Politics

Read The Transcript

~ Mr. Rantastic ~ Leave a comment

As the impeachment inquiry heats up, Donald Trump continues to urge people to ‘read the transcript’ of his call with the Ukrainian president. His assumption is that if they did they would see that he did nothing impeachable.

What the White House issued last month is not actually a verbatim transcript of the call. Instead, as the White House fully admitted, it is a summary of the call. As the White House would like to present it.

The summary was still bad enough that the Democrats started an impeachment inquiry. But based on the summary, Trump is unlikely to be convicted by the Senate.

The problem for Trump is that the verbatim transcript will eventually come out. People are going to read it. Trump’s summary is going to look like a coverup. And coverups are what sink politicians.

The Dem’s Little Blue Book

~ Mr. Rantastic ~ Leave a comment

The whole impeachment drama is starting to shape up less as an investigation of what Donald Trump might have done wrong and more of a constitutional battle. Trump’s position seems to be that a sitting president is immune from criminal prosecution, and Congress cannot investigate him for impeachment if its motive is ‘political’.

There is support for the first point. Many constitutional experts feel that presidents can only be criminally indited after they leave office. The reason? The Constitution provides a special way way to take a president down: impeachment.

Ttump is wrong on his second point. The Constitution does not give the president a pass if he feels that the impeachment is politically motivated. In fact, it almost always is. The president has to turn over the information that Congress requests. The Supreme Court unanimously upheld that principle back in the Nixon Watergate days.

Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats are wasting an opportunity, They should print up little copies of the Constitution in booklet form. Blue covers with an American flag. Hand them out at every rally, debate and voter registration event.

Claim the Constitution as their issue.

Before the Republicans do.

Carter Wastes An Opportunity

~ Mr. Rantastic ~ Leave a comment

Jimmy Cater just advised Donald Trump to “tell the truth . . .for a change.” Why in the world would Trump do that? Being loose with the truth has worked just fine for him so far. He convinced investors to back dubious real estate projects that made him very wealthy. He built his political chops by embracing fringe conspiracy theories and outright lies.

Lying is a wining strategy for Trump. He would be crazy to change.

Carter wasted an opportunity. Instead of saying his advice for Trump was to tell the truth, he should have answered in a more truthful manner. “I would advise him to stop lying, but we know that is never going to happen, so I will just pass on this one.”

Bullsh*t President?

~ Mr. Rantastic ~ Leave a comment

Donald Trump got called out the other day for using the word ‘bullshit’ in a Tweet. It is not the first time he has used that word, but the news media made a big deal out of it.

It opens the door for some Democrat or pundit to point out that by using that word, Trump is affirming his reputation as the ‘bullshit’ president.

Trump’s (Classified) Hospitality

~ Mr. Rantastic ~ Leave a comment

So far we don’t really know what Donald Trump exactly said to the Ukrainian president, or any other world leaders for that matter. Despite subpoenas from the House of Representatives, Trump is not turning over the transcripts.

It is easy to understand Trump’s reluctance. Not because there is anything classified in the calls. But because he probably said something that would have Congress on his back even harder. Something that sounds a bit like extortion for private gain.

“Thanks for staying at my hotel. Please come again.”

Is Trump A Racist?

~ Mr. Rantastic ~ 1 Comment

It seems like every few months Donald Trump says or does something that is labelled ‘racist’. This leads to people calling Trump racist and him denying it, which accomplishes nothing. And then we wait a few months for the next incident.

The thing is, everyone is missing the point.  The issue is not whether Donald Trump is racist. The issue is whether Donald Trump thinks that his supporters are racists.

We know that everything Trump says and does is calculated at keeping the support of his base. If he says racist things, it must be because he thinks his base wants to hear those kinds of things. Because he thinks they are racists.

So the next time a reporter asks one of the Democrats if they think Trump is a racists, they should turn the tables and answer, “I’m not sure, but it is pretty clear that he thinks his supporters are. Which is kind of an insult to them, don’t you think?”

Fake News Transcript

~ Mr. Rantastic ~ Leave a comment

Has anyone noticed that the ‘transcript’ of Donald Trump’s call to the Ukrainian president was ‘rough’ and not necessarily the actual word for word conversation? (Probably because the word for word conversation reflected even worse on Trump.)

Has anyone accused Trump of publishing fake news with the transcript?

That’s what it is, isn’t it?

The Dem’s Twitter Problem

~ Mr. Rantastic ~ Leave a comment

The Democrats have a Twitter problem: They suck at it.

Donald Trump has understands that Twitter is a amazing platform for punchy one-liners. He is brilliant at it. His sound bites come fast and furious and the press eats it up so he dominates the news cycle at will.

The Dems have no answer to this. Their top legislators, Nancy Peolsi and Chuck Schumer, play it safe on Twitter. Rising stars like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar do as well. That makes sense electorally and legislatively, but not in terms of taking Trump on.

What the Dems need is a trash talking surrogate. Someone who can command press attention, sink to Trump’s level of discourse and command enough press attention to stay in the news.

The obvious option is one of the almost 20 people running for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. One of them should just go for it. How about Beto O’Rourke? There is no way he actually get the nomination, but the press loves him and if he goes mano a mano against Trump on Twitter they will love him even more.

It might even boost his presidential chances. After all, it worked for Trump.

The Truth About Trump’s Taxes

~ Mr. Rantastic ~ Leave a comment

The Democrats want to take a look at Donald Trump’s taxes. What are they going to find that we don’t already know?

We already know that Trump doesn’t pay a lot of taxes. He says this makes him smart, and you know what? It does. Who doesn’t want to take advantage of the tax code and its loopholes?

The tax returns might also show that Trump is not as wealthy as he claims to be. But we already know this as well. The fact that Donald Trump exaggerates his wealth, hand size or whatever when it suits him is not going to shock anyone.

So why is Trump fighting so hard to keep his taxes private? One reason is ego – he doesn’t want to have to admit that he exaggerates his wealth. But there is probably a bigger reason.

Trump’s tax returns likely contain a whole bunch of information about who he is doing business with. His partnerships are probably with obscure off shore entities, but some journalist is eventually going to figure out who is behind them.

When the world sees who Trump is doing business with it is not going to look good for him. Nor will it be good for Trump’s business partners. None of them will appreciate being in the spotlight.

The Trump Who Called ‘Wolf’?

~ Mr. Rantastic ~ Leave a comment

A few weeks ago Donald Trump threatened to close the Mexican border. “I’m not playing games” said Trump. Some people evidently thought he was, so two days later the White House had to double down: Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway insisted that the president’s threat “certainly isn’t a bluff.”

Still, no one really took him all that seriously, except the talking heads in the media that needed fresh meat to chew on. Sure enough, less than a week after his threat, Trump reversed himself. He was going to give Mexico a “one year warning” instead.

The same week, Trump also backed off on a threat to go after Obamacare again. The last time Trump actually followed through on one of his big threats, he shut the government down and it didn’t work out so well for him.

Still, don’t look for Trump to stop making threats. It’s his MO and has worked for him all of his life. In addition, he doesn’t appear to know any other way to negotiate.

The problem for Trump is that fewer and fewer people believe his treats. Which makes him look impotent. Which is a problem for all of us, because if he feels like no one is taking him seriously he may resort to something dramatic that could be good for his ego but a disaster for the country.