What is Quid Pro Quo, and what has to be present in order to determine that a Quid Pro Quo exists? I wanted to take a blog to explain this to people who may not completely understand the subject.
QUID PRO QUO - Something Given or Received for Something Else.
I am going to use a term that is very important to the impeachment inquiry currently underway in Washington D.C. The term is important because is makes the term Quid Pro Quo unnecessary. It is Bribery. The founders understood bribery as, "an officeholder's abuse of power of an office to obtain a private benefit rather than for the public interest." If you look at that, it literally describes Trump's approach to the Ukraine and other things in his past, and he can be impeached for that. Let's talk about the facts we know about today.
Trump clearly, even in the partial written version of his phone call to Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky, held nearly 400 million dollars in aid up for some time (even though the aid had already been authorized by Congress) in order to get the Ukraine President to open an investigation into the Bidens and 2016 Election Corruption. Side note - It didn't even matter if an actual investigation into the Bidens and Corruption would take place. The President just wanted the Ukraine President to publicly announce an investigation so it could tie up the news cycle for a considerable time and give him some false ammunition to throw at his political rival coming into the 2020 election. Back to the story - It has since been found out that just 2 days following the whistleblower report coming out, the Ukraine President was slotted to appear on CNN's Fareed Zakaria's show to publiclly announce he was going to be investigating...although that announcement would have been made independently and without mentioning that Donald Trump himself had required it of the Ukraine President at the time in order for aid to be released to their country.
With the whistleblower report coming out, the CNN interview was immediately cancelled because Zelensky no longer needed to do Trump's bidding. The aid was immediately released at that time as well because it would have looked even more horrible on the administration had it still been held up after the new reporting got out about the potential Quid Pro Quo.
The now several witnesses who have been deposed and questioned have done nothing but back up the facts we already know about the case, and things are not looking good at all for Trump.
If you look at the Republicans in Congress right now, they are struggling to even come up with ways to gaslight the American public at this point. They know the President is guilty and that the facts coming out every day just stack onto the inevitable; Trump being impeached.
So instead of challenging the narrative with facts, the Republicans decided to challenge the 'process' of the impeachment inquiry; a process that was completely constitutional and in perfect alignment with how the Benghazi hearings took place. Yes, that's right, there was an investigation into Benghazi that went on for a very long time, finding nothing illegal had occurred. You wouldn't know that based upon how many times Republicans bring up Hillary Clinton to change the subject when asked about horrible things Trump says and does. They don't want you to know that though, and they don't want you to pay attention to the facts...like the ones clearly showing the absolute guilt of Trump.
Scores of Republicans stormed into a secure area where depositions were ongoing, touting that they should be allowed in the room. This ridiculous show was organized and put on by Representative Matt Gaetz, and there was a couple of problems with his approach. Number one, Republicans were already allowed into closed door depositions if they were members of the committees running the depositions. Number two, at least 12 of the people who stormed into the secure area with Gaetz were on one of those committees and were already allowed into the depositions. That showed everyone that it was simply a side show to distract people from the facts and have them concentrate on how the process was not fair to Republicans, which based on what I have previously written above, simply was not the case.
The Republicans are lying and gaslighting to protect a criminal President because they feel it is in their best political interests to do so. They don't want to anger Trump's die hard base and potentially lose their own reelections in 2020 and beyond, especially those in purple districts and states, so they decided to throw morals, basic human decency, and the people they were elected to represent aside, for their own political aspirations.
I pose this question. If the whistleblower had not come forward when they did, and the President of Ukraine had taken that interview on CNN where he stated he was going to investigate the Bidens and Corruption in Ukraine, how would that huge lie have blown up in the media? We would be in a completely different place right now, and it would all be because of BRIBERY! We wouldn't know that, but it would all have been a huge lie paid for with a held up aid package from Congress.
Notice at this point I haven't even mentioned Giuliani; Trump's personal lawyer who doesn't hold any official government position, who was running shadow diplomacy for Trump in the Ukraine off the books, trying to somehow make this all happen. There is so much more to that story, but I digress to discuss some other items.
So I just briefly covered the Ukraine story, but there is just so much more that should make every American step away from support of this President. First, let me say that you can be a Conservative or Republican and not support Donald Trump. That is perfectly OK. In fact, you should, because none of the values I know of the Republican Party historically shine through in Trump's decision making or platform. He is destroying the Republican Party, and the party isn't helping their case any by standing behind every horrible decision and tweet Trump makes and publicizes.
Trump has treated dictators around the world better than his allies. He has said many great things about Xi Jinping of China, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi of Egypt, Kim Jong-un of North Korea, Vladimir Putin of Russia, Abdullah Aziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia, Bashar al-Assad of Syria, Recep Erdogan of Turkey, and others. He talks as if he looks up to them in many ways because of the control they have over their state run media and people. It is as if Trump would love to be a dictator. Trump has made it clear that he feels Article 2 gives him the power to do whatever he wants, and he has made every effort to exert power over all branches of government and the media. Trump has stood on a stage and taken Putin's word over that of his ENTIRE Intelligence Community. He wants to bring Russia back into the G7 to make it the G8 again, seemingly not caring about the Annexation of Crimea and complete lack of human decency displayed by Putin and Russia. That says it all.
Now take how Trump talks about dictators and compare it to how he talks about his Allies. He has denigrated his allies around every turn for the past almost 3 years, and has ruined international relationships with all of them. Some are hanging on and trying to deal with Trump, knowing that he will be replaced by someone with a sane approach to international relations in the not so distant future. At every international meeting of World powers, the United States is the butt of every joke because of the absolute inability of Donald Trump to manage to remain grounded in reality. Enough about that though.
Trump cheated on his wife with multiple women. He had the women paid off to stay silent because of his political career. He did this while having a small child at home and a new wife. Oh, did I mention that there have been nearly 2 dozen accusations of sexual assault against the President? Trump has stood at a podium and mentioned these accusations, denigrating the women by calling them all liars, and by asking people to 'look at her' regarding one accuser, stating she wasn't even his type, meaning she wasn't beautiful enough for him to assault? I still haven't figured out if he has a 'type' of women he would assault. That was a horrible way for him to address those accusers.
Never forget the 'Grab 'em by the Pu$$y' bus audio that clearly defined the absolute misogynistic and sociopathic attitude of the President acting as if he is all powerful and could do anything he wanted to women. What about the interview he did where he bragged about the beauty pageant he owned that gave him to power to go backstage and watch young women as they dressed and undressed.
Remember the AMERICAN judge of Mexican descent who was presiding over one of Trump's trials? Trump said he couldn't be fair because he was a Mexican. Remember the two Minority Gold Star Families Trump denigrated in public, and the White Gold Star Family he spoke so highly of? Remember Trump calling those countries where minority people come from 'Sh!t Hole Countries'? Remember when Trump tried to ban ALL Muslims from entering the United States? Remember the rally where Trump pointed and said, "Look at my African American"? Remember when Trump told minority members of Congress to go back to where they came from? Remember when Trump stood up for the White Nationalists after one drove into and killed a woman and after they all marched with torches chanting 'The Jews will not replace us'. He said that there were fine people on both sides rather than condemning the White Nationalists. These are just a few of the horrible racist comments and actions taken by the president.
You know who calls the free press 'The Enemy of the People'? Murderous Dictators throughout history do, and Donald Trump. Trump calls any news story that posts facts about what he has said or done 'FAKE NEWS' and any news story that backs him up with falsehoods and lies 'REAL NEWS'. He has been in an all out battle with the free press since he became President, and has even hinted numerous times at starting a State Run Media Sector, even though for the longest time he has had that with FOX NEWS. He has stated that the media is the Enemy of the People scores of times.
Trump ran on lies, like the building of a glorious wall that would be paid for by Mexico; a wall we are starting to get today and finding out doesn't make a difference. You know what defeats a 30 foot wall? A ladder, a Reciprocal Saw, basic climbing ability, etc. You know what secures the border? More personnel to staff the border, more technology to detect potential crossings, etc. Create Jobs not Wall!
Remember when children were being ripped from their families at the border by Trump's immigration policy because he wanted to dissuade people from coming to the United States from other countries? Remember when Trump refused to look at the possible reasons people were coming here, cut off important aid to countries that could have prevented some of the migration, and treated migrants as if they were the scum underneath your toilet? He spoke of people coming up from Mexico as if they were all criminals, drug dealers and murderers, but said that some may be good people. He called those coming to the United States and entering at places other than ports of entry to be doing so illegally, even though the ports of entry were often closed down by Mexico or the United States, not allowing passage. Oh, and law that states that, "Any alien who is physically present in the United States or who arrives in the United States (whether or not at a designated port of arrival and including an alien who is brought to the United States after having been interdicted in international or United States waters), irrespective of such alien's status, may apply for asylum in accordance with this section, or where applicable." (US CODE)
Remember when Trump pulled the United States out of the Iran Nuclear Deal even though Iran was holding up their end of the deal? He did so because he has a precondition to end anything Obama started. He left the other countries there to try to keep the deal going, but it fell apart over time because of the lack of US involvement. He also announced pulling us out of the Paris Climate Accord. He is also pulling out of the Nuclear Arms Control Treaty with Russia. Shortly after taking office, Trump pulled the United States out of the Trans Pacific Partnership. Trump announced in October of 2017 that the United States would be withdrawing from UNESCO, the United Nations' Cultural Organization. The Trump administration withdrew from the United Nations Human Rights Council in June of 2018. The Trump administration announced in August of 2018 it was ending its decades of funding for the UN Relief and Works Agency, which helps Palestinian refugees. The list goes on, and it is obvious that Trump wants to run an isolationist approach in the world, which if you remember, didn't work out too great for us around WWII.
He has overtly lied and projected mistruths at least 14,000 if not more times since taking office, and he doesn't care about the truth. He cares about whatever makes him sound good, which is usually a lie. He is to the point now where nearly every time he speaks, fact checkers go out of their minds because he simply cannot tell the truth; not even about the simplest of things.
Trump touts the strength of the stock market and economy, but anyone who has taken an ECON101 class can look right through that smokescreen and see that we are poised in such a way that many similarities to the state of the economy prior to the bubble bursting in the late 2000's are present in our current economy. The tax legislation he passed gave the majority of breaks to the ultra rich. He said that the extra money to the rich would stimulate the economy, create jobs and strengthen our working sectors. That is all complete bullsh!t and anyone who has lived more than a day on this planet knows that. Trickle down economics has never and will never work. One of the major reasons the stock market looks so good right now is because instead of large corporations trickling their extra money down to the workers and using it for expansion of their businesses and better wages for workers, they are spending trillions in buying back stock and unnaturally inflating the market. The market doing well has nothing to do with the middle and lower class people who make up the majority of the populous stimulating the economy. They are still struggling just as much as they were before the tax break.
Tariffs are things that have been used in the past to exert pressure at times, but they are things that Trump has no understanding of. He imposed unconstitutional tariffs on China, and China destroyed our AG sector almost immediately, to the point that Trump has had to bail out farmers with billions over the past couple of years. Trump also doesn't understand how tariffs work. The majority of items coming into our country come from China. We impose tariffs on those items. China doesn't pay those tariffs. China sends their products, American companies importing those products have to pay the tariffs, and the extra money the American companies pay gets passed down in the form of higher prices for the products consumers have to purchase that came from China. So China isn't paying those tariffs, the American consumers ultimately are. And China doesn't care about tariffs. They can play the long game, and know that Trump will only be around for so long. Trump saying that he is the master negotiator has really not panned out in the reality we live in every day. Trump sucks at negotiating and will sell the farm for nothing and brag about the great deal he made.
Turnover is something I find interesting with the Trump Administration. As of November 1st, 80% of the 65 core A-Team positions have turned over. Of those core 65 positions that have turned over, 33% of them have went through serial turnover. These positions have gone through up to 4 people holding the positions. If you look at Trump's Cabinet turnover it is very telling for sure. So far, there have been 10 cabinet positions turned over in less than 3 years in office. Compare that to Obama that had a total turnover in his first four years of 3 positions, George W. Bush who had 2, Clinton who had 4, H.W. Bush who had 8, and Reagan who had 6 turnovers in 4 years. There's still another year of his first term, and Trump's Cabinet has already far surpassed previous presidents.
If I write too much longer this will be more of a book than a blog, but the sad thing is that I could go on for days with subject after subject that clearly shows we have a president who is incapable of making rational decisions, whose underlings continually worry about the decisions he will make, who cozies up to dictators, who treats allies horribly, who makes racist comments often, who makes misogynistic comments often, who is a pathological liar, who has sociopathic and narcissistic tendencies, who has no empathy....I mean literally NO empathy what-so-ever, who denigrates people constantly, who calls the free press the enemy of the people when they don't agree with him, who has done everything in his power to obstruct investigations that have been completely fair and constitutional, and who shouldn't in any way be supported by the citizens of this great country. In fact, there is ample evidence when viewed in totality that leans most to believe Trump has gone through some major cognitive decline during his presidency, and that should lead people to have great concern.
I can't present all of the facts or my opinions because there is just too much to talk about. I do hope that I have presented enough to sway someone to realize they are making a grave mistake if they support this president moving forward, or to at least get someone to look for the facts instead of trust the rhetoric spewed by this administration and its supporters. Know that behind closed doors the majority of Congressional GOP members hate this president. They don't say it publicly, but they hate that they have to support him. The fact is that they don't have to, but they are looking out for their own futures more than they are the best interests of this country and their constituents, who happen to be you and me.
As this freight train continues to ride off the rails toward November of 2020, know what is most important for this country right now. #VoteBlueNoMatterWho
I have said many times that I am not a straight ticket voter, and there are issues with both parties, but the largest issue right now that needs to be dealt with is a President and GOP that is off the rails and needs to be stopped. If you disagree, I welcome and open discussion about it in the comments.
I greatly appreciate you taking the time to read my blog. Please comment and have a discussion with me on the subject. Please share my blog on social media. I post to Facebook, Twitter, and Blogger.com. I appreciate the discussions that drive change. Let's have those discussions.
DUNK
QUID PRO QUO - Something Given or Received for Something Else.
I am going to use a term that is very important to the impeachment inquiry currently underway in Washington D.C. The term is important because is makes the term Quid Pro Quo unnecessary. It is Bribery. The founders understood bribery as, "an officeholder's abuse of power of an office to obtain a private benefit rather than for the public interest." If you look at that, it literally describes Trump's approach to the Ukraine and other things in his past, and he can be impeached for that. Let's talk about the facts we know about today.
Trump clearly, even in the partial written version of his phone call to Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky, held nearly 400 million dollars in aid up for some time (even though the aid had already been authorized by Congress) in order to get the Ukraine President to open an investigation into the Bidens and 2016 Election Corruption. Side note - It didn't even matter if an actual investigation into the Bidens and Corruption would take place. The President just wanted the Ukraine President to publicly announce an investigation so it could tie up the news cycle for a considerable time and give him some false ammunition to throw at his political rival coming into the 2020 election. Back to the story - It has since been found out that just 2 days following the whistleblower report coming out, the Ukraine President was slotted to appear on CNN's Fareed Zakaria's show to publiclly announce he was going to be investigating...although that announcement would have been made independently and without mentioning that Donald Trump himself had required it of the Ukraine President at the time in order for aid to be released to their country.
With the whistleblower report coming out, the CNN interview was immediately cancelled because Zelensky no longer needed to do Trump's bidding. The aid was immediately released at that time as well because it would have looked even more horrible on the administration had it still been held up after the new reporting got out about the potential Quid Pro Quo.
The now several witnesses who have been deposed and questioned have done nothing but back up the facts we already know about the case, and things are not looking good at all for Trump.
If you look at the Republicans in Congress right now, they are struggling to even come up with ways to gaslight the American public at this point. They know the President is guilty and that the facts coming out every day just stack onto the inevitable; Trump being impeached.
So instead of challenging the narrative with facts, the Republicans decided to challenge the 'process' of the impeachment inquiry; a process that was completely constitutional and in perfect alignment with how the Benghazi hearings took place. Yes, that's right, there was an investigation into Benghazi that went on for a very long time, finding nothing illegal had occurred. You wouldn't know that based upon how many times Republicans bring up Hillary Clinton to change the subject when asked about horrible things Trump says and does. They don't want you to know that though, and they don't want you to pay attention to the facts...like the ones clearly showing the absolute guilt of Trump.
Scores of Republicans stormed into a secure area where depositions were ongoing, touting that they should be allowed in the room. This ridiculous show was organized and put on by Representative Matt Gaetz, and there was a couple of problems with his approach. Number one, Republicans were already allowed into closed door depositions if they were members of the committees running the depositions. Number two, at least 12 of the people who stormed into the secure area with Gaetz were on one of those committees and were already allowed into the depositions. That showed everyone that it was simply a side show to distract people from the facts and have them concentrate on how the process was not fair to Republicans, which based on what I have previously written above, simply was not the case.
The Republicans are lying and gaslighting to protect a criminal President because they feel it is in their best political interests to do so. They don't want to anger Trump's die hard base and potentially lose their own reelections in 2020 and beyond, especially those in purple districts and states, so they decided to throw morals, basic human decency, and the people they were elected to represent aside, for their own political aspirations.
I pose this question. If the whistleblower had not come forward when they did, and the President of Ukraine had taken that interview on CNN where he stated he was going to investigate the Bidens and Corruption in Ukraine, how would that huge lie have blown up in the media? We would be in a completely different place right now, and it would all be because of BRIBERY! We wouldn't know that, but it would all have been a huge lie paid for with a held up aid package from Congress.
Notice at this point I haven't even mentioned Giuliani; Trump's personal lawyer who doesn't hold any official government position, who was running shadow diplomacy for Trump in the Ukraine off the books, trying to somehow make this all happen. There is so much more to that story, but I digress to discuss some other items.
So I just briefly covered the Ukraine story, but there is just so much more that should make every American step away from support of this President. First, let me say that you can be a Conservative or Republican and not support Donald Trump. That is perfectly OK. In fact, you should, because none of the values I know of the Republican Party historically shine through in Trump's decision making or platform. He is destroying the Republican Party, and the party isn't helping their case any by standing behind every horrible decision and tweet Trump makes and publicizes.
Trump has treated dictators around the world better than his allies. He has said many great things about Xi Jinping of China, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi of Egypt, Kim Jong-un of North Korea, Vladimir Putin of Russia, Abdullah Aziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia, Bashar al-Assad of Syria, Recep Erdogan of Turkey, and others. He talks as if he looks up to them in many ways because of the control they have over their state run media and people. It is as if Trump would love to be a dictator. Trump has made it clear that he feels Article 2 gives him the power to do whatever he wants, and he has made every effort to exert power over all branches of government and the media. Trump has stood on a stage and taken Putin's word over that of his ENTIRE Intelligence Community. He wants to bring Russia back into the G7 to make it the G8 again, seemingly not caring about the Annexation of Crimea and complete lack of human decency displayed by Putin and Russia. That says it all.
Now take how Trump talks about dictators and compare it to how he talks about his Allies. He has denigrated his allies around every turn for the past almost 3 years, and has ruined international relationships with all of them. Some are hanging on and trying to deal with Trump, knowing that he will be replaced by someone with a sane approach to international relations in the not so distant future. At every international meeting of World powers, the United States is the butt of every joke because of the absolute inability of Donald Trump to manage to remain grounded in reality. Enough about that though.
Trump cheated on his wife with multiple women. He had the women paid off to stay silent because of his political career. He did this while having a small child at home and a new wife. Oh, did I mention that there have been nearly 2 dozen accusations of sexual assault against the President? Trump has stood at a podium and mentioned these accusations, denigrating the women by calling them all liars, and by asking people to 'look at her' regarding one accuser, stating she wasn't even his type, meaning she wasn't beautiful enough for him to assault? I still haven't figured out if he has a 'type' of women he would assault. That was a horrible way for him to address those accusers.
Never forget the 'Grab 'em by the Pu$$y' bus audio that clearly defined the absolute misogynistic and sociopathic attitude of the President acting as if he is all powerful and could do anything he wanted to women. What about the interview he did where he bragged about the beauty pageant he owned that gave him to power to go backstage and watch young women as they dressed and undressed.
Remember the AMERICAN judge of Mexican descent who was presiding over one of Trump's trials? Trump said he couldn't be fair because he was a Mexican. Remember the two Minority Gold Star Families Trump denigrated in public, and the White Gold Star Family he spoke so highly of? Remember Trump calling those countries where minority people come from 'Sh!t Hole Countries'? Remember when Trump tried to ban ALL Muslims from entering the United States? Remember the rally where Trump pointed and said, "Look at my African American"? Remember when Trump told minority members of Congress to go back to where they came from? Remember when Trump stood up for the White Nationalists after one drove into and killed a woman and after they all marched with torches chanting 'The Jews will not replace us'. He said that there were fine people on both sides rather than condemning the White Nationalists. These are just a few of the horrible racist comments and actions taken by the president.
You know who calls the free press 'The Enemy of the People'? Murderous Dictators throughout history do, and Donald Trump. Trump calls any news story that posts facts about what he has said or done 'FAKE NEWS' and any news story that backs him up with falsehoods and lies 'REAL NEWS'. He has been in an all out battle with the free press since he became President, and has even hinted numerous times at starting a State Run Media Sector, even though for the longest time he has had that with FOX NEWS. He has stated that the media is the Enemy of the People scores of times.
Trump ran on lies, like the building of a glorious wall that would be paid for by Mexico; a wall we are starting to get today and finding out doesn't make a difference. You know what defeats a 30 foot wall? A ladder, a Reciprocal Saw, basic climbing ability, etc. You know what secures the border? More personnel to staff the border, more technology to detect potential crossings, etc. Create Jobs not Wall!
Remember when children were being ripped from their families at the border by Trump's immigration policy because he wanted to dissuade people from coming to the United States from other countries? Remember when Trump refused to look at the possible reasons people were coming here, cut off important aid to countries that could have prevented some of the migration, and treated migrants as if they were the scum underneath your toilet? He spoke of people coming up from Mexico as if they were all criminals, drug dealers and murderers, but said that some may be good people. He called those coming to the United States and entering at places other than ports of entry to be doing so illegally, even though the ports of entry were often closed down by Mexico or the United States, not allowing passage. Oh, and law that states that, "Any alien who is physically present in the United States or who arrives in the United States (whether or not at a designated port of arrival and including an alien who is brought to the United States after having been interdicted in international or United States waters), irrespective of such alien's status, may apply for asylum in accordance with this section, or where applicable." (US CODE)
Remember when Trump pulled the United States out of the Iran Nuclear Deal even though Iran was holding up their end of the deal? He did so because he has a precondition to end anything Obama started. He left the other countries there to try to keep the deal going, but it fell apart over time because of the lack of US involvement. He also announced pulling us out of the Paris Climate Accord. He is also pulling out of the Nuclear Arms Control Treaty with Russia. Shortly after taking office, Trump pulled the United States out of the Trans Pacific Partnership. Trump announced in October of 2017 that the United States would be withdrawing from UNESCO, the United Nations' Cultural Organization. The Trump administration withdrew from the United Nations Human Rights Council in June of 2018. The Trump administration announced in August of 2018 it was ending its decades of funding for the UN Relief and Works Agency, which helps Palestinian refugees. The list goes on, and it is obvious that Trump wants to run an isolationist approach in the world, which if you remember, didn't work out too great for us around WWII.
He has overtly lied and projected mistruths at least 14,000 if not more times since taking office, and he doesn't care about the truth. He cares about whatever makes him sound good, which is usually a lie. He is to the point now where nearly every time he speaks, fact checkers go out of their minds because he simply cannot tell the truth; not even about the simplest of things.
Trump touts the strength of the stock market and economy, but anyone who has taken an ECON101 class can look right through that smokescreen and see that we are poised in such a way that many similarities to the state of the economy prior to the bubble bursting in the late 2000's are present in our current economy. The tax legislation he passed gave the majority of breaks to the ultra rich. He said that the extra money to the rich would stimulate the economy, create jobs and strengthen our working sectors. That is all complete bullsh!t and anyone who has lived more than a day on this planet knows that. Trickle down economics has never and will never work. One of the major reasons the stock market looks so good right now is because instead of large corporations trickling their extra money down to the workers and using it for expansion of their businesses and better wages for workers, they are spending trillions in buying back stock and unnaturally inflating the market. The market doing well has nothing to do with the middle and lower class people who make up the majority of the populous stimulating the economy. They are still struggling just as much as they were before the tax break.
Tariffs are things that have been used in the past to exert pressure at times, but they are things that Trump has no understanding of. He imposed unconstitutional tariffs on China, and China destroyed our AG sector almost immediately, to the point that Trump has had to bail out farmers with billions over the past couple of years. Trump also doesn't understand how tariffs work. The majority of items coming into our country come from China. We impose tariffs on those items. China doesn't pay those tariffs. China sends their products, American companies importing those products have to pay the tariffs, and the extra money the American companies pay gets passed down in the form of higher prices for the products consumers have to purchase that came from China. So China isn't paying those tariffs, the American consumers ultimately are. And China doesn't care about tariffs. They can play the long game, and know that Trump will only be around for so long. Trump saying that he is the master negotiator has really not panned out in the reality we live in every day. Trump sucks at negotiating and will sell the farm for nothing and brag about the great deal he made.
Turnover is something I find interesting with the Trump Administration. As of November 1st, 80% of the 65 core A-Team positions have turned over. Of those core 65 positions that have turned over, 33% of them have went through serial turnover. These positions have gone through up to 4 people holding the positions. If you look at Trump's Cabinet turnover it is very telling for sure. So far, there have been 10 cabinet positions turned over in less than 3 years in office. Compare that to Obama that had a total turnover in his first four years of 3 positions, George W. Bush who had 2, Clinton who had 4, H.W. Bush who had 8, and Reagan who had 6 turnovers in 4 years. There's still another year of his first term, and Trump's Cabinet has already far surpassed previous presidents.
If I write too much longer this will be more of a book than a blog, but the sad thing is that I could go on for days with subject after subject that clearly shows we have a president who is incapable of making rational decisions, whose underlings continually worry about the decisions he will make, who cozies up to dictators, who treats allies horribly, who makes racist comments often, who makes misogynistic comments often, who is a pathological liar, who has sociopathic and narcissistic tendencies, who has no empathy....I mean literally NO empathy what-so-ever, who denigrates people constantly, who calls the free press the enemy of the people when they don't agree with him, who has done everything in his power to obstruct investigations that have been completely fair and constitutional, and who shouldn't in any way be supported by the citizens of this great country. In fact, there is ample evidence when viewed in totality that leans most to believe Trump has gone through some major cognitive decline during his presidency, and that should lead people to have great concern.
I can't present all of the facts or my opinions because there is just too much to talk about. I do hope that I have presented enough to sway someone to realize they are making a grave mistake if they support this president moving forward, or to at least get someone to look for the facts instead of trust the rhetoric spewed by this administration and its supporters. Know that behind closed doors the majority of Congressional GOP members hate this president. They don't say it publicly, but they hate that they have to support him. The fact is that they don't have to, but they are looking out for their own futures more than they are the best interests of this country and their constituents, who happen to be you and me.
As this freight train continues to ride off the rails toward November of 2020, know what is most important for this country right now. #VoteBlueNoMatterWho
I have said many times that I am not a straight ticket voter, and there are issues with both parties, but the largest issue right now that needs to be dealt with is a President and GOP that is off the rails and needs to be stopped. If you disagree, I welcome and open discussion about it in the comments.
I greatly appreciate you taking the time to read my blog. Please comment and have a discussion with me on the subject. Please share my blog on social media. I post to Facebook, Twitter, and Blogger.com. I appreciate the discussions that drive change. Let's have those discussions.
DUNK
Comments