The summary report that Attorney General William Barr wrote on Robert Mueller’s investigation into whether Mr. Trump colluded/conspired with Russia in order to be elected Mr. Trump of the United States of America was a devastating gut punch to Democrats, justice, and the rule of law.  This summary to a great degree cleared Mr. Trump of any wrongdoing, especially in the eyes of the public, and gave him a head start on spinning the results of the investigation in a way that will be of maximum benefit to him and allow him to control the narrative.  Of course, Mr. Trump says that this summary means that the investigation totally exonerates him: and at this point, neither congress nor the public even knows how many pages are in the actual investigation report let alone what the report itself says or what kind of documentation was gathered to support its findings.

It is extremely hard to accept Attorney General Barr’s summary of what was revealed in the investigation and his conclusions as a result of having read the full report.  One of the reasons that make it hard to accept his summary and conclusions as fair and unbiased is, in no small part, due to the way in which he became Mr. Trump’s pick to be Attorney General in the first place.  Both Mr. Barr and Matthew Whitaker, the man that Mr. Trump picked to precede Mr. Barr, auditioned for the job by writing a memo and Op-ed, respectively.  Both the memo and the Op-ed heavily favored Mr. Trump and were critical of the Robert Mueller investigation.  The selection of these two men makes Mr. Trump’s public and loudly trumpeted declaration of his innocence of any crimes or collusion/conspiracy with Russia based on Attorney General Barr’s summary of the Mueller investigation report suspect.

The summary that Attorney General Barr wrote raises many more questions than it answers.  Last night (3/25/19) on her show, Rachael Maddow listed fifteen questions from that report that are among the many that remain unanswered and clearly and succinctly laid out the details as to why each question needed to be asked and answered.  During that time she also talked about Attorney General Barr’s involvement in writing the report and touched on how he could easily be construed to be Mr. Trump’s man because of how he had come to be selected for the Attorney General position.

It is easy to understand her point.  Because before he hired Matthew Whitaker, Mr. Trump had bitterly complained about how Mr. Jeff Sessions, while he was Attorney General, had not protected him and had lamented about how Mr. Sessions should not have recused himself; ultimately Mr. Trump forced Mr. Sessions to resign.  He then hired Mr. Whitaker, who was eminently unqualified for the job but was malleable to his wishes, to do the job.  Next up after he removed Acting Attorney General Whitaker who likely would have never been confirmed by the senate, was Mr. Barr who was eminently qualified, well-respected, definitely more polished than Mr. Whitaker and, based on his audition for the job, was just as eager to please him as was Mr. Whitaker.  Mr. Trump then hired him as the closer.

If I haven’t learned anything else over the time that Mr. Trump has occupied the Oval Office I have learned that he is a master of prestidigitation, obfuscation, manipulation, projection, lying, hate mongering, fear mongering and divisiveness.  And I have also learned that he is all but inexplicably tough-minded and a master of using all of these things to survive and promote himself.  It is hard to assign a number to the number of times that Washington congressmen, pundits and the rest of us who follow politics have predicted that Mr. Trump had finally gone too far and would pay a hefty political price.  Wrong.  Instead, he has continued to maintain his base, continue to defy the odds, move ahead and brag about it.  Right now, 90% of Republicans support Mr. Trump and would vote for him again.  Based on the things that Mr. Trump has done since he has been in office, many of these people would be voting against their own best interest!  Go figure!

Despite Mr. Trump’s well-known propensity to lie, his capriciousness as it relates to governance, his scandal-filled administration, his inability – or lack of interest to fill open jobs in order to make the government run more smoothly and efficiently, he is a formidable adversary and there is a good chance that he can be reelected in 2020.  For those who are comfortable with this kind of knee-jerk, haphazard way of running America there is no problem.  But for those who are not comfortable with it, the sooner that they realize and accept Mr. Trump’s formidability, the better.  Although I am a staunch Democrat and proud of it, this is not a clarion call to Democrats only to wake up but it is meant to awaken the concern in Republicans and Independents as well.  It is a call to all of those who feel that America is traveling the wrong road and that the way forward must be led by someone who is more focused and holds a greater concern for our country as a whole.

That someone does not necessarily have to be a Democrat but it does have to be someone who is concerned about pulling us together instead of dividing us.  It does have to be someone who is more concerned about putting America’s interest ahead of their own personal interest.  And it does have to be someone who will respect the Constitution, the rule of law, the long-held norms of this great republic and who will hold the Oval Office in the high esteem in which it should be held.  It has to be someone who will rise to the mantle of the Office and will work to assure that it remains the prestigious symbol of Democracy that it has always been.  As voters we can assure that this will happen by performing one of our most important civic duties which is to vote.  We must get informed on the issues, stay informed and always vote.

So whether you are a Democrat, Republican or Independent, always remember, your vote is the most important one of all…unless you don’t use it!

Eulus Dennis – author, Operation Rubik’s Cube and Living Between The Line

How will history judge the Mr. Donald John Trump strain; the president (in name only) and all of those congressmen (again, in name only) who blindly followed him out of loyalty and enabled him no matter how nefarious his dealings and dalliances were?  History will likely judge them harshly.  The sad fact is that all of these men and women who allow Mr. Trump to control them in this way are acutely aware of this but their personal ambition and thirst for power relentlessly drives them into stupor.  And Mr. Trump is always ready, willing and able to take advantage of the situation.  He strokes them and flatters them constantly…until they fall out of favor with him; then, he throws them under the bus and moves on to the next overly ambitious, power-hungry potential sucker.

There are a lot of urgent things going on right now that demand the attention of our elected officials that are going wanting as a direct result of Mr. Trump and his antics.  Some of these things, arguably, have an existential impact on our democracy.  And Mr. Trump is the key quantifier that is fueling this arguably existential problem.  About a third of all Americans still support Mr. Trump.  Many of those in this group believe that he is doing a good job and would likely vote for him again; and that’s okay.  Accepting and guaranteeing their right to do this without being threatened or made to feel afraid because of it is who we are as Americans.  No American should infringe upon their right to feel this way about Mr. Trump and to vote for him again, but what we need from those in this group and from those on all sides is for them to be willing and able to hold reasonable discourse on all of the issues, especially on those where we disagree.  Our elected officials should be leading in this arena but it is obvious that they are not.

A perfect example of the kind of people and the kind of attitude that will be needed by our elected officials was exhibited by a guest, Paula Duncan, who appeared on MSNBC’s ‘The Last Word’ hosted by Lawrence O’Donnell in early March this year.  This woman was and remains a staunch Donald Trump supporter who served on the jury in Virginia that rendered the verdict on Paul Manafort.  She said that going into the trial she had hoped that Paul Manafort would not be guilty but after reviewing the evidence she determined that he was guilty and voted accordingly.  I totally disagree with Ms. Duncan on what she said about Mr. Trump being a good president and that he is doing a good job.  And based on the rest of her comments that I read in an NBC News article dated August 23, 2018 entitled ‘Manafort juror Paula Duncan: Manafort is guilty, but Mueller probe is a witch hunt’, I am just as baffled and frustrated with her as she said that she was with the lone holdout juror who kept them from finding Manafort guilty on all counts rather than just 8 of the 18.

However, just as she accepted the holdout juror’s decision and accepted her right to make that decision, I have done the same thing where Ms. Duncan is concerned.  Notwithstanding the fact that we are completely on opposite ends of the spectrum in our opinions regarding Mr. Trump and how effective he is in his job, my point is that Ms. Duncan is the kind of person that one can talk to and more than likely reach common ground.  And if the evidence and proof regarding the alleged nefarious acts that Mr. Trump has committed is sufficient, as strong as her support for him is, she is extremely likely to hold him to account.  I feel certain that she would want the politicians that she elected to represent her to do the same thing.  And I say right now, as strongly as I feel that Mr. Trump is guilty of all of those things that he is accused of, if the evidence and proof reveals that he is innocent, then I want the politicians that I helped to elect to accept that evidence and proof, find Mr. Trump innocent and clear his name.

Having said that, at this point and under the existing circumstances, it is reasonable to assume that the American people want the damage that Mr. Trump is doing to America to be stopped, within the law, as quickly as possible.  And once the problem is corrected, it is also reasonable to assume that they want our country to immediately begin to clean up all of the damage that has been done and work to reestablish America as the respected leader of the free world.  To effectively reestablish that respect we must begin at home by respecting one another, all of our rights – including those inalienable rights, and this great union and democracy called America.

Eulus Dennis – author, Operation Rubik’s Cube and Living Between The Line