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Like all our posts, this post is the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of the editors.
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Lewis Carroll’s fictional 1865 masterpiece, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, seems to have come alive in the 2017 White House. “The players all played at once without waiting for turns, quarrelling all the while, and fighting for the hedgehogs; and in a very short time the Queen was in a furious passion, and went stamping about, and shouting’ Off with his head!’ or ‘Off with her head!’ about once in a minute.”
Without a proper coronation, the President is limited to “fired.” He’s holding his inner circle close and cutting loose ends that threaten to expose the truth of his malfeasance.
“My way or the highway,” must echo throughout the West Wing every thirty minutes. His explosive delight as his Trumpcare (AHCA) health plan narrowly squeaked by Paul Ryan’s GOP-controlled House of Representatives, made the news. Standing in the Rose Garden with his fellow politicians, President celebrated his win, his first in over one hundred days. If it becomes law, twenty-four million Americans will lose insurance coverage. All this, thanks to Nixon who removed the non-profit constraints on insurance and hospitals.
Meanwhile, on the Russian front, just before Sally Yates was to testify, the President tweeted. “Postpone the hearing.” Despite his outburst, the hearing goes on. GOP senators are more interested in Hillary’s emails, the leakage of unclassified information, and the failed immigration edict than Russian infiltration into our elections, campaign officials, and the President’s family holdings.
Senator Al Franken came up with the big question: why did it take eighteen days from when Michael Flynn was identified as a Russian agent to when he was fired?
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In 1973, Richard Nixon was on the brink of impeachment for failing to produce a missing eighteen minutes of White House tape recordings made during Watergate. In comparison, eighteen days is monumental. To stave off any legal indictments, Nixon ordered that special prosecutor Archibald Cox be fired after he asked for the tapes. He had to go through three top officials, the first two of which resigned before his order would be carried out by Solicitor General Robert Bork.
In 2017, is the current President feeling the Russian noose tightening, threatening to end his, and his family’s, kleptocracy? His every action is scrutinized and criticized. His joyous 2016 electorate now sees their lives being destroyed and are flooding town halls to express their fury. His allies are paid, not true. An investigation is the last thing he needs. So, taking another page out of Nixon’s book, the President fires FBI Director James Comey, the man leading the FBI investigations into the allegations that people in the Presidents campaign had secret ties to Russia.
Slowly, we are seeing the dismantling of institutions we have come to rely on. There are those who think the GOP Congress is bought and paid for, totally dismissing any obligation they swore to uphold with respect to their constituents. By removing the FBI Director, the President is toying with the checks and balances that underpin the safeguards of our justice system.
What I see is the dismantling of the independence of Congress, using the White House as his personal consulting business, his 2020 campaign dollars as his cash flow cash cow, and his position to feather his children’s investments. All to distract from the growing legal cases against him, the ongoing gerrymandering and voter fraud, the war mongering which may very well start World War III, to the profits of the industrial-military complex and the loss of untold numbers of lives, the wall which is now a fence, and his collusion with murderous tyrants.
It’s not going to work. The distractions are not going to get in the way of the truth, whatever that may be. Like Nixon, who resigned to avoid a legal investigation into his part in Watergate, the President will face a similar choice. Stay and fight or resign.
The only thing that will save him, and send us into fascism, is the dismantling of the judicial branch before he has to face his accusers. I pray that does not happen.
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Photo: Getty Images
It’s not going to work. amazing