Yesterday, Donald Trump’s other “rat,” the one he pays NOT to blow the whistle on him did what no one expected he could do.  Rudy Guliani one-upped Michael Cohen who had previously testified his attempts on behalf of the Trump Organization to close a deal for a Trump Tower in Moscow continued through June 2016.  On yesterday’s edition of  ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulis, Guliani announced the efforts had continued right up to election day.  This is a saga of which great moments in literature emerge.  The muse calls.

Chapter 1. Loomings

Call me Ish-michael. Some years ago—never mind how long precisely—having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me in the pursuit of law, I thought I would stray a little and see the underside parts of the world. This is my substitute for pistol and ball. There is nothing surprising in this. If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree, some time or other, cherish very nearly the same feelings towards the path with me.

There now is your insular city of  Washington, DC, belted round by twelve-lane thoroughfares—power and fame surrounds it. Right and left, the streets take you downward. Its extreme downtown is the federal enclave and K Street, where that noble cause of public service is washed away by money, and cooled by Starbucks’ iced coffee, which a few hours previous were out of sight. Look at the crowds of power seekers there.

Thus begins the tale of Moscow Dick, the story of a young, restless and ambitious lawyer who, in pursuit of wealth and celebrity hitches his star to a captain of real estate, not knowing his benefactor was obsessed, driven by a whale of a real estate deal he would pursue for 30 years.  To truly understand the tale I would need to take you through each day and every event which leads to the climax.  But, I am supposed to be on holiday break.  So I will skip the detail and share with you the culmination of Ish-michael and his master’s fascination of putting his name on an edifice in the shadow of the Kremlin.

Chapter 135.  The Chase.–Third Decade

The morning of the third decade dawned fair and fresh, and once more I was called to Mr. Trump’s chamber. .

“D’ye ink it, Ish-michael?” cried Mr. Trump; but the deal was not yet in sight.

Suddenly a low rumbling sound was heard; a subterraneous hum; and then all held their breaths; as bedraggled with promises of lifted sanctions and a penthouse, a vast form shot lengthwise, but obliquely from the Kremlin. Shrouded in a thin drooping veil of mist, Putin hovered for a moment in the rainbowed air. Crushed thirty feet upwards, the waters flashed for an instant like heaps of fountains, leaving only the image of marble stairways, gold-fixtured rooms.

“Give way!” cried Mr. Trump to me, Ivanka and Junior, as we darted forward to the attack.

An offer was proffered; but the negotiations ran foul.  Mr. Trump stooped to save it; but he could not and was eventually dragged from the ship of state, and the House and Senate knew he was gone. Next instant, the dreams of Moscow Dick and his captain disappeared into the depths.

Epilogue.  “And I Only Am Escaped Alone to Tell Thee.” JOB

The drama’s done. Why then here does any one step forth?—Because one did survive the wreck. I was he whom the Fates ordained to take the place of Mr. Trump’s bowsman, Mr. Pence, when that bowsman assumed the vacant post; the same, who, when on the last day was also tossed from out of the rocking boat, was dropped astern. I floated on a soft and dirgelike main. On the second day, a sail drew near, nearer, and picked me up at last. It was the devious-cruising SS Pelosi, that in her retracing search after her missing children, only found another orphan.

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP

Time again for Rabbi ESP’s New Testament scripture lesson of the week.  Today, the focus is on the importance of knowledge.

Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.

~John 8:32

There are two buildings on which I know this verse to be prominently displayed.  The first is Upham Hall at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.  For my first five years as a faculty member, I would see this message every morning on the way to my office on the second floor.  It was a constant reminder my primary job was not teaching students how to write a business plan.  Instead, the goal was enabling students to observe, dissect and analyze information and their own experience to better understand the world in which they lived.

The second place one can find John’s missive is on the wall in the lobby of the Central Intelligence Agency’s headquarters in Langley, Virginia.  Just as I had to face this directive every day, fortunately so did CIA director Gina Haspel.  Yesterday, when Haspel gave a closed door briefing to a select group of U.S. Senators about the role of the Saudi Crown Prince in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, there was no doubt the message was received.

Do not EVER again say women are the weaker sex.  Haspel listened to the audio of Khashoggi’s torture, murder and dismemberment, something Trump, secretary of state Mike Pompeo and national security advisor John Bolton could not find the courage to do.  And having heard the screams of an American resident and journalist, she made a decision.  She chose not to carry Trump’s water as did Pompeo and defense secretary Jim Mattis.  Following their Senate briefing, these two cabinet members claimed there was “no smoking gun” to directly link Mohammed bin Salman to Khashoggi’s murder.

In contrast, upon leaving the Haspel hearing,  Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told the press, “There’s not a smoking gun, there’s a smoking saw.”  Senator Bob Corker (R-TN), chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, added, “We know he (bin Salman) ordered it.  We know he monitored it.  If the case was submitted to a jury, he would be convicted in 30 minutes.”

The implications of Graham’s and Corker’s response go far beyond the Khashoggi incident.  One of the burning questions in the Nation’s capital is how long can Republican lawmakers stick with Trump.  Yesterday, we may have learned the answer.  When Gina Haspel shared the documented truth, she set Graham and Corker free to put country ahead of self-interest (playing to the Republican base) and ahead of towing Trump’s party line.

This morning Joe Scarborough shared the following observation by  General Michael Hayden, former director of both the CIA and the National Security Agency.

You can look and see who Donald Trump has gone to war against.  It’s the intel communities.  It’s the justice department.  It’s the courts.  It’s the media.  It’s the academy.  It’s the sciences.  Fact finders.  People whose entire existence is based on digging for the truth and letting Americans know what that truth is.  That is what we saw yesterday with Gina Haspel, and General Hayden would be so proud of her.

Last night we heard from another “fact finder,” special counsel Robert Mueller.  Although, much of the memorandum containing his office’s recommendation re: the sentencing of Michael Flynn was redacted, there was one line which should give Trump and his defense team pause.  “As part of his assistance with these investigations, the defendant participated in 19 interviews with the SCO (Special Counsel’s Office) or attorneys from other Department of Justice offices, provided documents and communications (my emphasis) REDACTED.”  It was the audio from within the Saudi embassy in Istanbul which gave credence to Gaspel’s testimony.  It was the tape of Trump and Michael Cohen talking about payments to a Playboy playmate which freed the district attorney in the southern district of New York to identify Trump as an unindicted co-conspirator.

Last night, Mueller informed the White House and the Nation his case is not based on circumstantial evidence or “they said, we said.” It is based on hard and likely indisputable exhibits. Maybe it’s time for John 8:32 to be etched into one more wall, in the Oval Office across from the Resolute Desk.  Except this time, I doubt the truth will set Donald Trump free.  It is more likely to land him in prison or in exile, living in what some late night comedian will surely call “the Trump Tower Moscow penthouse.”

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP

On the Friday following Veterans Day, our local paper published under my real name a version of “A Man, No Plan, Pandemonium,” the entry I posted here on November 11.  If you remember, I suggested if Donald Trump could not figure out how to get from Paris to Aisne-Marne Cemetery on a rainy day, should we worry he was equally unprepared for a major crisis.

We live in a very red county in Northeast Florida.  I anticipated, despite the fact this version focused on Trump’s actions and his own words, someone would find an excuse for his behavior.  I had no idea what was to come.  Yesterday the following appeared as a letter to the editor in the same publication.

Have a Nice Day

   With people like (my name) running around loose, who spilled his liberal thoughts in the Viewpoint of Friday, Nov. 16, it’s no wonder the country is in such political turmoil!  The Trump haters need to take a deep breath and smell the roses before the men in white coats come and take them away!  Enough of this ridiculous rhetoric that can only be attributed to poor losers the same as Bill Nelson and the not-so-great mayor of Tallahassee!
     Which political party to this day will not accept defeat?  That’s right, the Democratic Party!  Which political party will disparage a Supreme Court nominee with salacious lies and not blink an eye?  Again it’s Democrats!  Which political party attacks members of the government while eating at restaurants, walking through airports, leaving or entering a building?  You guessed it!  Which political party and its followers make sick threats against the children of the president and first lady of the United States?  You should get the picture by now.  So please, don’t spill your ugly thoughts by writing hateful messages that are old and tiring unless you wish to show just how ignorant you are!
     The last president who was obviously loved by the left and perhaps by the focus of this writing was a total loser to me and still is, but I didn’t go to the lengths that the crybabies on the left are today!  I knew that in time the voters would see him for what he is and that was proven in the outcome of the 2016 election.
     If we ever get a federal election without the fraud perpetrated by the left, yes the left, there would be no Democrat elected to any office which would be vindication for all the wrongs the “right” has had to face!  There are two systems of justice in this country, one against conservatives and the other for liberals!   Time for this to stop!
     To (my name), I hope you see the light, but whether or not that happens, have a nice day!

Rodger Woltjer
Fernandina Beach

I consider it a “badge of honor” when a Trump supporter chooses to “shoot the messenger” (in this case, me) than even try to counter the substance of the article.  For Mr. Woltjer to have spewed such vitriol, I must have really struck a nerve.  How dare a liberal, of all people,  be the one to point out Trump’s lack of respect for our troops.  There is a new  parlor game in Washington, D.C.  called, “What if Barack Obama had done that?”  During her current book tour, Michelle Obama admitted even she and her husband play it on occasion.  I can only imagine how high Mr. Woltjer’s blood pressure would have risen if President Obama had skipped a commemorative ceremony on Veterans Day.

I planned to take the response for what it was, the apparent rantings of an ill-informed resident of the area.  I did not for a minute consider wasting time addressing his hypocrisy.  I trust most people could figure that out for themselves.  However, last night, a loyal reader of this blog said he had done some research on Mr. Woltjer and found a similarly crazed letter to the editor in the Macon, Georgia newspaper during the 2014 mid-terms.  That reader turned my indifference into curiosity for which I thank him.

Are you sitting down?  Rodger Woltjer is a retired Air Force colonel who has been a college lecturer and written three books on the Civil War.  And yet, he was obviously more offended that someone would suggest the commander-in-chief should not have blown off a visit to a U.S. cemetery dedicated to American soldiers who had died in World War I than the fact the commander-in-chief actually blew off a visit to a U.S. cemetery dedicated to American soldiers in World War I.

Which brings me to the title of today’s entry.  Much has been said and written about what it would take for 2016 Trump voters to abandon their idol.  Well, it’s time for Democrats and progressive independents to stop beating that dead horse.  Did former Tennessee governor Phil Bredesen really think he would pick up votes from Trump supporters when he endorsed Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court?  Did soon to be former Senator Claire McCaskill pin her hopes on re-election to her tacit support for Trump’s immigration policies unlike “those crazy Democrats” (her words)?  How many times do we have to remind Democrats over 60 percent of Americans support a progressive agenda?  If they want to come along for the ride, great, but we do not need Trump supporters.  All we need to do is fight to make sure every American has the opportunity to vote and then make sure they go to the polls.

Which brings me to an inconvenient truth I avoided sharing during the mid-term election.  On September 6, when Andrew Gillum picked Chris King to be his running mate, I told my wife, “This will cost him the election.”  There were three reasons for my negative assessment.  #1: Chris King came in fifth among seven candidates in the Democratic primary with 2.5 percent of the vote, not exactly a ringing endorsement of his electoral acumen.  #2:  Three South Florida counties–Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach–are where Democrats win statewide election.  With Gillum being from Tallahassee, he needed to balance the ticket geographically.  King is from Orlando.  #3: King is an avowed evangelical.  And even though he campaigned as someone who professed true Christian values of compassion and charity, the likelihood of his flipping some if any of Trump’s evangelical support was dubious at best.  Gillum could have picked Jesus of Orlando as his running mate and the outcome would have been the same.

Whatever one thinks of Ron DeSantis, his selection of Jeanette Nuñez as his running mate sealed the deal. As the first Cuban-American woman* on a gubernatorial ballot, Nuñez’ presence on the GOP ticket made the difference in the only place that mattered.  Here are the numbers to prove it.  In 2016, Hillary Clinton garnered 63.7 percent of the vote in Miami-Dade County.  On November 6, Gillum polled only 59.9 percent.  A 3.8 percent difference of 790,000 total votes cast translates into a net loss of over 30,000 votes.  But that is just half the story.  The total vote for DeSantis in Miami-Dade county was 311,000 compared to 333,00 for Trump in 2016, a  decrease of only 22,000.  In contrast the Democratic deficit was 145,000 (623,000 for Clinton in 2016 versus 478,000 for Gillum in 2018).  Plain and simple, the Gillum/King ticket did not create the kind of excitement needed in Miami-Dade County to overcome the GOP margin in the state’s rural areas.

The lesson.  Take that dying horse off life-support.  The exit polls in Florida (YES, FLORIDA) demonstrate an overwhelming percentage of voters support progressive policies.  Consider the following.

Health care in the U.S. needs major changes/68%
Sexual harassment in this country is a serious problem/85%
Support for stricter gun control/56%
More protection of the FL environment/60%
Climate change is a serious problem/67%

These are policies on which the Democrats can campaign and win.  Stop chasing a unicorn.  Stop asking what it would take for voters like Mr. Woltjer and his ilk to finally abandon Trump.  The answer is NOTHING.   More importantly, you don’t need them.

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP

* Based on exit polling, Florida voters by a margin of 74 to 23 percent said it was important to elect more women to public office.