Green Eagle

Thanks to Donald Trump, our national pot seems to be on the verge of boiling over, but before it does, there are a number of issues that we must get straight.  One essential concern is what, exactly, constitutes treason.  This is because it is vital that Donald Trump be removed from the Presidency on this ground.  Yes, there are a hundred other reasons that he has no right to be our President, but it is his treasonous conspiracy with a hostile foreign power which acted to put him in office, which forms the basis for a declaration of the illegitimacy of his entire Presidency, and the voiding of everything he has done while President, including all executive orders and mutilations of government departments, and the removal of all persons he placed on the Federal courts.  Removing him on this basis would also mean removing his vice President, who is equally illegitimate. In anticipation of this possibility, the Republicans have begun a campaign to convince the America...

This tweet from Trump yesterday: "I am all alone (poor me) in the White House waiting for the Democrats to come back and make a deal on desperately needed Border Security" And, of course, the actual truth: "Donald Trump and Melania Won't Spend Christmas at Mar-a-Lago for the First Time in Years" And here's a picture of Trump and Melania allegedly making Christmas calls to children last night (I'm sure to the Koch Brothers' grandchildren, or some of the Waltons- he's not going to waste time on anyone without money.) There is absolutely nothing that the guy will not lie about.  And let's be clear; this is not about pathological lying, it is about bullying everyone around him into accepting what he says as the truth, no matter how much they know it is false. Well, at least it looks like the chickens may be coming home to roost for him.  Keep your fingers crossed for 2019.

From the massive staff here at Green Eagle, best wishes to you all.

As I write, the Dow has lost just over 5,000 points from its high on October 3rd of this year, about 2 1/2 months; or one sixth of its value.  I thought that this was a good opportunity to repost something I wrote earlier this year, about the 1929 collapse, which I think gives some perspective on what is happening now.  I want to reiterate something that I said at the end of this post, that being the recommendation to read    "The Great Crash  1929,"   by John Kenneth Galbraith.  This account of the Wall Street collapse is so relevant to today's events that I think everyone should take the time to read this short book. Wall Street on October 29, 1929 I'll tell you something that I always believed until I started reading about the 1920's and 1930's, and it has to do with "Black Tuesday."  That was October 29, 1929, the day we were taught that the stock market crashed, precipitating the Great Depression, the greatest economic collapse i...

As I write, the Dow Jones average has now lost just over 5,000 points since its high on October 3rd of this year, or almost exactly one sixth of its entire value, in 2 1/2 months.  It has reached a level last seen in August, 2017.  Nothing to see here.  Just get back to your eggnog. I'd put an extra bit of brandy in it if I were you.

So Donald Trump is planning to remove all US troops from Syria. Who does that hurt?  The United States, the countries that surround Syria in the Middle East, European countries who have had to bear the majority of the cost of displaced Syrians, and just about everyone who wants to see a more peaceful world. Who does it help?  Well, leaving aside ISIS, it helps one person:  Vladimir Putin. This is only the latest of a long series of actions by Trump which have benefited the Russians while materially harming this country and all of our traditional allies: His persistent efforts to eliminate economic sanctions on Russia, his removing limits on Russian nuclear weapon emplacements, his ignoring of Russia's aggression toward its neighbors, his altering the Republican platform to weaken the party's stance against Russia, his fawning, humiliating behavior toward Putin himself, his deliberately alienating China, Russia's main competitor for influence in Asia, his attempts to...

In a an effort to help make the Trump administration a success, Green Eagle wishes to make the following proposal. Why can't we build the wall out of coal?  This will allow Trump to keep his promise, and at the same time he will keep another promise by giving years of work to coal miners, digging up enough coal for a two thousand mile long, thirty foot high wall of coal.  This is an eminently practical suggestion, as shown in the following photo from 1907: Trump only needs to tell his base that this picture shows a part of the wall that is already built, and he is almost guaranteed reelection in 2020, even if he is in prison. The only slight flaw I can foresee is the remote possibility that some Mexican vandal might light the wall on fire; however the pollution caused by a two thousand mile long coal fire will drive liberal environmentalists so crazy that it will be just as much fun for wingnuts as if the wall were still there.  A win-win for everybody!  And b...

As I have mentioned, much of the true primal malignance of the right wing has migrated to videos.   I suspect that this is because the self-selected group that adheres to right wing beliefs is largely so uneducated that they cannot read and comprehend the written word, beyond the most elementary sentences.  Another reason for this phenomenon is something that liberals usually fail to understand.  When liberals read political articles, the point is to learn something, or at least be exposed to a different viewpoint.  Conservatives live on their emotions, and they follow politics to stoke their rage and greed.  Videos are obviously more effective than written words at this, so right wingers are in the process of transferring their information gathering to non-literate sources. There is a problem in this for someone like me, who tries to follow the maunderings of the wingnuts:  it is really hard to expect sane people to watch this stuff for more than a ...

President Lyndon Baines Johnson, in November, 1967, making one of the most prescient statements I have ever heard:  I believe the time has come …to enlist the computer and the satellite, as well as television and radio… in the cause of education… Think of the lives that this would change: the student in a small college could tap the resources of a great university…the country doctor [could get] help from a distant laboratory or a teaching hospital…in a partnership to share knowledge and to thus enrich all mankind...Eventually, I think this electronic knowledge bank could be as valuable as the Federal Reserve Bank. And such a system could involve other nations, too--it could involve them in a partnership to share knowledge and to thus enrich all mankind. A wild and visionary idea? Not at all. Yesterday's strangest dreams are today's headlines and change is getting swifter every moment. I have already asked my advisers to begin to explore the possibility of a netwo...

I can't resist.  Donald Trump this morning: "Democrats can’t find a Smocking Gun tying the Trump campaign to Russia after James Comey’s testimony. No Smocking Gun...No Collusion.” @FoxNews  That’s because there was NO COLLUSION. So now the Dems go to a simple private transaction, wrongly call it a campaign contribution,..." Everyone else commenting about this treats it as a joke, but not me.  The so-called President of the United States can't even spell the word "smoking."  And it's not a typo, because he spelled it wrong twice. Our leader, the most powerful man in the world, is essentially illiterate.  He doesn't refuse to read briefings and memos, as has been reported; he can't read them.  His mind functions on the level of a six year old, both intellectually and emotionally.  And that is just fine with Republicans, as long as they can manipulate him into doing what their rich backers want. Well, that's where we are as a countr...

Some of you may be aware that, in the QAnon world, December 5th was to be one of the greatest days in the history of civilization.  For that day, referred to in Q's posts as D5, was to be the day that Mueller was going to be revealed to be working closely with Trump to indict Hillary, Obama, etc, and tens of thousands of Democrats and other opponents of Trump were to be arrested, finally making America great again.  Well, as far as can be told, that did not happen. Let me digress for a second here.  Did you ever pay any attention to doomsday cults that predict that the world will end on a certain date, and when that doesn't happen, the next day they come up with ludicrous explanations for why they were wrong, and move right on to the next end of the world?  Well, QAnon and the whole Trump base are really not that different from doomsday cults, which are similarly run by and for a few cynical leaders milking their deluded followers for profit.  So why would w...

I am posting this short video here, for those who might not have seen it.  It shows Donald Trump at what was supposed to be a photo opportunity with the President of Argentina, the host country of the recent G20 summit: Trump appears to have lost consciousness of what was going on, and wandered away in a daze. Sort of humorous, but this leads me to a suggestion, or a fear, about how the entire Trump disaster is going to end.  First, let me make it clear that although there are literally hundreds of perfectly valid reasons to remove Trump from office, from his endless acts of corruption to his virtually daily obstruction of justice, to his ignoring or frustrating the laws he is sworn to uphold, but there is one justification for impeachment that must stand above all others, and that is his traitotous collusion with a foreign dictator to rig the Presidential election in his favor.  This is because it is only removal on those grounds that can justify a claim that ev...

A disastrous week so far for our traitor in chief.  Let's look in on how the wingnuts are trying to lie all of this away. Let's just start out with this headline from the Washington Post: "Trump renews attacks on Mueller, asks whether probe will ‘just go on forever’ It will if you keep committing crimes forever, bucko. And the typo of the month, from the Wall Street Journal: “Vladimir Putin is president of Russia. An editing mistake erroneously identified him as Vladimir Trump in an earlier version of this article.” At this point, it might have been more accurate to say that Putin is the President of the United States. Now, back to our usual programming: Guy Benson, Town Hall:  "Analysis: What Does Cohen's New Guilty Plea Mean? We Have No Idea." No idea at all.  I mean, it's just a mystery...Maybe he is part of Trump's treason, maybe he was just joking.  I mean, either one could be true, right? "Let me just add that if t...

There is just no end to the abuse of his position committed by the President of the United States, no end to the contemptible behavior he is willing to engage in.  But today marks perhaps the most degraded public misuse of his power of all.  Today Donald Trump published the following graphic on Twitter: The President is demanding, in this graphic, the trial for treason, without a shred of evidence, of two former Presidents, a former Secretary of State, the special prosecutor who is investigating him, two former attorneys general, and a number of other people.  In brief, he is demanding the right to imprison or even possibly execute people for no other reason than their opposition to him, or their having been members of the opposing political party. Is there a person alive who can now deny that this man is trying to establish himself as a dictator?  When is the point that the members of his own party react in a decent manner and put a stop to all of this? Sad ...

I just loved this, from Talking Points Memo: "The Donald J. Trump Foundation took in no new money from outside groups last year and donated nothing, according to a 2017 tax return posted online Monday. Trump had promised before taking office to dissolve the foundation to avoid conflicts of interest with his duties as president." He promised to stop charitable giving, in order to " avoid conflicts of interest."  He did not, however stop dealing with the Russians or the Saudis, or to milk the Federal government for millions of dollars spent at his own businesses.  Well, I guess he has a point there.  As far as I can tell, Trump has no conflict of interest with the Russians and the Saudis.

Immigrant children being attacked with tear gas.  From what I have read, I understand that this is CS gas, a stronger version of tear gas than the CN gas normally used by police in the United States.  This gas was shot into a foreign country in what is unquestionably an act of war.  The use of CS gas against civilians in any circumstance has been classified as a war crime since the mid 1990's.  Trump has made all of us complicit in this war crime.  It is hardly the first time for a Republican President; don't forget the use of torture by the Bush administration.  That was unforgivable, but at least it was not directed toward children and their mothers. In the interest of full disclosure, during the Vietnam protest area, I was tear gassed many times, both with CN gas and a couple of times with CS gas.  CN isn't so bad; after the first couple of times it hardly slowed me down at all.  CS is another thing entirely, let me assure you.  It is...

Isn't he cute? Jerome Corsi has become the central figure of the week in the Mueller investigation.  You'd think that this would induce the media to look a little farther into his past.  But other than mentioning that he was the prime originator of the lie that Barack Obama was born in Kenya, little has been mentioned about him.  Here is a helpful list of a few of the other malignant smears Corsi has promulgated: Corsi was the author of the book Unfit for Command, which detailed a totally false account of John Kerry's record in Vietnam, where in fact he was a highly decorated officer, as his publicly available military records showed.  This smear, carried almost without pushback by the mainstream press, was responsible in large part for the re-election of George W. Bush. Corsi published a book in 2005 spreading a totally made-up horror story about Iran's supposed stockpile of nuclear weapons.  This makes him a seminal figure in today's current anti-Ira...

From the Washington Post, this news: "Trump says he’s finished writing answers to questions from special counsel Robert Mueller" And there you go.  If you think the real answers are going to be one bit more informative than this picture, or if you are deluded enough to think they will actually be written by Trump, rather than whatever lawyers he can threaten into lying for him, you haven't been paying that much attention to the news. Okay, okay, here's a picture of a Corgi dog to help erase the above from your mind: See, didn't that work?

This graphic of Orange County, long considered the most Republican county in the State of California: A true work of art.  Apparently, in some cases, the French are wrong.  The more things change...the more they change.

I would like to make a point about the Republican ploy of using signatures that don't match to disqualify tens of thousands of Democratic votes.  I don't think this point has been made clearly enough: Has anyone out there signed their name exactly the same twice?  I mean, literally ever. None of us is a machine, and our signatures vary in minor ways every time we sign them.  This Republican strategy is nothing but a ploy allowing them to reject any ballot they want.  The vast number of people who have their ballots rejected are never even notified about it, let alone given a chance to contest this action.  This is a massive Republican vote rigging scheme, and needs to be seen for what it is.  Instead, most people are just writing it off as sour grapes, when in fact, at least in Florida and Arizona, this behavior has a strong possibility of stealing a governor's seat and two Senators.

Here are the headlines of two stories that ran on the same page in the Los Angeles Times today: "Goldman Sachs Malaysia Scandal Expands" "Goldman balks at handling Space X loan" Carried right next to each other without a suggestion of irony.  Goldman Sachs would not invest $500 million in the company of perhaps America's greatest industrial innovator, but it was willing to invest $6.5 billion with a pack of Malaysian crooks. And this is the most influential financial organization in the country.  There is a virtual revolving door between its corporate suites and high government positions.  Here is a partial list of Goldman alumni that work for Trump: Stephen K. Bannon, chief strategist to the president and a former Goldman banker Gary D. Cohn, director of the National Economic Council and Goldman Sachs president Steven T. Mnuchin, Treasury secretary and Goldman partner James Donovan, nominee for deputy Treasury secretary and Goldman partner Dina ...

But of course, who would expect anything different...imagine an Attorney General whose contempt for the law makes the execrable Jeff Sessions look not so bad in retrospect.  Well, we've got him. Wimp trying to look like a thug. Trump has, in apparent open defiance of the law,* named one Matthew Whittaker to be our new "interim"  Attorney General.  Whittaker was a failed candidate for a county judgeship before he was snatched up by Trump, given an administrative role in the Justice Department, based apparently solely on his open opposition to the Mueller probe, and here he is, a year later, serving as Attorney General.  Here is some more information about him. First, from an article at Daily Kos, which I most urgently suggest you read, some other information beyond the fact that he has attacked the Mueller investigation repeatedly: "Whitaker was behind a secretive group that stepped in to protect members of the Trump campaign from allegations of meetings w...

Bye bye Mueller, hello impeachment. Of course, maybe the Democrats should just let it all pass.  The Washington Post is already paving the way for that view: "Ms. Pelosi, wisely, declined to take the bait, reiterating her determination to use subpoena power if necessary but insisting Wednesday that oversight “does not mean we’ll go look for a fight.” She would be well advised to stick to that measured approach, because the country does have recent experience with the excesses of investigation (does Benghazi ring a bell?) and the harm it can do to the atmosphere for legislation. In contrast to the attitude Mr. Trump exhibited Wednesday, Ms. Pelosi’s remarks suggest that she has the capacity to learn from experience." The mainstream press, which showed next to no scruples about the Republicans using their control of Congress to conduct an endless series of "investigations" into what everyone knew were utterly baseless conspiracy theories, now has discovered ...

To those of you who think your anxiety will get a break after tomorrow:  The rest of this year is going to be a time of almost unimaginable abominations from the Republican party, and this is particularly true if Democrats take control of the House. If Dems do win the House, the next two months will be the last time (at least for two years) that the Republicans will be in absolute control of the entirety of the Federal Government, and their rich backers will expect them to use that time to push through as much filthy, antidemocratic, corrupt legislation as the can.  Here are a few things I expect to see between now and the new year:  Another massive tax cut aimed at the very top tenth of a percent of the nation, combined with effective tax increases on everyone else, massive cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, rules for renewable energy with no purpose but to make it too expensive to be competitive, elimination of the already weakened protections for minor...

We are all familiar with the legendary SMOTI, the Stupidest Man On The Internet, aka Jim Hoft, whose website Gateway Pundit befouled itself again this week when one of his "reporters," one Jacob Wohl, made an utter fool of himself with one of the most colossally stupid lies ever heard, when he convened a press conference to allege that Robert Mueller forcibly dragged a woman out of a hotel bar in New York (in plain view of the other customers, apparently,) forced her up to his hotel room and then violently raped her, finishing with telling her his name and telling her that he was the head of the FBI, so she had better keep her mouth shut.  Boy, that beats Judge Kavanaugh's youthful dalliances by a long shot.  Well, the details of this almost incomprehensibly incompetent plot have received a great deal of coverage in the blogosphere, so I won't rehash them here.  For those who want to know more, I suggest this article from Wonkette, which pretty much takes a perfect ...

"All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside." -U. S. Constitution, Amendment 14 Before getting to my argument, I would like to remind you of a little history.  The absolute nature of this provision, which allows for no exceptions, exists for one reason:  by the time of its passage, in 1868, it was already clear that Southern dead enders were engaged in serious attempts to strip former slaves of their citizenship.  The law was passed to prevent this.  Its absolute character is  a result of the racist inclinations of many white Americans, and it is that racism, therefore, which bears the blame for the consequences of the fourteenth amendment.  Had these white people done the decent thing and truly reconciled with the victims of slavery, this amendment would have never been necessary; if they don't like it, it is their own fault that it ...

I've seen the following graphic a couple of places lately, but I think it reveals a fact that should be made clear to every American, so I'm posting it here, too. I have often heard that right wingers commit more acts of political violence than any other group in this country, but I had no idea how one sided this was.  These people are monsters, and the President and leaders of his party are monsters too.  Today, Trump announced his intent to abrogate the Constitution by an "executive order." And with the Supreme Court now fully packed with corrupt Republican appointed Justices, who can say that he will be stopped if he tries?  Meanwhile, more and more criminal thugs with guns are out there to destroy anyone who gets in his way.  In a sane country, this man would be impeached in one day if he tried to do this.  But we don't live in a sane country any more.  We live in a country where some destitute people fleeing terror a thousand miles from the Unite...

And on a massive scale.  We've seen this guy repeatedly make decisions that hurt the security of the United States and our allies while favoring the interests of Vladimir Putin, over and over again.  Now, here is a gigantic one which has received almost no coverage in the mainstream press, and what coverage it has received has missed the point entirely.  In fact, even left wing sources seem not to have recognized the real significance of this action. What I am talking about is Trump's stated intention to abrogate the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, negotiated by Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev in the 1980's.  This treaty forbade either country from deploying any land based missiles with ranges between 500 and 5500 kilometers. The United States did in fact destroy about 1,000 nuclear missiles after this treaty was signed (the Soviet Union destroyed about 2,000.)  But other than the financial loss, the treaty meant little to us because our supposed enem...

Sorry, people, Wingnut Wrapup seems to be back, at least for a little while.  I just feel that most of us in the rational world are still only vaguely aware of the hatred and lies that make up the steady diet of right wingers.  Not that I feel happy about exposing you to it all, but we need to be aware of the massive amount of stuff like this that is out there.  I know these Wingnut Wrapups tend to be long, but let me assure you that I could make any one of them on any day four times as long and not come even close to including all of the massive amount of this garbage that is out there.  What follows is nothing but a representative sample. Now, a little coverage of the Republican party writhing in agony as it attempts to blot out the truth that the MAGA bomber and the Pittsburgh terrorist are a product of their own actions.  I just want to note first, that it is only a couple of hours as I write a good part of this since the latest right wing mass shooting, ...