. That was delusional.

23. Trump fans love Trump Math. I don’t understand it. You start with 93 million jobless workers. You take away the seven million jobs Trump says he has created—or even the imaginary 14 million—and the 2.5 million jobs created under Obama in late 2015 and 2016. Presto!! Unemployment stands at 3.5%.

24. I’m not “ashamed” to say I believe in addition and subtraction. If the Bureau of Labor Statistics says the 3.5% figure is right, I accept that. But the “93 million” number was a colossal lie.

On Fox, Sean Hannity jacked it up to 95 million and rambled on about Obama’s “disastrous legacy.”

25. Trump has cheated on all three wives.

26. There’s also that $30,000 payoff to the doorman who said there was a housemaid and a Trump love child.

27. I like to joke that Trump lies when talking in his sleep. Only Melania really knows. And maybe Stormy Daniels. Trump told reporters traveling on Air Force One that he knew nothing about payments to Daniels. Investigators and the free press eventually turned up signed checks.

28. Trump knows almost no U.S. history and I doubt he could find Ukraine on a blank world map. In 2017 he thought Frederick Douglass (dead since 1895) was still doing an “amazing job.”

Most definitely dead.

29. Trump said the Japanese and South Koreans should have nuclear weapons of their own. Once again, the president proves clueless when it comes to the dangers of nuclear proliferation.

30. Even Trump fans have to admit that in June 2016, three top members of his campaign met with Russians—in Trump Tower New York. Those three: Don Jr., Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort.

31. All three kept the meeting secret. The New York Times first broke the story on July 8, 2017. (See #194.)

32. Manafort is serving 7.5 years in prison, for tax evasion and money laundering, among other crimes.

33. If I’m going to pay taxes, and you are, too, I’m not ashamed to say guys like Manafort should fork over, as well.

34. Trump has fought efforts to have his tax records released all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. I’m betting he’s hiding the fact he pays very little, or nothing at all.

35. The U.S. military does a great job. But we spend $2 billion per day on national defense. So, if we’re going to have a strong military, even Trump and his children will have to pay their share.

36. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, to pick just one of several examples from Trump’s cabinet, is known to have most of his loot stashed in offshore tax havens, including the Cayman Islands.

37. Also: Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin.

38. During the fight to “repeal and replace,” Trump told reporters the new Republican healthcare plan was “a great plan…very, very, incredibly well crafted.” When opinion polls showed only 12% or 17% of voters approved, Trump blamed lawmakers for dumping a “mean” and crappy plan on his desk. (See #126.)

39. The president’s attacks on the free press are, from my pro-Bill of Rights point of view, beyond the pale. If nothing else, the free press does a great job of calling out crooks in government. See, for instance, former Rep. Chris Collins, a Republican recently sentenced to 26 months behind bars.

40. Also, the crooked Democratic mayor of Baltimore.

41. Trump has said Democrats are guilty of “treason.” Here, again, I catch the whiff of fascism.

42. I’m no fan of fascists. Does that mean I’m “biased?”

43. Lord Acton was right when he warned. “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

44. I’m going to go out on a historical limb and say Lord Acton would be a “Never Trumper” if he were alive today.

45. I don’t know how Trump and Hannity and the rest managed to convince 67% of Trump supporters that Obama was a Muslim; but they did. I thought they were stirring up hate for political gain.

46. Last time I checked, the U.S. Constitution said an individual’s religion or lack thereof could never be the basis for holding any office of public trust.

47. I’m at least as avid a fan of the First Amendment as my conservative friends are of the Second.

48. Those folks love their guns.

49. I don’t believe the Second Amendment would have been dead if Hillary won. Last I heard there were 390 million guns in private hands in this country. That seems like more than enough. Unless we want to start arming babies.

50. I think we need gun reform—like universal background checks.

51. I have studied the U.S. Constitution. I’m pretty sure Trump hasn’t. In Article I, Section 8: We read that Congress shall “provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia.” That clause is in the original Constitution, adopted in 1789, two years before the Bill of Rights.

52. Congress once banned assault rifles under that clause. Like two out of every three Americans, I think that’s a good idea.

53. I thought Trump screwed the Kurds, our most loyal allies in the fight against ISIS, when he said he was pulling troops out of Northern Syria last fall. Then he sent troops back to save the oil. The guy lacks empathy.

54. The Iran deal wasn’t perfect—but Trump sounds like a fool when he says it was the “worst deal in history.” After eight years in office, when Obama stepped down, Iran had zero nuclear weapons.

55. 0.

56. Iran continued to abide by the deal till recently. Now we have no deal and came within a whisker of stumbling into a war.

57. I don’t blame Trump because he can’t get Kim Jong-un to give up all his nuclear weapons. Diplomacy is always a bitch—as every president has found—and every future president will.

58. Still, it was ridiculous when Trump said, in June 2018, that North Korea was no longer a nuclear threat.

59. It was pathetic when Trump claimed he would have won the Nobel Peace Prize if they gave it out “fairly.”

60. I was repulsed when Trump said he might deport the 800,000 “Dreamers,” most of whom came to this country as children and grew up here and consider themselves Americans. By the way, hundreds of Dreamers serve in the U.S. military. (See #1 and #175.)

61. Trump has trashed NATO, the most successful alliance in United States history. Recently he reversed direction and said he really hoped our NATO allies would help out more in the Middle East.

62. On the topic of nuclear war, Trump sounds nuts. He threatened North Korea with “fire and fury.”

63. He said he would “end” Iran.

64. He also said he could end the war in Afghanistan in ten days if he just killed ten million Afghans.

65. My god. I could end the war in Afghanistan if I did that; but I wouldn’t, because I’m not nuts.

66. Trump did not “inherit a mess.” Obama did. In the year leading up to his inauguration in January 2009, the economy shed three million jobs. You can look up the numbers provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

67. I’m not ashamed to say I consider it dangerous when Trump insists the federal courts are “rigged.” If he’s going to say that “Obama judges” can’t be trusted, then why should anyone trust “Trump judges” in the future?

68. Plus, whenever Trump says anything is “rigged,” and he says it a lot, I’m pretty sure he’s projecting.

69. I liked it when Chief Justice Roberts said there aren’t “Obama” or “Trump” judges. There are only judges. I thought he was standing up for the Constitution.

70. I’m a huge fan of the Constitution. I don’t think the president is. And all kidding aside, I think he’s an existential threat to the rule of law.

I think the man is a menace.

Locke's philosophy helped shape the U.S. Constitution. 
He believed in the separation of powers.

71. I also fear a guy like Trump who refers to criminals as “animals” and wants to bring the death penalty into play.

72. I can’t help noticing that felons play an outsize role on Team Trump. Take, for example, George Nader, who raised money for the 2016 campaign. That is, when Nader wasn’t busy sex-trafficking minors. I am definitely “biased” against sex-traffickers!

73. Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, recently indicted for alleged felonious activities, are currently in the news. Trump claims he doesn’t know them.

74. Conservatives insist that many of the felons on Team Trump were guilty only of “process crimes.” Process crimes aren’t so bad.

75. Paul Manafort and Roger Stone, two of many Team Trump felons, were nailed for witness tampering, and that tampering involved attempts to cover up contacts with Russians. (See #194.)

76. Witness tampering goes to the heart of our judicial system.

77. Did I mention Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer, who participated in the secret Trump Tower meeting in June 2016? She got indicted later, herself, but fled to Russia ahead of law enforcement. (See #30.)

78. She’s not coming back.

79. Let’s not forget Konstantin Kilimnik, good pal of Manafort, and target of his witness tampering efforts. When Kilimnik got indicted he likewise fled to Russia.

80. Michael Cohen, Trump’s longtime personal lawyer, committed ten felonies. Or was it eleven? It’s hard to keep track. Two involved campaign finance violations; and the charging documents mention the participation of “Individual 1,” an unindicted co-conspirator in the scheme.

81. “Individual 1” is Donald J. Trump.

82. Trump and his enablers are currently making a huge deal about how much the president really wanted to clean up corruption in Ukraine—and that’s the only reason he called President Zelensky and put a hold on all that military and other assistance to an ally.

83. I can’t believe anyone is dumb enough to fall for that. Trump has never cared about corruption. (See #103.)

84. Rep. Jim Jordan is dumb enough.

85. I was horrified when Richard Spencer, a leading figure in neo-Nazi circles, cheered Trump’s election.

86. Spencer’s audience gave an enthusiastic “Sieg Heil” and a good old “Make America Great Again,” stiff-arm salute.

87. I’m not ashamed to say I don’t ever want to find myself in agreement with the neo-Nazi crowd.

88. I know plenty of friends, neighbors, relatives and former students who support Trump. I don’t think any of them are closet Nazis. Still, real racists really love Trump. After the president attacked four Democratic congresswomen of color, Andrew Anglin, who runs Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi website responded:

Man, President Trump’s Twitter account has been pure fire lately. This might be the funniest thing he’s ever tweeted. This is the kind of WHITE NATIONALISM we elected him for. And we’re obviously seeing it only because there’s another election coming up. But I’ll tell you, even knowing that, it still feels so good.

89. Trump howled and said the four women should go back to the countries where they were born. That included one who was born in Cincinnati. Add geography to the list of subjects Trump can’t grasp.

90. I respect fiscal conservatives. I believe the federal deficit will soon be unsustainable. The deficit has ballooned since Trump took over, even though he promised his big tax cuts would pay for themselves.

91. The deficit for Fiscal Year 2019 surpassed $1 trillion. That’s 12 zeroes. Annual deficits are now projected to average $1.2 trillion every year until 2029. Even Fox News had to report that.

92. Mexico never did pay for the wall.

93. That really sucks.

94. Like most liberals, I believe in sensible immigration control. I just don’t think you have to scare your base into thinking that everyone who sneaks into this country is a psychopathic killer.

95. When Trump says Democrats don’t care about crime and want to let MS-13 gang members babysit your children, he’s just stirring up irrational fear. I don’t think our leaders should appeal to our worst emotions.

96. I would not want my children or grandchildren to lie as often as Trump does. The Ninth Commandment, I think, is solid.

97. I think it’s ironic that the Trump Organization has had to fire undocumented workers, as recently as December.

98. I don’t think Trump fans know that.

99. With all those undocumented killers and rapists wandering around Trump properties, just waiting to spring, does the president ever fear for his life? Does he think the First Lady is safe?

100. If an undocumented worker, perhaps a cook at Mar-a-Lago, came after the First Lady with a cleaver, would Trump protect his wife? Or would his bone spurs flare up?

101. I found it sickening when Trump trashed a Gold Star family, mainly because they were Muslim American.

102. Some Trump supporters seem to hate and fear Muslims with the same fervor Nazis hated and feared Jews.

Terrorists: bad. All Muslims: not.

103. Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, says he was working on a deal for a Trump Tower in Moscow until June 2016, while Trump was running for president. That would be a massive conflict of interest. Rudy Giuliani later let slip that the deal may have been cooking right up until Trump won the election.

Jesus H. Christ, who really believes Trump has ever cared about corruption, past, present, or future? (See #118.)

104. Jared Kushner got bailed out of a billion-dollar hole on a property at 666 Fifth Avenue, by the Qataris. The Chinese also offered to lend the dough. And you really think the president is mad about Hunter Biden?

(Yes, I realize Hunter Biden was trading on his name.)

105. Roger Stone had a secret meeting in 2016 with a Russian who offered dirt on Hillary Clinton. The Russian wanted $2 million.

106. Stone told a congressional panel that he never met with Russians, or anyone who even “sounded Russian” during the campaign. He was convicted on seven felony counts, including perjury.

107. Seven felony counts—and he’s not even the most-convicted member of Team Trump!

108. Trump talks a lot about pardoning Stone and his many other felonious pals. A reasonable individual might deduce he’s doing his best to keep the felons from ratting on him.

109. Trump said Sen. John McCain was not a war hero.

110. Fuck off, “Cadet Bone Spurs.

111. Trump refers to others as “pigs,” “lowlifes” and “human scum.” I cannot support a man who routinely dehumanizes others.

112: As soon as I saw this quote from the Roman poet, Terrence, I made it the theme of my classes. I’m pretty sure Trump wouldn’t get it. 

113. Trump’s political foes are never just foes. He insists they are “treasonous” and “sick” and “sick people,” and don’t love our country, our flag or their own children. That’s inflammatory speech.

114. I am not a fan of inflammatory speech.

115. Other times, Trump and his supporters threaten “civil war” if he fails to win reelection.

116. Repeat #114.

117. Trump said “repeal and replace” was going to be easy. Then he said “nobody knew how complicated healthcare could be.” Everybody knew. Except Trump. The guy’s an absolute bonehead.

118. On several policy issues, I agree with Trump, like pressuring China on trade. It turns my stomach, though, when he refers to Xi Jinping as a “friend” and “an incredible guy.” China is still a country of rigid censorship, re-education camps, and massive political graft and corruption.

119. China locked up more journalists last year than any other country. Maybe that’s why Trump likes Xi.

120. When it comes to climate change, Trump is way down the road past dumb. Globally, we have just experienced the five hottest years on record. When asked for comment, Trump insists he’s all for “clean air and clean water.”

121. I’m sorry if this sounds “biased,” but the president sounds like a numbskull.

122. Trump has claimed that windmills cause cancer. He once said energy-efficient light bulbs caused cancer too.

(Sound of thousands of scientists smacking their foreheads.) 

Cancer-causing death machines!

123. Trump recently railed about water-saving toilets and how he had to flush ten or fifteen times to get them to work.

124. Have you ever flushed a toilet fifteen times, even once in your life?

125. You need a plumber if you did. Or, maybe, a therapist.

126. Trump says he’ll have a new, better healthcare plan ready, but not until after the next election.

127. I am not buying that.

128. Trump claimed recently that it was he who “saved” protections—under Obamacare—for people with pre-existing conditions.

129. Who could possibly be dumb enough to fall for that?

130. Trump promised in 2015 that he would always protect Social Security. On January 22, 2020, he was asked if Social Security and other entitlements cuts might be on his agenda. “At some point they will be,” he said. That did not go over well with his aging base of supporters. The next day, Trump insisted he would “save” Social Security. (See: #90 and #91.)

131. I was repulsed when Candidate Trump said he thought torture worked and he’d be in favor of more torture if elected. I taught history. I know torture works…if you want people to confess to being witches.

132. It also works if you want to oppress entire populations. See, for example, Sophie Scholl and the Gestapo.

133. See also: Kim Jong-un and the anti-aircraft guns.

134. Also, Vladimir Putin and radioactive tea. 

Tea, anyone?

135. I didn’t like it when Trump said he’d pay the legal fees for a man who sucker-punched a protester at one of his rallies. Trump only likes people who protest against the government if they’re in Iran.

136. I think people who kneel at sporting events have a right. I don’t think they do it to disrespect our soldiers or the flag.

137. I don’t think they do, because they have repeatedly explained that that’s not why they kneel.

138. I think kneeling is like the Tea Party folks marching around with their tri-corner hats, accessorized with dangling tea bags. I think those guys must be pretty sad, what with all the red ink flowing currently.

139. I thought the Citizens United decision, with five Republican-appointed Supreme Court justices in the majority, was a huge mistake. I am not a fan of Big Money shaping all our political campaigns. I thought Merrick Garland should have been given a hearing and a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court, too.

140. Trump says if an opening occurs on the U.S. Supreme Court, and he has even three days left in office, he’ll push to get a choice confirmed. Sen. Enabler Mitch McConnell has said he’d go along.

141. I’m not ashamed to say, I don’t think billionaires are going to die if they have to pay a higher tax rate.

142. If I had a billion dollars right now, I’d be happy. If you took half in taxes, I’d still be happy. I don’t think that makes me a socialist, though.

143. I admit, I don’t know how we pay for it, but I think all Americans should have access to good healthcare. I think all children need good care when they are sick. I don’t mind paying my share to help. (See: #34-37.)

144. I like it when the EPA protects our fragile environment. I’m a big fan of national parks, myself.

145. One of my conservative friends got mad when I wouldn’t credit Trump for donating his first paycheck ($78,333.32) to support the national parks.

146. It didn’t make her any happier when I pointed out that Trump wanted to cut the budget for the National Park Service by hundreds of millions of dollars. I think she was trying to apply Trump Math. (See #23.) 

My wife Anne and me: Rocky Mountain National Park.

147. Trump’s first EPA director, Scott Pruitt, stepped down in the face of at least a dozen investigations involving abuse of office.

148. My favorite—Pruitt ordering his Secret Service detail to drive him around Washington D.C. so he could find his favorite soap.

149. Tom Price, another early cabinet guy, got booted after running up a tab of more than $1 million to fly around at taxpayer expense. That didn’t seem much like “draining the swamp” to me.

150. Go back and re-read #82. Or #103. Or #118. There’s no evidence that Trump ever gives a shit about corruption, here or abroad.

151. The current director of the EPA is a former Big Coal and Big Oil lobbyist.

152. It was funny when the Interior Department promised to open up more leases for offshore oil and gas drilling. Then someone realized…um…Mar-a-Lago? An exception was promptly made for waters off Florida’s east coast.

153. I’m not an idiot. I remember the giant mess BP made in the Gulf of Mexico. Unlike President Bonehead, I don’t believe government regulations are always a problem.

154. We’re screwing up the environment; we need to up our game when it comes to protection. See, for example, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

155. When Trump talks about protecting our right to sip from plastic straws, he’s missing the point. (Science is definitely not his strong suit.) You can even purchase 10 Trump plastic straws for $15, and help his 2020 reelection campaign. Then you can throw more plastic in the ocean. Choke a whale! 

156. Republicans are pushing laws to ban abortions, even in cases where young women have been raped.

157. I used to tell my daughters, if you get pregnant, I won’t pay for an abortion; but I’d damn sure have taken them if they had been raped.

158. I’m horrified to learn that states like Alabama are passing laws denying all right to choose, even if a child is going to be born without a brain. That’s a condition known as anencephaly.

159. You can also look up babies born with all kinds of defects, including both male and female sex organs.

160. I read the Bible, start to finish, because I taught Ancient World History the last part of my career. (I read the Quran, too.) As far as I could see, the word “abortion” was nowhere to be found. I do not remember any Psalm, either, in which it is set down that life begins at conception.

161. I don’t think those people back in 1000 B.C. knew much about embryos. So, I’m not ashamed to say, I don’t know on exactly what basis the absolutists on abortion make their case.

162. The word “abortion” definitely does not appear in the U.S. Constitution. As I’ve said, I’ve read the entire document. Many times!

163. On the topic of religion, I’m pretty sure Paula White, Trump’s spiritual advisor, is in the “game” to make some serious jack.

164. That figures, because we’re talking about Trump and his often-larcenous inner circle.

165. White says that opposition to Trump is “resisting the hand of God,” because it was God’s plan to put him in charge.

166. I guess you could say the same about Hitler and Stalin and Mao and the “divine right of kings.”

Louis XIV definitely believed God chose him to rule for 72 years, and 110 days.

167. Nothing in what I’m saying is meant as an attack on Christianity. I’m just not sure anyone has a corner on religious truth. I will say I bet you could find a thousand better Christian faith leaders than Pastor White, in the Cincinnati area alone.

168. I’m not ashamed to admit that even though I’m a liberal, I often wish others “Merry Christmas.”

169. I think the “War on Christmas” was an imaginary conflict from start to end. Same with the “War on Coal.”

170. If I was going to fight a war, I’d declare “War on Big Pharma,” the guys who claimed opioids were perfectly safe. I’d be way more afraid of those people than I would of people wishing others, “Happy Holidays.”

171. My cousin Bill was gay. He saw combat in Vietnam. Bill was a gentle soul and never hurt anyone—except, I guess, when he was a helicopter door gunner in 1966-67. So, I’m not afraid of gays. (See #1 and #2.)

172. I’m not afraid of transgender people either. I’m still not sure why Trump thought it was a good idea to kick several hundred of them out of the military when they were willing to serve.

173. Even “gender” can be a complex matter. (See #159.)

174. Trump acts like he’s the greatest patriot of all time. But it’s not as if Trump family members are going to rush down and sign up now that all those spots in the Navy and Air Force have been opened up as transgender service folks are kicked out.

175. No Trump has ever put on the uniform of the United States. It’s a family tradition dating back to 1885.

(Blogger’s Note, 10/15/21: This is in error. Trump’s older brother, Fred Jr., did serve as a member of the Air National Guard.) 

176. My Irish ancestors would be barred from entering this country under new immigration rules put in place by the Trump administration. Probably, many ancestors of Trump’s biggest fans would have been barred, too.

177. I thought it was unacceptable when the president trashed General James Mattis, after Mattis resigned his cabinet post.

178. Mattis had a great comeback recently, saying he earned his spurs on the battlefield. Trump earned his spurs in a letter from the doctor. I like Gen. Mattis way more than Trump.

179. The president says Rex Tillerson, the man he picked to be his first Secretary of State, was “dumb as a rock” and “lazy at hell.” That’s kind of an indictment of Trump’s judgment, I would say. (See #180.)

180. Trump gave reality-TV star Omarosa a job in the White House, putting taxpayers on the hook for her hefty salary. When she turned on him, he called her a “dog” and a “lowlife.” Again: an indictment of Trump’s judgment.

181. I took a dislike to Trump as soon as he came down that escalator in 2015, announced  he was running, and intimated that all immigrants were “murderers” and “rapists.”

182. I admit the future First Lady looked hot.

Looking stylish and attractive, as always.

183. Trump has all the characteristics of a person suffering from Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

184. I wouldn’t want Trump as a neighbor. And I would never be able to tolerate him as a friend.

185. Trump claimed that 3 to 5 million illegal votes were cast for Hillary and that the election, which he won, was “rigged.” I am not aware of any state officials who have supported that claim with hard evidence.

186. Kris Kobach, Kansas Secretary of State, did support the claim. But when he went after all the illegal voters in his state, he came up with…nine…and that was over the course of several elections.

187. At least two of those nine were Republicans.

188. In January 2019, a Texas official did claim that 95,000 undocumented individuals were registered to vote in his state—and that 58,000 already had.

189. Trump tweeted the news. Boy, was he mad!

190. When officials in the 254 Texas counties were tasked with cleaning up the voting rolls, they found that in some cases the lists of “undocumented” voters provided by the state were wrong…oh…100% of the time. It was so embarrassing state officials very quickly and quietly dropped the matter.

(Of course, Trump never corrected his tweet.)

191. Like 65% percent of Americans in a 2018 poll, I believe Trump is dishonest from the tips of his toes up.

192. I’m sorry, Trump fans, but I kind of wonder what’s wrong with you if you don’t grasp what a liar your orange idol really is.

193. We have all kinds of evidence to show that Trump and his enablers lied about their reasons for cutting off aid to Ukraine. We saw witnesses. Trump’s long track record of lying should give even his biggest fans pause. The man lied to all three of his wives. You think he wouldn’t lie about this?

194. Speaking of a track record of lies, we now know that multiple members of Team Trump 2016 have admitted (often under legal duress) that they did meet with Russians during the campaign.

Here we may quote Trump aide Hope Hicks, who at least was not a felon, speaking on November 10, 2016. That would be two days after Trump defeated Clinton. “We are not aware,” Hicks said, “of any campaign representatives that were in touch with any foreign entities before yesterday.”

Yes. She said “any.”

195. At that point all kinds of Trump aides and the president-elect himself knew Hicks had told a whopper. We know today that the following Trump aides had indeed had contacts with Russians during the campaign:

Don Jr.

Jared Kushner

Paul Manafort

Rick Gates

Michael Cohen

General Michael Flynn

George Papadopoulos

Roger Stone

George Nader

Felix Sater

196. Let all Trump fans face a harsh reality: Trump was letting Hicks lie, and letting it happen two days after he won office.

197. When the Mueller Report was released in March 2019, almost every sentence was footnoted and backed by evidence—emails, phone records and witness testimony. Trump immediately announced that the report offered “complete and total exoneration.” Clearly, he had never read it—or he had, and he was lying. A sample from that report should suffice to prove the point:

The investigation established multiple links between Trump Campaign officials and individuals tied to the Russian government. Those links included Russian offers of assistance to the campaign…Ultimately, the investigation did not establish that the campaign coordinated or conspired with the Russian government in its election-interference activities.

(See #195.)

198. After noting that multiple members of Team Trump 2016 lied to investigators, and that “those lies materially impeded the investigation,” and that aides and the president himself had multiple “direct and indirect contacts with witnesses with the potential to influence their testimony,” Special Counsel Mueller was clear. “If we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the president clearly did not commit obstruction of justice,” he wrote, “we would so state. Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, however, we are unable to reach that judgment.”

Mueller continued: “The conclusion that Congress may apply the obstruction laws to the president’s corrupt exercise of the powers of office accords with our constitutional system of checks and balances and the principle that no person is above the law.”

199. Put plainly, Mueller had little doubt, that Trump had obstructed justice in regard to the Russia investigation.

200. Now he’s obstructing justice again, in exactly the same way, regarding the story of his interactions with Ukraine. That is, he’s stiffing Congress in all its requests for documents and witnesses. One can only pray that enough senators will agree with the “principle that no person is above the law.” If they fail to stand up, and it looks like none of the Republicans will, “our constitutional system of checks and balances” is at grave risk.

If a president can refuse all lawful subpoenas in one case—as Trump already has (although there’s a case in the courts against him)—then every corrupt president for the next 200 years can do the same.

So, to sum up, I would argue that Trump is the first president in history who deserved to be impeached twice. I am not ashamed to say I have contempt for the man.

And if I am “biased” in favor of the rule of law, so be it.

Two in the photo, Fruman, second from left, Parnas in the middle have been indicted.
Rudy could be next.

P.S. Both Vice President Pence and President Trump have insisted they don’t know who Parnas and Fruman are.