THE CONTROVERSY: February 2019

Tuesday, February 26, 2019

DEJA VU: FROM RICHARD NIXON TO DONALD TRUMP. THE DAY IS COMING.

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I heard another ultra-progressive liberal Democrat recently ask the following words. "Why are so many Americans so stupid?" I thought of beginning this column by asking that question myself. But if I did - which I'm not going to do - I'd be no better than the guy who lives in The White House. And then I'd feel obligated to issue an apology, which The Oval Office occupant has never done. Donald Trump couldn't care less who he insults and who he offends.

I will, however, ask a different question. How did nearly 63 million citizens get hoodwinked in to believing that a wall - of any kind, for that matter - is what would be necessary for United States border security? The answer is that Donald Trump - America's "conman-in-chief" - is outstanding in the field at being deceitful...at being a first-rate liar...and at having the skillful capability to cajole people in to trusting him. By doing so, Trump - in 2016 - converted his seduced followers like a flock of Australian sheep being treated to crunchy alfalfa hay cubes, but while being herded to the slaughterhouse. I would have thought that Americans from all walks of life would have been sophisticated enough to not be bamboozled by a smooth talking salesman when it comes to the presidency of our country. Oh sure, people across our nation purchase products they don't need everyday. Late night infomercials sucker viewers to spend their money through impulse buying. But Trump is like that TV announcer whose "but there's more" kept giving certain voters enough of what they wanted to hear...including a wall on the U.S./Mexico border. But Trump's spiel was bogus. Despite his campaign promise - Mexico was never going to pay for the wall...and Trump probably always knew...that such a wall would never be built.

After they cast their ballots for him, it's mind-boggling that his voters wouldn't observe - early in to Trump's presidency - that his pledge for a border wall was only part of Trump's trickery to get him elected. Nevertheless, his base persisted to elevate him on to a pedestal and they refused to recognize that America's democracy was attacked by a foreign adversary that Trump continued to praise.

Two years in to Trump making temporary residence in The White House, one-third of Americans (sometimes a hair more) remain snookered by Trump in to thinking that Vladimir Putin and the Russians did not meddle in America's 2016 election, even though U.S. intelligence agencies are positive of Moscow's interference. And although Trump tried to walk back his original comments, which slammed our own intelligence community, he later claimed to accept the results and determination by U.S. government officials. But actions speak louder than words and Trump is still buddies with Putin. Furthermore, the Trump line remains that Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation in to collusion with Russia...by the Trump campaign and/or by Trump himself...is a "witch hunt." Was Donald Trump a Russian asset? And if so...is he still an agent for the Kremlin? Why won't Republicans push for the truth?

Do Republicans not care? And if they do...why do Republicans want to stop the Mueller probe? Why are Republicans - on Capitol Hill and across the country - allowing Trump to dictate to them that the Russia investigation is a "hoax?" Why have Republicans made this a political issue? Whether you're a Democrat, a Republican, or an Independent, every single American should want to find out... definitively...if Donald Trump - or anyone in his campaign or administration - was involved in a conspiracy to collude with Russia. And if Mueller proves beyond the shadow of a doubt that Trump is guilty of such a crime - along with obstruction of justice, campaign finance violations, and/or treason - every American has the right to know and Congress must constitutionally perform their duty to impeach, convict and remove Trump from office. We - the people of the United States of America - cannot permit spies for Russia to be part of our federal government.

It is critical for the Mueller investigation to be fully completed and on the special counsel's terms. Whether it takes another week...another month...or another year...the probe cannot be interrupted or ended until Robert Mueller is ready to file his report. And when he's certain there are no more witnesses to interview... no more people to indict...no more evidence to uncover...then it is mandatory for the entire Congress to be provided with a complete, unredacted record. Unless there is classified information that would affect the national security of the United States, it is imperative that Mueller's report be made public so that every American who wants to read each syllable in it...can do so.

But before anyone sees the Mueller report, all Americans - or anyone who cares to watch - can witness, live on national television, the under oath testimony to Congress by Donald Trump's former lawyer. Michael Cohen - Trump's so-called "fixer" and keeper of the secrets for more than ten years - will testify in an open session before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday, February 27th, 2019. Oh I know that many of you - especially Republicans - don't trust the word of a convicted felon who is going to prison because, in the past, he lied to Congress. But remember this...prosecutors for the Southern District of New York - along with a U.S. District Court judge - concluded that Cohen was honest and truthful with his testimony that Donald Trump ("Individual 1") "directed" Cohen to commit crimes. Once Congress comes to the same conclusion - which I believe is inevitable - impeachment proceedings will begin. And at some point - as it did with Richard Nixon and Watergate in August 1974 - Republican support on Capitol Hill will evaporate, and GOP leaders in both the House and Senate will make the short journey down Pennsylvania Avenue to advise Trump with crystal clear certainty that the votes are there in Congress to impeach, to convict, and to remove him from office. On that day - which is coming soon -

Donald Trump will announce his resignation, and Mike Pence - at 12 o'clock noon the next day - will be sworn in as the 46th president of the United States. But President Nixon was involved in a cover-up, not in the actual planning of the initial crime. If there is direct evidence to prove that Trump is guilty of the crimes being alleged, I doubt there will be a pardon

for him by Pence, as President Gerald Ford gave to Nixon. And although Pence won't express any remark similar to Mr. Ford's, Donald Trump will be gone...and Americans throughout the country will be able to echo President Ford's words..."our long national nightmare is over."

And that's The Controversy for today.

I'm Gary B. Duglin.

"We'll talk again."

Friday, February 22, 2019

"THE ONLY NATIONAL EMERGENCY IS THAT (DONALD TRUMP) IS AN IDIOT"

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To paraphrase lines that were famously made by Jack Webb as Los Angeles Police Department Sergeant Joe Friday on the NBC hit television drama, Dragnet, I present the following. The story you're about to read in the photograph to the left is true. The name of the person who spoke the comments has not been changed because he is not innocent.

Shockingly - according to a recent Associated Press/ NORC poll - there are still 34 percent of Americans (Donald Trump's Republican base) who continue to support his

narcissistic, racist, xenophobic, Hispanophobic, Islamophobic, anti-Semitic, misogynistic, homophobic views and actions. And those same people, who have lifted Trump on to his pedestal of profanity, would not denounce and condemn him when Trump praised Nazis, white supremacists and the Ku Klux Klan. This is the man who is sitting behind The Oval Office desk. A school teacher posted in her classroom the messages seen in the photo on the left.

Trump's base has been bamboozled and brainwashed. Their loyalty to Trump has overshadowed his blanket of bigotry in his hall of hatred.

Beyond his bigotry, it has become more and more apparent over the last two years, that like another president of the United States who told Americans he was "not a crook," Donald Trump wants people to believe the same thing. And like Richard Nixon, with Trump, the handwriting on the wall is not only legible, but the ink being used is indelible. Significant evidence has been provided by numerous witness testimony - under oath in court - as well as through other interviews given by former high level federal officials, that paints a portrait that Donald Trump has committed crimes against the United States of America.

How has Trump survived through a presidency, so far, that never should have happened? How have Republicans and right-leaning Independents allowed him to do it? How did he make it through a candidacy that should have ended on day one?

It was that day - June 16th, 2015 - when Donald Trump offended Mexicans and, quite frankly, all Latinos, along with anyone else who abhors any form of prejudice, discrimination and hatred towards others. Remember this? "When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best. They're not sending you. They're not sending you. They're sending people that have lots of problems, and they're bringing those problems with us. They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists."

Trump has spent more than three-and-a-half years - since announcing his candidacy - telling big, fat lies about drugs and gangs of criminals crossing our border. Trump's reprehensible rhetoric is...in plain English...crap. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration confirmed in a November 2018 report that the most common trafficking technique by transnational criminal organizations is to hide drugs in passenger vehicles or tractor-trailers as they are driven in to the United States through entry ports where they are stopped and subject to inspection. The DEA report stated that buses, trains, and tunnels are also used. Therefore, such smuggling methods would not be halted by a border wall. As for illegal immigration, Factcheck.org says figures provided by Customs and Border Protection indicate that illegal immigration at the U.S./Mexico border was the highest in the year 2000, but that migrants and refugees attempting to enter our country have been on a "general downward trend since 2006." Factcheck.org says the CBC report spells out fiscal year figures that show illegal immigration is the lowest it's been since 1971.

Before Trump descended from the Trump Tower escalator on that ghastly springtime day in 2015, I'm on the record for describing the Manhattan real estate mogul as a "superstar" who some Republicans would be drawn to and would adore if he truly was serious about running for the GOP nomination. However - at the outset - I never thought Trump could ever win his party's nomination, let alone the presidency. But when Trump did announce that he was indeed seeking the highest office in our land, he did so by making that foulmouthed speech. Trump's heinous words were vicious, vile and vulgar. "They're sending us not the right people. It's coming from more than Mexico. It's coming from all over South and Latin America, and it's coming probably...probably...from the Middle East." So not only did Trump show his bigoted colors against our neighbors to the south - and others whose heritage stem from Spanish-speaking countries around the globe - but he verbally attacked our Muslim friends worldwide.

Towards the end of his speech is when we heard Trump tell us of his wicked notion to construct what I have branded his wall of hate. "I would build a great wall, and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me, and I'll build them very inexpensively. I will build a great, great wall on our southern border. And I will have Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words."

I commented shortly thereafter that a wall would never be built. Now, 44 months later, there is no wall. And there never will be. Trump can throw all the temper tantrums he wants. He attempted to bully the Democrats in Congress to give him $5.7 billion for a wall that clearly would be a massive waste of money and an ineffective means of border security. So when Trump failed - as he did when the Republicans controlled both Houses of Congress - he slammed "Uncle Sam's" doors closed and 800,000 federal workers were left in the cold of winter without a paycheck. For 35 days - from December 22nd, 2018 until January 25th, 2019 - Trump turned off the lights (at least some of them) in the longest government shutdown in United States history. And then...when he still didn't get his way... Trump declared a bogus national emergency. Even so, there will be no wall.

Trump's ongoing battle to secure funding to construct a wall on the U.S./Mexico border is for one reason and one reason only...to satisfy his campaign promise. It's a pledge, by the way, that he insisted would include Mexico paying to have the project accomplished. But Mexico never had any intention of writing a blank check to Trump for an obscene barrier of any kind. So now...Trump intends to steal $8 billion of taxpayer money that had been originally allocated for use by the U.S. military. Directly...and indirectly...Trump's thievery will affect the lives of some...or perhaps all...American citizens. Trump's national emergency declaration would divert funds from disaster relief for hurricane victims in Puerto Rico and elsewhere...from fire victims in California and up the Pacific coast...and from other REAL emergencies.

There is a former president, however, who builds walls that actually benefit humanity. Thank you, President Jimmy Carter, for your nearly four decades of dedication and hands-on hard work as a volunteer with Habitat For Humanity.

Trump issued his national emergency declaration the day after Congress passed a measure for his signature that was structured to prevent another government shutdown. The bill would have provided about $1.4 billion for 55 miles of new fencing along our southern border. But Trump wanted four times that amount to construct a 2,000-mile wall.

Lawsuits are sure to be filed by private land owners as they will fear their property could be taken over through the power of eminent domain. The government is obligated to pay for such land, but it is widely known that people living on the U.S./Mexico border do not want to abandon their homes. Despite what Trump thinks, not he nor anyone in the executive branch of the U.S. government can invoke eminent domain on land that is privately owned. Such action can only be taken by Congress. Professor Bruce Ackerman of Yale Law School wrote recently in an op-ed for The New York Times..."The Supreme Court has invalidated variations of the emergency power in its 1953 Youngstown v. Sawyer ruling, striking down President Truman's seizure of the steel mills during the Korean War as lacking implicit or express constitutional and statutory authority. However, while the Youngstown ruling restricted the 'presidential' power to take private property during a national emergency, without statutory authorization, the court's majority opinion did not explicitly restrain the 'government' power to seize private property during a national emergency. The ruling noted that the president does not have the power to order the military to seize private property and that the power is the 'job for the Nation's lawmakers, not for its military authorities.'" Therefore, Congress is the only federal entity that can delegate the power of eminent domain. At present, 16 states - California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon and Virginia - plus the ACLU - are challenging Trump's fake national emergency. The state lawsuits are being led by California's Governor Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Xavier Becerra. The legal challenge - according to Becerra - is an attempt to stop Trump from "unilaterally robbing taxpayer funds, lawfully set aside by Congress, for the people of our states." Becerra said, "The separation of powers is being violated. We're going to go out there and make sure Donald Trump cannot steal money from the states and people who need them."

On Friday, February 22nd, House of Representatives Democrats - led by Congressman Joaquin Castro of Texas - introduced a resolution to terminate Trump's national emergency declaration. The measure has at least 222 co-sponsors. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi issued a statement that "The House will move swiftly to pass this bill." Once the legislation passes the House with a simple

majority - (Democrats control the House by 235 to 197) - the bill may or may not pass the Senate. Only a simple majority is needed there too, so just four Republicans would need to jump ship and join the Democrats. Republicans control the Senate 53 to 47. It's quite possible that four Republican senators might climb on board the Democrats' bandwagon. Such action would divide the GOP and send a very strong message to Donald Trump and to his base of Republicans nationwide. If both Houses of Congress were to pass the resolution, Trump would, of course, veto the whole ball of wax. It would then require two-thirds of the House and two-thirds of the Senate to overturn Trump's veto. The odds of that happening are slim and probably impossible. More than likely it's going to take the United States Supreme Court to decide. But first things first. The House will vote on the bill on Tuesday, February 26th.

President George W. Bush declared a national emergency after the terrorist attacks on our country on September 11th, 2001. The issue of a border wall is not a national emergency. This is not a "9/11."

Perhaps it's necessary to increase U.S. border security, but not with a wall. Instead, America needs to make it easier for people to legally enter the United States. But Trump is so hell-bent on building his wall that I fear he may stomp his feet like the spoiled brat little boy that he is and attempt to cause more chaos and crisis than our country is already in, as a result of Trump sitting behind The Oval Office desk.

Donald Trump's irresponsible national emergency declaration is a flagrant and monumental abuse of power that is unprecedented and unconstitutional. America's Founding Fathers are undoubtedly spinning in their graves. When those learned men created and built our nation, they carefully designed three co-equal branches of government so that there would always be "checks and balances." Our Framers entrusted Congress with the "power of the purse." Their plan was to provide the representatives of the legislative branch - who are elected by the taxpayers of our country - to decide how our dollars and cents would be spent. The bottom line is that the Founders deliberately acted in this fashion so that the power of the President would be limited, and that he (or hopefully someday, she) would not be able to use the people's money for a project that nobody (or only a small percentage of citizens) wanted. Trump's declaration violates the U.S. Constitution. Article I grants Congress the exclusive power to appropriate funds. It is, therefore, unconstitutional...or, simply put, illegal...for Donald Trump to use government bucks to build a wall on our southern border - or, for that matter, anything else - unless and until those funds have been authorized by Congress. As such, declaring a national emergency for a wall that Trump basically admitted in The White House Rose Garden on Friday, February 15th was not an emergency will not, I believe, be allowed when lawsuits reach the U.S. Supreme Court. Trump acknowledged to reporters and all of America..."I could do the wall over a longer period of time. I didn't need to do this. But I'd rather do it much faster."

The New York Times accused Trump of "planning to take executive overreach to dizzying new heights." And the generally conservative Wall Street Journal is also throwing Trump under the bus by calling his actions "a misuse of the emergency power delegated by Congress, which is meant for genuine security crises...not to fulfill a campaign promise."

According to a Monmouth University Poll, only 34 percent of Americans approve of Trump's national emergency. And an NPR/PBS/Marist Poll indicates that 70 percent of voters feel that building a wall on the U.S./Mexico border should not be a priority. Overall, a poll by NBC News and The Wall Street Journal shows that only 28 percent of Americans believe our country is on the right track.

The United States is on the wrong track because our nationwide train is being operated by a reckless and dangerous engineer. Donald Trump is taking our locomotive, our caboose, and every passenger car in between, on a journey that is en route to devastation. We are riding in a calamitous caravan that may be irreparable for decades. The consequences of Trump and his administration are going to last a lot longer than Trump himself will be in The White House.

I want a president who is honest...who is truthful...and who embodies integrity. Thus I refuse to recognize a deceitful liar as president. I want a president who will trust our intelligence agencies...who will not undermine America's democracy...who is not a threat to the U.S. Constitution and our national security...and who does not bow down to dictators such as Russia's Vladimir Putin and North Korea's Kim Jong-un. I want a president who nobody would ever imagine is compromised in any way, and as such, was...and probably still is...a Russian asset. In other words, the United States cannot have a president who is a spy for a foreign adversary. I want a president who won't destroy U.S. relations with our allies in Europe. I want a president who embraces the Affordable Care Act and who will exert his strength in to making it even better so that affordable healthcare for every American is a reality. I want a president who will fight for common sense gun control laws with universal background checks and the banning of assault weapons, bump stocks and high-capacity ammunition magazines. I want a president who will focus efforts on climate change, not a president who defies science and scientific logic through ignorance. I want a president who will provide our children with quality education and who will concentrate on giving college students the reality of debt-free schooling. I want a president who supports economic fairness and who is against inequality. I want a president who will make certain that no American goes to bed hungry...that nobody has to work two or three jobs to merely make ends meet...and that no one is unhappy because they don't have enough money to enjoy life. Therefore, I want a president who will strive to get a federal law passed so that the minimum wage by 2024 is twenty dollars an hour. I want a president who will allow the "Dreamers" to stay in the United States and who will immediately grant them American citizenship. I want a president who will listen to people who seek asylum in the United States as they try to escape from the poverty and violence ravaging their own homelands. I want a president who will abide by the words on The Statue Of Liberty.

Accompanied by Speaker Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told Americans on Tuesday, January 8th..."The symbol of America should be The Statue Of Liberty, not a 30-foot wall." I want a president who will nominate U.S. Supreme Court Justices whose views will protect Roe v. Wade, same-sex marriage, all LGBTQ rights, and the rights of other minorities and all people. I want a president who won't spew venom at the press and label the media "the enemy of the people." I want a president to achieve other goals that will benefit Americans, but in no way do I ever want a president again who will racially and xenophobically slur people whose skin tone is not lily white...who fabricates a national emergency because he wants to build a "wall of hate"...or a president who will separate teenagers, toddlers and babies from their parents and lock them in cages. I never want a president of the United States again who represents one iota of anything similar to Donald Trump.

Throughout the 2016 campaign and for more than two years of his occupancy in The Oval Office, I have labeled Donald Trump as mentally unstable, psychologically unbalanced, emotionally disturbed, and morally unfit to serve as president of the United States. Trump is the biggest national emergency facing America today. He is the crisis we must conquer...legally and constitutionally. In a radio interview on February 15th, conservative commentator Ann Coulter told KABC Los Angeles..."So forget the fact that he's digging his own grave. Look, the only national emergency is that our president is an idiot." I in no way have been or ever will be a fan of Ann Coulter...but truer words were never spoken.

And that's The Controversy for today.

I'm Gary B. Duglin.

"We'll talk again."

The Controversy is a publication of GBD Productions. Founder and Editor-In-Chief of The Controversy is Gary B. Duglin.

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Photo credits: Other 98 (Donald Trump #1), N. Diamond/Category Inspiration (Teacher's Messages To Students), Steve Northup/The Life Images Collection/ Getty Images and Mark Wilson/Getty Images (former President Richard Nixon and Donald Trump), Christopher Gregory/Getty Images (Donald Trump #2), New York Daily News (Donald Trump #3), The Associated Press (former President Jimmy Carter), Katy Grimes/California Globe (California's Governor Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Xavier Becerra), Zumapress.com (Congressman Joaquin Castro of Texas), Drew Angerer/Getty Images (Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi), The White House Archives (former President George W. Bush), ItzJack100 and Roblox (Donald Trump #4), MSNBC Screenshot (Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi) and Matt McClain/The Washington Post/Getty Images (Ann Coulter)

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