WS Chronicle

By Dr. Tom H. Hastings

Yeah, Donald Trump lies constantly – several proven each day. However, he is the gatekeeper to grifting, as may be seen by not only his behavior to personally enrich himself at the direct expense of the honest working taxpaying Americans, but by his squalid cast of appointees.

Some are in prison now.

Some face sentencing, having been convicted of crimes of corruption.

Some are under criminal investigation.

The entire eight years of the Obama administration was scandal-free. That seemed like what normal should be.

Now, a fresh hell opens wide daily from the Trump White House. Who can keep up?

*Hush money to sex workers during Trump’s campaign put Trump’s lawyer in prison.

*Trump doubles down on his Sharpie lies and gets billionaire Secretary of Labor Wilber Ross to threaten to fire NOAA officials unless they betrayed science and backed Trump’s lies.

*Judges are finding against Trump daily, one of the latest is that his family foundation is a fraud, and it’s not only shut down by judicial ruling, but is ordered to pay a $2 million fine for lawlessly misappropriating funds for personal use.

*Attempting to bribe a foreign leader into helping portray a Trump political opponent – Joe Biden – as somehow corrupt. Hence, Article One of his impeachment.

*Refusing to allow anyone with firsthand knowledge of Trump’s practices to testify to Congress under oath, even when subpoenaed. Unprecedented in U.S. history.

*Trump University – the scheme to appeal to the worst in our get-rich-quick nature – was termed such a scam that a federal court approved a $25 million settlement with students who said that they were bilked out of many thousands of dollars for worthless courses.

*Russia worked on Trump’s behalf during the 2016 election, as thoroughly documented in the Mueller Report. Trump has worked on Russia’s behalf ever since, with his enormous numbers of Putin panderings, from advocating lifting sanctions imposed correctly by Obama after Russia invaded and seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, to professing he believed Putin and not U.S. intelligence services about all this, to advocating that Russia be invited to join the G-7, to yanking U.S. troops away from the region in Syria that allowed the Turkish troops to slaughter Kurds (thus helping Putin woo Turkey away from NATO), to threatening to jerk the U.S. out of NATO, and on and on. That bromance is patently anti-U.S., anti-human rights, and pro-autocracy.

This is the tip of the Trumpberg that has crashed into and is sinking the U.S. ship of state. There are so many more ready-for-slime-time scandals churning out on a constant basis that it’s spirit-numbing to face them, bringing to mind the old Lily Tomlin wit, “I try to be cynical, but I can’t keep up.”

Congratulations, Trump, our most fraudulent, corrupt occupant of the White House ever. In the race to the bottom, you win. We are one mucked-up nation, thanks to you and anyone who supports your crime wave.

Dr. Tom H. Hastings is PeaceVoice director and on occasion an expert witness for the defense in court.