REPUBLICANS HOLD SECOND DEBATE, IN BACKDROP OF CORRUPTION, LABOR UNREST AND IMPENDING GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN

by Vijaya Chandrasoma

The second Republican debate, hosted by the Fox News Network and Univision, was held on Wednesday, September 27 at the Ronald Reagan Library, Simi Valley California,The elephant was not in the room. Instead of participating in the debate, Trump visited Detroit to speak to non-union autoworkers on Wednesday, having been rebuffed by the striking Auto Union Workers (AUW) union members.

Trump’s absence was expected to give one of these candidates the opportunity of a breakout moment, like the one Nikki Haley had at the first debate. There was no such moment in this debate. It was more of a side show, where the candidates, instead of attacking Trump, diminished themselves by attacking each other. Unless the third debate is reduced to two or three viable candidates, perhaps DeSantis and Haley, Trump is likely to win the 2024 Republican nomination by default.

Many of these candidates seem to have already accepted the inevitability of Donald Trump being the 2024 Republican nominee, and may be vying for the vice-presidency. Although DeSantis did have a moment, when he denounced Trump, saying “Donald Trump is missing in action. He should be on this stage tonight. He owes it to you to defend his record where they added $7.8 trillion to the debt. That set the stage for the inflation we have today”.

Chris Christie, who has been Trump’s greatest critic, also described Trump as “Donald Duck”, who is not participating in the debates “because he cannot defend his criminal record during and after his presidency”. Nikki Haley appeared to be the only adult in the room, and unloaded her pent-up frustration against upstart Vivek Ramaswamy, when she said, “Honestly, every time I hear you, I feel a little dumber”. Ramaswamy got bogged down with his ties to the Chinese government, and his adoration of Donald Trump was pathetic. The contributions of Pence, Scott and Burgum were largely without import or substance.

Of course, Trump’s campaign may implode any time before November 2024, by constitutional disqualification, conviction/imprisonment, impending dementia or the moderate Republican voters’ overdue realization of his diabolical ignorance. In which case, the Republicans will be left with one of these candidates as their nominee, who are all below 15% in national polls, at least 40% behind Trump. In fact, it is rumored that alarmed Republicans are looking for a more credible candidate; the name of Governors of Virginia, Glenn Youngkin and Chris Sununu of New Hampshire are under serious consideration.

CORRUPTION IN US CONGRESS

U.S, Attorney, Damian Williams, said: “As the grand jury charged, between 2018 and 2022, (Democratic New Jersey) Senator Bob Menendez and his wife engaged in a corrupt relationship with….three New Jersey businessmen who collectively paid hundreds of thousands of dollars of bribes, including cash, gold, a Mercedes Benz and other things of value, in exchange for Senator Menendez agreeing to use his power to protect and enrich those businessmen and to benefit the Government of Egypt”.

Menendez and his wife, Nadine, who have pleaded not guilty to these bribery charges, were arraigned in US District Court in Manhattan on Wednesday, and released on bail. Their first appearance at the New York District Court is scheduled for Monday, October 2.

Senator Menendez was indicted a decade ago, charged with assisting a New Jersey doctor to commit Medicare fraud in excess of $8 million. He was acquitted on a hung jury, and allowed to return to his Senate seat.

Menendez has been stripped of his Chairmanship of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, but he defiantly protests his innocence and refuses to resign his Senate seat in the face of demands of 30 Democratic Senators.

MORE CORRUPTION IN US SUPREME COURT

The Clarence Thomas Corruption Saga continues. It had already been reported that Thomas accepted lavish gifts from Harlan Crow, a billionaire Republican donor and collector of Hitler and Nazi memorabilia, including, inter alia, a gift of a luxuriously refurbished house where Thomas’ mother still lives, rent free; private school tuition fees for Thomas’ nephew; island-hopping luxury yacht and private plane vacations for Thomas and his white supremacist wife, Ginny, who was reported to have been tweeting Mark Meadows, Trump’s Chief of Staff on January 6, 2021, urging him to ensure the success of the Trump insurrection.

Recently, Thomas has been documented spending time with the Koch network, one of the most influential conservative political organizations in the nation. Thomas has been secretly participating in Koch Group Republican fund raising events for at least a decade, despite the fact that the Group has brought numerous cases before the Supreme Court. Brothers Charles and David Koch have been financially responsible for the emergence of the radical wing of the Republican Party, led by Trump.

Thomas has been the star attraction at 100,000 a plate fund-raising dinners organized by the Koch Organization, which have amassed millions of dollars for the Republican Party and its candidates.

While Thomas is by far the most corrupt Justice of the Supreme Court, Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Alito and Gorsuch, all appointed by Republican presidents, have also been alleged of taking bribes and commissions from law firms that have cases before the Court.

GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN

On Wednesday, September 27, Republican Speaker Kevin McCarthy rejected a bipartisan stopgap spending bill, making the government shutdown scheduled for September 30 virtually inevitable.

McCarthy is faced with an unenviable choice. Either come to a compromise with the Democrats for a bipartisan spending bill and fund the government, which will benefit the country but cost him his job; or obey the demands of Trump and hardline Republicans to vote for a government shutdown, which will catapult the country into chaos. Recognizing the brittleness of McCarthy’s spine, he will favor a shutdown, when as many as four million federal workers could be adversely affected. While essential workers will be required to stay on the job, others will be furloughed (suspended), both categories without pay. The potential impact will grow the longer the shutdown persists, especially for regular Americans, who live paycheck to paycheck.

With just two days to go, tempers are boiling in Congress, and no compromise is in sight. The government will almost certainly shut down at midnight on September 30.

BIDEN, TRUMP WOO AUTO WORKER SUPPORT IN MICHIGAN

Two proposed visits of President Biden and former President Trump to Michigan on consecutive days occurred under divergent circumstances. Biden was invited by the President of the UAW, Shawn Fain, to join the picket line. Trump, on the other hand, was warned by Fain that he wasn’t welcome. An UAW executive said, “Trump is a pompous a…hole for visiting Detroit”.

President Biden underscored his solidarity with American workers when he joined the picket line of the UAW, the largest auto workers’ union in North America, in Michigan last Tuesday, stressing his lifelong commitment to a worker-centric economy.

However, Biden’s Achilles Heel may be his commitment of transition to electric vehicles (EVs) within the next decade. While the unions are not opposed to this transition to a green economy, it is crucial that it does not adversely affect the wages and benefits presently enjoyed by assembly line and electric battery workers.

A prolonged strike could have major ripple effects on the economy. Presidents typically act as arbiters in labor disputes. As Biden’s press secretary said, “We are not involved in negotiations. That is something for them to decide what is going to work for the parties that are involved, but he (the President) is standing with the autoworkers”.

At a speech on Wednesday at a non-unionized auto parts supplier in Michigan, in front of 500 Trump supporters, Trump made a play for the support of blue collar workers, despite his lifetime anti-union, anti-worker record. In a typical, meandering hour-long speech, he lied that “I put everything on the line to fight for you. I’ve risked it all to defend the working class from the corrupt political class that has spent decades sucking the life, wealth and blood out of this country”. Another despicable statement from a former president, whose first action as president in 2017 was to give a massive tax cut of $1.5 trillion to benefit those very corporations and billionaires who were “sucking the life, wealth and blood out of this country.”

Seeking the endorsement of the autoworkers for the 2024 presidency, Trump said, “They have to endorse Trump, because if they don’t, they are just committing suicide”. Suicide may be a preferable alternative to living four more years under a democracy-free, devoid of the rule of law, corrupt administration of this white supremacist kleptocrat.

There is little doubt that Biden will win the endorsement of the UAW for 2024, and his show of solidarity by joining the Union picket line last week may well have clinched it.

TRUMP’S NEW YORK BUSINESS EMPIRE EXPOSED AS A FRAUDULENT MYTH

Justice Arthur Engoron of New York state court in Manhattan ruled that Donald Trump and his family routinely defrauded banks and insurance companies by fraudulently inflating the value of their properties and other assets to build their business empire.

Trump lost his appeal to delay the start on this fraud trial, which is scheduled to begin on Monday, October 2. Trump and three of his adult children are listed as witnesses. The Judge has already determined that the Trump Organization had committed financial fraud. The purpose of this trial is to determine the sanctions, including ratification of cancellation of licenses to conduct business in New York and the extent of fines to be imposed on the Trump Organization.

In another blow to Trump, Manhattan Judge Tanya Chutkan denied a motion filed by Trump lawyers that she recuses herself from the sedition case she is scheduled to preside over against Trump on his role in the January 6, 2021 insurrection. Her decision not to recuse herself was based on case law, facts and the probability that the motion filed by Trump’s lawyers was a “weapon to further delay proceedings”.

HOUSE IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY AGAINST PRESIDENT BIDEN

Finally, the first hearing of President Biden’s impeachment inquiry began last Thursday. The impeachment was based on Trump’s evidence-free comments that Biden was a “Stone Cold Crook” who had, with his son, Hunter, taken millions of dollars in bribes from companies in Ukraine. Yet another classic projection.

In cringing obeisance to Trump’s recent order posted on twitter, “IMPEACH THE BUM, or fade into OBLIVION. THEY DID IT TO US”, the Republicans initiated this retaliatory process in the House without a shred of first-hand evidence against President Biden, three days before the government was scheduled to shut down. Even the Republican witness hired to investigate the alleged crimes of Hunter Biden stated at the inquiry that “the facts do not support the impeachment of President Biden”.

After six hours spent on Thursday on the impeachment inquiry “grasping at straws, and, in some cases, fabricating evidence”, Republican insiders were privately admitting to reporters this impeachment inquiry was an “unmitigated disaster”.

All told, Trump and the Republican hardliners had a terrible week, with many more such weeks likely to follow.