WTF 6/19/2024

Another peek what government will be like under Trump…

Earlier this month House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) recently named Representatives Scott Perry (R-Pa.) and Ronny Jackson (R-Tex.) to the House Intelligence Committee.   

A move that caught more than a few politicians by surprise, mainly because Jonson made his announcement without vetting it through the usual party channels, had several House Republicans questioning his rationale for the appointments.

In the case of Perry… who is a former chairman of the Freedom Caucus and a retired U.S. Army National Guard brigadier general… as a Freedom Caucus member he has butted heads more often than not with Republican leadership in the House and he was one of about 20 House Republicans who refused last year to support McCarthy for speaker in an effort to extract concessions from him. Some of those demands included putting more hard-liners on the Intelligence Committee and removing Rep. Turner as the chair, which McCarthy wouldn’t do. Since Johnson was voted to the speakership Perry has also defied Johnson by voting against rules on the House floor several times.

And according to witnesses who testified before the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, Perry also played a prominent role in Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.  But sources are saying that Republicans on the Intelligence Committee are more concerned about his comportment with at least three lawmakers pointing to a statement Perry made after Johnson named him to the committee in which he said he looked forward “to providing not only a fresh perspective but conducting actual oversight (and) not blind obedience to some facets of our Intel Community that all too often abuse their powers, resources, and authority to spy on the American people.”

Jackson, who was White House physician under President Barack Obama and Trump, has not challenged House leadership as Perry has.  Still he has had his problems including the fact that the U.S. Navy demoted him in 2022 from retired rear admiral to retired captain after a Pentagon inspector general’s report found he had bullied staff, among other misdeeds. 

Johnson has tried his hand at mollifying both Rep. Womack and Joyce by telling them that committees need multiple perspectives and that Trump wanted Perry and Jackson to be heard.

Joyce in response said, “You appease those people, what gives everybody else the reason to do the right thing by encouraging bad behavior?”

Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb) joined in by saying  “I don’t think it’s right to reward bad behavior.” 

According to one high-ranking Republican, who asked to remain anonymous, “(Johnson) has reversed course on this committee and has now made it political again. He has reversed all the advances, which could harm America’s preparedness. This is not a place to play games. This is not a place to appease somebody. This is where you got to do the real work.”

The Republicans caught by surprise were mainly from a group that included McCarthy, Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. David Joyce (R-Ohio), Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.)  and others who had worked with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), Michael R. Turner (R-Ohio), and Rep. Jim Himes (Conn.), the top Democrat on the committee, to depoliticize a panel that had become increasingly partisan.

In a reply to the Washington Post that asked Johnson for clarification reading the appointments Johnson said that it is “important to have a broad spectrum of perspectives on that committee” and that he believes Jackson and Perry are “going to do a good job.”

Two sources who had knowledge of the Republicans’ conversations with Johnson added that he justified his decision to  McCarthy and company by saying he appointed Perry and Jackson in part because Donald Trump urged him to do so.

It is no secret that Johnson and Trump are relatively close with Trump praising the speaker in the past several months that included Trump influencing certain hard-liners from trying to oust Johnson from his speaker’s role. In fact after Trump has become he first former president to be convicted of a crime, Johnson said the House would ramp up its oversight of the Justice Department.

This become significant due to the fact that Trump has vilified the intelligence community for years, with his latest diatribe coming during a meeting last week with House Republicans where he labeled the Justice Department as “dirty, no-good bastards.”  And while Johnson’s move naming Perry and Jackson to the committee came before Trump’s meeting with House Republicans, Johnson’s move demonstrates that Trump’s influence with the House Republican leadership is already being felt in ways that could embolden the far right to make demands of the speaker, especially as Johnson tries to shore up his support to continuing being the supposed leader of a very divided and fractious Republican conference within the House…

…. As well as setting the stage for Trump’s weaponizing the government to inhibit the intelligence community and in particular the Department of Justice if he should be reelected to be the U.S. president.

Be forewarned… and consider carefully how you cast your ballot in the November elections.  

Just another lie from Trump’s World…

Since the civil rights movement Black voters have mostly, if not overwhelmingly, cast their ballots for Democrat.

With that in mind…

During the runup to the 2016 general election Trump tried convincing Black people to vote for him by telling  a rally of folks in Dimondale, Michigan how terrible that they had it… crime was rampant in their communities… so…  “What do you have to lose?” Implying… if he got elected he could  turn the tables on all that crime running amok in their neighborhoods.

Now in 2024 as he is in relatively tight race with Biden for the presidency and he is back to his old tricks and trying to hornswoggle more of the Black voters to cast their ballots for him to be their next president. And  to an extent it may be working as recent polls show Trump has made gains with Black men. Which kind of scares the Democrats a tad because even a small change in Black turnout and then having those voters vote for Trump could wind up tipping the election for Trump in pivotal states such as Michigan, Pennsylvania and Georgia.

For whatever reason Lorenzo Sewell (who is Black), the pastor of 180 Church (Detroit), invited Trump to speak to a meeting of neighborhood folks… which surprisingly and interestingly while the audience was more diverse than a typical Trump campaign event, it was not predominantly Black and not one person who was asked identified themselves as a member of Sewell’s church.

And Trump broke out all of his old talking points and told his audience that Black communities  are dangerous and depressed because crime “is most rampant right here and in African American communities.”

He added, “Look, the crime. More people see me, and they say, ‘Sir, we want protection. We want police to protect us. We don’t want to get robbed and mugged and beat up or killed because we want to walk across the street to buy a loaf of bread.’”

The audience, again which was not predominantly Black, cheered at his words.

Included in Trump’s appeal to sway voters Trump dragged out another of his usual talking points this time in an attempt to pit Black people against people trying to immigrate into the United States by telling the assembly that  immigrants were having a deleterious effect on the Black communities because “They’re taking your jobs.”

The Biden campaign accused Trump of pandering and empty promises, emphasizing his history of demeaning Black communities.

Now while a Back pastor did invite Trump to come speak to the “hood” not everyone was all that enthused to see Trump in their neighborhood. In fact many Black folks have actually gotten somewhat perturbed regarding Trump’s to play  on racial stereotypes, including his suggestion that Black voters will look more favorably on his candidacy now that he has a mug shot and has faced criminal prosecution, and left unsaid by Trump… and is a convicted felon.

Keith Williams, chairman of the Michigan Democratic Party’s Black Caucus made the point by saying, “All I’m saying to African Americans is, don’t be confused and don’t be used. It’s offensive to me [that he would] even show up at a sacred spot like a church.”

Pastor James Perkins of Detroit’s Greater Christ Baptist Church released a statement that said, “Donald Trump has the nerve to waltz into our city and act like he wants to understand the struggles Black Detroiters face, but the reality is he doesn’t care,. Every time Trump opens his mouth to talk to Black folks, he demonizes us, insults us, and makes empty promises he’ll never keep.”

Sewell, the pastor of 180 Church, said “I’ve had people say things like, ‘I can’t believe you would bring the devil here.’ But tells those folks, “Church should be a place where everyone is welcome.”

At the roundtable after Trump’ speech Sewell went out of his way to thank Trump for coming to “the hood,” which he said President Biden never did nor did former president Obama. Sewell closed the entire shebang with a prayer that lauded Trump for raising more than $50 million for his campaign after his conviction on 34 felonies.

The sad truth though is that America is getting safer, regardless of what Trump insists.

The FBI quarterly statistics report shows that violent crime across the board and nationwide dropped by 15% in the first three months of the year compared to the same period last year. Murders were down by 26%… aggravated assaults down 12.5%… robberies down 17.8%… reported rapes down 26% and reported property crimes down 15%.

But facts don’t matter to Donald Trump, who keeps saying: Crime rates are soaring in America. 

Guess what?

Surprise, surprise, surprise…  

Trumps claims are nothing more than an attempt to stoke fear in communities as well getting his supporters trembling to the polls.

In Trump World, an increase in people seeking asylum and a failure to support police by leftist politicians against “law and order” is fueling unprecedented violence throughout America and especially in Black and underserved communities.  

The biggest problem with Trump’s claims is that they are lies… and that even in areas where migrants are on rise, the crime is going down and not rising at unprecedented levels.

And contrary to Trump’s claim that Biden caters to the left wing and their anti-cop policies, President Biden has pushed for smarter and more accountable policing, and he has supported police departments throughout the country with additional funding and by proving new methods for managing their caseloads. And not for nothing in an effort to combat any possible so-called rampant violent crime Biden has signed into law the most significant gun safety reforms in a generation. 

But in Trump World he says that the FBI and hundreds of police departments across America are lying .

And of course he does.

This is the same guy who, against all evidence, tells anyone who will listen that there was a vast conspiracy to fabricate votes for Biden in 2020 and the election was stolen from him…. 

And that the U.S. economy, which presently is outperforming every other advanced economy in the world, is a catastrophe…

And simply put despite anything and everything Trumps says about rampant and violent crime in the United States the exact opposite is the truth… crime is going down, not up.

And as far as communities and neighborhoods who have seen a increase in people immigrating into the U.S. … there’s no such thing as a migrant-fueled crime wave.

And finally America is not on the fast track to becoming hell on earth.

It’s got a long ways to go to get to where it should be and in granting people Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness as promised in the Declaration of Independence, but this country is nowhere near what Trump tries to claim it is.

It’s just another day and another lie in Trump’s world and his attempt to con we the people into voting his ass back into the White House.

Another thousand words…