Tag: Radical Resistance

A House Trump Death Rattle (Maybe)

Shelton Bumgarner

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

I’m reluctant to say we’re in any type of late-stage Watergate situation just yet. Watergate’s conclusion came about because of a very specific set of circumstances that, because of a lack of precedent, we’ve come to believe is a forgone conclusion.

As I’ve written before, this is not 1974 and Trump is not Nixon. Republicans have no shame and crave power for power’s sake. As such, even though every other metric could be against Trump, Republicans could simply deny it all and stand firm. It’s hard for a liberal democracy to have a functioning Constitution when one of its major parties believes you can only impeach a president if they gain from it politically.

I guess what I’m saying is — the entire fate of the United States rests on Trump, well, being Trump. I would go so far as to say at this point it would actually be out of character for Trump not to do something so completely indefensible, so completely and demonstrably beyond the pale of any type of normal human behavior, that Republicans will find themselves at last defending the absolutely indefensible. If we’ve gotten this far into this situation and we’re not thinking that maybe the Deep State might be the good guys, well,oh boy.

In fact, I will go so far as to say we’re looking for the wrong signs. We’re looking for a major Republican to be Barry Goldwater. Nope. The best we can maybe hope for is a surreal version of The Pence Pivot. If Trump gets the whistleblower murdered, or tweets out a dick pic or tweets the n-word to Obama, Republican leaders will simply say they REALLY voted for Pence and why are you asking the question.

Even then, they won’t even hold an impeachment trial in the Senate.

Having said all that, I would like to tell AOC and a few other people floating around that there’s a chance that things are going to get so bad, so surreal that they are going to be given a masterclass on leadership in real time. I watched on 9/11 as then President Bush simply deflated. He ran away. The nation, for a moment, was leaderless. For a few crucial hours, Rudy was our president.

All I’m saying is, if things get as absolutely surreal as they look like they may, history is watching. They say one’s character comes out best in extreme situations. A few of our elected leaders may be given the opportunity to tell us who they really are, for better or worse.

But we’re not quite there yet. Maybe Bill Barr has proof TrumpUkraine is all an evil plot on the part of the Deep State. Again, at this point, Chris Wallace might suggest the “optics” on that one might not be so great for House Trump.

Maybe the Deep State is like the Second Foundation? Maybe they’re protecting the Constitution? We’ll see.

Burn House Trump To The Ground — We Need Radical Resistance In Congress

Let’s Rock.
Shelton Bumgarner

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

I don’t often get this angry over Trump, but the idea that Trump’s going to use the Mueller playbook with the complaint against him is making me pop a gasket.

The House Trump media game plan:

The transcript of Trump’s call is a dud. The network talking heads say the “optics” of the transcript are bad for Democrats. Meanwhile, a heavily redacted complaint is also released. This, too, is seen by Chris Cillizza and his ilk that Nancy Pelosi made a strategic mistake. All the energy for impeachment fizzles. By Friday evening, Trump, realizing he’s escaped yet AGAIN calls up Putin and directly asks him to hack into our election. He’s learned how to cover his tracks better and that, as they say, is that.

I have every reason to believe this is going to work. Why else would they suddenly change strategies so abruptly? Impeachment is a game of retail politics on a massive scale. Once the talking heads of cable news believe the “poor optics” of the House Trump’s limited hangout is gaining traction, then we have Mueller’s testimony to Congress all over again.

All I can assume is House Trump is nervous about how quickly things are moving and they believe if they managed the release of information properly it’ll all go away. That Trump himself is a brazen, lawless moron is none of their concern. Their goal is to get him pardoned AGAIN in the court of public opinion. If they can stumble into about May 2020, Trump is free to do whatever the fuck he wants. He is completely immune politically do any criminal act. He will be totally above the law.

After that, Trump has sex with Ivanka on FOX News while eating a live baby. Senate Republicans will say we should wait until November for the “people to decide” what should happen to Trump.

All I can say is, if we want to keep America a liberal democracy, we’re going to have to act like it. We’re going to have to pressure the Nancy Pelosi even MORE. We’re going to have to demand that Trump follows the law as written and sends the entire, unredacted complaint to Congress. The complaint isn’t supposed to be released to the public, it’s supposed to be send to Congress.

Trump’s admitted an impeachable offense on TV! At a minimum, the House should begin using its “inherent contempt” powers immediately. Like, Wednesday afternoon. You start jailing and fining people in the Trump Administration until someone, somewhere begins to think maybe America is a rule of laws and that the Constitution means something to someone.

Trump thinks HE is at political war, so maybe we should too. Throw a Molotov Cocktail into the workings of Congress. Nothing happens, period, until the Trump Administration stops acting like it’s above the law. I would also suggest you enlist Jon Stewart to help the cause, but that’s just me.

This is serious.

But I guess it’s Chris Cillizza world, we just live in it.

Let’s Talk About The Right’s False Equivalency About Obama’s Hot Mic Diplomacy & #TrumpUkraine

Shelton Bumgarner

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

I predicted this would be among the Right’s talking points a few days ago and it’s come true. First, they say it’s simply “inappropriate” for Trump to extort a foreign power to get dirt on his likely 2020 rival. So, they introduce the idea that Trump’s simply being “naughty.” He didn’t really do anything wrong, you know. He was just “inappropriate.”

Then, once they’ve established a modicum of displeasure with The Dear Leader, they turn around and say, well, you know, Obama did the same thing when it got caught on a hot mic saying he would have “more flexibility” with the Russians after the 2012 elections.

For stupid people let me point out something.

Using your power as president to pressure a foreign power to trump up false charges about your opponent is not just “inappropriate.” That’s a big boy crime.

Simply suggesting that after the election you might have more diplomatic wiggle room on a political level, that’s this thing called diplomacy. I know MAGA hates black people and especially Obama, but if you’re a talking head on FOX News, I thought you were supposed to be “fair and balanced.”

It’s impressive that otherwise well educated and intelligent people would attempt to pull off such a brazen false narrative. As it always the case, MAGA wants to own the moment, damn the consequences. Even when they’re proven wrong by Trump himself’s statements, they’ve moved on to some other way of sucking the little orange weener.

A Very Simple Case For Trump’s Impeachment

Shelton Bumgarner

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

Despite what the esteemed access journalists of The New York Times and The Washington Post may have you believe, Trump is not a diabolical political theorist. He’s not calculating the subtle messaging necessary to convince a housewife just outside of Phillie in a sexless marriage that she should vote for him despite her reservations.

In fact, Trump is simply a very lucky doofus. He’s nothing more than Being There’s Chauncey Gardner if he was on the cusp of losing his mind. There’s no grand strategy other than some basic mindfucks he learned at the feet of Roy Cohen.

A prime example of this is the origins of the TrumpUkraine clusterfuck. If Trump was REALLY such a fucking modern day Machiavelli don’t you think he would have weighed the political pardon the “poor optics” of Bob Mueller’s testimony to Congress gave him? He might have used his SuperMind to lay low and simply coast to an easy re-election. Then, in his second term, he could turn the switch on his sinister second phase.

Is that what he did? Nope. Smarty pants saw his pardon not as an opportunity to lay the groundwork for the much heralded Thousand Year Trump, but as permission to actively pressure a foreign power to collude with him to hurt his likely political rival in 2020. What’s more, doofus did it on a veritable party line. If that’s not insight into numbnut’s true political savvy, I don’t know what is.

And, as such, that’s why he has to be impeached now, damn the political consequences. He’s proven that he’s not only a barely functioning man-child, he’s a willful one at that.

The only reason why Trump’s been so successful to date is a combination of a strong economy, the idiotic disorganization of his opponents and abject lack of shame on the part of Republicans. He owes everything to outside forces beyond his control. Yes, in a sense, one could say he has a native ability to vocalize the rage of the white disenfranchised volk. But even that is grading on a curve. Why else are people hyping Tucker Carlson in 2024? He’s just another hapless racist doofus who’s been on TV.

The Trump threat is existential. If we don’t go down fighting, then Trump is only going to see this as a sign of weakness and up the ante. Trump is so stupid in real terms, that if he felt like he might actually be not only impeached, but convicted, he might be willing to call up Little Rocket Man and ask him to start a war in an effort to wag the dog.

I wish I was joking, but I’m Not.

That such a suggestion isn’t on the face of it too outrageous to even consider is enough to demand impeachment immediately.

A Game Plan For Radical Resistance To End The Trump Presidency Sooner Rather Than Later

Shelton Bumgarner

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

No one listens to me. No one. Absolutely no one. But one thing I am good at, at least I like to think I’m good at, is strategic thinking. I’ve mentioned the concept of Radical Resistance before and it was promptly ignored. But I have a bit of time on my hands and so here we go. Here is how I would push Donald J. Trump out of office sooner rather than later.

Pick A Leader
I propose Jon Stewart. He’s the perfect guy to serve as the pointman for what happens over the next few days. And this plan would have to take place ASAP. If you wait until the politics are right, Trump will be comfortably in the middle of his second term. Anyway, someone ring Jon Stewart up and ask him to save the Republic. The hardest part might be getting him on Twitter.

A United Message
Right now, Democratic candidates for president are in different universe. There’s a brief window of opportunity. If just a few days all the Democrat candidates for president united against the common foe of Trump in a demonstrative fashion, then there’s a chance they might be able to break through the white noise of modern life to get people to sit up and take notice. We’re in extraordinary times and extraordinary measures are needed. Rallying around someone like Jon Stewart would be a good way to put aside the native intercen conflict of the upcoming primary season. The key point of this share message would be: as a matter of principle, Trump has to go. Full stop. Screw the six dimensional chess. It’s time to act.

The point of Radical Resistance would be to focus the obvious public outrage over TrumpUkraine to a very specific point — building public support to impeach Trump even if he tries to slow walk release of the complaint against him. The law is clear — the DNI has to turn over the complaint. The administration is trying a bullshit interpretation of the law to weasel out of ever releasing the complaint. If Democrats could impress upon the public how urgent this crisis is, maybe we might get one of those moments like we had during the kids-in-cages crisis. For a day or so, the entire country stood still as everyone freaked out about that situation. Now, to be clear, Trump is never going to release the complaint, just like he will never release his taxes. But if you could rile people up enough, then that refusal to release the complaint would, in itself, be an impeachable offence. (The slow walk of its release is all part of the Stormy Daniels playbook that TrumpWorld is so fond of.)

Weaponise The Inteligenta
While generally getting writers to do anything collectively is like herding cats, if you could kind of gently point the in the same direction with their columns, you might have a fighting chance to bend the arc of history towards justice.

It’s clear that we’ve reached a crucial moment in our nation’s history. This is an existential moment. It’s a moment when the ultimate judge of our success or failure will be history. Do we want to be remembered as not being willing to defend an attack on the Constitution by a TV Game Show host elected president with the aid and comfort of a foreign power, or do we want to stand our ground, damn the consequences?

I honestly don’t think this will happen, though. The DNI hearing on Thursday will be a dud, the energy for impeachment will fade and MAGA will crow about yet another “lie” on the part of the “lamestream media” has been exposed.

Anyway, I guess it was worth a shot to articulate a vision.

An Open Letter To Jon Stewart

Shelton Bumgarner

Dear Jon Stewart:

We all know that you’re enjoying the quiet life petting rescue goats, but your nation needs you. You are uniquely qualified to slice the boil of political paralysis the country is currently suffering as a result of the TrumpUkraine scandal.

When you get angry, things happen, things change. You are passionate and articulate and if you were to step forward to lead the Resistance in a final push to impeach Trump, then maybe it might happen. The only reason for this plea is right now we’re a would-be revolution without a leader. All the elements are there. We just need someone to strike the match.

You would have to step forward as a political figure, however. You would have to maybe even join Twitter. As it stands, no one is prepared to actually act against Trump in any meaningful way. Maybe if you spoke up clearly and forcefully, the now locked gears of the House might finally begin to move.

This is probably the most severe political crisis in the United States since the latter stages of Watergate. Unfortunately, this is not 1974 and Trump’s not Nixon. You definitely would have to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.

Only you, I believe, would be able to coordinate the type of attack needed on House Trump. For the time being, Democrats running for president would need to unite in one common call — Trump has got to go. The political energy is now there for that to happen, but there’s no one to direct it.

Anyway, maybe you’re not interested. But I would like to note that Will Rodgers was active in Depression Era Democratic politics before his untimely death. But whatever decision you made, you’d have to make it soon, like now. We have a limited amount of time before this becomes just another Trump scandal in the eyes of the public and the 2020 presidential silly season kicks in in full force.

Please. You have a voice.

Use it.

Yours,

Shelton Bumgarner

Trump’s Stormy Daniels ‘Playbook’ & How To Combat It (Sorta)

Shelton Bumgarner

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

I’m not suggesting I have any type of panacea when to Trump’s skullduggery, but I do have some observations about how he’s going to handle the Ukraine whistleblower situation.

Ok, first off, this weekend is critical. If nothing new happens between now and, say, Sunday afternoon, then Trump’s in the clear as best I can tell. He then does the following things:

Wrap the entire complain against him in Executive Privilege. At the same time he sends Rudy out every once in a while to babble manically about what’s going on. Rudy will occasionally “slip up” and tell the truth. Everyone laughs at this, but the facts of what happen will be out there. We spend months and months in the courts trying to get the complaint. In the meantime, Trump attacks the credibility of the whistleblower on Twitter day after day.

By the time the case gets to the Supreme Court, even if the complaint is released and we know what happend, the average person will have moved on. They won’t quite know what happened. And, besides, the case has lost its sexiness. We all know what happened, so what.

And given that the 2020 campaign will be in full swing, people will just assume Trump will “self-impeach.” When he doesn’t we all realize maybe we should have done something about Trump before. But by that point it will be too late.

We will have moved on to something else. Trump “jokes” about never leaving office. And then he never does. Lulz!

And, let me note, this is if things go the traditional route. If this particular case gets any existential momentum, Trump’s probably going to get the whistleblower murdered through one of his “jokes.”

How do you combat that? It’s pretty tough. In fact, really, the conditions are there for Trump to use the whole thing to his advantage because everytime it comes up, he’ll rant about Joe Biden’s son. So, ultimately, from a branding point of view, most people will be more concerned about THAT and not what Trump did. Trump gets what he wants:

Biden, like Hillary Clinton in 2016, will have an air of corruption about him. Trump can start a war if need be to wag the dog. He can work actively with the Russians to hack the election. (I mean, he’s faced no consequences to date, what’s to stop him?) And, really, he always has the ability to attack individual Electors post-election if he loses in any way.

If I was a Democratic strategist, I would suggest Radical Resistance. If you want to save America, you’re going to have to, on an ideological level, radicalize. Trump plays dirty, you play dirty. Shut the government down until you get the complaint. Throw money and resources at impeachment.

But the clock is ticking. Speed is of an essence. If the impeachment hearings don’t start by the end of September, what’s the point. Once October rolls around, people are thinking about the holidays. You won’t really be able to start up again until just about the same time the first 2020 primaries start. And by that point the Stormy Daniels Playbook will have worked.

The shock of the initial story will have long faded. People won’t care. “Everyone does it, right?” they’ll say. “And, besides, Joe Biden colluded with the Ukrainians for the benefit of his son, right? Or something like that. I can’t remember. “

If we’re honest with ourselves Radical Resistance’s moment is long past. There’s just not the political will on the part of House Democrats to play dirty. They’re pretty much complicit in Trump’s tyranny. I wish I had more answers, but I don’t.

The Grift That Keeps On Grifting

Shelton Bumgarner

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

It’s darkly surreal how oblivious Democrats are to what’s going on with Trump and MAGA. The whole point of MAGA is ending traditional liberal democracy in the United States. Everything else is either a fig leaf or a lie. They want us to be an autocratic managed democracy like Russia. We already kinda are — the pot is boiling if you will — but it’s going to take a little bit longer (and maybe a war?) for the final pieces to fall into place.

Nothing matters to MAGA but power. Power, money, racism, misogyny and turning America into a theocratic state are such absolute endgames to MAGA that if they don’t get it now, they’ll get it later. They have no shame. The most disturbing part of it all is Trump is merely a political avatar. If something happens to him politically, there half a dozen clones ready to take his place.

That’s why I find all the bitching and moaning on Twitter by the so-called “Resistance” rather comical. It doesn’t take much to write a tweet. It makes you wonder what people will do when ICE starts rounding people up en mass and putting them in the camps currently used for undocumented immigrants. I suspect most people will simply shrug and go along. They have families to love and mortgages to pay, after all.

What’s worse, because of the absolute division between Red States and Blue States, even if Blue States tried to do something about this dystopia, all Trump — or a successor — has to do is abolish Blue State governments for insurrection and establish military districts. Congress would be purged of its Democratic members and that would be that for the duration.

I’m a man of peace and a man of ideas. So, really, I’m simply going to work on my novel and hope for the best. The novel gives me some sense of agency in an otherwise hopeless situation. I hate guns with all my heart. If you still think I’m some sort of deranged lunatic after writing that, then I guess the dystopia really is here. ‘

The great irony is, of course, that given that grift is at the center of MAGA, it wouldn’t be too difficult for me to pretend to be MAGA. I could probably become quite successful. I’d have lots of friends in real life and generally my life would be much, much better in a lot of ways. But fuck that. I’m not going to deny who I am or the truth.

I just wish people would take the real MAGA endgame vision a bit more seriously.

V-Log: Why The Electoral College Will Bring America Down In The End (Or At Least Bring About An ‘Elected’ Dictatorship)

Some thoughts.

The Mueller Investigation Ends & I Smell A Rat

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

I smell a rat.

Unless some datapoint pops up between now and when we see some cleaned up version of The Mueller Report, I’m going to have some suspicions as to why it was wrapped up when it was.

Existing Datapoints:

— Bill Barr and Bob Mueller are close friends (apparently).
— Trump is now in a position to handily win re-election
— Don Jr. is now in a position to handily become president.
— The report comes out just as the 2020 election cycle heats up

So, all I’m saying is someone — AOC maybe? — needs to ask Bob Mueller and Bill Barr some very, very pointed questions.

Maybe the report itself will clear this all up and put to bed my concern.

Or not.