ABORTION, TRUMP, ALITO, BIDEN MAR A LAGO AND THE MIDTERMS

In a historical week, dwarfed as usual by the shattering news about Trump’s escalating alleged criminality, the Biden Democrats passed legislation involving climate change, forcing companies and the rich to pay their fair share, lowering drug and health care costs, and stimulating the formation of semiconductor chips companies that are essential for every modern economy from defense to cars to fridges and finally providing health care for veterans who for decades had been exposed to cancer causing toxins. To cap Biden’s week, like anyone cares, was the lowering of inflation and gas prices. The media cycle was, as usual, all about the alleged criminality of the “Republicans” own megalomaniac for the ages, Donald Trump. Not that it is the news that anyone else would be exited about but Donald Trump is not anyone and for him any spotlight can raise money.

So of course grabbing the head lines was the Forty - Fifth President whose temporary White House, Mar A Lago, was subject to a court ordered search warrant executed by the Department of Justice. Even by Trump standards the outcome was electrifying, boxes of classified documents including those that were for a few eyes only - the Washington Post reporting that they included those on nuclear weaponry - were carted away. No wonder one of the suspected crimes on the court order was espionage. Let that sink in espionage a term sanctioned by a Federal Judge.

Incidentally those violence seeking internet Trump supporters who want to murder the Attorney General need to stick around cause Mar A Lago is just a curtain raiser to the investigations of the criminality of their Fuhrer. There is still the outcome of January 6 investigations to follow, In case the faithful might have missed it Trump, who had previously categorically judged that only the mob plead the Fifth Amendment to avoid incrimination in a deposition, identified himself as such by pleading the Fifth in the crucial case in New York that could bankrupt him and his Organization. The date for the trial of his life long accountant of the Trump Organization was set  and he was involved in a plea deal and an Appeals Court ordered him to produce his tax records to the House Ways and Means Committee in what had ti have been a momentous week even by his standards, To cap it all his lead lawyer Rudi Giuliani was named as a target in a criminal investigation in Georgia.

It is fair to conclude that as good a week as Biden had was juxtaposed with the disaster of Trump’s. However although these events will impact the 2022 midterm elections none will dominate the outcome more than the issue that is central to all women, and men for that matter, - abortion.. 

PRO LIFE AND PRO CHOICE - THE ISSUE

One of the great big ironies of the clash between the Pro Life and Pro Choice movements is that both have as their central thesis the sanctity of life. The problem then arises whose life - that of a fetus or the mother. Then it rolls onto what is life and what is the sanctity of the mother. To a large extent the issue had been resolved in virtually every country in the world, even Orban’s Hungary, that the sanctity of the mother overrode that of fetal material till the latter could become a viable child, (approximately twenty - four weeks gestation) then it could be a medical decision as to the risks and to whom.

In the USA all hell broke loose when the Supreme Court in all its wisdom gave the go ahead for even six week fetal material the size of a baked bean to assume transcendence over the mother. A large section of women interpreted this as a misogynist move without any regard to the consequences. The Republicans were rapturous in hailing this as a victory for the ages. Even more significant in the ruling was that The Court  didn’t differentiate between elective abortions, miscarriages which occur in one out of four pregnancies, life threatening ectopic pregnancies which occur outside the womb and unlivable fetal abnormalities. The latter dilemmas threw the medical world in chaos.

So onto the story of the impact of the decision.  

THE IMMEDIATE RESPONSE

The banning of the Constitutional right of a woman to control her body, was made possible by the Trump three judicial appointees with the opinion written by the smug self righteous Justice Samuel Alito and was heralded by the “Republican Party” with a frantic rush by “Republican”  State legislatures to ban outright a legal termination of a pregnancy. The only rare debate among the lemmings was whether or not to make an exception for reported to the police rape and incest and the life of a mother. Neither was any attempt made to address ectopic pregnancies and miscarriages. 

As Jay H. Ell blogged on June 29 2022 “ Trump, McConnell and the GOP be Careful What You Wish For”, the expected backlash has rocked the midterm American electorate in a historical way. (To find the blog go to Archive on the right of the page and click on June 2022 and then click on the blog). The outright arrogance of Samuel Alito who then went to Rome and basically said “Sucks to women, I just don’t care”. Adding to the political flavor of the judicial opinion was Justice Thomas’s opinion in support of the position that the other decisions involving constitutional  privacy such as contraception and same sex marriage should go the same way. Fascinatingly he didn’t mention inter racial marriage which falls under the same rubric and he must have been shocked to the core when Viktor Orban the new co leader of the faith, at his guest appearance at CPAP, condemned inter racial marriage.

WHAT’S IN IT FOR TRUMP?

The newest string to the Donald’s bow is the raid on Mar A Lago his “beautiful” home where his not well designed safe was opened.. This will solidify his already solidified alt right base, produce the usual sycophantic support  and promises for retribution from the “Republican” legislators but not one more vote. The leak from Susan Glaser and Peter Baker’s new book that he wanted his Generals to be just like the Nazi Generals will bring cheers from you know who but will not bring back the votes from the Independents and the disaffected Republicans that he has already lost. 

For the moment the principle game changer is abortion.

The only “Republican” that the women’s right to privacy being revoked helps is Donald J. Trump, who is credited with this success - rightly so Jay H. Ell would opine. Evangelical Protestants  represent fifty - six percent of the Republicans as do thirty percent of the Catholics all of whose religions have a very tough line on abortion≥. Again of that group that voted for Trump their support was rock solid anyway and the decision is unlikely to add to his tally.  However the certainty of their votes is what keeps Trump head and shoulders above the rest of Republican Presidential wannabes. Of course Trump is no fool so his victory is not part of his spiel. He still is on about the 2020 election. He has the alt right and all the militants that aren’t locked up to think about as well.

His standing amongst the base may be as assured as ever but  the January 6 hearings have done his overall support harm. The Congressional “Republican” Party have taken a knock too but with Trump’s support of the base they cannot abandon him. Rather they have dumped Trump’s critics, chief among them Representative Liz Cheney who has as her mission to make sure he never becomes President again. In the latter regard his legal jeopardy has crescendoed in the last few months, especially this week. 

Trump is more than aware that you can’r win a lottery without a ticket so at the moment he hopes to survive even if indicted and as long as not convicted he will win the Republic nomination, where the abortion decision helps him. Then he could become President. After all look what happened in 2016 when Hillary was way ahead in the polls and that amoral James Comey, Head of the FBI, announced to the ecstatic Republicans, against all established protocol, that he was reopening the ludicrous investigation into Hillary Clinton’s e - mails. Clinton’s internal polls showed the impact as Trump reframed Comey from a ‘slime ball” to a hero.

WHAT’S IN IT FOR JUSTICE SAMUEL ALITO AND CONSEQUENTLY AMERICA

To frame Alito’s newly found importance The Supreme Court is the third branch of government in America and the final arbiter of all matters including what laws are constitutional or not.

Justice Samuel Alito who is Clarence Thomas’s junior in seniority by fifteen years has succeeded in becoming the leader of the  six Conservative judges on the Supreme Court, a position Thomas has held to date. The very fact that he not Thomas wrote the opinion axing the constitutional right to abortion has vaulted him to the top of the heap. He claimed that the fifty year old Roe v Wade precedent was “egregiously wrong” stunning the legal world and the world in general. Alito’s religiosity is widely known. However his utter disdain and even cruelty for what the outcome would be for a ten year olds that were raped and would be forced to deliver a baby had certainly never been on display. In addition lumping everyone not carrying a pregnancy to term and lumping health care workers together with “abortionists” shows a depth of ignorance at kindest as to the fate of women and doctors whether the former had had a miscarriage, an ectopic pregnancy, or till then a legal abortion. 

Alito’s address at the Notre Dame Religious Liberty Summit in Rome following his decision, when he would have had some idea as to the negative and dangerous impact of the Court ruling underscored his religious values and the “challenge for those who wanted to protect religious liberty”. He claimed that, “Religious liberty is under attack… because it is dangerous to those who want to hold complete power….. “it probably grows out of something dark and deep in the human DNA…” Presumably that included the right to terminate a pregnancy.

There can be little doubt that Justice Alito allowed his religious values to influence his decision. As Justice Sotomayor opined that nothing had changed in medicine or society to overturn a long standing precedent but the composition of the court. Incidentally Alito stated in his confirmation that the centrality of precedent guided his decision making,.

The upshot is that Samuel Alito is the de facto  Chief Justice. He rather than Roberts will be the final arbiter as to what the Constitution of America is and if the approval rate of the Supreme Court is currently twenty percent it can still go lower.

In case he hasn’t noticed he is about to become the savior of the Democratic Party and as popular as the head of the Taliban is with women.

SOCIETY RELIGION KANSAS AND THE COMPLICATED ISSUE OF ABORTION 

As Jay H. Ell tried to explain what a complicated issue abortion is in his blog, of July, 24, “Have the Democrats Any Hope in the Midterms”, this was not for the education of women but rather of men. As Trump doesn’t read hopefully Justice Alito might. If he hasn’t he might want to learn a bit about the subject. Also the Supreme Court is supposed to make decisions in the context of society as a whole not in the interests of just one group as they have appeared to have done in this context.

Societal opinion as reflected in the polls has ranged from seventy to eighty percent who wanted Roe to remain law, The assumption was that of course that was just the Democrats. So far the only test has been a plebiscite in the red state of Kansas which Trump beat Biden by fifteen percent. The latter’s state assembly is awash with Republicans. It is really only the fundamentalists who share Alito et al’s opinion on abortion. Both Islam and Judaism for example prioritize the sanctity of life of the mother. There is even litigation by a Jewish Religious Sect that their constitutional right to carry out this dictum has been overridden by this decision, The complaint alleges that constitutionally church and state are separate.

To date in the Primaries there has not been too much interest in the Democratic Primaries that are genteel compared to those of the Republicans where the battle for the soul of the Party goes on. Largely the Trumpists have won. Consequently the turn out for the Democrats has been nineteen percent below the 2018 midterms and the Republicans up by a similar percent. The Kansa referendum on dumping the abortion rights was held on Primary Day in the belief that this would favor the Republicans. Well guess what the Dems increased their turn out from 2018 midterms by eighty percent. Their new voter registration was predominantly women and abortion rights won by sixty to forty percent in red Kansas.

Abortion what ever pollsters may say is a top issue for 2022 and 2024,

AT THE END OF THE DAY

Biden is on a roll as his approval rates go up. Trump is in bad shape and he is what the 2022 election is going to be about. The economy is improving and there are still three months to go. 

The Democrats are on the way to increasing their majority in the Senate and are slowly improving their chances to retain the House. 

The “Republicans” have chosen not to hang alone but to hang together. Their policy is Trump is President, impeach Biden, investigate the January 6 Committee and the Department of Justice

Just in case there was any doubt as to that Trump is the “Republican” Party the recent Primary Fights including the elimination of Liz Cheney make it clear that the “Republican” Party is a cult.

Just in case everyone thinks Liz Cheney is the answer to world tension it should not be forgotten that she voted for Trump’s policies over ninety percent of the time and hailed Justice Alito’s decision on abortion.

 

It is more than a bit scary that Samuel Alito is in charge of the Third Branch of Government. On can only hope that he will not reverse legislation on Constitutional grounds. 

Abortion is turning into a central issue in the forthcoming election but Trump's alleged criminality has to be impacting Independents and democratic Republicans.

It stands to reason that the importance of the 2022 mid term elections cannot be overemphasized. 

TRUMP NOW AND AFTER - DUCK OR NO DINNER?

The imminent demise of Donald J. Trump has been a thing ever since he ventured into a property development in Manhattan in 1971. From the get go Trump sought to be the center of the news cycle both with his oversize personality and outlandish projects while always raising concerns of one sort or another about money transactions. Fifty years later the future of Trump seems to be finally reaching its denouement. As he all but trumpets his third run for the Presidency, the Attorney General has made it quite clear that he will seek to hold anyone who was responsible for the attempt to interrupt the peaceful of transfer of power from one administration to another. For the umpteenth time a Trump weary world look at his projected comeuppance with bored disbelief. The cynicism was shattered with last weeks events surrounding criminal investigations into his behavior hot on the heals of the explosive January 6 House Investigation hearings.

Trump is throwing the dice once again. In the past even if they rolled against him he lived to fight another day. This time it appears to be duck or no dinner. He is either going to be the Forty - Fifth President all over again or a defendant in the dock. This time if he fails there is no hiatus between disasters. Even if it was possible as he suggested, in his sick return to Washington to the faithful, that if he disappeared from the scene they would stop persecuting him,  - “a friend told him that he was the greatest persecuted person in American history”. It is just not going to happen.. He has rolled the dice once too much. Trump can reflect back that it has been a great run, but in the words of Sinatra, “It was just one of those things”. Trump to date has believed that if he commits crimes in public he cannot be prosecuted but there had to be a reckoning. He can gain comfort from the fact that “the crazies” agree with him that he is not a “loser”. 

Having explained all that, even bearing in mind criminal liability, the big question still remains will Garland prosecute a former President? 

WHO IS MERRICK GARLAND?

When Barak Obama nominated Merrick Garland as a Supreme Court Justice in 2016 he did so in the knowledge that there was not a judicial soul who had a negative word to say about him. He was regarded as the epitome of a non prejudicial jurist with carefully thought and researched opinions in his role as Chief Justice of the DC Court of Appeals, the second highest court in the land. He had never ever been reversed by the Supreme Court. The Garland  Supreme Court nomination hearings would make it virtually impossible for the Republican controlled Senate not to confirm him. That fact led Mitch McConnell, who in morality is the very opposite of what Garland represents, not to take the slightest chance. He did not allow the nomination to be even put forward and waited a full year to pass. Then the totalitarian hurricane hit. Trump was elected and between the unholy duo of Trump and McConnell they sealed their ignominy by appointing three judges who misled the public as to their judicial philosophy. One of them Amy Barrett, McConnell rushed through in record time just days before a Presidential election as opposed to a year which he said was too close to an election to consider Garland. To put an exclamation point on the high regard of Garland, in this day of partisan extremism, his nomination to Attorney General garnered seventy votes.

As the January 6 House Hearing Committee proceeded with their breathtaking exposes of the coup, Merrick Garland plodded on ahead investigating and charging Trump’s foot soldiers, Frustration burst through all round. The criticism mounted in every circle, all but screaming that the ponderous arcane jurist was not cut out for the chief prosecutorial job. Even Biden was anonymously reported to have muttered frustration. 

There was some ambivalence on the issue. Trump was a former President of an opposing political party and all things being equal would win the “Republican” Party nomination for 2024. Prosecuting him could appear more in line with banana Republics than the world’s oldest democracy. 

THE DAYS ROLL BY AND THE WORLD CHANGES FOR TRUMP 

As the days rolled on 2022  the “Republicans” with a favorable midterm election in the offing did not need a crisis where they would have be forced to take sides on Trump so they did what they have done for five years in relation to the travesty that has made a mockery of their party - nothing!. More significantly Trump, who will never give in, would thwart any candidate that he hadn’t backed to exercise his waning power. Any election wherever and whenever it was held would be about him.

Ford had pardoned Nixon. It cost him his Presidency. Those in prosecution were furious but as the years passed and Nixon blended into a traditionalist post presidency the attitude changed. The late Leon Jaworski the Special Prosecutor in the Watergate probe finally concluded that Ford had been brave in his “To Heal a Nation” effort. However as the mal fides of the Trump regime became broader and deeper the growing resentment towards this precedent became wide spread. Although not legally binding it was all there was in history to lean on. The consensus was that was enough to keep the conservative attorney general busy chasing after Trump’s cannon fodder and leave Trump to the voters and history.

The Hearing Committee, after its chilling  expose where Trump was shown to actively spur on the insurrection and the death of his Vice President, released daily videos which were more and more damning. These included illustrating from the original text what Trump had personally crossed out in his speech on January 7 which was supposedly to condemn the insurrection. They also well exploded his lie, that was being perpetuated by his choir in Fox News that he had ten thousand troops on the ready. 

The pressure was mounting on the silent Department of Justice. But in a flash the bonsai escalated. Murdoch had already on one day had two of his lesser components of his evil empire, The New York Post and The Wall Street Journal condemn Trump. What followed rocked the existing narrative. During the day Pence and Trump Fox went to Washington, seventeen minutes of Pence was live on Fox and nil on Trump. On that very same day it was leaked that Vice President Pence’s legal council and Chief of Staff had appeared before a Grand Jury. It soon followed that Cassidy Hutchinson was cooperating with the Department of Justice. According to Alyssa Farah Griffin, Trump’s former Communication Secretary other WhiteHouse officials are confabbing with the Department of Justice. To put the cherry on the top the publicity shy Merrick Garland gave a sensational interview with NBC’s Lester Holt claiming that no - one was above the law.

GARLAND’S COMING OUT PARTY

Merrick Garland claimed that the Justice Department investigations into the attempt to hinder the peaceful transfer or power was the most wide ranging in the history. He stated that his investigations were outside the public eye. Holt pressed home the point when Garland indicated that “no one is above the law” - Garland matter of a factly countered that Presidential candidates don’t alter his schedule.

HOLT: ‘The indictment of a former president, and perhaps a candidate for president, would arguably tear the country apart. Is that your concern as you make your decision down the road here, do you have to think about things like that?’.

GARLAND: “We intend to hold everyone, anyone who was criminally responsible for the events surrounding January 6, for any attempt to interfere with the lawful transfer of power from one administration to another. That’s what we do. We don’t pay any attention to other issues like that”.

Garland acknowledged the incredible role that the House Investigating Committee had played. It appeared obvious that both sides have information the other has not. At this stage of the game there is no reason why the House files, which are massive, should not be moved across the street. Arrangements have been made for the first batch.

In retrospect Attorney General Garland with his judicial history is the only one who could have gotten away with such an historic statement. Fox News hardly commented. What would have raised a storm with anyone else has been acknowledged by all as a fact of life.

WHERE TO NOW?

Trump

As matters stand Trump still controls the largest chunk of the “Republican” Party. He is in this fight till the bitter end. It is all about him. It literally is “duck or no dinner”.He knows that if there are more than two candidates in the Republican Primary nothing will stop him getting the plurality of votes. Whether indicted or not he is going to run. He has been counted out time and again and stood up and come back firing. He is not remotely interested in “Republicanism””. In fact no one more than him would like to see Merrick Garland on the Supreme Court at this point in time. He does not give a hoot about abortion, second amendment rights and the environment. (If Cassidy Hutchinson is anything to go by you can put a “f….ing” in front of each of those subjects). 

Up to time of going into print the herd of sad sycophantic cynical “Republican” legislators have not deserted him and his collection of Senate candidate losers. Even Pence whom he wanted to string up in the public square talks fondly of the Trump/Pence years. De Santis thinks he can create a line going to the right of Trump…. Of the motley crew that are on the list of possibles. Pompeo, Halley, Christie, Abbott and Uncle Tom Cobbley and all, none of them have publicly condemned him. Even those candidates who are taking on the MAGA elite in the midterms are talking about irregularities in the 2020 election. By the time they wake up it will be too late as already fifty - five percent of their “Party” want another candidate. The penny has dropped at least for Secretary Pompeo who, following a string of other cabinet members, is giving a deposition to the January 6 Committee,….

 

Trump will just not keep out of the news in the belief that any news is good. His hosting of the Saudi breakaway golf tournament brought heaps of criticism from several quarters including the families of the 9/11 victims who Trump had admitted to that the Saudis were involved. Trump backtracked as he kept ringing the cash register. 

There is a cottage industry gathering around the MAGA name raking in the shekels. Peter Navarro a former advisor who is awaiting trial for failing has warned the former President that they are a collection of grifters. In fact Trump is at sixes and sevens. All that he knows is that he has over two hundred million dollars in his own re election account. There is but nothing that will stop him running again.

Trump’s Other Legal Woes

There are two legal investigations well under way conducted by two fearless African American women lead prosecutors. In Georgia the Fulton County District Attorney, Fanni Willis, has a grand jury investigation which has had top Georgia Republicans including the current Governor Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger testify. Both of whom refused under massive pressure to “find” eleven thousand seven hundred and eighty votes which was, “One more than we need”. She is also investigating what the Trump operation admitted was a “fake elector scheme”. Ms. Willis has subpoenaed Trump allies such as Rudi Giuliani and Lindsey Graham, Trump’s chief side kick de luxe. Where this goes is not nearly as important as it was a few days ago now that Garland is deep into the prosecution.

The New York Attorney General Letitia James has remained steadfast in smashing the Trump Organization tax embezzlement and fraudulent valuations of his properties depending on whether to pay taxes or obtaining loans. She has won challenge after challenge and Trump and his children have to sit for depositions which were postponed to mourn for the death of Trump’s first wife Ivana. This can hit in the arena he cares for most - his pocket. New York generally is where he had to pay a twenty - five million dollar fine for his “fake” University and close down his Charitable Foundation and pay a two million dollar penalty. 

Then there is the usual business as usual for Trump as has been for the more than four thousand five hundred litigations that he has been party too these last fifty years making a total mockery of the US justice system. So besides the rape defamation, the innumerable civil suits some are involving police officers that were victims of the January 6 insurrection form part of his unenviable portfolio. Then his new Public Company in the making, “Truth Social” is in front of a Grand Jury. As they used to say at the old vaudeville fairs - “Every shot a coconut”.

The House January 6 Hearing Committee

Ending their first series of tightly packed made for TV hearings the January 6 Committee are producing a daily diet of revelations as they continue full tilt with their in camera depositions and fact finding. Trump’s speech on January 7 with all its omissions, under threat of being chucked out by his cabinet, was annotated by comments from Ivanka, Jared and the laconic irritated Pat Cippolone whose claims of executive privilege were tolerated as he provided crucial evidence. 

Then the Trump lie, which he repeated and was repeated on Fox friend Hannity’s nightly show no less than forty three times, that he commissioned ten thousand National Guards for January 6 but it was Speaker Pelosi’s fault that weren’t deployed, was bust wide open when his Defense Secretary’s closed deposition was released for the world to see that he did no such thing. The revelation was all that sensational because Secretary Miller, supposedly a member of “Team Normal” lied on Fox News that Trump had done so!

The elimination of Secret Service text messages and other textsis yet another focus that is being scrutinized. The Trump head of the Department of Investigations is being accused of a cover up.

Apparently after Cassidy’s testimony the leads and offers just poured in. So inundated was the Committee that they promised another mini series in September. Before the “GOP” cry fowl that it will impinge on the midterms they need reminding how they unashamedly smeared Hillary Clinton with bogus investigations of her e mail server and the Benghazi Ambassador raid.

The fact that the Committee are now cooperating with the Department of Justice instead of wailing at the latter’s alleged inaction adds to their enormous gravitas.

Merrick Garland Now

So far the Department of Justice is batting on thousand convictions, admittedly mainly on the misled cavalry of Trump’s first battalion, “fighting like hell”. However the charges have included seditious conspiracy which are notoriously difficult to prove. The professionalism exhibited as well as attention to detail is spectacular. The polished non political prosecution of Steve Bannon for contempt of the subpoena of the Hearing Committee was a clinical execution of justice. Garland has acted already towards Jeffery Clark who Trump wanted to install as Head of Justice and John Eastman, Trump’s outside lawyer, who dreamed the scheme for Mike Pence to override eighty - one million voters. Rudi Giuliani the lead outside lawyer has already been raided. Garland has the cooperation of Kenneth Klowouski, the lawyer Clark suddenly appointed to draft the bogus letter that Clark wanted to send out to Secretaries of State claiming that the Department of Justice had found corruption in their elections. Klowouski was recommended by John Eastman. There are also links to Justice Clarence Thomas’s wife Ginni and Charles Koch one of the major sources of dark money.

The fact that Merrick Garland has applied his legal judicial mind in prosecuting should send shivers down anyone who is in his sights. He would never have gone public the same day that  Pence’s “normal team” had delivered evidence in the Grand Jury investigation if he wasn’t well into his probe of the whole conspiracy. The next day Cassidy Hutchinson’s cooperation   was leaked with all the others. 

Garland has a cast of characters that could turn on Trump from Eastman, Giuliani, Powell and the other teams of lawyers that face long terms of imprisonment. There are persistent rumors that Mark Meadows Trump’s Chief of Staff is cooperating with Garland. That latter fact would make the decision not to prosecute him for contempt of his subpoena to the January 6 Committee.

McConnell and McCarthy are relying on the disaster that is Biden, with nine percent inflation, to win the midterms.

BIden and the Democrats

Jay H. Ell blogged on the Democrats chances on July 24 and there has been major movement since then. Biden’s approval figures are irrelevant at this stage. If push comes to shove he won’t stand In 2024. 

The last move by Manchin who is backing Biden’s Build Back Better agenda in the form of an inflation buster, to coin a phrase, is a game changer. This involves tax of the rich and a minimum of fifteen percent of tax on companies. In addition the bill includes no increasing insurance payments for Obamacare and a provision that will ensure that drug prices will not increase as a Bush provision that Medicare cannot bid for prices from pharmaceutical companies is being axed. There is a massive climate control component in the seven hundred billion Bill. Biden and Schumer’s patience with Manchin has paid off. So the angry youth will think schlepping out to vote is worth it.

Biden has successfully navigated the Ukrainian crisis without involving America in the third world war. Besides Zelensky turning around the ground war, the coalition is holding, the Russian economy is in a state of collapse. He also stood firm in his conversation with China’s Xi Ping.

The Democrats still have the abortion issues and guns from the activist Supreme Court. With the daily disasters climate change is finally gaining traction. Jay H. Ell has to believe that not only will they win the Senate in November the House may now just be that little more in play.

The Republicans 2022 and 2024

The Republican leadership response has been to stick with Trump. They have done nothing to extricate themselves from the chaos that is unfolding before their eyes. They are standing around waiting for Godot. Every candidate is going to be faced with whether they support an indicted leader or not. As matters stand Trump will still will the nomination in 2024. If he does Jay H. Ell believes that Liz Cheney will stand as an Independent to give the fifteen percent or so Reagan Republicans a conscience vote so as to allow whoever is the Democratic nominee to win, or more to the point Trump lose

If unemployment stays at three and a half percent and wages increase McConnell will have a tough time of it. The line is now that Biden is senile and should be removed via the Twentieth Amendment. They are obviously projecting the fact that Trump’s Cabinet was discussing the Amendment as Fox’s Hannity had warned and the January 6 Committee has heard evidence thereof.

THE END OF THE DAY

It is finally getting near the end of the day…. A day without dinner for Trump who will go down saying he won his third election a row.

HAVE THE DEMOCRATS ANY CHANCE IN THE MIDTERMS?

Conventional wisdom has the Democrats going down the tubes in the November midterms. Five Thirty Eight the number one independent political forecasters rate the Democrats’ chances of hanging onto the House at thirteen percent and Senate at forty - seven percent. The reasons given by most pundits for this doomsday scenario are multiple.They include the high inflation numbers, the rising interest rates and gas prices as well as Biden’s low approval numbers. Adding to the Democratic woes are, the traditional mid term poor performance of the party that occupies the White House, the gerrymandering of constituencies and voter suppression enacted by the Republicans. To add insult to injury certain sections of the Democratic Party, who don’t understand how it all works, have their hands in the air screaming that Biden should do more about gun control and abortion rights. Also Senator Joe Manchin’s refusal to provide the fiftieth vote needed on to push forward on axing the filibuster and help codify abortion rights into Federal Law, has produced frustration towards the whole party.

THE DIVIDED AGENDAS OF THE “REPUBLICANS” AND THE PROBLEMS THEY COULD FACE

But Jay H. Ell is not so sure that the situation is hopeless as there are number of factors, with five months to go, which could mitigate the situation. First and foremost the “Republicans" are divided on what  their message should be. Mitch McConnell would like their policy to be simply making the Biden Presidency “disaster” front and central, offering no “Republican” agenda.  He is a lone but influential voice in the latter regard with even his own senatorial head of the midterm election thrust, Tim Scott, having laid out a detailed GOP manifesto. Others want to run simply on the economy. Nearly forty percent are committed to the Big Lie and the others just want to avoid answering questions about Trump. While yet another groups want to run a culture war against the "woke" radical left agenda.

 The economic situation is complicated while the impact of the Supreme Court’s ruling on abortion and the issue of gun rights ostensibly having no influence on the voters cannot be valid when the polling numbers indicate that over seventy percent of the population are in favor of abortion rights and want stricter gun control legislation. Also the belief that the January 6 testimony will have no influence on voters has to be nonsense. No “Republican” candidate is making a thing of attacking it nor is Fox full blast twenty four seven blasting it off the face of the earth or challenging any evidence routinely. 

It is necessary to look at these variables that really don’t jive with a wholesale slaughter of the Democrats this November.

TRUMP VERSUS BIDEN

This line up is becoming more and more inevitable. Trump will frighten several "Republican" candidates away by announcing early but will there be enough in the field to allow him to win the nomination with less than fifty percent as he did in 2016? Trump is leaning on announcing soon on the assumption that the Justice Departments then won't indict him. The reason that this is relevant now is that Trump in order to keep his narrative going has to run on that he is still President. He will hog the lime light and suck all the oxygen out of the atmosphere. Biden beat him last time sitting in his basement while Trump held his madcap rallies and spat out out hundreds of tweets. So he is at no new disadvantage with Trump hogging the media.

Already the generic ballot which the Republicans led on is evening out. Some polls even have the Democrats ahead. The fascinating statistic is that of those that disapprove of Biden, sixty percent, a sizable amount are still prepared to vote Democrat. This is a departure from previous midterms but is not really unexpected as Biden is no charismatic leader but at the end of the day he represents stability. 

The Democrats claim their internal polling sees them ahead in all the Senate seats that they hold as well as two that were formerly Republican - Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. They have even argued that Ohio and North Carolina are trending their way. Put another way is it really comprehensible that the swing voters in all the states on the Senate ballot who gave Biden his victory in 2020 are going to vote for candidates who either support Trump’s Big Lie or just duck the question? As Five Thirty Eight has researched, thirty six percent of “Republican” candidates for Congress, Governorships or Secretary of States have backed the Big Lie. This is what the Republican Party is running on whether McConnell likes it or not. Trumpism is so entrenched that Kevin McCarthy the candidate who has an eighty - seven percent chance of being the next Speaker of the House of Representatives has indicated that he is going to have an investigation into the January 6 Committee, impeach Biden and investigate all Trump’s claptrap. 

But the pundits claim the voting will boil down to the economy.

“IT’S THE ECONOMY - STUPID”

James Carville’s iconic statement that ushered Bill Clinton to two terms to the White House, “It’s the economy - stupid” is trotted out as a article of faith only second to the dictum that in the midterms the Party that has the Presidency gets, in President Obama’s phraseology, “a shellacking”. The perception is that the economy sucks. The main parameter for this belief is the record high inflation figures and the high price of gas. With regard to the latter it has come down fifty cents in the past few weeks and is at least half the price of anywhere else in the world. Rationally it comes at the cost of supporting the Ukrainians who have bipartisan support, notwithstanding that the Bannon/Trump clique back Putin - “a genius”. Recession is on everyone’s lips. The latter defined as two quarters of negative GDP and always a retrospective diagnosis made when the economy is recovering.

The facts on the economic ground don’t paint such a bleak picture. Unemployment rate at three point six percent is at its historic low and wages have increased dramatically. The minimum wage is fifteen dollars forty cents in twenty states. There are job vacancies, two available for every individual who might be available for employment. In every commercial window there are notices, “We are hiring”, offering bonuses in some instances up to thousand dollars for minimum wage employment. Yet the doom and gloom persists.

Admittedly Apple and other major companies have slowed down employment but this relates to engineers and doesn’t impact the average worker. The Federal Reserve has increased interest rates to a basic three point eighty - five percent. Thirty year mortgages are at five point three percent. This modest increase has brought down house prices and the price of commodities all round have come tumbling down. However, if this was the central issue in the election it would obviously favor the "Republicans".

Interestingly enough, to Mitch McConnell, the "Republican" Minority Leader in the Senate’s, dismay the “Republicans” are not running on what is perceived to be their strong point namely Biden’s “dismal” performance”. Besides The Big Lie they are campaigning against the left wing “woke” agenda. Rick DeSantis, the Governor of Florida who is considered Trump’s main opposition, is running his gubernatorial campaign against the left wing “woke” agendas.  

The Heritage Foundation is a key “Republican” think tank that often lays down the line, They are instituting a massive campaign against the Environmental, Social And Governance Movement, ESG, which produces reports on investing in those who fulfill their criteria of meeting societal needs. The Heritage Action Committee, claims, “The Latest and most dangerous attempt to undermine our market and force a woke agenda on America is called the ESG - Left - wing activists". 

This awakening of business practices and investing and even governmental assessment of projects has been brought into the pubic consciousness coinciding with the midterms and has to be new to anyone other than those in the “Republican” inner circle. It coincides with business allying more and more against the nihilistic and cruel policies supported by the “Republicans” and the Supreme Court. For example every major company has offered to cover out of state abortion costs for their employees. The Foundation have to be aware that one of the major catalysts that sent apartheid packing was big business. 

On the face of it is not only the Democrats who want the midterms to be more about, “Who we are as a people”.

ABORTION AS A CAMPAIGN ISSUE

 

This issue is only beginning to show the sad outcome of the ideological activist ignorant decision of the Supreme Court which was the predictable result as the Trump Court delivered what he said they would. According to Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Political Action Groups spent nearly six hundred million dollars in advertising and caucusing for the election of Justices, Gorsich, Kavanaugh and Barrett. Most of this anonymously donated, the largest contribution being seventeen million dollars. This could be legally undertaken as a result of a Supreme Court decision where the Court interpreted money as the equivalent to free speech.

The aftermath of the Court's ruling on abortion has been greeted with glee and action by the “Republicans” who have interpreted the ruling to enact, in the States they control, more and more draconian laws with severe penalties to the doctors that perform them. 

First allow Jay H. Ell to give a short explanation on what the term abortion encompasses.

One out of four normal pregnancies end in an abortion or a miscarriage. Several of those need no treatment as the foetal material is absorbed. However a large number develop what are called incomplete abortions or miscarriages. Often they only expel a portion of the fetal parts and they need medical intervention to prevent serious complications such as hemorrhaging, infection, infection in the blood stream, sepsis, infertility and even death. Then twenty of a thousand pregnancies in the United States are ectopic pregnancies. They are a leading cause of mortality  in women in the first trimester. So much for the complications and risks to more than one quarter of the women who are being treated by law like the rest.

At the outset no one but no one is happy about a miscarriage or a planned abortion.

Planned or elective abortions fall into two groups - those that even the most rabid of “pro life” advocates should acknowledge, namely rape violent or statutory, pregnancy in anyone under the age of consent, incest, and to prevent serious complications including death to the mother. There are those that are elective which decision is made for a host of reasons including health, financial or social. Planned or induced pregnancies as a group have decreased dramatically over the past decades and the latest figures from 2019 indicate there were approximately six hundred and fifty thousand as compared to the 1990’s were there were a million and a half. This pales into insignificance as to the one in four that follow a normal pregnancy.

 However several “Republican" States are not making any distinction between a miscarriage and planned termination. They are banning all abortion care throwing the medical world into chaos. Doctors are threatened with legal action and in America they are licensed by the state. Some are not only not making any exceptions for generally accepted criteria, they are not differentiating between miscarriages and planned abortions because the laws do not. To reinforce the point conventional miscarriages far exceed the number of planned abortions many of which are performed for medical reasons any way.

Since the Supreme Court ruling a few weeks the media has been plastered with incidents where morbidity and death of women have been at risk for common complications of a miscarriage, as doctors and pharmacists withhold treatment. The feeble response of the apologists was that these stories are anecdotal. The  argument has been flattened by the new President of the American Medical Association, Dr. Jack Resnick, who states that he has had multiple reports from all around the country of clinical situations where doctors have refused to give routine treatment risking complications. In fact severe life threatening complications have been reported as doctors literally waited for women  with miscarriages to get sick enough to treat

Just to quote one response from the Texas Attorney General who maintained that there could not be a legal basis for the differentiation between miscarriages or “illegally” started abortions, as the ER would become a walk in abortion clinic. He is right because women will be unable to go to their regular doctors and they will go to the ER which hopefully has the back up of a corporation. 

The pathetic story of the ten year old child from Ohio who was raped and then counseld that she could carry the child to term was considered “unfortunate”. She then crossed state lines to have a medical abortion. Murdoch’s Fox snd Wall Street Journal in tandem with Republican Congresspeople  challenged the story, claiming it was made up. When the rapist was arrested and confessed there was no contrition but just a meh. To exacerbate the vindictiveness and cruelty in this relentless campaign the Indiana attorney general stated the doctor’s actions were illegal and he was investigating her. When his accusation proved patently false he like the apologists did not let up and the doctor has demanded a retraction or she will sue.

It is hard to believe that the suburban women who voted against Trump in 2020 and women in general are not going to go ballistic as this crisis crescendos each day. The polling figures show, depending how the question is put, up to eighty percent of voters want Roe to be retained. It has really helped the Democrats who were behind in the generic vote and have now caught up. Sadly as the days go by the situation will become chaotic and as sure as there are going to be mass shootings there are going to be maternal mortalities.

GUNS AND THE SECOND AMENDMENT.

Jay H. Ell has blogged on the unbelievable legalization of weapons of war available to eighteen year olds. The “Republicans” are so beholden to the morally and financially bankrupt National Rifle Association that they wouldn’t even limit purchase to those over twenty one years of age, On June 29, 2022 Jay H. Ell blogged, “Guns, Culture, Politics, Money, The Supreme Court and Tiny Coffins”. (To easily find it go to the opening page of the site and look at archives on the right. Click on June and then the click on the article). Since Uvalde there have been literally dozens of mass shootings including one that shook the nation in affluent Highland Park just North of Chicago. The sleepy hollow whose main street is out of a film set of the fifties was the scene of slaughter at the July 4 annual parade attended by the whole community. Seven people were killed and forty injured. Those who believe that “It could never happen here” were subject to the rude awakening that so many other communities have experienced. Highland Park last experienced a homicide in 1994.

As the Mayor of  Highland Park testified that there were scores of good people with guns on the scene and they could do nothing, echoing the scenario at Uvalde where there were three hundred and seventy five such men. Yet this narrative is still the rationale of the protagonists. Like with abortion deniers there are “Conservative” NGO’s backing and supporting the Supreme Court’s embrace of creating a nation armed to the teeth.

Again at least two thirds of American voters polled want more gun restrictive laws. How this is not going to impact voters in 2022 is a mystery.

JANUARY 6 HEARINGS AND THEIR SEQUALAE

Jay H. Ell’s most recent blog covered this subject - “The Fairy Tale Story of Cassidy Hutchinson and the Wicked President”. (It is recoverable by clicking on the archives as outlined above). Cassidy's historic intervention was followed by the devastating expose of Trump’s behavior in the one hundred eighty seven minutes where he pored oil on the flames of a domestic terror insurrection. Needless to say Murdoch’s Fox News was the only news channel that did not cover the earth shattering hearing live. Then there is the recent revelations of the Secret Service with Trump’s handpicked head James Murray. The irrireristible inference is that Trump’s detail colluded in a cover up of  criminal activity. In case it is forgotten Pence refused get into a car because it was being driven by a detail that was not his. 

The Democrats believe that anyone who backs The Big Lie or has been endorsed by the former President is at an electoral disadvantage and they represent thirty - six percent of the “Republican” candidates for key State and Congressional elections.. So much does their internal polling figures reflect this they have backed these candidates in the “Republican” Primaries with adverts on the assumption that they will be easier to beat in the midterms.

.The “Republicans” also believe that Trump will be a liability. Frank Luntz the famed "Republican" focus group organizer claimed there was a frustration towards Trump by "Republicans" while Sarah Longwill claims that her focus hearings have resulted that everyone in her focus groups want another "GOP" candidate. These confirm polls that have noted diminishing support for Trump as the nominee.

 Vice President Pence, who is almost certain to run, was a guest speaker at the influential GOP Congress Study group where most of those voted not to accept the 2020 election results reportedly encouraged Pence to run. Trump and Pence are hosting competing rallies in Arizona as they are backing different candidates in the “Republican” Primary for governor. Pence is hardly featured on the charts but he is what is left of the Conservative establishment's choice. Even if he became the candidate one wonders how he could win backing a national abortion. Rick DeSantis the Florida Governor has all but announced his candidature and in some states he is in a statistical tie with Trump.

So Trump will not frighten all off if he announces his candidacy early. And who knows whether he will escape indictment?

AT THE END OF THE DAY

There is a long way to go before the midterms. However there is every indication that Trump not Biden will be the central figure in the 2022 election and in 2024, whether he gets the nomination or not. Jay H. Ell projects that he would run as an Independent in the unlikely event that he is not the nominee.

As indicated the future is not what it used to be as far as the Democrats are concerned especially in the Senate. The House has to be a reach. Only two administrations holding the White House in the past sixty years have not lost seats in the midterms. 

Bannon's guilty finding will bolster the January 6 credibility.

The leaking of Trump's America First plan, if re elected, which would not only gut the Environment Protection Agency and Internal Revenue departments but reach into the Secret Service, Pentagon and the State Departments is bound to become the next center of the news cycle. All part of Bannon's dream.

THE FAIRY TALE OF CASSIDY HUTCHINSON AND THE WICKED PRESIDENT

 

This is a story of a young lady who came from a small town to the WhiteHouse to serve her country. She bravely revealed the machinations of a wicked old man who was the President thereby helping to save democracy - A fairy tale story.

Once upon a time, not so long ago, in the United States of America, in the age of very powerful men who controlled vast armies and large sums of money, some were extremely evil. One in particular, once the most powerful man in the world, former President Donald J Trump, had cast a spell on a whole political party just like the Emperor who wore no clothes did. The “Republican Party” believed or were too scared to argue against what had been labelled “The Big Lie”, that he, Trump had won an election which he had lost. Trump had used every strategy imaginable to, by hook or by crook, have the result changed but a few good men and women had bravely stopped him all the way. Among those who thought his attempt at a coup was “disgusting” was a charming patriotic young woman, who history will relate, exploded the myth that he was the “Messiah”.

THE POWERFUL EVIL MAN’S SPELL

Thus, although, many who had not been overcome by the spell believed he should be punished somehow they were shut up by those who said that the “G-d like man” was untouchable. He had survived three bankruptcies, withheld money from a European ally because he wanted a political favor in return, believed Putin over his own Intelligence agencies that Russia had interfered in the 2016 election, had his Charitable Foundations shut down for donating other people’s money to himself, (charity begins at home) and paid out twenty - five million to students that he had enrolled in his fake university. And so much more. So understandably, his cult following believed that he walked on water. 

Most of his power derived from a fundamentalist “G-d” fearing group, the Evangelicals, who hailed the thrice married man credibly accused and even admitting sexual abuse, claiming that he was a reformed sinner even though he carried on sinning and that he was messiah like. To forgive was a religious act especially if the recipient can deliver what you desire. He also was the champion of those that believed AR 14s and the like were a “G-D” given right in the Constitution which was handed down on Mount Rushmore to Jefferson Davis. Then the other Jefferson, (Thomas) plagiarized the story and gave the right only to the militias.

 Proof of his qualities were signaled  by the fact that he promised and delivered no less than three Supreme Court judges who took away the right for women, even those raped or victims of incest, to have an abortion. The same Judges gave permission for anyone to carry a gun anywhere and as a bonus to the energy donors a big break by axing Biden’s environmental efforts. 

Trump held rallies where he railed against the enemies of the people, especially the press, which he affectionately called “fake news”. He claimed that “….only I alone can save  the country...” and cautioned that within the bureaucratic government there was the “dark state” that was out to get him and all “his people”. He also was very unforgiving and vindictive unless it suited him. (This should have frightened the innocent Cassidy Hutchinson). Many succumbed to his wrath even after years of loyal devotion but one disagreement was enough. Another behavior was that he demanded loyalty which unhappily was a one way process. You cannot expect loyalty from “The Leader” who has a responsibility to keep himself whole. 

With all this and a whole lot else he instigated a violent coup against the American Government of which he was no longer to be the head of. This culminated in an attack on the very seat of Government, The Capitol.

AFTER THE ATTACK ON THE CAPITOL

The respective “Republican” leaders of the House and Senate, Kevin McCarthy and Mitch McConnell were understandably furious that their fearless leader had set a mob against them especially as they were hell bent on murdering Vice President Mike Pence and Nancy Pelosi and anyone else who got in their way. In spite of this, power being the most important value apparently among “Republican” politicians, most voted immediately  afterwards for “The Big Lie” instead of just ratifying the results. The overwhelming pathetic lot didn’t vote to impeach him either thereby giving him the go ahead to stand again, for what he would consider his third term, in 2024, 

January 6 was too important to just go away and it just had to be investigated. McConnell kiboshed a bipartisan non parliamentary commission and Kevin McCarthy pulled all his members out of the House Investigation Committee when Nancy Pelosi the Democratic Speaker of the House objected to two of his picks Jim Jordan and Jim Banks both of whom had voted against the ratification of the 2020 electoral results and the establishment of the very Committee. (Jordan's consciousness of guilt was reflected subsequently when he asked Trump to pardon them for his January 6 involvement in the coup attempt). Yet McCarthy was nominating them to sit on the House Investigating Committee presumably to obstruct their proceedings and report the inner workings to the co conspirators.

Speaker Pelosi then saw to it that “The Republicans” had two Representatives. They were nominated by Ms Pelosi in an effort to make the probe bipartisan. However Fox News who really don’t know what to do decided just to ignore Trump and blame the Democrats that the Committee was partisan. This in the light of the fact that McCarthy, to Trump's dismay, withdrew his other nominations. Every “Republican” Trump supporter, given the chance to put forward exculpatory evidence either pled the fifth amendment not to prejudice their own culpability or failed to show up.

The January 6 Committee may have been chosen by Democrats but all their witnesses showing Trump’s perfidy were “Republicans” all of whom had voted for Trump. They elaborated that the ever inventive Trump had several plans to overturn the fraudulent election. He had sixty “frivolous” law suits - some of the lawyers being referred for disciplinary action and his chief lawyer, Rudy Giuliani disbarred. He tried to convince election agents, Secretaries of State, Governors, State Attorneys General and the Department of Justice to the extent of firing his acolyte William Barr and then attempted to replace him with a nonentity. Had he carried through with the latter he faced resignations from the whole Justice Department. He culminated with a pressure campaign on his Vice President Pence insisting that one man could overturn eighty one million votes. Once this was not going to fly he sent a mob to delay the counting of the electoral vote then to do” G-d” knows what to retain power. 

Jefferson’s (Thomas that is). Republic had been saved by a number of brave civil servants and elected officials all who had voted for Trump. 

With all this the question still remained - what was the state of what is charitably called his mind? Did he really believe that he had won? His culpability became evident when the young lady from the country stepped up to the plate and produced the evidence that Jamie Raskin had promised would “blow the roof off". Even Fox’s mad Murdoch could not ignore what Cassidy Hutchinson added to the debate. So he generally ignored her in the news section and let his propaganda night team smear her off the face of the earth.

ENTER THE FAIRY QUEEN CASSIDY HUTCHINSON

Like an angel from heaven as in any Fairy Tale entered Cassidy Hutchinson. So Cassidy Hutchinson emerged from nowhere - well almost nowhere because it had been run in some media that a WhiteHouse aide had given twenty hours of closed door depositions and had important testimony. What followed could not have been scripted anywhere on earth. Firstly, who in heavens name was Cassidy Hutchinson who turned out to be a highly influential WhiteHouse employee who was in the inner sanctum literally within spitting distance of the Oval Office. As watchers rushed to Google they found very little. The famed Wikipedia initially was unsure whether she was twenty - five of twenty - six years old. There was one photo of her and Press Officer McCanee doing the YMCA behind the stage at a Trump rally. In addition she had a LinkedIn membership...

Cassidy was born and attended school in a tiny town in New Jersey and thereafter entered a little known College, Christopher Newport University. Yes, she too was a Trumpian oriented “Republican”. She had to have exhibited remarkable promise coming from "G-d" knows where studying at a tiny College in Virginia which had about four thousand students.  She had had successive internships with the number two House “Republican” Scalise, Senator Ted Cruz and then the Whitehouse.  In March 2020 Mark Meadows was appointed Trump’s fourth Chief of Staff and he immediately recruited  Ms.Hutchinson as an aide. In no time she was his “executive assistant” accompanying him everywhere. A fairy tale come true, a metaphor for a rags to riches story. 

Within ten minutes of Ms. Hutchinson’s public televised deposition it became obvious why she had risen to be a crucial player in the most powerful portal of American politics. Her intellect, command of the facts, honesty, credibility, courage, authority, poise, respect of her questioners and dignity radiated throughout the Cannon House Office Building and through the screen to the world. 

WHAT CASSIDY SAID AND WHAT IT MEANT

The role of Ms. Hutchinson could not have been scripted in Hollywood. Anyone who had come up with a screenplay or TV Series of “Cassidy Hutchinson Goes to the Whitehouse” would have been laughed out of sight. Not even The Disney Channel would have been remotely interested. Here was a young lady in her early twenties as a key player in the inner sanctum of the WhiteHouse who put beyond any doubt that Trump knew exactly what he was doing and was at the center of the coup conspiracy. Furthermore he was nothing but a bad mannered pig and at best a spoilt brat. She also closed the loop on the conspiracy. It was a Fairy Tale.  

Let just one statement sink in, the Chief WhiteHouse Council Pat Cipollone pleadingly instructs twenty - five year old her, on her way to be backstage with Trump and family at the Eclipse prior to Trump’s seditious exhortation to his mob, not to let the President march to the Capitol with them!  She claims Cipollone stated, “We need to make sure that this doesn’t happen… we have serious legal concerns if we go up to the Capitol”. Prior discussions with Cipollone  detailed the crimes that may be committed should the latter occur, 

The young executive assistant to Meadows overheard discussions with Giuliani and Trump where the Oath Keepers and The Proud Boys were mentioned. The first she heard of January 6 was when Giuliani mentioned to her, excitedly, that January 6 was going to be a great day and they were all going down to the Capitol. When she confronted Meadows on the subject, he countered that, “Things might get real real bad on January 6”. She was witness to Trump instructing Meadows to call Roger Stone on January 5. Stone’s bodyguards on January 6 were the Oath Keepers. Meadows wanted to go to the Willard Hotel where the key “Stop The Steal” conspirators, including Bannon and Stone, were. They were coordinating the January 6 insurrection. Meadows accepted Cassidy's admonition that it was not appropriate for Trump’s Chief of Staff to be there. So Meadows dialed in. She also highlighted the importance of Congressman Jim Jordan, McCarthys’ nominee to the Investigating Committee. Jordan was the only one who was allowed to interrupt his and Cipollone’s attempt to get Trump to call the mob off. So Cassidy connected all the dots of Whitehouse involvement in the conspiracy.- the January 6 insurrection was not a protest that got out of hand. It was preplanned with WhiteHouse involvement and was part of a vast conspiracy. 

Then there was the hundred and eighty seven minutes insurrection that Trump had to watch because his security detail refused to take the "f…ing" President to the Capitol where there was a recruited mob that he knew had weapons.  Meadows confirmed to Cipollone that Trump saw nothing wrong with the violent desecration of the Capitol and the threat to Pence’s life.  

REACTION TO CASSIDY’S TESTIMONY 

The smear machine was at a distinct disadvantage since the Trumpists had no foreknowledge of her appearance and testimony which was shrouded in secrecy. The Trump loyalists had done everything to hinder her including witness tampering, plying her with mafia like warnings to be loyal to Trump World  She had to change counsel before she publicly testified replacing the Trump paid lawyers, who had advised against a public hearing. What must have stuck in Trump’s craw is that her new lawyers were those of Jeff Sessions his first Attorney General  whom he discharged because he wouldn’t stop the Mueller investigation. 

Trump, as always, led the charge on his new medium, “Truth Social ”. “I hardly knew who this person, Cassidy Hutchinson is, other than I heard very negative things about her ....a total phony and a leaker and when she requested to go ….to Florida… I personally turned her request down. Why did she want to go with us if we were so terrible. I understand that she was upset and angry….. She is such bad news…a third rate social climber…a total phony.  The former leader of the free world nevertheless seemed to know enough to smear her in detail. This is the  Fantasy land that Trump lives in.

The forty fifth President denied certain statements that he supported the cry to “Hang Mike Pence”. The full weight of his and so many others criticism focussed on her detailing of what she alleged was told to her by the Deputy Chief of Staff as to the happenings in his SUV on the way back to the West Wing.  Trump, however, never denied that he wanted to go down to the Capitol. He answered the warning that the police reported that the crowd was armed, that the only gun in the Capitol killed “poor Ashley Babbit”, the insurrectionist who breeched the Capitol. 

Fox News was its current ambivalent self with Brett Baier claiming her testimony was “stunning and under oath while Trump was on "Truth Social”. For the rest the three Fox nightly propagandists pulled her to pieces. Most disturbing were the disgusting comments that she was doing this for money and a job with MSNBC or CNN, One sick commentator claimed that she would “Never have to pay for a drink in Washington again”. 

The bottom line to her bombshell revelations is that Pat Cipollone negotiated an appearance before the January 6 committee and the latter has received a host of new evidence from witnesses speared on by Ms Hutchinson. Mick Mulvaney Trump's third Chief Of Staff now believed Trump was guilty. More telling is that other than Trump and his echo chamber the “Republicans” shut up in embarrassment. Cassidy had broken the spell.

CASSIDY HUTCHINSON GETS THE LAST WORD

The Special - Assistant to the President verbalized the response all Americans should have, “As an American I was disgusted. It was unpatriotic. It was un- American. We were watching the Capitol building defaced over a lie. And it was something that was really hard, in that moment, to digest, knowing what I’d been hearing down the hall, and the conversations that were happening”. 

AT THE END OF THE DAY

As the sleepy Attorney General’s Office mulls over whether to charge Trump they need not get bowled over Trump’s obvious ploy to announce his candidacy for 2024 and claim fowl if he is then indicted. 

As important as everything else is in Garland's decision the validation of the courageous “Republicans” who have put their careers and lives on the line, has to be a persuasive consideration. 

So far can’t be sure that the goodies will live happily after but there has to be some hope. This is an ongoing tale. 

Next week will be a blockbuster with two open sessions, one in prime time. Then the key witness the WhiteHouse Chief Counsel Pat Cipollone is having a closed door deposition......