The Skeeter Daddle Diaries

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‘Don’t Throw Me In that Briar Patch’
Br’er Rabbit to Br’er Fox

You gotta pity the poor Democrats. The Mueller Report was replete with impeachable offenses and Mueller himself made it clear the ball was now in their court. His job was to investigate, provide facts, serve up indictments, refer to other judicial branches those issues outside his purview but crimes nevertheless. A sitting President, not his job to make the call. What he said was he could not, NOT, offer exoneration on the issue of Obstruction of Justice. That job would fall to the Congress using the powers of impeachment.

Congress, of course, has all the courage of the lion in the Wizard of Oz as it chews on its tail in trepidation. The GOP, as always, is willing to ignore just about anything short of murder to defend their new leader, the guy who has changed the Grand Old Party into the Greedy Obnoxious Partisans with scarcely a whimper from the boys in the club. The Democrats believe what the Republicans are threatening them with: that an impeachment will backfire on them in the 2020 elections. They think it might be better to let that go and fight for a replacement to the Boy King next cycle.

They could be right, of course, and expediency could trump justice here. But the argument against leaning into impeaching a president so utterly lacking in decency or morals is that the case is comparable to Clinton’s, who was impeached, but not convicted in the Senate. The Senate now has made it crystal clear they have no interest in Trump’s malfeasance so long as they can use him for their own goals. Profiles in Courage, not so much. Clinton’s impeachment was seen, ultimately, as partisan over-reach. He said under oath he did not have sex with that woman and most people could understand, if not condone, lying about sexual improprieties.

Trump, on the other hand, refused to testify for Mueller. We all know he lies constantly, possibly doesn’t even know the difference between what is true and what isn’t. We know he and his advisors met multiple times with the Russians, even asked them to find Hillary’s emails. We know why he fired Comey. We know why he asked his attorney to write a letter denying he had asked for Mueller to be fired. We know plenty. We know enough that if Trump were not President, he more than likely would be indicted for obstruction of justice. He may not have conspired with the Russians, but he certainly colluded. Collusion is not a crime. Conspiracy is and it requires coordination between the two parties. Trump mostly wanted a Tower in Moscow. The boob never dreamed he might actually win the election. The goal was that Tower. The rest was prototypically real estate shenanigans.

Mueller will be testifying in a few weeks but nothing much will change. Barr did his utmost to muddy the water. The swamp is growing suburbs out there in DC. And the real victim is government once again. Something stinks in America. Something is rotting. We all know what it is, we just can’t seem to do anything about it. Which brings us to the 2020 election. You won’t be hearing many Democratic candidates leading chants to Lock Him Up, Lock Him Up! We just passed that milestone and now we’re moving into the Next Chapter, just get rid of this angry little Fuhrer and let us put him behind us where historians can dice his legacy into a nasty puree of corruption and greed, small mindedness and self-serving illegitimacy. Trump will get his tower all right, one with no windows and his name in black letters. He will go down in the annals of American History as the worst of the bottom feeders. If there was truly any justice, we would blot his name from every edifice and every consciousness. We would completely and forever forget this sad chapter as, hopefully, a temporary madness.

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Now that we can finally put the Mueller Report behind us, proof positive that Trump was right, this was all a Witch Hunt, nothing to see here, no collusion, no obstruction of justice, just Total Exoneration, maybe we can return to more important matters of state. Benghazi, for one. And the Clinton Foundation, #2. And while we’re at it, how about another look at Whitewater?

Attorney General Barr, a paragon of impartiality, pretty much wrapped up this waste of money and time. The poor guy, he said, referring to his boss, was under siege by rabid opponents and of course he felt the need to protect himself and by doing so, his country. That’s why he ousted Comey, why he ordered Mueller fired, why he berated Sessions, nothing to see there but a man protecting his good name. Trump. If ever there was a name meant to be writ large in gold letters, Trump is the name, the brand, the President of the United States.

My English major background no doubt has ruined my capability of reading the report correctly. I could have sworn it was clear that Mueller had no mandate to indict a sitting president, simply make recommendations to Congress which does have the power and the responsibility to investigate those obvious 10 examples of obstruction of justice. Something there between the lines, apparently to the Republican side of the aisle, that I completely missed. Even the part where Donald is quoted, upon hearing Mueller has been given the investigation, that there goes his presidency, he’s fucked. Or, as my news feeds keep quoting, ‘F***d’, so maybe it meant Freed. Or Fake Newsed. See, I jump to conclusions.

Like the one I kept asking myself: what about the Russian interference in the election? Barely before the ink had dried on the redactions on the report, I heard Republicans blaming Obama for that. His watch. His f***k up. Sure he went to McConnell and asked for bipartisan support before stepping into a hot election, didn’t want to seem prejudiced, and McConnell, always the good patriot, turned him down flat. Well, see, I jumped to conclusions again.

So it’s time to put all this behind us, I guess. Nothing incriminating in that report. But hey, where are those deleted emails of Hillary’s??? Something in those, I bet. Something worth investigating. Attorney General Barr, hopefully, will jump on that now that this dust has finally cleared….

And Congress, well, I kind of assumed they might start checking into Russian interference with our elections. Course, now we might as well cancel those. We got the right man in office for these dangerous times… No point pretending anymore we live in some kind of democracy. Once again, jumped to conclusions.

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It’s time, apparently, to move the Statue of Liberty to Alcatraz and set up a new Ellis Island on our western shores in the San Francisco harbor. Actually, we won’t be needing an Ellis Island if the President gets his way. A week ago he announced the U.S. was full up, no more room, put up the NO TRESPASSING sign, build the walls, send out a tweet we don’t need no stinking immigrants, at least not those of color. But … hold the presses! This week he’s floating a brand new idea (surprised?) to put all those caravans of rapists and drug dealers and con artists congregated at our southern border and ship them by bus to those liberal bastions of anti-Americanism, the Sanctuary Cities.

Serve em right, these mouthy do-gooders who complain about the Wall and about ICE and about separating kids from parents. Show em who’s boss. See what they say then? Sure, they claim they’d welcome these immigrants, put them to work shoring up their economies, make them hard-working citizens. Oh right, the Prez sez. Okay, bring it on!

Well, sir, I say do it! Take the pressure off those border towns that are being overwhelmed by amnesty seekers with court backlogs extending past the next election cycle. But then you have to shut up about no more room. You have to acknowledge that you never had an immigration policy beyond simply shutting the gate. You have to admit you really don’t mind an open border so long as these migrants go to blue states. Immigration was just red meat, wasn’t it, for the folks who need to blame someone for what went wrong in rural America as we move into a digital future?

Just do it, Mr. Mouth! Send these folks to San Francisco, New York, Philadelphia and Seattle. In a week they can go pretty much wherever they want. Maybe get a name or two, height, weight, date of birth, then adios, amigos! With some luck they’ll spread into the onion fields of Georgia, the cherry orchards of New York, the construction sites of every state in the Union, the garment shops of L.A. Nothing much will change but at least, at the very least, we can look forward to a different topic than the Wall. Might be a good change of pace to go back to Benghazi or the Witch Hunt. A breath of fresh air, maybe not, but at least some consistency. Insanity gets ever so tiresome.

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Just about when I finished our federal taxes … for the third time … I come across an article listing 60 large corporations that pay no tax whatsoever. Maybe you remember the whining and moaning awhile back that American corporations pay too much compared to other countries’ taxes. Maybe you even believed it. If so, all I can say is that your taxes are simple: put down what you earned, take your standard deduction, sign the form and send a check or wait for a refund. You probably figure corporations do the same thing. Put down their earnings, deduct their cost of doing bizness, that’s the profit, divide by 40% or whatever it used to be and lick their wounds and their stamp.

Tax laws are complicated. There are more loopholes in there than I have mice in my shack. If you ever wondered what lobbyists do to earn their salaries, spend a few hours looking through the IRS list of forms. There are quite a few. If you have a few days, scroll through a couple of them, maybe try to follow the worktables, see how they work. I guarantee you need to be a pretty good accountant. And if you’re a corporate accountant, I guarantee you’ll take every deduction you’re allowed plus plenty that are, well, arguable. Since audits are pretty much a thing of the past, you won’t have to make an argument, just breathe easy. And if in the end you don’t have to pay taxes, well, as a taxpayer who does, I’m just glad we aren’t sending these overtaxed corporations refund checks for all their bother.

Oh, wait, maybe we are. Allowances for next year’s taxes, carry-overs, tax exemptions for simply moving to our town, the list is long and depressing. Sure wouldn’t want them to feel disadvantaged, I know, but there is something inherently wrong with a company like Amazon paying zero taxes, then wrangling concessions from their new headquarter’s location, all the while using predatory tactics on their competition. The average of all corporations in 2018 for tax on their profits was, get ready, 7%. No wonder the corporations are crying bloody murder. 7%. Yeow, owww. Little doubt there why wages aren’t going up when these overtaxed companies can barely stay afloat under such fiscal onslaught. Over regulated, over taxed, overseas and over the rainbow. Why should I complain if I pay more than them? Just helping out the economy. So what if Amazon, Delta, Chevron, Netflix, Duke Energy, Honeywell, Occidental Petroleum, John Deere, General Motors and about 50 more large firms couldn’t chip in a dime? Little bizzy making profits for their shareholders, hey. Me, on the other hand, not too many shareholders in my company.

So once again, another fiscal year, another check to the IRS that pays my fair share of schools, fire and police, roads, welfare, the military, infrastructure, border walls, national forests and parks, all those things government does that make my life easier and richer. Corporations? Not so much. Good citizens? I don’t think so. The right to give money to political action committees just like the rest of us humans? You tell me….

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