“You Can Fool Some of the People All the Time” — Has Trump Won?

“You Can Fool Some of The People All the Time” — Has Trump Won?

President Lincoln might have said this, but Trump, and his cohort, and his Party, and his Fox News, live it.  As long as 90% of them stay loyal to him, no Republican politician will abandon Trump. 

It seems true, as I think Adam Schiff said, that if we let Trump get away with this cheating on foreign influence in our election, for the second time, he will just go on doing it.  But what we didn’t learn until today, was that Rudy Giuliani is still in Europe seeking dirt on the Bidens.  Trump hasn’t even paused a blink.

Trump’s cohort now includes Acting Chief of Staff and head of OMB Mick Mulvaney, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Attorney General William Barr, Energy Secretary Rick Perry, Rep. Devin Nunez, Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee, and George Washington law school’s highly partisan Professor Jonathan Turley.  

Turley was rhetorically asked if he knew of any reason why Hunter Biden was qualified to be on the board of directors of the Ukrainian natural gas company Burisma Holdings Limited.  Initially, I thought this was odd also.  However, there are many reasons that Burisma would want him, which Trumpians are forced to be blind to.  For one thing, the Bidens believe in Climate Change, which is a long term threat to natural gas companies, since a major fraction of their resources will have to remain buried in the ground.  In the near term, natural gas is needed to replace coal, to balance fluctuating renewables, and for heating.  Strategically, Ukraine has been invaded by Russia, and needs someone who can reassure them that the US is committed to support them.  Burisma has had other board members from the Bush administration and the Kerry campaign.  When Russia seized Crimea, it inherited drilling rights to offshore oil in the Black Sea worth a trillion dollars.  The eastern Ukraine was captured by Russia since it is the source of rich mines.  Also, many people are on boards because they have significant contacts, not because they have personally built autos, or drilled for oil or natural gas.  

It turned out that Trump has said during the campaign that Russia deserved Ukraine because they had once taken it before.  Or that people in Crimea spoke Russian.  Trump blocked crucial defense money to Ukraine to get them to denounce the Bidens.  That is the basis of the impeachment hearings.  Trump believed Putin that Ukraine hacked the DNC, not Russia.  Republicans are still trying to defend these actions and Trump’s Putin obeisance.  They have no right to complain about the Biden’s support of Ukraine.

The judiciary questioner referred to Hunter Bidens recompense of $600,000 a year.  This is peanuts to Trump’s family, who have gotten $600 million dollar loans while he has been in office.  Also, Trump’s weekend visits to his golf courses and properties, which is also advertising, have cost US taxpayers $110 million dollars, so far.  The questioner also mentioned the impropriety of nepotism.  Ka-boom for Trump’s family, with two very unqualified members in the White House, Ivanka and Jared, both doing foreign policy.  Has Jared ever built a border wall?  Negotiated a peace treaty?  Remember, Trump defeated a Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton.  And is unexplainably indebted to Putin.

Turley said that the impeachment is rushed, and that they need to interview more witnesses.  Even the newscasters caught the insincerity of this, since Trump has forbidden all witnesses to testify, or for any document requests to be granted.  Trump is dragging their feet by slowly progressing through as many courts as possible, with the hope that his Supreme Court will save him from impeachment.  In fact, the unprecedented blockage of Congressional oversight may be one of the impeachment charges of obstruction.  I especially liked the statement that George Washington would not have favored impeachment based on a single phone call.  I don’t think that that would have been George’s response.  I think it would have been: what is a telephone?

Since not a single Republican has indicated that they would support impeachment, since his Republican voters are totally supporting him, and since he may still be supported by his court, Trump has really won.  Even if Trump’s cohort is forced to testify, they will all take the 5th, since they are all guilty.  And Republicans will still not be swayed.

About Dennis SILVERMAN

I am a retired Professor of Physics and Astronomy at U C Irvine. For two decades I have been active in learning about energy and the environment, and in reporting on those topics for a decade. For the last four years I have added science policy. Lately, I have been reporting on the Covid-19 pandemic of our times.
This entry was posted in Affairs of State, Climate Change, Climate Education, Congress, Congressional Investigation, Constitution, Donald Trump, Equal Treatment Under the Law, Fifth Amendment, Fossil Fuel Energy, Impeachment, Oil, Politics, Russia, Supreme Court. Bookmark the permalink.

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