LOCK HIM UP : Lingering Questions Surrounding Donald Trump's Mysterious Theft Of Top Secret American Government Documents And His Unwillingness to Return Them

Monday August 29th, 2022

Oh, Those were the days, My Friend

I can recall them so well.  Those days suddenly seem so long ago but they really weren't that long ago, actually.

Back in those bygone days when a Presidential Election was over, after the ballots were counted, even in a sometimes extremely close election The Candidate with the most votes won the election and shortly after that the Candidate who lost the election went home and except for brief periods every once in awhile were hardly ever heard from again.

Yes, there were sometimes ugly campaigns and occasionally ugly candidates but come January and February after the Inauguration of the new President the old President.  The one who had been beaten or was simply retiring as his own choice.  He (It was always a "HE") hit the road or flew away almost never to be heard from again.  

That Tradition of the old President getting out of town, or at least getting out of the spotlight had lasted for as long as the Republic, For as long as Democracy in America had lasted.

But apparently that longstanding Tradition of Peaceful Transition of Power in a Democracy is no longer in operation in the Republican Party.  The well known norms of Politics that lasted as long as Democracy has lasted in America are no longer in operation.

Under Donald Trump's Leadership the MAGA Republicans seem to have decided that we don't need Democracy anymore.  Apparently they think that it is an outdated principle that has kept Donald Trump from his rightful place which is at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

What the Hell is wrong with you Republicans?

For God's sake, you people have up to now always been the backbone of Democracy in America.  You were often willing to go to war to protect your Democracy and you worried and acted forcefully when you witnessed our country beginning to go off the rails.  Where the hell have you Truly Super Patriots Gone to.

In your place we now certainly have people calling themselves Republicans and Patriots but the flags they are waving are on Flagpoles they have turned into spears.

Jesus, all of you Congressional Republicans were running just as fast, Maybe even faster than Democrats, on January Sixth after Trump sent his Lynch Mob to Capitol Hill to "Hang Mike Pence" and to stop the certification of the 2020 Election.

It's not like you people are blind to what is going on with Trump.  Maybe some of you like Paul Gosar and Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert really are dumb enough to actually believe their own and Trump's Bullshit.  But educated people like Josh Hawley and Lindsey Graham, you people should know better and I'm sure that you do.

Back during the 2016 Election none of you who were running against Trump, except for Chris Christie, had a good word to say about Donald Trump.  Now all of you Republican Senators and Congressmen and Women, with the exceptions of Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger and sometimes Mitt Romney, have anything but praise for the Disgraced Ex President.

You despicable bastards even sign on to Trump's Insane Claim that HE won the 2020 Election.  You can't all be that stupid.

I find it hard to be reasonable with people who seem to be OK with turning the United States into a Fascist Country.

It is time that you Republicans who claim to be such Patriots recognize that what you are doing is following a Madman, a Charlatan, a man who seriously doesn't give a shit about you people other than how much money and praise he can squeeze from you.

Some of you are going to jail for what you did on January Sixth, while some like Doug Mastriano run for high office like Governor in places like Pennsylvania.

Jesus, this can't be happening.  But it is.  

Wake up Republicans and smell the Treason in the air.  I don't really think that most of you following Trump really know the full extent of what is on the horizon for America if Trump is not stopped.

Are Republicans really OK with living in a Fascist Nation in which voting is a thing of the past.

I think the answer is "NO".

Before you start talking about starting a "Civil War" please think about what you are doing and what Donald Trump is doing.

And think about the fact that Trump has no proof whatever that he won the 2020 Election.  

Instead of doing what candidates have done for centuries which was to congratulate your opponent for a difficult race and concede that you lost, Trump instead put into motion bullshit claims of fraud and committed real fraud by trying to get fake electors into the mix, He tried unsuccessfully to get Mike Pence to throw the election and when all else failed he instigated a coup at the Capitol which he wanted to lead but was not allowed to by members of the Secret Service.

Now we have found that on his way out for the White House he stole Top secret files and refused to give them back until the FBI retrieved those he had not given back.

Why did Donald Trump take these classified files in the first place and more importantly what did he do with them. 

I ask myself the question would a desperate man on his way out of the Presidency take classified files to sell to the highest bidder.

He had those files for over a Year and a half. It would have been easy in that extensive length of time for someone with a cell phone to copy all of those files

What did Trump do with them?

Who did he allow to have access to them?

The answers to these questions is extremely frightening to me.

In my opinion Donald Trump is either a Lunatic or a Criminal, or is possibly both.

In any case Donald Trump should never again be allowed to be anywhere near classified United States Files ever again.

Whether or not he did or did not sell or give files to one or more of his Dictator Friends he should still never again be in a position in which he could possibly do such things.

Sincerely Yours

Jerry Gallagher

  

 

Bye Bye Miss American Pie - They Drove You From Your Party Cause You Wouldn't Back The Lie

 August 22nd, 2022

My Dear America:

Well, it took a few more decades than George Orwell Predicted but 1984 has finally arrived in The United States in 2022.

2022 is the year that Black became White, Good became Bad and Truth became Fiction in the Republican Political Party in the United States of America.

And in Donald Trump's mind and the minds of many of his followers, the fact that Democrat Joe Biden was actually elected President of the United States by a wide margin with actual vote talleys in every state in the union suddenly didn't matter anymore.  Democracy didn't matter anymore.  American voters didn't matter anymore. Some Trump Supporters even felt compelled (With Their Leader's Encouragement) to storm the United States Capitol building while the Capitol was in session to certify the legitimate election vote totals of 2020.  

Although some members of The Capitol Police Force and the D.C. Police force died and countless others were seriously injured by Donald Trump's Goon Squad, many Republican Legislators who were visibly Shaken and Outraged at the time of the Capitol Attack now continue to bow to the Oathkeepers, Proud Boys ( Who have nothing to be proud of as far as I can see) and Three Percenters, as well as other Trump supporters who seem to be those who make up the Republican Party in America at this strange point in time.

Like the Taliban in Afghanistan the Republican Party seems to have completely become a Right Wing Supposedly Religious Movement anxious to enslave their Countrymen and Women in their Authoritarian Spirit of "We're right and everybody else is wrong".  Put succinctly The Republican Party has lost its collective mind and seems truly hell bent on destroying the Concept of Democracy in America and replacing it with something similar to what we find in Dictatorships in Authoritarian led countries.

Although Donald Trump certainly made a complete mockery of our Democracy during the Four Godawful Years that he was President, he has really gone and done it now in 2022.  Trump and what is left of his "Conservative Republican Party" seems to be simply focused on getting Trump  back into the Presidency so that he and his henchmen and women can keep him from being prosecuted by a United States Justice Department that, unlike it was when he had complete control of DOJ, is now rightly pursuing the Ex President who has always been in his mind above the law.

Into this land of lunacy  where the Republican Party seems to have completely gone off the rails and evidently are staying off the rails, has come Liz Cheney.  Liz has been in the past a Republican Party Leader but because she just couldn't put her principles aside and do the Wrong Thing like so many other Republicans and spread the "Big Lie" that "Donald Trump had actually won the Presidential Election in 2020" she just lost her Congressional Primary in Wyoming to Harriet Hageman, who had been a Liz Cheney Supporter and a Donald Trump critic until she found her Republican Spiritual Awakening in a Trump Endorsement for her Congressional Campaign.  Suddenly, although Ms. Hageman had no use for Trump Two years ago, she has been saved and has suddenly found God in Mara Lago.

Hageman was certainly not the only Republican Trump Critic who who found New Election Spirit in the 2022 Election.  JD Vance in Ohio had made a lot of noise and became a best selling author by criticizing Donald Trump back in the day.  But this year he made it clear that he had also found Jesus in Mara Lago and after getting Trump's endorsement JD also found himself caring more about Being Elected than doing the Right Thing.

It is becoming increasingly apparent that Republicans are so hell bent on Winning Elections that Principles and Truth in the Trump Republican Party are quickly becoming a thing of the past.

After Trump and his minions drive those who insist on continuing to maintain Genuine Conservative Republican Principles out of the party it is frightening to realize what we will be left with in what used to be a strongly principled two party system.

The Truth is that we just barely missed having our government being taken over by the Trump Goon Squad in January of 2021.

Although Donald Trump pressured Mike Pence unmercifully to torpedo the January Sixth Certification Pence turned out to have just enough Decency and Backbone to instead torpedo Donald Trump's plan to illegally reinstall himself into the Presidency.

Trump had other irons in the fire though.  

He thought that he could strongarm the Georgia Secretary of State and Governor to magically come up with the thousands of votes Trump needed for him to win the Electoral votes in that state.

It turned out that although Brad Rafensperger and Brian Kemp were Staunch Republicans who had voted for Donald Trump themselves in the 2020 Election that they were unwilling to bow to Trump's Unspeakable Requests to "Come Up with" enough magical votes to swing the election to Trump. 

Trump did find some Republicans willing to sign on as "Fake Electors" in several states but in the end the Fake Electors Scheme didn't work out and only made Law Enforcement Targets of those individuals foolish enough to sign on to that incredibly indecent scheme.

So now in addition to illegally taking Top Secret documents with him to Mara Lago and apparently refusing to give the documents back to the U.S. Archives where they belong, he is also trying his best to install people like himself to positions of responsibility in every state in the union who will, when the time comes, not be guided by principles like Pence, Raffensperger and Kemp were.

Donald Trump should never again be allowed anywhere near the White House ever again and if the January Sixth Committee and the United States Justice Department are successful in their endeavors he never will be.

But clearly Donald Trump has power aplenty in the Republican Party and he is already using it to eliminate and punish those individuals on his enemies list.

Apparently number one on that list was Liz Cheney, who did her best to alert the world and most assuredly her Republican Party to the dangers of continuing to follow the lead of Donald Trump.  While Liz was successful in her role as Vice Chair of the January Sixth Committtee in the end Liz was unsuccessful in her Wyoming Primary vote to keep her seat in Congress.  She was beaten by Trump Turncoat Harriet Hageman in a landslide.  Liz will continue to be in Congress for the rest of 2022 and possibly beyond if she manages to run a successful Independent Campaign to retain her seat.  

Although in normal times I would probably have little sympathy for Liz Cheney losing her seat in congress These are not normal times.  These are in many ways Strange and Terrible Times.  Liz Cheney lost badly in the Wyoming Primary Election and she pointed out that she could have easily won her election if she was willing to do what so many of her colleagues in Congress and the Republican Party chose to do, which was to Bow to King Donald and kiss up to someone who she recognized was not a King but a Criminal with no conscience whatsoever.

Liz Cheney may soon be gone from Congress and the January Sixth Committee and in fact the January Sixth Committee may itself be gone if enough Republicans are elected to the U.S. House and Senate in November of 2022.

Clearly Liz Cheney is presently giving thought to what her next move will be.  She admits to thinking about a Presidential run.  

At the moment, however, I think that those of us who are interested in preserving Democracy in the United States of America will be thinking hard about what Liz Cheney is going to do in the future and how her choices will affect us and will affect our Democracy.

I am sure, though, that Liz Cheney will be on the Frontlines of Preserving Democracy for the rest of her life.

Thank you, Liz for being there when we needed you and when our country needed you very badly. 

I sincerely hope that the sacrifice you have made for Truth and Democracy will somehow wake up those members of the Republican Party who have become willing members of the Trump Cult.

But to tell you the truth I am not counting on that miracle happening.

Sincerely Yours

Jerry Gallagher

 

 

Welcome To The Odd And Slightly Unhappy Celebration Of The Second Anniversary Of Podcast For A Lost Nation

 August 8th, 2022

My Dear America:

I feel that I have a lot to explain here.

Let me start with the oddly named title to this present Podcast Episode.  

Yes, I used the word "Unhappy" because of the fact that when I started this Podcast Two years ago this past July 12th I had one purpose in mind.  That purpose was to see a Democrat (Namely Joe Biden) Elected President and following that to see the Previous President, Donald Trump, move out of the White House and down to Florida and never to be heard from again.

Clearly one of my Podcast Purposes has happened.  Joe Biden was elected President in November of 2020.

Unfortunately, my other purpose which was to see the last of Donald Trump did not occur.  Trump, unfortunately tried every way he could to keep himself in the White House including instigating an attempted Coup.  I would have bet a lot of money, if I had it, that once Donald Trump left Washington for Mara Lago that we would have heard the last of Trump.  

I would have lost  a lot of money because the man from Mara Lago has shown and is continuing to show that even though he tried to do what we might have expected a Dictator to do (Namely To Keep Himself In Power Illegally) he still seems to be continuing to maintain a stranglehold on the Republican Party.

Trump Endorsed Election Deniers are presently on the ballot in important Positions in several major state races including Governors Senators and Secretary's of State in Pennsylvania and Arizona.

Donald Trump, who never showed much decency or self restraint before continues to wander around the country whining about how he is the most persecuted Ex President ever and apparently his lies have not caught up with him in the Republican Party.  just this past weekend C-PAC's Straw Poll showed him winning the Presidential Preference Poll by 69 Percent, while his closest challenger. Ron Desantis percentage was in the 20 Percent Range.

Anyway, before I get too far along on this rant I do want to say that I thought that once Joe Biden clearly won the Presidency ( And He Certainly Did) that I could relax and forget about Donald Trump and enjoy the fact that my Scranton Political Brother was in the White House and the Good Life could begin again.

I foolishly thought that Joe Biden's old Friend and Comrade in the Senate, Mitch McConnell would begin to cooperate with his old Democratic buddy and bring his Republican Friends with him.

Well that didn't happen and a lot of other unforeseen things did happen.

Who would have expected Russia to have the gall to invade Ukraine in the horrible and devastating breach of International Respect for Law and Borders that occurred.  

I am still convinced that Putin waited to invade Ukraine because he expected his buddy, Trump to win the election in 2020 and knew that if Trump won that he would have solidly supported Putin in the War with Ukraine.

I sincerely thought that after the Presidential Election in 2020 when Joe Biden won that I would quickly run out of Political Topics to discuss and could move on to other topics that I was interested in like Television, Movies and Books.

But of course that didn't happen.  Donald Trump did not go gently into that South Florida Night and as long as Republicans hang on to him like the Anchor that he is it seems as though we are all engaged in a downward spiral to God Knows What.

So, of course, I see no path at the present time to writing about those lighter and more fun topics that I would really prefer to write about.  Not as long as Donald Trump continues to rampage through Our Democracy like a dangerous Bull in a China Shop.

Unfortunately, the future of the United States looks very dim at the moment and everything the Republican Party does seems to make it look dimmer.

I want to end this rant on a high note.  

I know that most of the people who listen to this Podcast and read my "Letters To A Lost Nation"  Blog Posts are either Relatives or Friends.  To all of you I thank you for sticking with me over the past two years.  

For those other people who have listened in over the past couple of years I genuinely hope that it has been worth your while and that you will stick it out with me for as many years as I can stick it out.  

I appreciate all of you who listen and I promise that I will do my best to keep telling the truth to all of you who will listen in the future.

Sincerely Yours

Jerry Gallagher