​Donald Trump’s countless times’ siding with Russia and Vladimir Putin against the United States during his four-year demolition of the presidency raises the question of where his loyalty lies. Even in his waning, democracy-decimating days in office, he continues to line up with Russia. His latest kowtow to the Kremlin: his denial of the unanimous conclusion of U.S. intelligence agencies, endorsed by his own Secretary of State and Attorney General, that Russia is behind the most intrusive, successful and dangerous hack ever of the U.S. government’s computer systems. Instead, he lays the blame on China absent any evidence whatsoever.
 
This follows his silence when Russian opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, was recently poisoned during an attempted murder by Putin’s thugs, and before that by his silent assent to Russia putting bounties on the heads of American troops fighting in Afghanistan.
 
These disturbing incidents only scratch the surface of Trump’s bizarre enthusiasm for Russian interests over those of his own country. He also encouraged and welcomed Russia’s 2016 assistance to his election campaign. He sided with Putin’s denial of U.S. election interference over the unanimous conclusion of U.S. intelligence agencies. He consistently undermined NATO, Putin’s highest foreign policy priority. He revealed classified information to Russia’s ambassador and foreign minister in an Oval Office meeting. He has been a super-spreader of Russian disinformation, the most egregious example being the fiction that Ukraine, not Russia, interfered with the 2016 election. In the eyes of our president, Vladimir Putin can do no wrong.
 
It needs to be asked whether Trump’s love affair with the Kremlin is mere autocrat-envy, or is there a more sinister explanation? The evidence points to the Russians having some information about him that he is desperate to keep hidden.
 
It’s likely not something sexual. We have seen time and again that Trump has no shame when it comes to partying with and paying off porn stars and centerfolds or cavorting with the late Jeffrey Epstein’s stable of underage Lolitas, not to mention dissing and dismissing the two dozen women who claim he sexually harassed them or worse.
 
More likely, it has to do with Trump’s nefarious business activities. Within that context, there is no evidence that Trump’s behavior as eager Putin doormat and chief bootlicker is connected to any Moscow business deals. Trump tried and failed three times (1983, 1987 and 1996) to conclude Russian real estate deals. Money laundering for Kremlin criminals, however, is another matter.
 
Money laundering is something for which Trump has already been outed and slapped on the wrist, but its extent may go much farther than civil punishment and open him up to serious criminal liability as well.
 
On March 6, 2015, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) imposed a $10 million civil penalty against the bankrupt Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort for willful and repeated violations of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) for its lax anti-money laundering controls. Trump’s Atlantic City casino admitted to several BSA violations. FinCEN said that the Trump Taj Mahal “has a long history of prior, repeated BSA violations cited by examiners dating back to 2003.” Earlier, FinCEN assessed a $477,700 civil money penalty against the casino for currency transaction reporting violations.
 
Trump Taj Mahal admitted that it failed to: report suspicious transactions, file required currency transaction reports, and keep appropriate records. The fine resulted from IRS and Justice Department investigations.
 
A large number of the alleged casino money launderers were Russians. The Taj Mahal was a magnet for Russian money, including Russian mafia money, says Seth Hettena, an investigative journalist and author of Trump/Russia: A Definitive History.
 
But this is only one aspect of Trump’s money laundering on behalf of Russians. According to the McClatchy newspapers, people connected to Russia or former Soviet republics paid $109 million in cash for 86 Trump-branded properties, with many of them using shell companies. Some buyers appeared to spend above market value for their properties, a classic money laundering practice. All-cash real estate deals are also a money-laundering red flag. Trump also sold a $41 million Palm Beach estate to a Russian oligarch and close Putin associate for $95 million, much higher than its market value, only four years after buying it. The transaction’s timing came only months after Trump Entertainment Resorts filed for bankruptcy and when Trump was having trouble finding any banks that would lend to him.
 
Someday we will probably find out just what it was that caused Trump to spend four years advocating for a U.S. adversary intent on subverting our democracy. That could reveal how and why Trump became a Russian asset.
 
Dick Hermann
December 28, 2020

​Fascism-- a political philosophy, movement, or regime that exalts nation and often race…and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader,…and forcible suppression of opposition.
--Merriam-Webster Dictionary
 
With the exception of blips like the Bull Moose (1912) and Reform Party (1992) insurgencies, American democracy has enjoyed stable two-party competition for most of its history. For the past 164 years, that meant Democrats and Republicans, both of which respected timeless norms such as democracy, the rule of law, and the Constitution.
 
No more. This two-party constancy has now been shattered, upended by the divide in the former Republican Party, now split into what little remains of traditional conservative Republicanism and the much larger Trump cult that has veered off into unrepentant autocratic Fascism.
 
With Trump at least partially losing his dominance of the news cycle and some diminution of his relevance to the public discourse, it is possible that a handful of his cowardly congressional disciples will rediscover their spines and once again walk and talk like the pre-Trump GOP, concerned about deficits and debt, the size of government, limits on executive power and the nefarious activities of traditional enemies like Russia. The bolder among them may even experience an epiphany and resume working across the aisle with their Democratic colleagues to actually get things done.
 
I don’t expect that a return to democratic norms will be embraced by a majority of what we used to label “Republicans.” I suspect that the bulk of its congressional membership will continue to adhere to and spout the Trump lines and lies, fearful of being “primaried” in future years by even more committed Trump toadies, or of being tweeted against by Trump. American soldiers risk their lives to defend us in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria while crypto-Republicans are terrified of a tweet!
 
We can expect this Fascist Party faithful to continue to obstruct everything President Biden tries to do. They will do everything in their power to make life difficult for him and thus for American progress. As evidence of that, we can point to the large majority of purportedly House Republicans (126 out of 196) who signed onto the disgraceful amicus brief submitted in support of the outrageous Texas attempt to overturn the results of the presidential election. Fortunately, the U.S. Supreme Court swatted away that seditious assault on our democracy and sacred rule of law with appropriate dripping contempt.
 
The Trump Fascist Party (“TFP”) in Congress will disrupt, disinform, deny and deflect as vigorously as their champion did during his destructive four years at their helm. You can also expect that their state legislative colleagues will do all they can to suppress the vote so that, although a dwindling minority, they can continue to hold power and usurp the will of the majority. They are already busily at work doing that in many states where they control the legislative branches—making it more difficult to vote by mail; restricting early voting; and adapting other Jim Crow era tactics to the present circumstances.
 
While they will dishonestly cling to the Republican label as long as they can in order to camouflage their Fascist inclinations, make no mistake. They are Fascist to the bone.
 
The media owes it to the public to daily remind its readers, viewers and listeners that these are dangerous Fascists out to destroy the America that has served us so well for two-and-a-half centuries. Then, in 2022, we must begin the process of returning them to civilian life.
 
Dick Hermann
December 18, 2020

​“Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.”
--Lord Krishna from the Bhagavad-Gita
 
This famous quotation came to worldwide attention after it was uttered by J. Robert Oppenheimer, scientific director of the Manhattan Project, in the early morning of July 16, 1945 upon witnessing the detonation of Trinity, the world’s first atomic bomb, in New Mexico’s high desert. His resort to this Hindu declaration was a warning to humanity about the implications of what he and his 2,000 physicists working on the project had unleashed.
 
These words seem particularly appropriate again today when contemplating our current world destroyer as he annihilates every remaining norm he has not already shattered in his four years of behaving like a presidential wrecking ball. His attempt to destroy American democracy is every bit as world-altering and consequential as the advent of the nuclear age. His attempted coup d’état may not succeed in keeping him in office, but it may upend what we have come to realize is the fragile democratic basis of our government.
 
The alternate universe in which Trump’s base resides is unfortunately impervious to facts. This is a huge problem for the incoming Biden administration and for the country’s future, given the base’s delusional belief that Biden is an illegitimate president. I don’t know how or if this Big Lie can be surmounted, but I am convinced that the ability to turn this country around and bring it back to a semblance of normalcy depends upon Biden being able to do just that.
 
If the economy can bounce back strongly, I don’t think it will be necessary to convince all 74 million Trump voters that facts matter and that President Biden was duly elected. It might be possible to persuade a substantial cohort of them who currently persist in occupying a dream world divorced from reality, notwithstanding that their dreamscape will be daily fueled by the lunatic fringe media intent on continually feeding their delusions.
 
A robust economy hinges on the execution of four transformative policies that will help them in tangible ways positively affecting their pocketbooks, all four of which were beyond Trump’s attention span or capabilities: (1) Managing the pandemic responsibly and moving past it toward economic restoration. (2) Successfully tackling the opioid epidemic. (3) Creating good paying jobs in exurban and rural areas through extensive infrastructure and retraining initiatives. (4) Focusing on the job-generation that intelligent climate change policies can effect. In short, demonstrating that they are no longer being left behind and will clearly be better off than they were during Trump’s destructive, do-nothing tenure.
 
A pocketful of cash would be a powerful antidote to fear, anger, resentment and fantasy.
 
Dick Hermann
December 11, 2020

“Just an old sweet song
Keeps Georgia on my mind.”
--Hoagy Charmichael & Stuart Gorrell
 
The second most important election of the last four years will take place on January 5th in Georgia, the state that provided the most surprising result on November 3rd when it went Democratic for the first time in a generation.
 
There are two formidable Democratic Senate candidates, Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff. Warnock, the head pastor at Atlanta’s iconic Ebenezer Baptist Church, Martin Luther King, Jr.’s pulpit, is pitted against Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler. Ossoff, a 33-year old entrepreneur, is up against Republican Incumbent David Perdue.
 
Here’s what Loeffler and Purdue have in common:

1. Both are credibly alleged to have used inside information to profit from the Covid-19 pandemic.
2. Both are outspoken racists. At an October rally, Perdue mockingly mispronounced Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris’s first name despite having served with her in the Senate for the last four years. His campaign also put out a doctored photograph of Ossoff, who is Jewish, altering the size of his nose, a classic Nazi trope. Both despicable outrages were naked appeals to the racist and anti-Semitic components of the Trump base. Loeffler, who owns the Women’s National Basketball Association’s Atlanta Dream, criticized her team for wearing uniforms that said “Black Lives Matter” in line with all the other WNBA teams. Her own players are actively working against her re-election.
3. Both supported Trump’s most disgraceful policies—ripping babies from their mother’s arms and putting them in cages; attempting to take away healthcare from 23 million Americans; remaining silent whenever Trump encourages white supremacists and QAnon conspiracy theories about Democrats eating children and similar nonsense.
4. Both want to terminate the Affordable Care Act in the middle of an out-of-control pandemic and relieve insurers from the Act’s prohibition against denying insurance on the basis of pre-existing conditions.
5. Both are avid proponents of the Jim Crow voter suppression tactics that cropped up in Georgia and around the country during the presidential election: closing down voting locations in minority areas; putting minority voters through ringers if they wanted to cast ballots; etc.
6. Both demanded the resignation of fellow Republican, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, in spite of his running a clean and fair election that Joe Biden won in the state that was the poster child for suppressing the vote in 2018. They want to replace him with someone who will return Georgia to the good old days of rampant voter suppression and stolen GOP victories.
7. Both are spineless followers of Mitch McConnell’s blanket obstructionism that refuses to allow the Senate to get anything constructive done for the American people.
8. Both spew the Trump line about fraud and rigged elections absent any evidence, and lie about Ossoff and Warnock, both centrists, being socialists.
9. Both are complicit in Trump’s petulant attempts to trash democracy and bring down the nation in revenge for his electoral loss; his allowing Covid-19 to run rampant, spreading disease, hospitalizations  and deaths at record rates; and his decimation of our national security leadership that puts the nation at risk.
10. Both support the president’s efforts at impeding the Biden presidency by issuing a barrage of executive orders and regulations designed to make life difficult for the incoming administration. These two sorry excuses for Senators have no intention of working across the aisle.

 
In sum, these two Senate mediocrities are a terrible reflection on their state and the nation. If this despicable duo wins, Mitch McConnell will continue to control the Senate and roadblock everything the Biden administration wants to do to move the country forward out of the pandemic and the chaos and catastrophes of the Trump Era and back to a strong economy. Georgia surely can do better.
 
Ossoff and Warnock, in contrast, are both ethically grounded and have achieved success through hard work. They have the best interests of Georgians and the country in their hearts and minds. They both have records of good behavior, decency, humanity and empathy, in stark contrast to their sleazy opponents. Character counts.
 
Dick Hermann
December 4, 2020