Donald Trump's actual "Help Wanted" posting. Not making this up.

Only Trumpers are allowed to be Republicans

The Republican Party is going through a nasty divorce

By Kerry Eleveld for Daily Kos

When former Vice President Mike Pence said last Friday that he would not be endorsing his old boss Donald Trump for a second term as president, it made for a good chuckle: Pence wouldn't be backing the guy who tried to have him hanged on Jan. 6, 2021.

But zoom out a bit and Pence's rejection of his former boss comes amid a potentially meaningful groundswell of opposition from many of those who worked closest with Trump—including his former top aides and Cabinet members.

The Biden campaign sure thinks it’s notable. Shortly after Pence's statement, the campaign's rapid response director, Ammar Moussa, blasted out a list to reporters of former Trump staffers who don't think Trump and his autocratic agenda should be "anywhere near the Oval Office."

Pence topped the list, followed by former U.N. ambassador and Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley—but let's put a pin in that for a moment.

Other former senior Trump officials who made Team Biden's "short list" were:

• His Chief of Staff, Gen. John Kelly 
• His National security Advisor, John Bolton
• His National Security Advisor, H.R. McMaster
• His Defense Secretary, Mark Esper
• His Defense Secretary, Gen. James Mattis
• His Attorney General, Bill Barr
• His Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson

Honesty really matters

Leaders like Trump fail if they cannot speak the truth and earn trust
Kenneth P. Ruscio, University of Richmond

During a recent Senate committee hearing on the COVID-19 crisis, Dr. Anthony Fauci told lawmakers he was concerned about “a lack of trust of authority, a lack of trust in government.”

He had reason to be worried. The Pew Center reported that July 7 only 17% of people in the U.S. have confidence in government to do the right thing. 

Never in the history of their surveys, which began in 1958, has that confidence been so low.

Why is trust so low and why does that matter, especially during a crisis – and especially during this crisis?

More on life in the Stupidverse

For more cartoons by Tom Tomorrow, CLICK HERE.

Donald Trump Is America’s Worst Enemy

Bolton describes how Trump commits and condones crimes against humanity

By David Cay Johnston, DCReport Editor-in-Chief

John Bolton’s new book makes clear Donald Trump violates his oath to defend our Constitution against “all enemies foreign and domestic.” Trump is the leading domestic enemy of our Constitution.

Bolton shows Trump has no regard for our Constitution, using example after damning example of disloyal private conduct.

“The Room Where It Happened,” Bolton’s book, shows that Trump routinely commits felonies. He wants “execution” of journalists. He tries to rig criminal prosecutions to curry favor with dictators.

Bolton shows Trump has no regard for our Constitution, using example after damning example of disloyal private conduct.

His book confirms key points that I have been warning people about for five-plus years. Trump is:

• appallingly ignorant
• disloyal
• dumb
• heartless
• possessed of violent desires for revenge
• thinks nothing of selling out our country for personal gain

Consider the scariest anecdote in Bolton’s book. It is one that has gotten little attention in the mainstream news. No one else has connected the dots, the awful dots.

Connect them and you realize Trump gave China support in cutting up people while they were alive. Beijing operates these human chop shops, selling its enemies organs. Or, it awards human parts to loyal communist party members in need of transplants.

Bolton is himself an amoral monster. He played a significant role in the gratuitous American invasion of Iraq 17 years ago. There were at least 208,000 documented deaths and perhaps twice that figure.

That Bolton didn’t willingly testify during the Trump impeachment proceedings shows he cares more about his $2 million book advance than his country.

Still, Trump surrounds himself with people possessed of deeply flawed character. Just as prosecutors often rely on criminals to catch other criminals, so should we pay heed to Bolton.

Get Ready For Trump’s Next Act— ’Vindication And Attack’

And you thought be was bad BEFORE impeachment

By Terry H. Schwadron, DCReport Opinion Editor

To watch Donald Trump disrepect the National Anthem just before his acquittal, CLICK HERE.

Even as the Republican Senate majority was acquitting Donald Trump of impeachment charges, one could sense the country bracing for the impending retaliating boomerang.

Trump is never gracious. Even in would-be victory, he is sure to be boastful about beating the so-called witch hunt.

The next step, naturally, will be vindication and attack.

The vote was almost without drama since almost all senators had declared their intentions. The exception, of course, was the emotional decision by Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) to convict. He was the sole senator to break with the GOP. After closing speeches filled with self-serving hyperbole, the Senate finally got to the predicted vote. Democrats held together in a minority.

Susan Collins (R-Maine) insisted Trump has learned from the flawed scheme in shaking down Ukrainian officials for personal political gain that gave rise to the removal vote. She trusted Trump would refrain from other such actions again. Trump apparently dismissed Collins’ suggestion and told news anchors he had done nothing wrong.

Langevin blasts Senate acquittal of Trump

Trump’s conduct “far exceeded the high bar set in the Constitution”

Rep. Jim Langevin (D-RI)

President Trump put his own personal and political interest above the nation when he made the release of Congressionally approved aid to Ukraine conditioned on the announcement of an investigation of a political rival.

The House impeachment managers have made this abundantly clear, a fact that even Republican Senators don’t contest.

In fact, for the first time in history a Senator has voted to remove a President from his own party, and I commend Senator Romney for his courage and integrity.

The President betrayed his oath of office.

VIDEO: The Trump administration has made the U.S. less ready for infectious disease outbreaks like coronavirus

By making big funding cuts at the Centers for Disease Control, Trump has endangered us all
BY Linda J. Bilmes, Harvard Kennedy School

Colorized scanning electron micrograph of filamentous Ebola virus
particles (blue) budding from an infected cell (yellow-green).
NIAID, CC 

As coronavirus continues to spread, the Trump administration has declared a public health emergency and imposed quarantines and travel restrictions.

However, over the past three years the administration has weakened the offices in charge of preparing for and preventing this kind of outbreak.

Two years ago, Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates warned that the world should be “preparing for a pandemic in the same serious way it prepares for war”.

Gates, whose foundation has invested heavily in global health, suggested staging simulations, war games and preparedness exercises to simulate how diseases could spread and to identify the best response.

The Trump administration has done exactly the opposite: It has slashed funding for the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and its infectious disease research. For fiscal year 2020, Trump proposed cutting the CDC budget by US$1.3 billion, nearly 20% below the 2019 level.

As a specialist in budgeting, I recognize that there are many claims on public resources. But when it comes to public health, I believe it is vital to invest early in prevention. Starving the CDC of critical funding will make it far harder for the government to react quickly to a public health emergency.

Ask anybody

Why Republicans are standing with guilty Trump

For more cartoons by Tom Tomorrow, CLICK HERE.

Republicans know Trump did it —

They just don’t care

Written by David Atkins / The Washington Monthly 

So it has come to this, as we all knew it would. Republicans in the Senate have decided to hold a sham trial without witnesses or evidence. It’s not because they don’t want to hear the truth, it’s because they already know the truth. They know the president is guilty, and they simply don’t care.

The few GOP senators who pretended at a conscience toward the end have predictably decided to throw in their lot with the majority of their conservative colleagues cravenly engaging in a coverup for the president, while pretending to be deeply offended at the suggestion that that is exactly what they are doing. 

And why? Because they fear the wrath of Trump’s base and his twitter feed more than they fear the voters or the judgment of history. And because they simply don’t care.

The House impeachment managers put on a masterful legal display, embarrassing Trump’s lawyers at every turn. It was an impressive feat blunted only by the fact that the case was so easy to make. 

Trump’s guilt is obvious on its face. He obstructed every witness, document and request–not something that innocent people do. His legal defense attempted to use this obstruction of direct witness testimony to claim that the only confirmations of his guilt came not from hearsay. And then former National Security Advisor John Bolton blew that defense out of the water via media reports. 

The case, then was open and shut.

The Senate’s make-believe trial of Donald Trump

In my 40 years as a lawyer, I’ve never seen a trial flout the basic requirements for fairness so brazenly.

By Mitchell Zimmerman 

President Trump is on trial.

As in a real trial, charges have been asserted: the House alleges high crimes and misdemeanors. A judge presides: Chief Justice John Roberts sits in his fine black robe at the head of the chamber. 

There are prosecutors (the House impeachment managers) and defense counsel (Trump’s “A-team” of lawyers).

And pursuant to our Constitution, the jurors — the members of the Senate — have sworn an oath to render “impartial justice” at the end of the trial.

So, it looks like a trial. Except that in my 40 years as a lawyer, I’ve never seen a trial that corruptly flouted the basic requirements for fairness as brazenly as this one.

In a real trial, any juror who admitted conspiring with the defendant would be unceremoniously ejected from the jury. 

Yet Republican Senate leader and sworn-to-be-impartial juror Mitch McConnell openly proclaims on television, “Everything I do during this, I’m coordinating with White House counsel.”

Only in Alice in Wonderland would we expect a verdict prior to jury deliberations —  or a juror like Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who announced his vote before the trial began: “I am trying to give a pretty clear signal I have made up my mind. I’m not trying to pretend to be a fair juror here.”

Still more bizarre is a “trial” where the jurors refuse to consider evidence. Ten Republican Senators proposed to dismiss the case without any proceedings, and McConnell is against having witnesses testify or produce documents.

A trial without evidence — the testimony of witnesses and documents — is a travesty of justice.

2019, The Year Trump Made A Hash Of U.S. Foreign Policy

Just one of those things that happen when you have a crazy person in charge

By Terry H. Schwadron, DCReport Opinion Editor

Trump actually curtesied to the King of Saudi Arabia, despite 11 of the 12
9/11 suicide bombers who were Saudis (and likely supported by some
Saudi leaders) and the murder of Jamal Khashoggi

End of year proves a good platform for looking back to sum up administration achievements or missteps over the year, as well as how certain we are about the directions in which our nation is moving.

Americans looking at foreign policy and our relationships overseas will find this year deepened U.S. isolationism, widened support for authoritarian governments, made American primacy in trade the weather vane for our thinking, as opposed to, say, human rights,  and continued Donald Trump’s role as a worldwide disrupter.

A foreign policy built on tariffs and the threat of tariffs creates and maintains an underlying sense of uncertainty among investors.

The only person Trump has NEVER criticized is Vladimir Putin (BBC)

The year will start and end with Trump’s confusing meld of domestic political gain toward his reelection with the formation of the people and policies of America’s standing with the rest of the world. 

The impeachment proceedings that hang over the end of the year are a textbook on using the levels of official policies and rogue personal political desire for dirt on political enemies with interference in domestic elections by foreign governments.

Overall, our foreign policy year is a mixed record at best, even if you somehow subscribe to American boorishness in the china shop of diplomacy.

Why Would Any Honest, Competent Person Work For This Guy?

In Trump’s White House, the Best People Don’t Last While the Worst Circle the Wagons

By David Cay Johnston, DCReport Editor-in-Chief
Donald Trump has a terrible time getting good people to work for him.

Just look at who is, and is not, giving testimony in his impeachment hearings, which increasingly suggests a contest between Super Bowl champions and backyard flag football players, most of whom ran away when they saw who was across the scrimmage line.

The impeachment inquiry, and Trump’s entire presidency, is a complete contradiction to his frequent campaign promise that as president he would “surround myself with only the best and most serious people.”

As time passes, Trump’s ability to attract the best and the brightest diminishes. For many jobs, he can’t get anyone to join his team.

What Exactly Did Guiliani Do On His Overseas Excursions?

It Isn’t At All Clear What the Volatile Former Mayor Has Been Doing for Trump … But He’s Been Doing It a Lot

By Terry H. Schwadron, DCReport Opinion Editor

One thing never really fully explained amid all the dust kicked up by impeachment talk is the increasingly shadowy role being played by Rudy Giuliani.

Oh, we get the idea that he has made himself Donald Trump’s TV bulldog, snarling and scratching at anyone or anything looking like a PR nightmare for this narcissistic president. 

And that he is actually a lawyer with enough skill to have served as a U.S. attorney handling tough cases in the past.

But what exactly has he been doing presenting himself as representing the president and the State Department in Ukraine, lobbying and pressuring Ukrainian officials to look for political dirt on Joe Biden and his son, Hunter?

The would-be suave persuader has proved a constant, volcanic erupter of unproven assertions and emotional outbursts, yelling at interviewers and fellow panelists alike.

In multiple, ragged television appearances, the would-be suave persuader has proved a constant, volcanic erupter of unproven assertions and emotional outbursts, yelling at interviewers and fellow panelists alike. In the end, he simply makes us cringe rather than accept his ever-changing version of Trumpian bad behavior.

Not the way to mark Memorial Day

Pardoning war criminals is a bad way to honor Memorial Day

By Peter Certo for Foreign Policy In Focus

How are you spending Memorial Day? Ordinary people may attend parades, host cookouts, or take the long weekend to visit loved ones.

Donald Trump, on the other hand, may pardon a few war criminals.

The president recently requested the files of several accused and convicted U.S. war criminals, a possible step toward expedited pardons for individuals who’ve done unspeakable things.

There’s SEAL chief Edward Gallagher, who senselessly shot to death a teenage girl and an elderly man in Iraq. Gallagher also brutally stabbed a wounded 15-year-old to death — and then posed for photos with the body, which he texted to friends.

Trump also requested the files of Nicholas Slatten, a Blackwater contractor convicted of shooting dozens of Iraqi civilians in the notorious 2007 Nisour Square massacre, and of Mathew Golsteyn, who confessed to murdering an unarmed Afghan captive U.S. soldiers had released.

Yeah, let’s send 120,000 US troops to the Middle East to “scare” Iran

Bolton is pressing Trump to start Gulf War III

By Jake Johnson, staff writer for Common Dreams

Observers warned the United States is hurtling down the same path that led to the disastrous invasion of Iraq 16 years ago following a report late Monday that President Donald Trump reviewed a plan to send 120,000 ground troops to the Middle East if Iran launches an "attack" on American forces or moves to develop nuclear weapons.

According to the New York Times, the military plan was crafted by national security adviser John Bolton—who has repeatedly expressed support for bombing Iran, including in the pages of the Times—and presented to the president last Thursday by Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan, a former Boeing executive who Trump nominated last week to serve as permanent Pentagon chief.

"The size of the force involved has shocked some who have been briefed on [the plan]," the Times reported, citing more than a half-dozen anonymous national security officials. "The 120,000 troops would approach the size of the American force that invaded Iraq in 2003."

On sale!

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The Unbelievable Trump

For more cartoons from Tom Tomorrow, CLICK HERE.

Bolton, the silver lining

For more cartoons by Ted Rall, CLICK HERE.