Dangling Party-Sciple.

Well, well, well. Is anyone surprised that Attorney General Barr is consiglieri to the Don? I mean, Rudy Giuliani auditioned for the role, but turned out to be completely inept and totally outta his league. Barr, on the other hand, seems to have a mastery of the English language as well as an ability to practice omertà while managing to look professorially appropriate. You just gotta know someone is danging the Notorious RBG's seat on the BIG bench in front of him like a goddamn orange carrot...or is that BY a goddamn orange carrot. Hmmm, either works. Hell, Barr may be a duplicitous SOB, but he ain't that stupid; he knows what's at stake if the Don gets voted off the island. He is not gonna do anything to risk that big brown chair. 

My friend Arthur the attorney wrote:

Every day we get a better understanding of how democracies die and witness what happened in the 1930s.

Unfortunately, I suspect he is correct. We are watching the demise of American democracy regardless of how imperfect a system it is. All things considered, 244 years for a democracy is a pretty good run. Only Switzerland, upon declaring its independence from the Holy Roman Empire in 1648, has been a republic longer than We, the People, have been a republic. Let's face it, 244 isn't that long, and even longevity does not guarantee success.

However it happened, and Lord knows the Don didn't win the popular vote, we managed to install a repeat offender as President of the United States. Fine. It happened.  But what is so monumentally disturbing is that a significant portion of our population believes he is exempt from morals, scruples and the law of the land. If, three years into this term, you are still supporting him, then you must also own up to the idea that you think he is exempt from the law.  Do everyone a favor: just admit that out loud and let us understand with perfect clarity that this is what you think.

The Don...not Feckless Leader...not the Toddler-in-Chief...no, the Don is running this country like his own personal crime syndicate...without the hope that tax evasion will get him in the end, as it did Al Capone, he will continue to run this country as his own personal piggy bank. 

Tweedledum and Tweedledee

Recent revelations about the Department of Justice reinforce my belief that our system of checks and balances no longer exists. If the Senate can sit on 395 bills passed, many with bipartisan support, by the House of Representatives and refuse to act/review/bring to a vote any of them, then the Senate has abrogated its responsibility to We, ALL the People. If  the head of Department of Justice can inject himself into favors needed by the sitting president for a foreign, autocratic government like, say Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government in Turkey, then the Department of Justice is no longer that. Nor is it a Department of Justice when the head of it overturns recommendations from his own prosecutors, recommendations based on admission of guilt and established precedent. If the DoJ can do all that without blinking an eye, the Attorney General can, and most likely will, invalidate any election the Don does not like. The Don has bestowed this ability on the AG, and already uses it at will.

I keep hearing the theme from The Godfather like an ear-worm and offers Barr can't refuse twirl in an endless dance of constitutional death.

Yeah, yeah, so I'm an alarmist...but not really. I am listening to the rhetoric from both sides. The DNC is going a great job of sabotaging itself for a change, while  the RNC is terrified of what the Don can do to them. Like I asked last week, how many pee-pee tapes does this guy have? The Don is a collector of ammunition; he uses it  to shield himself. 

Next week will be a blog of a different color. I won't tell you what I'll be doing, but suffice it to say, I will be crossing something off my bucket list. 

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

If you are really interested in effecting change,

run for a local office.