Government Of, By, and For the Oligarchs

Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. ~ Abraham Lincoln

What a funny little government.

For a week now I've tried to understand the thinking behind the Senate's health care bill. The effect on the people would be horrible. The effect on the health care industry, doctors, hospitals, and HMOs, would be even worse. Literally, the only beneficiaries would be a few dozen ultra-rich oligarchs who stand to profit from tax cuts and financial upheaval. No government of, by, and for the people would ever dream of such a thing.

Supporters of TrumpCare in Congress are making claims that are both cynical and fanciful, claims even they cannot be deluded enough to believe.

Nobody dies because they don’t have access to health care. ~ Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho

 Really?

If we assume that Congressional Republicans are not all blithering imbeciles with the IQs of radishes and the morals of bedbugs sucking your blood while you sleep, what could possibly be their motivation?

The only answer that makes sense is that they are the willing vassals of a handful of oligarchs. Their motives are not to do what is best for the United States or its people but to exclusively serve the very, very rich. They probably even think they are being honest in that they are following the orders of the people who own them.

An honest politician is one who when he is bought will stay bought. ~ Simon Cameron, a Republican politician in the 19th century noted for his open corruption.

The oligarchs offer Republican congressmen wealth and power and all they demand in return is total loyalty.

Six Movies to Watch in the Trump Era

All The President's Men (1976)
Key Quote: Follow the money.

The story of the investigation into a corrupt president displays the power and responsibilities of the press during a constitutional crisis. It is not an overstatement that without a news media free to question and report on the government, democracy cannot survive. An all-star cast including Robert Redford, Dustin Hoffman, and Academy Award winner Jason Robards.

The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
Key Quote: His brain has not only been washed, as they say... It has been dry cleaned.

An American war hero is brainwashed by the Chinese into being a Russian assassin, programed to murder a presidential candidate so a Russian controlled idiot will be elected. Angela Lansbury is outstanding as the treacherous mother of the hero turned assassin who is also his Russian handler.

A Man For All Seasons (1966)
Key Quote:
Sir Thomas More: Then why does your Grace need my poor support?
King Henry VIII: Because you're honest... and what is more to the purpose, you're KNOWN to be honest.

I've mentioned before I think this movie is a good metaphor for Comey-Trump situation. Thomas More, a legal scholar and, perhaps, the last honest man in England during the reign of Henry VIII. He refuses to take the easy path of betraying his conscious and the law to follow the demands of the king. Six Academy Awards including best picture and best actor (Paul Scofield).

Idiocracy (2006)
Key Quote:
President Camacho: Shit. I know shit's bad right now, with all that starving bullshit, and the dust storms, and we are running out of french fries and burrito coverings. But I got a solution.

The President's cabinet

What happens when the United States is run by a gaggle of nincompoops so dumb they can't find their asses with both hands and a chair.

A Face In the Crowd (1957)
Key Quote:
Lonesome Rhodes: This whole country's just like my flock of sheep!
Marcia Jeffries: Sheep?
Lonesome Rhodes: Rednecks, crackers, hillbillies, hausfraus, shut-ins, pea-pickers - everybody that's got to jump when somebody else blows the whistle. They don't know it yet, but they're all gonna be 'Fighters for Fuller'. They're mine! I own 'em! They think like I do. Only they're even more stupid than I am, so I gotta think for 'em. Marcia, you just wait and see. I'm gonna be the power behind the president.

A lowbrow huckster becomes a media sensation. As his popularity grows his ego inflates even faster. He becomes a political kingmaker. His popularity crashes when his real personality is revealed. He then retreats into a delusional fantasy where he pretends he his still beloved. Directed by Elia Kazan and staring Andy Griffith in his first role.

Citizen Cohn (1992)
Key Quote: No! I killed you for the headlines! For the fuckin' headlines!

Donald Trump and Roy Cohn

Roy Cohn was a Jew who hated Jews, a homosexual who hated gays. He was the brains behind Joseph McCarthy and McCarthyism. As a lawyer he was the Mafia's favorite attorney. Utterly ruthless, remorseless, and corrupt. In one of the few times God got it right, Cohn died of AIDS. Important because Roy Cohn was Donald Trump's mentor.

And a television series to make us feel better.

West Wing (1999-2006)
Key Quote: I am the President of the United States, not the President of people who agree with me.

Want to remember a time when the White House was filled with intelligent people, patriotic people whose first instinct was to do what was best for the nation, not their egos?

The History of American PoliticiansShot by Crazy People

It is the nature of this country that crazy people have easy access to guns and frequently politicians end up getting shot by them.

In this list I am excluding duels (at least four deaths), wars (one Civil War Senator), and any attack without guns or where no shots were fired.

The Lincoln conspirators.

 Abraham Lincoln (President) 1865: Booth was deluded into thinking that killing Lincoln and other cabinet officials would reverse the course of the war.

James Hinds (R-AR) 1868: A post Civil War carpetbagger politician. Shot by the Ku Klux Klan.

Thomas Haughey (R-AL) 1869: Shot following a fist fight with a supporter of another Republican.

James Garfield (President) 1881:

Assassin Charles Guiteau, an unemployed lunatic, thought he was personally responsible for Garfield's election and expected to be named ambassador to France. Didn't get it. He paid extra for an ivory handled revolver because he wanted it to be museum quality after the assassination.

William McKinley (President) 1901:  The third president assassinated in 36 years. His killer was a reclusive anarchist who felt killing McKinley would end capitalist excesses.

John Pinckney (D-TX) 1905: A public meeting to discuss Prohibition devolved into a Texas riot, 75 bullets fired in less than a minute.

Theodore Roosevelt (Presidential candidate) 1912: Shot in the chest by a saloon-keeper who said that the ghost of William McKinley told him to do it. Roosevelt was shot while giving a speech and, being a tough SOB, he finished the speech before seeing a doctor.

Franklin Roosevelt (President) 1933: This one missed but killed the mayor of Chicago who was standing next to the President. The shooter was another anarchist who said he planned to kill every government leader then every businessman.

Sen. Huey Long (D-LA) 1935:

Huey "Kingfish" Long was a cutthroat politician who scored successes by how many careers he ruined. He was gerrymandering a judge off the bench when he was approached by the judge's son-in-law who, of course, was carrying a gun. Long was either shot by him or the wild shooting of Long's bodyguards.

The Capitol Shooting (1955): No one was killed, but five congressmen, two Republicans and three Democrats, were shot by Puerto Rican nationalists who wanted to end American ownership of the island.

John Kennedy (President) 1963: Officially killed by Lee Harvey Oswald who was too crazy for the Russians to keep him as a defector.

Sen. Robert Kennedy (D-NY) 1968:

Five years after his older brother was assassinated, Bobby was killed by a man lashing out against the existence of the state of Israel.

George Wallace (Presidential candidate) 1972: After Arthur Bremer failed to get close enough to Richard Nixon he turned his attention the third party candidate because he was desperate for fame. Any famous victim would do.

Sen. John Stennis (D-MS) 1973: Shot and wounded during a mugging.

Gerald Ford (President) 1974: A follower of Charles Manson, Sara Jane Moore, missed Ford from a range of 40 feet when someone bumped her arm as she fired. She was the second Manson girl in 17 days to try to kill Ford; Squeaky Fromme's gun misfired. (Actually, Sara was associated with the Symbionese Liberation Army. It's hard to keep these wackos connections straight.)

Leo Ryan (D-CA) 1978: Killed by People's Temple followers prior to their mass suicide.

Ronald Reagan (President) 1981: Seriously wounded by a lunatic who thought that would impress actress Jodie Foster.

Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) 2011: Seriously wounded by a man notable for his bizarre behavior who thought women did not belong in politics.

This exhausting list doesn't include the many governors, judges, and state representatives shot over the years in our American shooting gallery.

The Only Wall Trump Will Ever Build

Is made of stone.

A few days ago I had lunch at a Mexican restaurant where I used to be a regular but I hadn't been there for several years. The waitress recognized me and knew what my usual order was.

I do not have any recollection of meeting or talking to the Russian Ambassador or any other Russian officials. ~ Jeff Sessions, June 13, 2017

If she could remember that I refuse to believe Jeff Sessions can't remember meeting with a Russian spymaster just six months ago. He is either willfully lying or senile.

Sessions testimony before the Senate committee consisted of him answering those questions he wanted to answer and stonewalling on those questions that were probative. Sessions has cast his lot with a coverup.

Will Trump Fire Mueller?
Anything is possible, but this story is a case of running it up the flag pole and seeing if anybody salutes. Trump wanted to put the option out there to see if he could get away with it. It was also a lame attempt at threatening Mueller. Feckless threats are really the only arrow in Trump's quiver anymore.

Narcissist In Chief

At some level it's hard not to feel sorry for Donald Trump. He is an embarrassingly pathological narcissist who can't help humiliating himself as he strives for public adulation.

Today, he lined up his cabinet secretaries to heap praise on him in front of the press. It was forced and pathetic and more fitting of a six year-old bully at his birthday party, "Now you're all going to tell me how great I am," than a leader. Or, perhaps more accurately, it is what a six year-old bully thinks leadership looks like.

I do not feel sorry for Trump's cabinet who choose to demean themselves into becoming Trump's pitiable sycophants. You made your beds, now lie in the shit.

Is Comey the New Thomas More?

I've been watching "A Man For All Seasons" on Turner Classic Movies and have been struck by what an astonishing metaphor it is for the Comey-Trump story..

If we lived in a State where virtue was profitable, common sense would make us good, and greed would make us saintly. And we'd live like animals or angels in the happy land that needs no heroes. But since in fact we see that avarice, anger, envy, pride, sloth, lust and stupidity commonly profit far beyond humility, chastity, fortitude, justice and thought, and have to choose, to be human at all... why then perhaps we must stand fast a little --even at the risk of being heroes.

There is a scene where Henry VIII (Trump is neither as noble nor as intelligent as Henry) tries to corrupt More into betraying his conscious. Trump needed to corrupt Comey...

Because you're honest... and what is more to the purpose, you're KNOWN to be honest.

Republican politicians are aptly described by the line...

The nobility of England, My Lord, would have snored through the Sermon on the Mount.

For how else would congressional Republicans act during a reading of the Constitution than sleeping through it?

In the case of Thomas More, the rule of law collapsed under the weight of corruption. How this story of Jim Comey and Donald Trump will end is not yet written.

Will the American system of justice prevail or will the nation be sacrificed, martyred to the consuming greed and lust for power that is Trumpism?

Trump Told FBI Director Comey, 'I Expect Loyalty'

A question which must be asked, how many other members of the Trump administration have been required to swear personal loyalty to Donald Trump?

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Prior to Hitler, German soldiers made the following oath:

I swear fidelity to the constitution of the empire, and vow that, as a brave soldier, I will at any time protect the German Reich and its regular institutions... (source)

On February 8, 1934, that oath changed from fidelity to the constitution to loyalty to one man:

I swear to God this sacred oath that to the Leader of the German Empire and people, Adolf Hitler, supreme commander of the armed forces, I shall render unconditional obedience... (source)

No longer were soldiers committed to defending the constitution. The constitution had become a meaningless rag.

Prior to Hitler, civilians were not required to recite any loyalty oath. As of 1934 they were:

I swear: I will be faithful and obedient to the leader of the German Empire and people, Adolf Hitler, to observe the law, and to conscientiously fulfill my official duties... (source)

Some Germans refused to swear an oath to a person instead of their country's constitution. Many of these were executed or sent to concentration camps.

---

On taking office as director of the FBI, James Comey took the following oath:

I, James Comey, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God. (source)

The FBI, in their own website, says that loyalty oaths to individuals "too easily leads to tyranny on the one extreme or anarchy on the other."

Trump's expectation of personal loyalty over loyalty to country strikes at the very heart of our freedoms.

Words Matter, and So Does Silence

'I Do Not Support a Livable Wage'

Making Marie Antoinette sound generous.

Republican congressional candidate Karen Handel said one of those sentences that turn professional campaign consultants into alcoholics. She could have said something about opposing a minimum wage hike, which was the actual question, but Handel choose to say what was in her heart - that the poor should be worked to death for peanuts. 

Trump Cuts Our Throat in Middle East

America's Al Udeid air base in Qatar

When Donald Trump tweeted his attack on the nation of Qatar he was undermining the stability of the nation hosting the largest US military base in the Middle East. There are about 10,000 American military personnel stationed in Qatar, it is the forward base for US Central Command and the base for US anti-ISIS activities. Moments after Trump's tweet, Putin was on the phone to Qatari leaders offering Russia's support for Qatar against Saudi and American interference.

The Sound of Silence

ISIS attacked the parliament of a sovereign state, killing more innocent people than in the London Bridge attack yet there is utter and complete silence from Washington, no official comment nor even an semi-official tweet. The victim was the nation of Iran and there are suggestions that the ISIS attack was coordinated through Trump's friends in Saudi Arabia.

Taking the Fifth (sort of)

Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and National Security Agency Director Michael Rogers appeared before a Senate committee today and effectively took the Fifth Amendment, refusing to testify about any conversations they had with the President over stifling the Russia probe. They did say they didn't feel "pressured" to do anything illegal, which wasn't the question. Of course, they wouldn't have felt pressured if they had willingly agreed to obstruct the investigation.

Thoughts on the London Bridge Attack

Battle of London Bridge, 1450AD

• Nothing else I write is meant to disparage the pain and suffering of the victims and their families.
• The number of people killed in the terror attack is less than the the number of people killed in the United States by gun violence in three hours. (33,000 gun deaths per year)
• The British people, famously stiff upper lipped, are not cowered by the attack.
• However American Republicans, led by Donald Trump, are predictably trembling in terror and publicly peeing their pants. "Home of the brave" my ass.
• Over 3,000 people died on London Bridge in the year 1212 due to a fire. Perspective.

London Bridge Is Falling Down
London Bridge has collapsed several times in history and was always rebuilt. The nursery rhyme probably comes from the collapse in the year 1281. The "fair lady" of the rhyme is Queen Eleanor who embezzled the money designated for reconstruction.

The Battle of London Bridge was part of Jack Cade's Rebellion, an attempt to overthrow King Henry VI. Forty Londoners and over 200 rebels died in the battle. Cade was executed and his head hoisted on a pike above the bridge, a fate shared by other traitors including Guy Fawkes and Oliver Cromwell.

Pariah Nation

North fucking Korea is part of the Paris Accord on climate change. Not the United States. How much more pariah can you get when the entire world agrees to something except you?

The Economic Winner - China

China already leads the United States in renewable energy investments. That gap will only grow in the future as the US regresses to 19th century energy technology. Add in the fact that other nations will drift away from trading with backwards US technology. Get used to hearing the phrase "China leads the world."

The Political Winner - Russia

Putin had multiple motives for supporting Trump including destroying NATO, but at the top of the list is belatedly winning the Cold War by isolating the United States from the world. By withdrawing the US from the only truly global agreement in history, Trump has accomplished Putin's goal. As Trump's America drifts into global insignificance Putin gloats.

I Love You, California (and New York and Washington)

Those three states and scores of cities have already have already broken with the federal government and pledged to adhere to the Paris Accords. Other localities are certain to follow. Economically and educationally, the backward states, I'm talking to you Kansas, will fall further and further behind as they slowly crawl into Third World status.

'Renegotiating' Ain't Gonna Happen

Trump says he wants to renegotiate the Paris Accords which just means he wants to put his name on it in garish gold letters. The rest of the world is not interested, in fact they intend to redouble their efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to make up for the petulant child who wants to smear his feces on everything.

What a Weird Time

With the current news it is hard to tell if you are hallucinating or not. ~ Joy Reid (slightly paraphrased)

I've had the occasional dream that was so believable I couldn't tell what was real and what was dream. I keep half expecting to wake up realizing this whole Trump business is just a bad dream.

Reagan Is Turning In His Grave

I grew up during the cold war when Republicans everywhere were obsessed to the point of insanity with rooting out suspected Russian agents in government. After John Kennedy was elected in 1960 there were voices suggesting a military coup might be necessary to prevent Russian infiltration of the US government.

Today, Republicans are falling over themselves to defend the notion of a Russian spy ring operating within White House, how it is no big deal or even a good thing that Russian agents are privy to our every secret.

Maybe Trump Should Shag Jared Kushner

Trump's romance with his son-in-law isn't just creepy but bad government. Instead of giving him every important job many of which, to put it nicely, he has completely screwed up, wouldn't it make more sense if Trump just had a sweaty tumble with Jared and let Rance Priebus and the others do all the administrating. It's an idea.

As Others See Us

Oh would some Power the gift give us, to see ourselves as others see us. ~ Robert Burns

'Nuff said.

Thoughts About Jared

Treason From Within

There are only two motives for treason, ideology or money. The British traitor Kim Philby believed the Russian system of government was better than democracy. American spy Robert Hanssen was only interest in the money his treachery would bring.

Jared Kushner is all about the money. He sees the wealth of the Russian gangster oligarchs and longs to swim in their ocean. Jared is eager to sell out his country for great wealth. The Russians are more than willing to wave rubles under Jared's nose and watch him salivate like Pavlov's dog.

I Remember Nothing

Michael Flynn is taking the classic dodge of Mafia dons and pleading the Fifth. Jared is using a different but equally classic evasion. He is claiming faulty memory. He doesn't remember talking to most of his spymasters. Kushner, just now, doesn't remember much of anything.

The Enablers
Every successful traitor needs associates willfully ignoring the clear evidence of treachery. H. R. McMaster is so eager to keep the position of power he has longed for for decades he is making petty and unbelievable excuses for actions that would alarm any normal person responsible for the nation's security.

Strange Fruit

Mississippi State Rep. Karl Oliver (Republican) recently called for the lynching of anyone who tries to take down Confederate memorials.

The Shubuta bridge in Mississippi, also known as "The Hanging Bridge"

In 1936, an American poet and songwriter named Abel Meeropol wrote a poem he later set to music. In 1939, blues legend Billie Holiday made a heart wrenching recording of the song.

This is the crop that Southern Republicans wish to resurrect.

Southern trees bear a strange fruit
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees
 
Pastoral scene of the gallant south
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth
Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh

Here is fruit for the crows to pluck
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop
Here is a strange and bitter crop

When Southern Republicans talk about restoring "greatness" to America, lynching is one of the things they think of. Hanging political opponents and "uppity niggers" from the nearest tree as a lesson to those blacks who might try to vote or speak out was a common occurrence in the Old South they long for.

Researchers have counted over 4000 African-American citizens lynched in the states of the old Confederacy between 1877 and 1950 and this almost certainly understates the total. Mississippi was the leading state in lynchings. The most recent lynching I could find of a black man in Mississippi was 2015.

There Is a Traitor In the White House

The law enforcement investigation into possible coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign has identified a current White House official as a significant person of interest, showing that the probe is reaching into the highest levels of government. ~ Washington Post, May 19, 2017

Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner

Who is it? Who is the Russian agent within the White House? There may be two score people who fit the description in the Post. A handful, like National Security Advisor H. R. McMaster, had no role in the campaign so can be ruled out. Of the remainder, my wild speculation is its Jared.

• Kushner and Ivanka are known to have vacationed with the rumored mistress of Vlad Putin in August, 2016.
• Kushner hid dozens of meetings with Russian oligarchs when he applied for a security clearance.
• Those meetings included people known to be involved in espionage.
• Kushner was apparently caught on a wiretap colluding with Russian agents.
• Kushner was the moving force behind firing FBI Director James Comey and the sole purpose, according to Trump himself, was to end the Russia investigation.
• Kushner appears to be behind the White House plots against Robert Mueller's investigation. 

Then there is the theory that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Jared's father was sent to federal prison under felony convictions for tax evasion  and witness tampering. Jared may be another in a line of hereditary criminals.

And the Beat Goes On

• It's like a scene out of Game of Thrones. Mike Pence is forming an independent PAC as he prepares a palace coup to usurp the presidency.
• Some wag I read yesterday wondered if Trump could go 48 hours without humiliating himself on Twitter. The answer was no. The adult response from the White House immediately after the appointment of a special counsel didn't sound at all like Trump. His whining tweet this morning does.
• Mike Flynn seems ready to defy congressional subpoenas as he tries to keep out of federal prison.
• Flynn told Trump's lawyer in early January that he was under FBI investigation. Trump's team ignored that red flag and then lied about what they knew and when they knew it.
• History Lesson: "What did the president know and when did he know it" was the driving question of the Watergate investigation and will be the driving question of Russiagate.
• House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy seems to have admitted that Trump was a paid agent of Russia back in 2016. When told about the story, McCarthy said the statement was fake. When told the Washington Post had tape, McCarthy stammered that he must have been joking.
• The Trump campaign was in constant contact with Russian agents during the final months of the 2016 presidential campaign.

Things are moving so fast in so many different directions that even my whiplash has whiplash.

Trump's Clogged Toilet

Never in my six plus decades have I seen so much shit go down.

People May Die

Trump's flapping piehole has put real people's lives at risk. The Israeli spy agency Mossad puts brave individuals in incredibly dangerous situation to gather vital intelligence. The information they gather on ISIS is not picked up by satellites or drones but with boots on the ground secret agents. Agents who could be killed if Russia shares the secrets Trump blabbed with their Syrian allies.

Trump's Best Defense

Trump supporters seem to be coalescing their defense of him around the theory that Trump is a blithering nitwit, not a criminal. It might have some carriage in that the words most commonly associated with Trump are "idiot," "incompetent," and "liar." The defense of his leaks to the Russians is that Trump lacks the attention span and intelligence to understand his briefings and so he didn't know what he was talking about.

Putin's Here to Help

Because the President and all of his aides are not credible, Vladimir Putin has offered to take up the burden of informing the US Congress just what Trump said to the Russian spies ambassadors. How nice of him. Putin wouldn't possibly lie about anything, would he?

When You've Lost Wall Street

As I write this the stock market is down 250 points. Financial media is writing about what happened to the economy during the Watergate scandal (hint: nothing good). The rich bastards are giving up the idea of massive tax cuts. Republicans in Congress may not give a fuck what the common citizen wants but they sure as hell care what Wall Street financiers think. A Wall Street driven coup impeaching Trump is becoming possible.

Trump Keeps Pissing on His Own Shoes

The best job in the world to have right now is being an orthopedic surgeon in the D. C. area. Trump just kneecapped more of his aides.

Yesterday, aides like National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster weaved through a maze of sophistry trying to deny Trump carelessly leaked classified information to the Russians while limiting the amount of outright lying they were doing.

Today, while sitting up in bed eating his breakfast of one pouched egg and three Ding Dongs, Trump shattered McMaster's credibility by tweeting that not only did he carelessly leak classified info to the Ruskies but he was proud of being a traitor to his country.

The number of Trump aides limping painfully around the White House waiting an overbooked orthopedist to see them is growing daily.

Update: While typing this, McMaster is holding a presser trying to repair his fractured reputation.

Update #2: I watched a bit of the McMaster presser to get a sense of his body language and voice inflections. I would call his performance manically anxious and unsettled, like adrenaline or a line of cocaine was coursing through his bloodstream. 

A Few Random Thoughts

One Lacking Virtue

It is said of Rod Rosenstein that he has cultivated a stellar reputation in his years in Washington serving both Republican and Democratic administrations. It is said he is hard working, diligent, and intelligent. It is said he had everything a man could want.

Yet, when the nation, indeed the world, asked for his courage he found he had none. For all his diligence and intelligence, Rod Rosenstein lacks even the faintest flicker of bravery. He is indeed a coward for the ages.

A Request of the World
Trump is leaving on Friday for his first foreign trip. Can one of the countries he visits please keep him? It's a simple request. Do it for the sake of all mankind.

A Little Fun

A few days ago I stumbled on British ventriloquist Nina Conti. She and her little monkey are a delightful distraction from the horrors of reality.

Trump's Bodyguard

One of the more bizarre revelations surrounding the Comey firing is finding out that Trump's favorite bodyguard, Keith Schiller, is one of his top aides. If the Daily Beast can be believed, Schiller is Trump's office wife with closer personal access than anyone else including Melania or Ivanka.

Schiller is one of the few people Trump talked to about firing Comey and was the person tasked with walking the termination letter to FBI headquarters because Trump was too cowardly to tell Comey to his face.

Schiller's rise from hired thug to prominent aide echos SS-Obersturmbannführer Bruno Gesche.

Bruno Gesche was an alcoholic goon with the IQ of a turnip who was the long time bodyguard to Adolph Hitler. He had been beating up protesters for nearly two decades prior to Hitler achieving total power. When Hitler became dictator he brought Bruno with him.

Bruno loved Hitler like a puppy loves his master and Hitler loved his stupid bodyguard like a master loves a puppy. Throughout the war Heinrich Himmler, think a less disgusting version of Steve Bannon, tried to get Bruno killed on the Eastern Front but Hitler kept calling him back.

I'm not saying Schiller is exactly like Bruno, I am certain there are many differences. For one thing, he is smarter than Trump but, so is a turnip.

Trump Ready to Repeat History

Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it. ~ Edmund Burke

Trump's wee hour tweets this morning recalls the fall of two characters from history.

The Tapes

James Comey better hope that there are no "tapes" of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press! ~ Trump, May 12, 5:26 am

Trump threatened the former FBI director with tapes of his conversations, implying Trump repeated the profound mistake of Richard Nixon and recorded his private conversations.

First, I find it unlikely that Trump could successfully threaten Comey who has dealt with tougher pieces of shit than Trump. Second, those tapes will eventually be subpoenaed Trump will claim there never were any tapes which will bring charges of obstruction of justice.

Why would Trump tape his conversations? Nixon did it because he was an egomaniac who expected the tapes would be proof of the legacy of his greatness. Also, some have speculated he intended to use them to blackmail others.

While Trump might have been thinking blackmail, as in the tweet above, I suspect his prime motive was so he could listen to them later and revel in his masterful ability to humiliate the people he is talking to.

The Bunker

Maybe the best thing to do would be to cancel all future "press briefings" ~ Trump, May 12, 5:07 am

When Germany's Lebensraum war against Russia started going south, Hitler retreated to his bunker in the Wolf's Lair. The man who led his country into a world war with his soaring rhetoric stopped appearing in public and stopped making speeches. He disappeared almost entirely from the public.  Propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels would fill the gap with narrated film clips of a silent Hitler.

Trump is thinking about going silent to the media and communicating solely using written statements. There would be photo ops where reporters who ask questions will be arrested, but communications to the public will be limited to short written statement. No questions allowed. No explanations given. This remind me of the dystopic TV series, The Prisoner.