If the corporate media had raised a ruckus over the fact that some 50 members of the Electoral College were illegally seated and just one US senator had joined with one member of the House to challenge the certification of the electoral vote, Donald Trump might not be taking the presidential oath of office on Jan. 20.
But no, the corporate media were too engrossed in obsessing over whether Russia had interfered in the 2016 presidential election, still absent any hard proof from the US intelligence agencies that the Russians did it at the instigation of Vladimir Putin. And they are still obsessing over Russia.
Equally as bad, if not worse, not one US senator, Democrat or Republican, would sign on to the required written objections raised by House members.
Steven Rosenfeld reported Jan. 4 in Alternet, “More than 50 Electoral College members who voted for Donald Trump were ineligible to serve as presidential electors because they did not live in the congressional districts they represented or held elective office in states legally barring dual officeholders.
“That stunning finding is among the conclusions of an extensive 1,000-plus page legal briefing prepared by a bipartisan nationwide legal team for members of Congress who are being urged to object to certifying the 2016 Electoral College results on Friday.”
Ryan Clayton of Americans Take Action told Rosenfeld, “Trump’s ascension to the presidency is completely illegitimate. It’s not just Russians hacking our democracy. It’s not just voter suppression at unprecedented levels. It is also [that] there are Republicans illegally casting ballots in the Electoral College, and in a sufficient number that the results of the Electoral College proceedings are illegitimate as well.” It’s not just Russians hacking our democracy. It’s not just voter suppression at unprecedented levels. It is also [that] there are Republicans illegally casting ballots in the Electoral College, and in a sufficient number that the results of the Electoral College proceedings are illegitimate as well.”
Clayton noted, “Republicans like to talk all the time about people voting illegally. We have a list of a bunch of Republicans that allegedly voted illegally in the Electoral College. Pam Bondi is the attorney general of the state of Florida and the Florida Constitution says that you cannot hold two offices. And she holds the office of Attorney General and she holds the office of federal elector in the Electoral College. That is a violation of the law. That is a violation of the Constitution. And the vote that she cast in this election is illegal.”
That’s right, Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi who was the recipient of a $25,000 campaign donation Trump illegally made from his foundation. The same Pam Bondi whom Trump hosted a fundraiser for at Mar-a-Lago, raising $150,000 for her 2014 reelection campaign, five months after she claimed she learned about the Trump University complaints. She never filed a lawsuit. Quid pro quo? Bondi, now also a member of Trump’s transition team, is rumored to being considered for a White House job.
American politicians pay a lot of lip service to the rule of law but the rule of law doesn’t apply to them; it only applies to everyday people. Trump already has adopted Richard Nixon’s “When the president does it, that means it is not illegal.”
Going back to Putin . . . if he truly wanted Trump to win over his archenemy, Hillary Clinton, we have to ask why? Hillary, who won nearly 3 million more votes than Trump, would not have been a bargain but she was certainly preferable to the mentally unbalanced Trump. Or does Putin have a gallows sense of humor to make the US the laughing stock of the world? Perhaps revenge for all the Russia bashing?
In any event, if he is behind what the US intelligence agencies are claiming and members of Congress and the corporate media are buying, he is playing a dangerous game with an uncontrollable, unhinged man, a.k.a the Tweeter-In-Chief.
So far, Putin has been a gentleman in not bringing up how many times Washington has interfered in other countries’ elections, engineered coups and assassinations.
Bev Conover is the editor and publisher of Intrepid Report. Email her at editor@intrepidreport.com.
I saw when Maxine Waters held up her “Challenge” to the Electoral College Votes During the Electoral College Votes Certification and asked, “Is there not one Senator who will sign this paper/this challenge with me? Is there not one Senator who will join me in challenging …. [the election of Donald Trump?]
And with a broken heart I watched how not one damn single Senator got up to join her in the challenge.
And for all his anti-Trump talk, Where O Where was Bernie Sanders?
Didn’t he want power and glory? doesn’t he still want that? It sounds very much like he still does. Well, where was his backbone? He could have gotten up and joined Maxine Water’s Challenge to the Electoral College Votes … But No. Not a one peep from him …
And then on Sunday’s Al Sharpton’s Politics Nation, Sanders says he has not ruled out running again for the Title of the Presidency of the United States. And, while all during the Primaries he registered himself as a Democrat … on Sunday he said he is an Independent from Vermont. He will continue to be an Independent from Vermont and he does not give up that Independent title he has…[until he has to the next election cycle? How convenient!] So If he runs again is he going to call himself a Democrat just because it is convenient?
No.
It was not convenient for him to join Maxine Waters.
I believe it was only an ego as big as Donald Trump’s that kept him running against Hillary when he could have supported her or stop bellyaching after she won the primaries and thrown a more whole hearted support in her favor.
There is so much and so many and to blame for this Donald Trump illegitimate presidency.
I think Sister Joan Chttister’s analysis also throws a lot of light into what happened, when she says: “I’ve considered two possibilities. The first thought that came to mind is that this country’s easy dismissal of liberal arts in education may have finally come home to roost.
“Our colleges, in large part, have become extensions of U.S. business. We teach our students how to make money, how to build corporations, how to compete in the marketplace, how to win in a digital world, and how to “brand” something. Do we require courses on government or the history of ideas anymore? How long has it been since we heard about anyone taking courses on the Great Books as part of the core curriculum? When did we stop wondering which of the great philosophers really told us the most about what it means to be good, to be happy, to be beautiful, to be truth-tellers? How long has it been since we have had a good discussion on the purpose of a university?
“Why is it that the first things to be cut in response to our shrinking education budgets are courses on world history, philosophy, logic, ethics, great literature, music, and the arts? How much time do we spend these days teaching things that concentrate on the development of the human spirit, the definition of the truly human, human being. How often do we ask whether what can be done ought to be done?”
https://www.ncronline.org/blogs/where-i-stand/real-electoral-problem-may-lie-within-us
And Meryl Streep’s words at her Golden Globe acceptance Speech of the Cecile B. DeMille Award on Donald Trump last night are both illuminating and fighting words.
I believe when Trump calls Meryl Streep and others overrated whatever he calls them … he is really showing us his insatiable hunger to admiration and adulation.
Anyone from Putin to even the smallest cockroach in the world (such as Rick Scott of Florida, or Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel) who wants to incur any favors from Trump would only have to praise Trump to get whatever morsel of favor Trump may have to dish out.
Sad. Sad. World.