The New-New Testament; The Bible According to Trump

The Book of Nemesis

The Trumpmandments

In the beginning and the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep, the U.S. Mint said, Let there be money: and there was money. And then, as day was divided into night, it came to pass that there was a great greed; and it was good. So sayeth Gordon Gekko, the fictional god of Wall Street.

Man took the money and greed and said, Let there be power, and there was power. Then money, greed, and power became the Holy Trinity and it was worshipped by those who follow the true path of corruption.  It would come to be called the Great Holy Trifecta. Using the great gift of greed in man, many would prosper and gather great wealth and with great wealth came great power to rule others and make the rules that all must follow.

Centuries after the creation of money, a new savior was born in New York City and His birth was foretold by a great light in the east.   This beacon was atop of the tower on the Empire State Building having been recently replaced after its removal in 1933 by King Kong. This savior would be born to parents who had acquired great sums of money through greed and abuse of power. The family was the embodiment of the Great Holy Trifecta of money, greed, and power. And thus, the Great Donald was born and he was rich.  No wise men visited as we all know The Donald is a genius and in need of no further enlightenment.

The new blonde savior would build tall towers to His glory and they would be named Trump Towers. He would place them in states and countries far and wide, in honor of his Holy Name. It came to pass one day that the new savior would seek to rule the country of His birth and He would convince enough people in three key states to win the presidency in 2016 YOT, the Year of Our Trump. It would be a miracle that, of the 250 million who voted, 107,000 people in three states would decide this election.


The Book of Trumperonomy

And it came to pass that Trump was now all-powerful and he would ascend to the penthouse in his tower to use his superior brain to develop a new set of commandments to replace the pesky ones that Moses brought down from Mount Horeb. As the savior, Trump pondered in his penthouse the vision of the new commandments as they appeared to him in a series of  Tweets and several Fox News broadcasts.  By executive order, He repealed the outdated Moses commandments.  And thus, the New Ten Commandments were born and would be forever called The Trumpmandments. To wit:



The Trumpmandments

1. I am Lord Trump, and thou shalt not have any strange presidents before me; who aren’t named Putin.
2. Thou shalt not slander the name of Trump or you should be prepared for a Tweet-Storm the likes of which the world has never seen.
3. Remember to keep holy Golf Day; which may be any day with a “Y” in the name.  All such rounds should be played on a Trump-owned course of course.
4. Honor thy father and mother, but only if they have money and keep you in their will.
5. Thou shalt not kill without profit.
6. Thou shalt not commit adultery; unless of course, she is smoking hot and you have a great prenup.
7. Thou shalt not steal unless nobody is looking, you aren’t caught, and/or you happen to have a good law firm on retainer.
8. Thou shalt not tell a lie or bear false witness against your neighbor; just joking on that one; we all know Truth is not Truth and you can’t believe your lying eyes and ears.
9. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife; see Trumpmandment #7 for exceptions.
10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s goods; just take what you want and have a good lawyer; you might want to avoid any named Rudy.

Devil's Museum in Kaunas, Lithuania

There was an evil in all of Christendom that went by many names.  He is Satan, Beelzebub, and Lucifer, and he came to visit the earth during the Time of Trump and he wisely said, “My work here is done.”

That Was The Year That Was

Here we are again.  We’ve survived another trip around our sun and it‘s time to reflect on the events of 2019 and prognosticate about our future.  If we can be honest with ourselves in this post-truth period of national division, looking in either direction can be disheartening.  We have seen an erosion of our democracy to a level few thought possible just a few short decades ago. 

That Was The Year That Was**

Who could have conceived that we would have a president who was caught stealing from the charity he set up for fire fighter’s widows and veterans, and his supporters would just yawn and look the other way?  Yes, Donald J. Trump has been stealing from this charity since 1989 when he wrote a $7 check to pay for Don Jr.’s Boy Scout initiation fee. 

Think about that minor infraction for just a second and you will get a deeper appreciation of the absolute contempt we should all be feeling.  Here he is, the future president of the United States, with his son embarking on his adventure in scouting where their mission is to “prepare young people to make ethical and moral choices over their lifetimes by instilling in them the values of the Scout Oath and Scout Law.”  From the values stated in that Scout Oath we read, “to help other people at all times; to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight.”  Yes, Don Jr. got a good life-lesson in morality when his father paid for his entry into this revered organization with money stolen from a charity he operated.  Such moral bankruptcy deserves more than just a yawn of disinterest and an eye roll.

This 20^th year of the new millennium has seen a shift from the New Information Age to the Age of Disinformation.  We have come to a place where political lies are not just innocent whoppers or mere exaggerations of the truth designed to spin a conversation in a particular direction; we have entered a new period where lies and whole cloth fabrications are extolled repeatedly in ALL CAPS in nationally televised tweets and shouted from podiums to hordes of adoring fans.  These lies are designed to further a corrupt intent.  The scale of dishonesty is gargantuan and we must now wade through the quagmire of untruths in order to arrive at any comprehension of current events.  Yes, Rudy Giuliani’s quote from 2018 bears repeating, “Truth isn’t truth.”

Truth Isn't Truth, Rudy Guiliani
 

However, dis-information, negative ads, and shameless hypocrisy are not the only signs of our democratic demise, a complete tectonic shift in the political foundation of the Republican Party may also be considered a harbinger of the forthcoming apocalypse.  Who would have thought that the recent ‘tea party’ revolution of conservatism would be corrupted so easily by a blonde charlatan?  One of the pillars of that conservatism was fiscal responsibility, which seems to be  “Gone With the Wind” much as Rhett Butler walked away from Scarlett and into the embrace of the morning Georgia fog.  Our continuing prosperity has been propped up by a sharp upturn in our national debt; we have borrowed against our future.

Fake Fact

Speaking of financial health, our economy would appear to be going gangbusters.  The Dow is suffering nosebleed in the stratosphere of all-time highs.  Corporate taxes as a percentage of all tax revenue are down to a low of 3.5%.  For reference, they were around 9% in 2010.  The lowering of corporate taxes and the lowering of personal income taxes, particularly for the wealthy, has meant a shortfall that has pushed our national debt to above $23 trillion or even more by some observations.  Now the holders of our national purse strings are sounding the alarm of foreboding shortfalls with a proclaimed need to scale back Medicare ($800B) and Medicaid ($200B), a lowering of Social Security benefits, cutting federal pensions (not for Congress of course), and other belt-tightening with cuts to social programs.  You can’t let Amazon pay $0 in corporate taxes and not have to make up the loss somewhere.  A strong military, a regular Republican talking point, our infrastructure of highways, waterways, electrical grid, etc., are maintained through taxation.  This tax burden has been slowly shifted away from corporations and the wealthy and on to the middle class in various, subtle, and ominous ways.

Meanwhile, the democracy-threatening trend toward an American oligarchy continues.  It has been with us since before the era-of-Trump, but it has gone into Hyperdrive since his inauguration.  America was heretofore a shining example of representative democracy but it has now become a nation controlled by the political and financial influence of the uber-rich and hyper-wealthy.  Trump didn’t start this trend but he is surely not going to do anything to stop it.  In fact, the recent tax cuts, which mostly benefitted large corporations and those wealthy donors, will exacerbate the problem.  Campaign finance reform wasn’t on any docket in 2019 and I will go out on a limb and predict that you won’t see any movement in 2020.

Stanley King

On the religious front, there was a recent crack in the evangelical façade when a single article in an evangelical publication called out Trump’s lack of morality and basically indicated that the benefits to that community were outweighed by the immoral behavior of their unlikely benefactor.  Yes, their womanizing thrice-married and morally bankrupt savior was called out.  It will be interesting to see if others will realize that Donald J. Trump, is not the answer to “what would Jesus do?”

What Would Trump Do?

Toward the end of 2019, emails surfaced that would indicate that Stephen Miller, a top advisor to President Trump, is a white nationalist.  Twenty-five Jewish members of Congress sent a letter to President Donald Trump calling on White House senior policy adviser Stephen Miller to be dismissed after the release of a series of emails in which Miller allegedly shared white supremacist views.  The White House has been dismissive of such previous claims, stating that this would be impossible since Mr. Miller is Jewish.  They must be confusing white supremacists with white nationalists.  While most of us would identify as nationalists, i.e., expressing a love of country, adding the adjective “white” in front of that label would indicate someone who believes the white race to be inherently superior to other races and would include those who would advocate racial segregation.

While white supremacists can also be white nationalists, most in the former category would exclude Jews.  A quick review of the topics listed in the many Miller emails posted at the Southern Poverty Law Center would indicate strong feelings and support of much if not all of the objectives expressed by white nationalists.  President Trump’s past predilections along these lines, his father’s racist associations and actions, Trump’s ties to Breitbart, and his ties to Steve Bannon, would all seem to be sympathetic to a white nationalist agenda.

This, boys and girls, brings us to Impeachment.  The president has been impeached.  He was impeached for Abuse of Power and Obstruction of Congress.  He was only found at fault for those two narrow articles.  The House ran out of time or perhaps there could have been more.  In late December more emails surfaced that gave further credence to the abuse of power charges as they provided a direct timeline 90 minutes after the phone call where the DOD was notified to suspend further Ukrainian support and to keep it a secret on a need-to-know basis.  It would seem that impeachment is difficult, as it should be.  The framers of our constitution were intentionally vague, as they perhaps believed that cool heads would prevail and figure out a just method to proceed.  Boy, were they shortsighted. 

I feel that the America that I knew in the middle of the last century is just a curiosity of a bygone era.  Morality has gone the way of the hula-hoop, Slinky, Play-dough, Lincoln logs, erector sets, Gilbert chemistry sets, cap pistols, plastic model airplanes, water-rockets, Viewmaster 3D viewers, Mr. Potato Head, balsa-wood airplanes, Tinker Toys, transistor radios, rubber army men, Legos, and American Flyer trains.  I don’t long for black and white television and being restricted to an outdated set of Encyclopedia Britannica for research.  I do long for the days of civility, cooperation, negotiation, and compromise in our political leaders.

Tinker Toys

Our nation’s shift to the right comes at a time when world politics seems to be at a crossroads.  In the United Kingdom, Trump’s fellow New Yorker and brother from another mother, Boris Johnson (born Upper East Side, New York, June 19, 1964), has taken their Conservative Party down the road of isolation with a move to leave the European Union.  (Trump was born June 14, 1946, in Queens, NY.)  I guess we could start a rumor that Boris Johnson is Trump’s illegitimate son.  Boris looks a bit like Trump and he has been described as an “unprecedented blend of comedian, conman, faux subversive, showman, and populist media confection.”  With the exception of “comedian,” I’ve heard most of those terms used to describe The Donald.

Boris (left)                            Trump (right)

Early in 2020, I predict that the impeachment charges will be forwarded to the Senate for trial.  This trial will be an un-funny joke where the president will be exonerated of all charges.  I further believe that more information will come forward during the year that will add more weight to the crimes already committed, but none of this will matter.  If stealing money from a charity for widows of firefighters and veterans doesn’t raise an eyebrow among his supporters, his requesting assistance from a foreign power to help with his reelection and ignoring congressional subpoenas is but a minor distraction.

I further predict with relative certainty, that the GOP will purge more voter rolls, make gerrymandering more of an art, and keep the function of counting votes a mystery wrapped in a riddle based on 19^th century technology.  This upcoming election will be as assailable and vague as the GOP needs it to be in order to assure a win for their party.  The Democrats, on the other hand, will be sitting on both hands.  They have not yet come up with a strong candidate who can challenge this morally vulnerable “leader of the free world.”

Barring a major downturn in the economy, or a Jeffrey Epstein videotape showing Trump in a minor role, I fear the 2020 election will provide us with four more years of Trump Unchained and even Quentin Tarantino couldn’t imagine this script.

**  The title, That Was The Year That Was, gives a tip of the hat to Tom Lehrer who wrote and sang the political satire album of that same name in 1965.  It is available on Spotify and Amazon Music and its lyrics are apropos today.

TWTYTW

That Was the Year That Was (1965) is a live album recorded at the hungry i in San Francisco, containing performances by Tom Lehrer of satiric topical songs he originally wrote for the NBC television series That Was The Week That Was, known informally as TW3 (1964–65). All of the songs related to items then in the news.^[2] The album peaked at #18 on Billboard's Top 200 Albums on January 8, 1966, and was on the chart for 51 weeks.

It's The Economy, Stupid

I just love it when my Republican friends sign their work.  Yes, Stupid*, it is about the economy.  The problem with this typical 4-word slogan is that it oversimplifies a complex issue.  It’s like looking at the gas gauge and telling everyone that the car is ready for your long driving vacation.  We have enough gas, so let’s jump in the car and “Get your motor runnin,' Head out on the highway, Lookin' for adventure, And whatever comes our way.”  You may be Born to Be Wild but that’s the kind of logic that gets you to the "Florida-Georgia Line" only to have one of your four bald tires blow.  That’s the type of thinking that puts you in the middle of a long stretch of “dark desert highway” crossing Death Valley headed for the Hotel California when your failure to change the oil for the last 50,000 miles causes your engine to seize.

Destination, Hotel California

Yes, the economy is important but you can’t just look at the Dow Jones Industrial average and declare, “All is well.”  You can point to the low unemployment numbers all you want, but when people are working two jobs and still qualify for food stamps, things aren’t rosy for everyone.  When farmers can’t sell their crops because someone got into a tariff war with a major trading partner and farmers now must rely on government charity (our tax dollars), the economy may not be in the wonderful shape indicated by stock market numbers.

Donald Trump took an economy left to him by his predecessor that was doing well and managed, or mismanaged depending on your point of view, and borrowed against our children’s future to lower taxes.  For the lower 90% of us, it was a temporary break.  For big business and the wealthy, it was a permanent windfall.  Yes, by running up the national debt to above $120 trillion**, the economy appears to be doing well.

**Note: the published National Debt is $23 trillion;
this chart uses additional factors.

I am reminded of a neighbor friend of mine.  He had a nice house and had recently done some major remodeling.  He put in a pool and added a new room to the back of the house.  He then installed a new driveway next to his house that allowed him a way to park his large new boat in the side yard.  We were invited over for a holiday party those many years ago and we saw that the inside of the house had also benefitted from his apparent new-found wealth.  The room addition now sported a giant flat-screen television.  This was back when such displays cost as much as $10,000 to $15,000.  They had a new kitchen and new tile floors.  As he owned his own business, I assumed that things were going very well.  His economy was very good by all appearances.

It wasn’t but a few years after this holiday party that the "For Sale" sign went up.  When asked, he admitted that he had been caught up in the sub-prime mortgage debacle.  The housing bubble had burst.  Much like the bald tires on our vacation car, my neighbor’s fun ride was at an end.  His mortgage was underwater, the economy had taken a nose-dive, and those mortgage payments had become unmanageable.  He had taken the cash out of his over-valued home spent it perhaps unwisely and ended up being forced to move in with his mother-in-law.

This is an over-simplification of our economy.  I doubt that any of us will be moving back with the in-laws.  I don't think England would take us back and they have their own problems.  The U.S. economy is due for a recession in either 2020 or 2021 depending on which group of economists you believe.  While president Trump will take credit for our current good economic news, I’ll give good odds that you will never hear him take any blame when the downturn eventually comes.  If he has learned to delegate anything, blame has to top the list.

Trump took an economy on the rise and didn’t screw it up.  He did, however, accomplish this partially on the backs of future generations.  Politicians regularly take credit for the highs of our cyclic economy and cast aspersions on others during the lows.  This current presidency is not ALL about the economy.  Trump is managing our national financial vehicle as he has his many business ventures.  He puts the pedal to the metal and has no concern for those bald tires or regular oil changes.  He will take credit for an economy that ends up in the winner’s circle but will deflect and point fingers elsewhere when the crews are called in to haul away the wreck.  The national debt tin-can has been kicked down the road for someone else to deal with.

Are you really better off?

We may never know if Trump is a successful businessman or just an adept conman.  Given his predilection to brag about nearly every accomplishment, I find it of some concern that he has managed to keep his financial health such a secret.  He has certainly done a better job keeping his personal finances more secret than our national security secrets.  Is he in financial debt to some Russian oligarch or Saudi prince, perhaps both?  His unilateral deference to all things Russian or Saudi gives rise to speculation.  We would be right to suspect that there are financial ties and concerns of which we should be wary.  Trump’s perpetual-audit excuse is beginning to wear thin when it comes to his tax returns.

James Carville’s, “It’s the economy, stupid,” will be heard loud and clear this 2020 presidential election.  I can only hope that voters will take a long hard look at that economy.  While your taxes may have gone down a bit, are you really better off than you were four years ago?  Since the sub-prime mortgage-related crash of 2008, the overwhelming majority of new jobs earn less than $50,000 a year and many don’t pay much above minimum wage.  Many average Americans  could be considered “working poor.”

Bocce ball court, a true level playing field

The poverty threshold for a family of four is $25,000.  If that family wants to own a car, watch cable TV, have decent healthcare, send their two children through college, own a home, take vacations, etc., they must earn considerably more.  A minimum wage job at $7.25 hr brings in $15,000; but only if you never get sick, never take a vacation, and work 52 weeks a year.  I think most Democrats and true and honest Republicans don’t believe in a redistribution of wealth but would fully endorse a level playing field.  If leveling that playing field brings a bit of temporary pain to the wealthy, it may be unavoidable.  The playing field is not level if a good education is relegated to the wealthy with connections.  The playing field is not level if not all Americans are afforded some level of quality healthcare as a birthright.  The playing field is not level if corporations can make obscene profit margins while paying wages that require full-time employees to go on public assistance in order to get proper nutrition and adequate shelter.

The Gilded Age, Mark Twain, and Charles Dudley Warner
Telling a tale of graft, materialism, and corruption in public life.

Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner wrote “The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today” in 1873, referring to the Reconstruction period after 1860.  The reference was of a glittery surface and an underbelly of corruption, greed, unrestrained capitalism, and conspicuous consumption.  Welcome to the second Gilded Age, Gilded Age 2.0 if you will, where the working poor ride buses or walk to work and can barely afford basic necessities, the middle class is dwindling and treading water financially, and the top 1% enjoys the fruits of the labors of others to whom they refuse to pay a living wage.  Donald Trump, after signing his massive tax cut told his wealthy friends at a gathering at Mar-a-Lago, “You all just got a lot richer.”

Alva Vanderbilt, 1883

Tenement life in 1883

We have always been a class society.  The middle-class flies coach, the upper-class flies first class, and the uber-rich cruise in private jets.  In the recent past, however, mobility between classes was at least possible and the American Dream of homeownership was more than just a dream.  Remember to vote for the American Dream in 2020, to avoid the American Nightmare in 2021.


* Note:  Apologies to my Republican friends, I wasn't calling you "stupid."  But if you think this president is above the law, has done nothing against our Constitution, has meaningfully cooperated with the House investigations as is his duty under the Constitution, has helped our environment so that it may be enjoyed by future generations, and has been fiscally conservative, you may want to re-think your choice of grape-flavored beverages.

Use Caution When Draining the Swamp

For those who have never worked at any level of our government, it's easy to think of "government" as a single entity with a political face.  The actual image is far more complex.  While politicians are both admired and despised based upon their known actions, literally tens of thousands of people are often behind the scenes of these public faces doing the daily work of our government.  There are mailroom clerks, administrative personnel, embassy staffers, foreign-service administrators, etc., who are career government employees, not elected to office, but who serve the goals of our government operations.  Add to this the teachers, police, fire, road crews, water and sewer workers, safety inspectors, city planners, and thousands of other positions that make life in this country possible. 

The heartbeat of our government was no more readily apparent than during the recent political hearings where the American public saw highly intelligent apolitical government employees who were very good at their jobs.  They were articulate and showed passion, dedication, and expertise in their respective fields of endeavor.  For them to be singled out and ridiculed by this president is unconscionable.  They did their jobs and reported facts without elaboration and for this, they were condemned because they didn’t tell this president what he wanted to hear.

When you talk about draining the swamp, have an objective.  The job is too important to go in without a plan.  If you drain the swamp and end up with a desert, what have you accomplished?  This president isn’t draining a swamp he is just a 3-year-old having a tantrum.  He breaks or sets fire to everything he touches.

Trump the Firestarter

Our government is huge for a reason; there is a lot of work to be done.  Could it be done more efficiently?  Of course, it could.  Is there corruption?  Yes, there is, but I would venture that the vast majority of it comes from the elected political component rather than the dedicated career professionals.  You are not eliminating corruption by firing employees who disagree with you, you are adding to the corruption problem.

As we watched the hearings surrounding the impeachment trial there was a stark contrast between the politicians who were playing to the cameras trying to make new sound bytes for the evening news and then there were the hard-working professionals who give us all hope.  No matter what position you may hold regarding the necessity for these hearings, it was disgusting to watch career government employees being insulted and their integrity impugned by politicians trying to score points for some political advantage.  Those who participated in such obscenities should feel the wrath of their constituencies at the ballot box.

I fear that there will be further shenanigans during the Senate portion of this process.  All senators will be required to swear an oath prior to the trial that reads...,

"I solemnly swear (or affirm) that in all things appertaining to the trial of the impeachment of President Donald John Trump, now pending, I will do impartial justice according to the Constitution and laws: So help me God.” 

It is difficult to believe that Mitch McConnell won't burst into flames spouting such blasphemy.  He has already declared the innocence of Donald Trump and has coordinated his efforts with the accused.  "Impartial justice" would appear to have a different meaning in the rarified atmosphere of political euphemisms.  We all know the predicted outcome for the Senate charade but even I thought they would go through the motions and give the appearance of fairness.

Mitch McConnell

It would appear that, even though Donald Trump came to his office with no experience in political matters, he has managed to exploit the weaknesses of our democracy.  He figured out that, as long as he holds a majority in either the House or Senate, he will never be removed from office.  It took him three tries, but he also found his Roy Cohen in the persona of William Barr.  With control of the Attorney General's office, the legality of his actions can be twisted and spun to fit almost any scenario.  Donald Trump will never be a good politician but he can certainly show the rest of them what it means to be really good at corruption.  Our president has decades of experience in all things corrupt.

Roy Cohen (rt) was Joseph McCarthy's "witch hunt" chief counsel

Elected official corruption can be lessened with term limits and independent oversight.  Full transparency of officials’ finances should be a requirement for all elected offices.  No elected official should be able to vote on legislation if they have received any financial support from any person or a business that might benefit from that vote.  Perhaps we could have all congressional leaders sign, under oath, a statement that they will never vote on a piece of legislation that directly involves an entity from which they have or expect to receive something of value.  Therefore, violations would be seen as perjury of their oath in addition to any other violations of law.  Laws are meaningless without enforceable consequences. 

The Extortion Ship Sets Sail with Captain Trump at the Helm

We now have a corrupt businessman sailing the USS American Democracy into treacherous waters.  What Trump has undoubtedly done in his previous personal business ventures, and what he recently did with Ukraine, he is now doing with businesses. Extortion comes naturally to someone who places winning above all else; it's just another tool in the box.  To Trump, personal financial gain and a lust for power justify all activities without regard to inconvenient laws, annoying regulations, or God forbid, morals.

Our Sinking Democracy

Donald Trump, like many wheelers and dealers, likes to play in the big leagues, but with other people’s money.  Call it bribery, extortion, or quid pro quo, it all amounts to Donald Trump using his position as president to offer favorable financial incentives to big business in return for political/financial/ego support.  In private business, “tit for tat” incentives may be legal, but when it comes to using our tax dollars to buy such favors, this is never legal.  For Trump, the term “legal” seems to mean anything that you aren’t caught at.

The president is given wide latitude by U.S. trade laws in the realm of setting tariffs and enacting trade policy.  It had been felt that our president would be above the influence of special interests.  Whoever wrote such policy had obviously never met the likes of one Donald J. Trump.  This president wields this power as a Jedi knight might a lightsaber.  He uses it to slay his enemies, vanquish those who don’t swear fealty to his omnipotent power and to reward those who provide him solace.

You have to know how to kiss the ring.

Our current trade wars and subsequent tariffs have provided Trump with a golden opportunity.  He can now selectively exempt certain businesses from paying these tariffs thereby giving them a financial advantage over their competition.

Trump recently visited an Apple plant that he promptly took credit for, even though the plant had been in operation since 2013.  Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, did not correct Trump, but rather praised him for creating the “strongest economy in the world.”  Apple is seeking exemptions from Chinese tariffs since it assembles many of its products there.

It’s not just American companies that are useful to Trump (all roads lead to Putin), US sanctions placed on Russia for interfering in our elections were costly to Putin's friend Oleg Deripaska.  In 2018, his company received a waiver from aluminum tariffs.  When Democrats found out about the waiver, Trump’s Commerce Department tried to explain it away as a “clerical error.”

Getting back to our Star Wars lightsaber analogy, the Pentagon recently shocked likely JEDI (Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure) contract lead contender, Amazon, by awarding the cloud computing deal to Microsoft.  Trump warned Jeff Bezos, who’s Washington Post has been critical of Trump, that he was going to have “problems.”  While Microsoft and Amazon aren’t sympathetic victims, the mere fact that Trump is misusing his powers in such a brazen way only strengthens the need for his ouster in 2020.

You're traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind.  A journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination.  That's the signpost up ahead—your next stop, the Authoritarian State.