FOIA 112120

 If America is ever able to rout this administration’s dictatorship of lies the country will have difficulty finding out its truths.  The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) was passed to provide an accountability window into hidden government.  The act is available to any citizen but mostly utilized by journalist and scholars to discover what is really going on in government.    The United States’ government is supposedly an open government of the people.   Administrations have attempted to “stonewall” FOIA request preventing exposure of its governing blunders and waste but ultimately records become available.

Written records are considered factual and complete.  Therein lies the problem with this administration, not only does Trump lie, long and loud his appointees have falsified files to support his prevarications.  Trump has personally removed meeting notes so only his interpretations exist.  He has held meetings with the Putin without even an American translator present; there are no notes in U.S. files.  Since Trump’s lost, his appointees have been sanitizing official files and reportedly destroying some official records.  These records are supposed to be filed in the national archives for future research.

There is some hope for researchers finding accurate original information.  This is the age of copy machines, computer redundancy and video records Trump will never be able destroy all existing copies of compromising information.  Researchers however will be faced with sorting through contradicting copies of the same record.  They may find references to missing documents that could lead to criminal investigations of administration activities.

Since the election it appears that instead of a graceful transition Trump is engaged in a scorched earth effort to insure the country that rejected him is ungovernable.  Without accurate records of past agreements, contracts, deals or even conversations the next administration is highly vulnerable.  Its decision processes could be hostage to special interests’ interpretations of U.S. commitments. Nero fiddled while Rome burned, Trump will enjoy the show from his front nine.

'Whathoppened' 111820

The United States has faced two major traumatic events in its almost 250 year history.  The first was a civil war fought over states' rights.  A war that cost over 620 thousand American soldiers lives (S+N); unknown numbers of civilian casualties and finally defined the federal union.   The cost of this war was justified by the objective of uniting the nation.  The second great national trauma is still going on with an objective of shattering that union and dividing the nation.  To date the casualty rate is in the millions with over a quarter million dead.

Civil war casualties were the result of guns, bayonets, starvation and disease.  It was a simple time; doctors were just beginning to understand how to save lives.    A hundred and fifty years later, in what is now the world’s most advanced society with exceptional medical capabilities the Union has been attacked by an unknown lethal Virus.  The federal government that was forged on American battlefields 150 years ago has told the states that it is their problem and they are on their own.  Without Washington’s guidance and assistance, 50 individual states are struggling to deal what a national catastrophe.  The Trump administration denied the national danger even impeded a coordinated response.  Trump’s inability to accept science led to his denial and demonization along with mobilization of his red hats to ignore precautions leading to runaway contagion.   Without access to federal resources, states struggle to deal with a complex dynamic disaster.  People are dying, going hungry, and losing their homes and faith in the national government.   Trump’s response, “not my problem” on his way to the golf course.

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So ‘whathoppened’ in the last four years that led to disunity trends in the United States.  A view from the bottom has to look back to before the 2016 election.  Hillary Clinton campaigned for eight years and was widely considered a shoo in for president.  Apparently even the GOP believed it, nominating a known con man to disrupt the election processes, as he made good TV.  Clinton’s over exposure tagged her as a wicked witch supported by her loyal coven.  Over confident arrogance led to her poor strategic campaign, and surpriseingly Trump won.  The GOP was left with a TV clown.  Its leadership assumed they would be able to “control” a three-ring circus.  Congressional Republican leaders seized the opportunity to advance their agendas giving Trump early support.  They quickly discovered they were the ones being “controlled” and couldn’t recover their constitution powers.   

Using social media Trump mobilized an extremely radical Red Hat army that took to the streets and became a political power, frightening the GOP.  Trump became bully in chief and through a series of executive orders began to destroy American foreign and domestic policies.  He embraced authoritarian regimes stroking his ego while punishing allies refusing to kneel before him. Continuing campaign disinformation rallies convinced the Red Hats that he ruled in their interest. They pressured local governments to follow Trump’s white surpremist agenda beginning a great divide.  Trump openly used his power to intimidate, bribe, tamper with reality and ignored federal & constitutional law.  He awarded no bid federal contracts to unqualified big donors to his interests.  Trump used federal monies to reward supporting states and denied support to states that opposed his “greatness”.  When the world was racked by a pandemic in 2019.  Trump had surrendered America’s world leadership while denying the growing danger.  His distrust of science and loose grip on reality led to a disinformation campaign against scientific medical advice.  Five months after the outbreak he finally admitted the country was experiencing a minor medical challenge that would soon pass.  Instead of national leadership Trump blamed the states for not dealing with the problems.  Following his directions federal agencies denied state support and hospitals soon became overwhelmed.

Trump continued his mass campaign rallies and by election 2020 the epidemic was out of control.  The Democrats allowed Trump to define their party through extensive disinformation while he continued to reward state supporters and punish opposition.  The people voted and the demonization of Democrats stuck. The GOP won but Trump himself lost big time.  Trump's problem is the electorate had begun to tire of  “Trumpery” (look it up) and demagoguery.  The Trump era is like a bad sit-com that had been cancelled.  It still has a large cult following but more viewers have tired of the same jokes and poor plot.  

Narcissistic Trump refuses to accept his loss and is fighting to overturn election results.  He has mobilized his Red Hats with unfounded conspiracy theories.  He is attempting to reverse his loss by wearing down opposition with frivolous, wild lawsuits that are being rejected in courts.  Trump is a loser attempting to burn down the nation that has rejected his delusional self-image.  He refuses to recognize the new administration while attempting to imbed loyal Red Hats deep within government and disrupt future foreign relations by agreements against American interest.  Trump, the loser, hopes to deny Biden's, the winner, ability to govern a broken nation.  Trump probably sees himself as a king in exile pulling GOP strings to rule in absentia.  Biden may not be able to repair the divisive damage done to the union in his term but it is improbable that Trump can make a comeback as more truths leak out.

The real estate developers code: Never use your own money and there is profit in chaos.  We may never know how much profit Trump made from the chaos he created.

Coup 111120

 Election 2020 is the election that won’t end with the incumbent loser attempting a coup by reversing its results in the finest fascist tradition.

Trump’s political career follows the classic fascist model. Identify a disenchanted segment of the population; feed it a diet of fear, hate and lies at spectacular rallies while wrapped in false patriotism.  Consolidate power by creating a uniform to distinguish radical followers from an “opposition” (black shirts, brown shirts, RED HATS).   Then incite the red hats to intimidate and attack the general population creating systemic vulnerability for the country.  That vulnerability facilitates the use of democratic processes to seize power.  In power corrupt the institutions of government by replacing judges and professional civil service with unqualified red hat loyalist.  Then micro manage through one a man rule that ignores unwelcome dynamic realities.

This is the model of Stalin, Mussolini, and Hitler among others.  This difference between Trump and the big three dictators, they were a lot smarter.  Remember they ended in destroying their countries and Trump is on track to destroy his country and his party. This administration is one of Trump rule not Trump governance. From day one it has been campaign Trump, feeding the red hats their regular diet of fear, hate and lies.  This has been the most corrupt national administration in American history.  Unlike straight arrow Grant’s administration Trump not only condones agency corruption but runs much of it from the White House.  Consider no-bid contracts for political donors, witness intimidation, bribery, jury tampering, a stream of obvious lies and waste of tax dollars for political support.  At the same time Trump withholds funds to organizations and states not considered sufficiently 'loyal' to the golfer in chief.  Election 2020 was a ‘come to Jesus moment’ for Trump (remember he claimed to be divinely chosen) he lost and lost big.

In his blundering careers he had many failures and bankruptcies but these were mostly out of sight. However during election 2020 he was publicly tagged as a loser and may also have bankrupted his party and even the country.  It’s possible that being a loser is not the issue that bothers Trump but rather the public exposure of his character flaws that led to his defeat.  He is flailing away crying fraud, robbery and hiring hundreds of lawyers (he can’t pay) to muddy election waters, possibly an effort to prevent states from certifying the election results to justify his coup.  A week after the election Trump continues refuses to acknowledge his lost filing multiple challenges to the results.  GOP party leaders, from fear or self-interest, are supporting Trump’s claims that the election was stolen.  They claim that they are giving Trump’s ego time to adjust to his lost but the truth of the matter is that they are accessory in Trump’s attempted coup.

While his coup attempt flounders on he hides in the White House watching TV and tweeting a steady diet of lies and ordering the red hats send money to pay his bills and for more lawsuits in support of his coup.  It appears that he is still trying to incite his red hats to lead a revolution returning Trump to power.  While waiting for the revolution Trump ignores the nation’s peril from what history may call the GOP virus for its failures to deal with the crisis.

Now while thousands are dying, like the Queen of Hearts he is shouting “Off with their heads,” but must settle with decapitating national security agencies to degrade the next administration ability to govern.  If he ultimately must surrender when his coup fails it won't be his fault.  The red hats will have betrayed Der Donald and the country deserves to die.