Moral High Ground

What the hell is the matter with us?  I awoke from reality in November of 2016 and have since found myself in an alternative reality.  Worse than that, I am in an alternative reality show.  This cannot be real.  Not in the United States of America.  It is high time we re-think our moral foundations.  What we are currently doing and where we are currently going is immoral, illegal, criminal and corrupt.  How in the world are we allowing this to go on?

Some basic ground rules.  If you still support Trump you have the absolute right to be wrong, the right to think in un-American ways, the right to agree with our enemies, the right to believe lies, the right to be conned, the right to be a victim of propaganda, the right to think that making money is the highest moral calling, and the right to believe a crook, liar and charlatan is the best we can do.  Meanwhile, everyone has the right to be right, the right to be American, the right to be patriotic, the right to make decisions and judgment based on facts, science, evidence and the law, the right to be reasonable and the right to be moral.  Sound fair?

Trump’s lies are so thoroughly documented that there is no need to rehash all that.  If you still believe he does not lie you are not reading or thinking and you have the right to be wrong.  Check out https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/11/02/president-trump-has-made-false-or-misleading-claims-over-days/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.7ccde6767e93 or https://www.politifact.com/personalities/donald-trump/statements/byruling/false/ or just Google Trump lies.  Our President is a liar.  A consummate liar.  He is a liar beyond anything we have ever seen in the Oval Office, and he lies without guilt believing that his base will support him even though he lies.  He is correct if his base remains as immoral as he is.

Trump has been married three times, cheated on all his wives, is now subject to 26 sexual harassment suits, has paid porn stars and hookers for sex then paid them to not tell anyone they had sex.  His relationships with women are immoral by any definition other than ancient mid-eastern standards. 

Trump has ordered his attorney to pay women to keep quiet about sex during his Presidential campaign.  That is a felony.  His attorney is going to prison for three years for doing as Trump ordered.  We know from a host of corroborating facts that Trump gave the order.  That makes Trump a felon and he will go to prison.

Trump’s campaign was supported by the Russians.  We know that.  It is not subject to debate.  The Russians entered the campaign via Facebook, Twitter and cash donations laundered through the NRA.  People will go to prison for this as well.  Trump denied having any financial interest in Russia but we now know that was false as he was negotiating for a Trump hotel in Moscow during his campaign.  This is not only a violation of the law, it is treason.  Trump’s campaign is under FBI investigation.

Trump’s inauguration team accepted money from donors in exchange for favors from Trump.  That is a felony and people will go to prison for that as well.  Trump’s inauguration team is under FBI investigation.

Trump has increased his personal income while President in clear violation of the Constitution.  Having the tax payers pay for rooms at Trump hotels and weekends at Mira Lago enrich Trump.  That is under investigation by the New York Attorney General.

Trump’s charitable foundation was under investigation and New York has now ruled that the Trumps are unfit to run such a foundation and they are shutting it down.  The charitable foundation now goes the same way as Trump University, Trump Airlines, Trump Beverages, Trump the Game, Trump casinos, Trump Magazine, Trump mortgage company, Trump Steaks, Trump’s Travel Site, Trump communication company, Trump Tower Tampa, Trump Vodka, Trump Ice, the New Jersey Generals, Tour de Trump, Trump on the Ocean, The Trump Network (vitamin pyramid scheme), Trump Radio Show, and Trump New Media.  Worse, Trump refuses to release his tax returns so we are not sure where he makes his money.  He wants to keep that a secret.

Despite the ongoing mantra from Trump that the Mueller investigation is just a witch hunt the evidence is that the Mueller investigation has uncovered a vast network of greed and corruption.  33 People and companies have been indicted and/or plead guilty to a variety of crimes.  And the investigation continues with Trump being listed as “individual 1” and/or “Unindicted co-conspirator.”  My favorite line from Trump’s propaganda machine is that some of these people are lying to get lighter sentences and one cannot trust a liar.  Clearly time to talk pots and kettles.

Trump’s economy is a bust.  We have yet to see a Trump budget, though we have heard of massive cuts in support services and increases in defense spending.  His tax cut has been a disaster.  For the umpteenth time we have learned that giving rich people more money does not result in trickle down improvement.  What it does is give rich people more money.  Hoover, Coolidge, Nixon, Reagan, and the Bushes have all confirmed that it does not work.  It still does not work.  The great employment figures we see are the result of the Obama budget and policies which showed growth beginning in 2010 and is just now ending.  Trump’s tariffs are hurting American producers more than foreign producers.  Farmers, auto and motorcycle manufactures are particularly hard hit and Trump is talking bailouts for some of these groups to retain their support.  The market is headed down and interest rates are headed up.  There has been no other time with such a dramatic downturn in the market since 1929.

Trump has had two years with a Republican Senate and a Republican House and has only been able to pass one major piece of legislation, the tax plan that is now shown to be harming us.

We have dropped from being the leader of the free world to a laughingstock nation.  From withdrawal from the Paris Accords, acrimony over NATO, UN, EU, while praising enemies like North Korea and Russia Trump has sent our allies scrambling.  They are now meeting without us to form new alliances that will leave us out.  His sudden withdrawal from Syria is typical of his inability to function on a world stage and has stunned and amazed our allies, not to mention our own military and intelligence agencies.  His emissaries to world conferences are now being laughed at.  And if all that wasn’t enough, he cannot even get an invite to prestigious weddings and funerals.  He has become an international pariah and it is hurting us deeply.

Trump and his appointees are systematically undoing decades of advancement in human rights and climate damage mitigation.  The clear priority has been to continue to support the work of the fossil fuel industry while the evidence that our consumption of fossil fuels is killing our planet, and killing us.  Federal lands now open to oil exploration and Exxon/Mobil is granted a financial hardship exemption from complying with current emission standards.  Auto makers are voluntarily following previous emissions standards now abandoned by Trump.  The Secretary of Education is changing the rules for women who claim sexual assault so that the rules now favor the male’s defense.  And the hype over immigration is just that.  Hype.  The most dangerous people in America today are right-wing, white males with guns who are the ones responsible for our increasing mass shootings.  But for Trump any increase in the number of brown faces in this country is bad news.

We must decide if we will allow this immoral, corrupt administration to continue.  We will allow children separated from their parents?  Will we allow tear gassing of people seeking asylum?  Will we allow a President who is more interested in making money for himself than defending our nation?  Will we allow a liar and an adulterer and a sexual assaulter to remain in office? 

We must take the moral high ground if we are to truly be the United States of America and not a nation state devoted to being the protector of bigotry, misogyny, and greed.  Trump swore he would protect and defend this nation.  The evidence is he is making our country much worse and the only entity he is protecting and defending is Trump.

Trump must go.  Soon.