Verdicts Speak Louder

PBS reports: Trump avoids mention of Cohen, Manafort legal drama at West Virginia rally

Hours before the rally, Manafort was convicted in federal court in Virginia on eight counts of financial crimes. Cohen pleaded guilty in federal court in New York to eight felonies, including breaking federal campaign finance law by arranging payments to two women who said they had sexual relationships with Trump before he became president.

 

Trump has denied the relationships.

 


 

He called his supporters to gather
And whipped them up into a lather.
But Cohen and Manafort
Had a bad day in court:
Bigger news than the president’s blather.

2018 Colleen Anderson

 


Deception’s the game they all play

The Week reports: The Republican tax bill is an assault on American values

This conservative radicalism and contempt for precedent can be seen not only in the god-awful content of the bill, but also in the way it was passed. At every point Republicans relied on lies, concealment, and trampling over traditional democratic deliberation. They held no hearings, they had no official score from the Joint Committee on Taxation (the JCT scored an earlier draft, but not the most recent one, especially not a slew of last-minute giveaways to corporations and hedge fund managers) — indeed, they did not even release the final text until the last possible moment. House Speaker Paul Ryan lied constantly about its contents. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin repeatedly promised an analysis “showing” that the bill would not increase the deficit by turbo-charging growth. This was such a preposterous lie that he didn’t even bother faking the numbers. The secrecy prevented people from examining how it is stuffed full of quiet corporate handouts, only some of which have been discovered — like a big one to General Electric.

 

This bill will explode the deficit. And make no mistake, when it does, Republicans (and deficit scolds, who have been notably quiet up to now) are going to immediately start demanding cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid — indeed, under congressional rules Medicare is due for a $25 billion cut in 2018 alone.

 

Let us hear no more about how Republicans are the defenders of traditional American values. They are about strip-mining the citizenry to give as much money as possible to rich people. There is no other coherent explanation for this bill.

 


Now deception’s the game they all play
and corruption’s the rule of the day,
so in twenty eighteen
let’s create a new scene
with integrity paving the way.

Susan Eckenrode, 12/2/17

 

How long must America wait

Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein’s appointment of former FBI director Robert Mueller to act as special counsel investigating Russian meddling into the 2016 election is an unexpected development in the issue that’s roiled the early days of Donald Trump’s administration. While it’s also a relatively unusual step in recent history, we do know one thing about it: The odds are good that it will take a while.

 

The Fix walked through a number of times that outside investigations have been launched in American history. But before we get too far down the path of exploring how long those took, it’s worth clarifying what exactly we’re talking about.

 

Continue reading …
How long will the special counsel’s investigation of Russia take?
Possibly years.

Philip Bump, The Washington Post

 


 

How long must America wait
for the law to resolve the debate?
Will the diligent Mueller
find proof in full color
of criminal actions too late?

Mary Boren, 5/18/17

 

Craven Kentuckian

“No man has done more in recent years to undermine the functioning of U.S. government. His has been the epitome of unprincipled leadership, the triumph of tactics in service of short-term power.”

 

Mitch McConnell, the man who broke America
Dana Milbank, Opinion, The Washington Post

 


 

 

Cunningly, cannily,
Mitchell McConnell he
plans with precision to
pillage for pay.

Craven Kentuckian,
pseudorepublican,
crushing the soul of the
U.S. of A.

© 2017 Mary Boren