Moscow Mitch made sure it was fixed and the GOP is about to finish the corruption

The fix is in. We knew it a month ago and when Moscow Mitch McConnell made the fix official on Fox. As he told Trump toadie Sean Hannity, “Everything I do during this I coordinate with White House counsel. There will be no difference between the president’s position and our position …”

That was December 12, 2019, before the House of Representatives even voted on the Articles of Impeachment.

The fix has been in and we’ve known it for some time. Still, it was breathtaking to see just how brazen the GOP would be in their corruption. The Republicans literally believe they can get away with anything — except defy their Dear Leader.

So it was so cute, seeing the Senate Republicans out there, led by Joni Ernst of Iowa, goose-stepping behind their dear leader Donald J. Trump. And the shock! The horror! When they expressed their (phony) outrage that the House managers, the prosecution in this impeachment trial, didn’t mount a defense of the president when presenting their prosecuting arguments! How dare they! But it was so cute, their goose-stepping.

“Heil Trump! Heil Trump! Heil Trump!”

Some might be offended by the Nazi imagery. I’m offended by the Nazi imagery … of these so-called patriotic Republicans either remaining silent or openly supporting Trump’s crimes. Not just the crime of trying to extort a new, foreign president for his own political gain, but for the crimes against humanity when Trump’s administration put children — babies — in cages without their parents, forcing them to sit in their own urine and feces, without soap, toothbrushes or toothpaste. When the president accepts payments from foreign governments (and other lobbyists) through his hotels, which lobbyists and those wishing to gain favor with Trump patronize.

It’s been in the news often enough, the president gallivanting around his Mar-a-Lago place sharing secret information with the guests … Trump is a national security nightmare.

Then there’s the latest Joni Ernst, gleefully telling reporters she can’t wait to see how all this Russian propaganda she and her colleagues have been spewing will hurt former Vice President Joe Biden in the Iowa Caucuses. So cute.

Joe Scarborough could have had a career as a comedian. A good career, with HBO specials and maybe a 30-minute show on Comedy Central. He could be in the same orbit as Jerry Seinfeld. Watching him on MSNBC’s Morning Joe is not only educational, it’s darn right funny. May I present his Confederacy of Dunces rant (this is Must-See TV): (talking specifically about Ken Starr here) “… dragged the corpse of Irony out of the grave, he meticulously tied the corpse’s neck bone to the back of a tractor and he ran that tractor throughout the graveyard of stupidity, and ran over every headstone …”

Sometimes it’s worth being awake at 3 a.m. with nothing else to do.

Pam Bondi, former Attorney General of Florida, who sort of had to leave that job because — and this is so ironically true — she dropped a lawsuit against Trump and his bogus university after the pre-president Donald Trump gave her campaign a $25k donation. On top of the more than $50k in comps and gifts she took from lobbyists, that included trips to Hawai’i. Man, it’s good to be a corrupt politician. On top of her short tenure working for a Trump connected lobbying firm that represented Kuwait, for more than $100k per month. Does she know Arabic?

We have to ask because for her couple of hours of testimony in the Trump impeachment trial she lectured everyone on the evils of corruption and how those Bidens, Joe and his son Hunter, were certainly worthy of getting investigated because, you know, corruption with the energy company Burisma. Holdings.

Did you see her trying to figure out what to say as she was trashing the Bidens, flipping through the pages of her three-ring binder? The people of Florida must be so relieved to know she is no longer in state government.

You can’t make this shit up, but the irony gets even more eye boggling. Ken Starr, representing President Donald J. Trump, stated we were in an era of impeachments, that we were having impeachments far too often. It’s been only 20 years since the Clinton Impeachment — which Ken Starr over saw. Starr lamented that we had become too partisan and impeachment was further dividing the country. He asked how we got here — which prompted others to ask, “Does Ken Starr know he’s Ken Starr?”

He wrote a book about impeachment in which he defended his pursuit of Clinton for — and this is the funniest part — abuse of power and obstruction of congress. Two items which, during this Trump impeachment, he says are not impeachable offenses.

Jeez, and I haven’t even mentioned Alan Dershowitz. His argument: if the president commits a crime because he believes he’s acting in the public interest, then it isn’t a crime.

On January 25 Andrew Borowitz had this published by The New Yorker, which was originally published on his Borowitz Report: “Republican Party Declares Moral Bankruptcy.” It’s a funny read and I highly recommend it.

“In filing for moral bankruptcy, the Republicans will formally attest that they have no morals, standards, or ethics on their balance sheet …”

Donald J. Trump began his jihad against Joe Biden when Uncle Joe declared his candidacy for president. Former Trump National Security Advisor John Bolton knows this, he’s apparently documented it with extemporaneous notes and other items since then. But Moscow Mitch McConnell — Can we just say Moscow Mitch and know who it is? — won’t allow any witnesses or evidence to be presented in this so-called trial. A trial without witnesses … go figure. First presidential impeachment without witnesses or evidence.

One of the witnesses to the extortion plot, which former National Security Advisor John Bolton called a “drug deal,” was actually in the Senate, leading the president’s defense team: White House Counsel Pat Cipolloni. According to a report in the New York Times, from a snippet out of Bolton’s forthcoming book, Bolton was in the room with the president, Rudy Giuliani and Cipolloni when Trump said he wanted Bolton to call the new president in Ukraine and tell him to meet with Rudy so they could set up investigations into the Bidens, in exchange for the military aid and White House visit. Daily Kos picked up on it.

But none of that will be heard under oath because neither Bolton or Mick Mulvaney — or for that matter Cipolloni — will be put under oath during the impeachment trial. The Republicans in the Senate voted “no” to having witnesses and evidence in this sham trial. Isn’t that rich: one of the alleged criminals is leading the defense of the alleged top criminal in the plot.

Moscow Mitch and his party didn’t even pretend to have a fair trial in the Senate. The House managers made their case, with facts, but we knew how the vote to allow witnesses would go. Just like we know what the outcome will be next week, on Wednesday, following the State of the Union on Tuesday: Donald J. Trump will be given a pass by the GOP.

Was impeaching Donald J. Trump a fool’s errand? No, it had to be done. There is so much more that could have — and maybe should have — brought on an impeachment, the most obvious and egregious crimes of Donald J. Trump had to be put on display. Well, maybe putting babies in cages is more egregious.

Also, as often as the Republicans used the debunked Russian propaganda to defend Trump during the trial and the House impeachment hearings, as often as the Republicans lied about the president being cut out of the House investigations, there is a lot of ammunition enterprising PACs can use to beat the GOP over the head for the next ten months. As we move closer to the general election we can remind voters that Trump used a non-existent privilege called “blanket immunity” to withhold documents and block people from testifying before Congress. Keep showing Cipolloni’s letter turning down the invitation to participate in the hearings.

Beat the GOP and Trump over the head with their own words, pound it home to the electorate that this president is a criminal and the Republican Party is filled with his co-conspirators and enablers. Beat them like a drum, as Joe Biden says. Make them pay November 3, 2020.

Every Democratic candidate who is now running for president must register voters and then get out the vote, then press upon their followers to vote in November — and get over the petty intramural squabbling that fuels the news cycles. Every Democratic candidate for the Senate, House of Representatives and all the state and local offices, register voters and get them to the polls especially on November 3. Remind them of the Muslim ban, which has now just been expanded to more African countries.

Remind them of the crimes against humanity taking place on our Southern Border at the direction of this president. Remind them of the Republicans in office who got behind the president for all of it. And remind all patriotic Americans that their elected Republicans are now willful dupes of Vladimir Putin, the latest useful idiots in the Russian orbit.

The attacks on the GOP need to be wuthering, Remember, the Party of Trump just gave their Dear Leader the greenlight to cheat in the election. With all due respect to former First Lady Michelle Obama, we can’t go high when they go low. We have to go even lower and kick them. The beauty of it is we can use their own words and deeds against them.

Remember the tax cut that gave billions to the wealthiest among us, their repeated attacks on the Affordable Care Act that could result in millions losing their health care. Remind women of just how the GOP is trying to take away control over their own bodies; the horrible judges that have been given lifetime appointments. We only need to use the name Brett Kavanaugh.

Remind American voters, not just Democratic voters, Trump is under the influence of Russia’s Vladimir Putin and the GOP has now opted into that Russian influence. Tell voters Trump and the GOP are cheating so honest, patriotic Americans have to get out the vote in the biggest turnout in history, if we are to win in November. And it can’t just be the White House we flip, control of the Senate needs to be flipped, as well as governors’ mansions and state houses.

The Republican Party needs to be buried for the next century so they cannot do any more damage to America. Remind Americans of just how destructive Republican policies have been since 1981.Those policies will need to be cut out of the fabric of this nation. It started with Ronald Reagan, let’s end it with Trump. We can be just as cute — without lying or cheating.